Yangon Hotel Reviews

Yangon, Myanmar. The city is off the beaten path (for example, no cell/mobile phones that I saw) and therefore highly interesting. The Shwedagon pagoda just up the road from Summit Parkview Hotel is best visited for the first time at night, about 8pm. It positively exudes an aura of holiness. Took taxi from taxi stand at airport (6000 kyat = about 6US$) and made arrangements for them to take me around the next day. Can supply name of good taxi driver and guide upon request. Airport is simple, but mercifully free of duty free shops. Don''t forget the $10 US departure tax.

Myanmar - Take plenty of USD or Thai Bahts. As your credit card is not welcomed anywhere. There are no ATM machines. Cash is King! Taxi from Traders to Yangon airport - about K3,000 - K4,000 (USD3 - USD4). Taxi from Old Bagan - Bagan airport K3,500. Taxi from Mandalay Airport - Mandaly centre K9,000. All prices are approximate and will change depending upon your taxi driver. Airlines: Yangon Airways, Bagan Air, Air Mandalay. If you are planning a trip to Myanmar, I would definitely recommend "Bagan" as it is magnificent! Stay around 4-5 days for a pleasureable experience.

Prices escalate at an unbelievable rate! Things are cheap, but not quite as cheap as guidebooks make them out to be, being somewhat out of date. Take taxis anywhere and everywhere, they''re affordable.

I was in Yangon during the May bombings. Still, I felt terribly safe as a single female over 50 traveller. By all means take your camera and walk through People''s Park to the Pagoda, go to the Bogyoke Aung San Museum and have Ma Thin Thin give you a tour. If you need something luxurious, go for tea at the Strand. The Sabai Sabai is excellent for lunch although the quality decreases on a busy weekend evening. If you are interested in traditional pottery, take the ferry to Twande. Go the Gar San Glass Factory where lovely pieces can be purchased for as little as 50 cents US. They do a really good job packing. Be careful and shop around before buying anything in the Aung San Market and if you need glasses check out Academy Optical at 140/141 Bogyoke Aung San Market. Progressive lens in flexible frames including eye exam were $63 US!

Myanmar is a challenging yet unspoiled country to travel through. Train and air schedules frequently change. Rebooking air flights is a necessity, not a courtesy. Long distance buses are cheap, about US$7, for the 10 hour ride from Yangon to Mandalay. But air flights are worth the money for the time savings. In Yangon the Zawgyi House restaurant just east of Scott''s Market serves good western and Burmese food. They offer outside and air-conditioned(!) dining. Mandalay''s Green Elephant serves upscale interprerations of Burmese cuisine. In the evening there''s often a haze of burning mosquito puncks in the outdoor dining area to fend off these pesky insects. Try ''mohinga'', the rich-tasting Burmese noodle soup only served at breakfast. I''d recommend a 1-2 day trip to Pyin Uu Win outside of Mandalay to esscape the heat. The local 5-hour train makes every station stop as it snakes up the 3,000 ascent overlooking the plains. Bench seats, no interior lighting, people sitting on baggage in the aisle. In other words a great way to glimpse Burmese life.

Recommended places: Sabai Phui guesthouse - Mandalay. Aircon and bathroom for $5 a night, (you don''t need luxury every night!), $16 boat trip to Mandalay (9hrs - more fun tan flying), Bagan Hotel (exclusive), Balloons over Bagan, expensive $225, but worth it, Royal Beach Resort - Ngapali Beach (family run and cheap). NOT RECOMMENDED - JIMMY''S TOURS AT INLE LAKE. A taxi driver dropped me off there from Heyo Airport, pretending it was the ''Boat Station'', before I knew it he''d worked out an itinerary for 1 1/2 days at $120. About 5 times what I needed to pay, if I''d avoided him. He was then unconcerned that his boat ran out of fuel and we drifted for an hour and there was no floating market where he sent me at great expense at 6.30am, due to a full moon holiday. Avoid the slippery little git at all costs. BE AFRAID, IF YOU WIND UP IN HIS OFFICE.

Having just completed a tour of Cambodia, Thailand and Myanmar, the latter was our favourite and Yangon our favourite city in it. Wandering around Chinatown, the old market (not Aung San, which is a tourist trap at its worst), around Sule Paya and Shwedagon were just awesome and we found the people more genuine than other places visited.

Augustines near Green Elephant Restaurant is still the best for antiques. Ask for Mark!

This maybe relatively new info: we entered Myanmar during the Chinese New Year (Rooster) without being required to exchange their worthless Foreign Exchange Certificates (FECs) with USD! We are avid Lonely Planet readers and I also have some acquaintances who go there quite often and as far as we have expected and were told before going there, all tourists are expected to buy FECs. So it was something good. However, we also found out that since about late fall 2004, Myanmar has forbidden any transactions using any credit cards. If you are going to Myanmar in near future, bring enough cash since you won''t be able to get cash anywhere. We are very grateful that our hotel was booked thru asiahotels.com at a prepaid basis...otherwise, we would have less disposable money to spend while vacationing there.

Restaurant to recommend: "Million Coins" is near the airport. Serves Chinese-style food. My Asian friend ate a meat and vegetable noodle dish called "Jaeo" (pronounced jay-o), which was about 900 khats (US$1) and promptly declared, "This is the most delicious noodle dish I have ever eaten!"

Started our independent tour of Burma (Myanmar) in Rangoon (Yangon), using the historic Burmese train system - a real adventure! Train info at www.seat61.com/Burma.htm. Rangoon is a fascinating city - the Shwedagon pagoda, lots of colonial architecture. Taxis about 1,000 - 1,500 kyatt (about 67p - £1) a ride.

