Top places to stay in Burma (Myanmar)
Posted by: Tom ST @ Insight On: 17 Apr 2013
We guide you through the types of accommodation you can find in Burma, making a responsible choice, and our pick of the country's top places to stay.
Despite the decades-long tourism boycott of the country, Burma offers a wide choice of accommodation in all its principal tourist centres, and the number of beds looks set to soar now that the boycott is more or less at an end. During the peak season from mid-November through January, vacancies in the most popular hotels can be hard to come by.
Types of accommodation
Accommodation in Burma ranges dramatically in cost, from $10 backpacker dives with flea-ridden mattresses and barking dogs in the yard, to glittering $250-a-night palace hotels where you’ll have rose petals scattered in your bath tub and complementary chocolates left on your luxury kingsize at fold-down time.
Budget guesthouses
Costing less than $25 for a double per night, the cheapest accommodation in Burma tends to be guesthouses tacked on to family homes. At their best, such places offer few comforts (thin mattresses, wood partition walls and shared shower-toilets), but will be clean, sociable and a great way to meet local families. You can expect to the rooms to be well scrubbed, with fans and, in all but the direst places, exterior windows (usually barred) or even a small verandah to sit on in the evening. If you’re travelling on a low budget, be sure to bring a mosquito net and length of string to fasten it with as you’re sure to encounter plenty of nocturnal insect life. A universal sink plug can also be handy, as can a roll of toilet paper.
Mid-range hotels
Basic hotels, costing $30–50 per night, tend to be in the Chinese mould: multi-floored concrete blocks with plain en-suite rooms off galleried walkways. Space tends to be at a premium; the more you pay, the larger the room, and more comfortable the facilities. There’s generally some outside space. If you spend upwards of $50, however, you can expect a spacious en-suite room with air-con, a proper balcony or verandah, comfy mattress and tiled bathroom – and maybe the odd piece of Burmese handicraft or local textile to enliven the décor.
Upper mid-range
Things perk up considerably at around the $70 mark, for which you can sleep in great comfort in a room with a modern air-con unit (or central a/c), and expect to have the run of a pool. There’ll be private sitting space on a spacious verandah or balcony, furnished with wicker chairs. And if you’re lucky, functioning wi-fi (or internet access in the lobby), laundry, room service, a formal restaurant and a travel desk.
Expensive
Set in landscaped gardens, luxury four- or five-star hotels account for the bulk of high-end accommodation in Burma. They offer spacious, well-furnished, air-conditioned rooms, and large pools. There’ll be a gym, probably a spa, well-trained staff and nightly culture shows featuring local classical musicians, dancers and puppet troupes.
An alternative is the smaller, more stylish boutique hotel, where the rooms are furnished in particularly beautiful fashion with teak floors, carved railings, hand-made silk throws and brass Buddhas.
Luxury
Only a handful of the finest hotels in Yangon and Mandalay, and the major resorts such as Inle Lakeand Ngapali, can command room rates exceeding $200 per night, and they’re every bit as ritzy as you’d expect. While some, notably the Strand in Yangon, appeal to customers with their lavish, retro feel, others pile on the regal Burmese style, with multi-tiered pagoda roofs and superb arts and crafts re-creating the feel of a Konbaung palace.
Making a responsible choice of where to stay in Burma
When Aung San Suu Kyi announced the end of the tourism boycott in 2010, she did so with the proviso that tourists should stay not in large luxury resorts on pre-arranged tours, but in smaller, independently run places that benefited ordinary, working Burmese people. This is because many of the larger high-end establishments are owned and run directly by military generals and their families, or else close cronies whose wider business interests overlap suspiciously with those of the repressive regime.
For this reason, we’ve avoided listing any hotels in our Insight Guide Burma that are featured on the latest blacklist of properties drawn up by the French NGO, InfoBirmaine (info-birmanie.org); they have worked closely with the NLD to establish which places were owned by companies or individuals subject to EU or US sanctions.
In some instances, however, where a blacklisted hotel was the only option, or offered something unique, we’ve featured it with a note flagging its connection to the former military dictatorship.
If you’re travelling on a package tour, don’t be afraid to press your tour operator into using an alternative if you fear your money might end up in pockets you’d rather it didn’t. Come back later in the month for more on responsible tourism.
Tax, payment and booking ahead
Wherever you stay, you can’t avoid paying the mandatory 10 percent tax levied on all hotel bills, which goes straight to the government. Luxury places may also be required to make an additional 10 percent service charge.
Bills nearly always have to be settled in cash – which in Myanmar means crisp, unblemished dollar notes rather than kyat. Few hotels accept credit or debit cards, and those that do will invariably whack on a 4 or 5 percent administration charge for the privilege.
With the pressure on hotel and guesthouse beds as intense as it is these days, it’s always a good idea to book ahead, ideally a week or more in advance. A phone call or email will usually suffice; follow up with a call the day before your intended arrival date, just to make sure they still have you in their reservation chart.
Insight's selection of top hotels in Burma
Burma overflows with appealing hotels options, but to start off, why not try one of these exquisite places to stay?
Bayview Resort, Ngapali Beach
Right on the sand, the sea-facing teak chalets in this sleek boutique place are the perfect base from which to enjoy Myanmar’s dreamiest beach. Read more about Ngapali Beach...
Governor’s Residence, Yangon
The last word in retro-colonial chic. Sip a gin sling on the verandah of this immaculately restored 1920s mansion, Yangon's most stylish place to stay.
Hotel by the Red Canal, Mandalay
Blending sumptuous Burmese style with international boutique chic, this small hotel in the suburbs ofMandalay is a haven befitting the city’s former royal connections.
Hotel @ Tharabar Gate, Bagan
Luxuriously furnished brick and thatch chalets set amid flower-filled gardens, only a short cycle away from some of Bagan's most striking landmarks.
Inle Princess, Inle Lake
Relax in regal fashion on the sunny northeastern shore of Inle Lake, with unbroken views over the water from its elegant pagoda-roofed buildings.
Strand, Yangon
Dating from 1903, the Strand is the granddaddy of Myanmar’s luxury hotels, where the likes of Somerset Maugham and Rudyard Kipling stayed at the twilight of the British Empire. The current owners have close ties to the military and remain subject to EU and Australian sanctions.
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