For travelers with the spirit of adventure, Myanmar is a very interesting destination. If you love places like India, you will love Myanmar. The people are friendly and welcoming; the Temples and Pagodas are amazing, and the food...well the food isn''t so good. But food aside, Myanmar has a high WOW factor. If you go, you can''t miss the Temples of Bagon. Bagon is about as spectacular as Angkor Wat...it is quite stunning and relaxing. I traveled to Yangon, Mandalay, and Bagon. Yangon was great for sightseeing and shopping. Mandalay is overrated and deserves only two days. I didn''t run into anyone who liked it. Bagon, like I said earlier, is not to be missed.<br> <br> Bring only US cash as they don''t accept credit cards anywhere in the country, even in five star hotels. There are no ATM''s in Myanmar either...which means that you need to plan ahead with your cash management. One hundred dollar bills will get you the best exchange rates while smaller bills will net you up to 7% less in exchange. Almost everywhere people will come up to you and say "change money"? If you try to cash traveler''s checks, banks only accept a select few and even then, they will take a 20% commission on cashing them. Bottom line...bring Dollars. Euro''s are almost impossible to exchange.<br> <br> Internet service in Myanmar is a joke. Remember back to your 14.4 modem? Myanmar is slower than that! It took me 38 minutes to send one email. Also, the govenrment blocks MSN Hotmail and Yahoo mail so you will need to pay for a service that latches onto the government''s server (draw your own conclusions on the reasons for this). I fortunately use a lesser known web-based mail and it wasn''t blocked at all but because it was so slow, I hardly ever used it. Traveling throughout Myanmar can be trying at times but you will be well rewarded for your efforts.

We went to Myanmar for 10 days on our first trip to the country: Yangon, Bagan, Mandalay and Inle Lake. We would consider returning to Yangon and Bagan; we would return to Mandalay only as a base for exploring farther north. Inle Lake does not inspire us to revisit; it seems to us long on hype, but we admit the boat trip to the village of Nyuang Shwe and the walk along the road near our hotel provided insights into local life we did not get at other places. Overall, based on our experiences and comments from others who traveled there earlier, Myanmar seems to be taking steps to make travel to the country a more agreeable and less bureaucratic experience. We appreciated the ability to acquire a visa over the internet. Perhaps the country will improve internet service within its borders, which is the worst we have witnessed. We did not observe, thankfully, a bevy of beggars we expected based on writings of earlier travelers and our experiences in India.

Yangon is a great city and should be high on anyone''s list for a weekend break in Asia! The people are open and friendly and very keen to chat with foreigners and make you welcome. A number of great restaurants serving Burmese cuisine offer sensational value, especially Aung Thukka, near the Savoy hotel at which a meal for two costs 5USD and is fantastic. The Shwe Dagan Pagoda is breath-taking; investing in a guided tour is well worth it. For about 5USD a charming and knowledgeable guide will spend as long as you want wandering the temples and answering, in my case, a myriad of daft questions! Lastly, Bogyoke Aung San market is unmissable. Along with Chatuchuk and Saigon, the best market in Asia! One salutary lesson was learned though; not to change money in the airport fx booth. The rate is around half what you will get on the black market and there is no longer a requirement to enter the country with local currency.

I strongly recommend Le Planteur restaurant run by Boris Granges, No 16 Saw Mahar Street, Bahan Township, Yangon. His menu will provide outstanding french food and wines perfectly balanced for the climate served in a wonderful garden. However, do ensure you have enough dollars as the prices are at european levels and in common with all places in Myanmar (except the Sedona Hotels) credit cards cannot be taken.

This is our first visit to Rangon and we have heard many bad things about Myanmar under the military ruling but the atmosphere was really relaxing unlike what we were told by the news on TV and people are very friendly and enthusiastic to help out. Golden Duck restaurant (Chinese) is highly recommended for good chinese food/service at a very reasonable price - almost comparable to Yaolad district (China town in Bangkok) and taxi cost us only 1 USD and 200 Kyats (Mixed currency because of no change in USD). How good? We went there three times during the three days stay! Walking around the city at night is quite safe. We walked leisurely from the Thamada hotel to Sule round-about and china town to feel the local atmosphere and there were many people eating and shopping on the sides of streets. For your information, there is no fast food restaurants ie. KFC/Pizza

I would recommend 50th Street Bar & Grill for lunch and also for dinner. I would also recommend the Green Elephant for Burmese food (Westernized).

Golden Rock is worth to travel, but take care about the Local travel agents. We booked a day trip with a local travel agent, which supposed to be includes a Car+driver+guide and all their expenses. Back to the hotel in the night our guide ask us to pay for his expenses again. Next day we went to the Travel Agent to complain as in our Agreement was clearly mentioned that we do not need to pay for any other extra charges. Finally we got some part of the money back.

If your stomach can take it, don''t settle for hotel restaurant. Go out and try outside eateries ranging from Burmese Danbaut (Bryani - aromatic curried rice in chicken or mutton source) for less than a dollar to more sanitized restaurants for four or five dollars for a complete dinner. I also recommend Karaweik (Royal Barge) - a floating restaurant in Kadawgyi lake. You can have a wonderful buffet dinner and cultural show for five dollars. Although the music may be a bit overwhelming, the food is fantastic.

I would thoroughly recommend Bagan and the sunrise balloon trip - it was magical floating above the many stupas and payas, with mist rising, as everyone on the ground below was just waking up. Take plenty of US dollars too as we found out just before we arrived that credit cards were no longer accepted.