Welcome to Yangon. Meet your tour guide this afternoon in our lovely, centrally-located hotel. The best way to understand this sprawling capital city is to avoid the traffic and set off on foot. There’s plenty to see, taste and experience in the area just adjacent to the hotel, and your guide will show you all this with a walking tour to get you acquainted with your surroundings and each other.

In the afternoon, you will visit the most famous landmark of the gilded Shwedagon Pagoda, enshrined sacred relics of the Gautama Buddha as well as the three previous Buddhas. Historical evidence suggests the pagoda was built by the Mon around the 6th century. The golden 99-meter-high stupa is located on the hill of Thein Gottara Hill.

Meals: Dinner

Get ready for a biking challenge! Today, you will take a fascinating mountain biking in the beautiful hills of Hmawbi Township north of Yangon. We put the bikes in a truck, drive an hour, then enjoy cycling off-road until early afternoon, stopping along the route for a quick swim.

We can adjust the pace to suit most riders. The routes we follow are exciting no matter how many times you’ve ridden them. Lovely scenery and fresh air combine for a fantastic day out of the city. Drive back to the city of Yangon after the bike tour.

You navigate Yangon’s legendary traffic heading out to the airport for our morning flight to Heho. It’s just over an hour by plane to the airport nearest to Inle Lake, followed by a drive for another hour to reach Nyaung Shwe, the main town of the Inle area.

We stay on dry land rather than on the lake, to allow for more freedom of movement. In the afternoon you’ll start with a bike fitting before the warm-up ride around the Nyaung Shwe area to a mysterious local cave. From here, pedal to a beautiful sunset spot for a drink before settling into your hotel.

We start the day with a ride around the area to learn about the local culture and farming habits of the people here, cycling around the eastern bank of Inle Lake before we hop on a boat. Once on the water, you’ll be able to catch a glimpse of the famous fishermen who stand on one leg as they row with the other, as well as traditional silk weavers, and whole communities of stilt houses on the lake.

Everything from schools, shops, even the post office can be found here, all within a short boat ride of each other. You will stop at some of the more interesting sites and visit the lake’s renowned cottage industries.

Depending on the day, you may come across local small businesses such as tofu and rice cracker production, bread baking, or lotus-silk weaving. This is usually a full day and we can expect to return to town by around 4pm.

Cycling Distance: 25km
Meals: Breakfast, lunch and dinner included

Begin the day with a scenic train ride up into the Western Shan Hills. Once you’ve had a look around, cycle back down through the hills to Inle Lake, enjoying sweeping views over the lake along the way. ‘’

Stop at the pagodas of Indein before once again taking to the water for a boat back to Nyaung Shwe. At night, try the fresh produce of the Shan Hills in a family-run restaurant.

Cycling Distance: 50km
Meals: Breakfast, lunch and dinner included

In the morning, take a transfer up the surrounding hills again before cycling around two hours to the town of Pindaya.

Once we’ve reached the town, you’ll head to a small suburb of Pindaya that is covered in tea plantations for a fun activity. Walk around this small village and learn to pick tea leaves and sort them before making a tea leaf salad, a unique traditional Burmese dish.

Cycling Distance: 48km
Meals: Breakfast, lunch and dinner included

Today we take a rest from cycling with a one-hour transfer to Heho and fly to Bagan. Bagan is an ancient Burmese city situated on the eastern banks of the Irrawaddy river and is a sight to behold. The stunning, arid plains host a high density of Buddhist pagodas and monuments that give Bagan an other-worldly feel, and make it one of the country’s main tourist attractions.

Spend the afternoon getting acquainted with this new setting before transferring to the pilgrimage site of Mount Popa, a volcanic mountain that sits high above the Bagan plains and provides the optimal spot to watch the sunset over the mystical landscape below. It’s enough to give anyone goosebumps! We’ll spend the night in Bagan.

Meals: Breakfast, lunch and dinner included

We pedal through Bagan in the morning, with stops at some of its more significant Buddhist sites such as Shwezigon, Dhamagyangyi, and Ananda, all built between the 14th and 19th centuries.

Enjoy a free afternoon to make use of the hotel’s pool or go for your own exploration before you board a boat that will take us out on the Irrawaddy for sunset. Snacks and drinks will be provided.

Cycling Distance: 20km
Meals: Breakfast, lunch and dinner included

A traditional teak boat is our first vehicle of the day, and you’ll enjoy the morning light from the boat illuminating the pagodas of Bagan from the Irrawaddy. We’ll hop on our bikes and head out on dirt tracks through farmland, then onto sandy roads into villages that are rarely visited by foreigners. The riverbank trail eventually leads us to our boat, waiting to continue the journey towards Salay.

We disembark at the restored colonial house that is our home for the night, where a delicious traditional lunch awaits. This small, quiet riverside town hides a surprising number of intriguing sights and luckily is still off the typical tourist’s map.

Once elegant, now slightly dilapidated colonial-period houses line the Strand Road on the riverbank, some still emblazoned with the rampant lion emblem of the British Royals. You will explore this interesting town by bike and foot in the afternoon, checking out the largest lacquerware Buddha image in Myanmar, which is said to have washed up from the river after heavy flooding in 1888.

Cycling Distance: 45km
Meals: Breakfast, lunch and dinner included

A morning walk of the town is a lovely way to spend your last few hours in rural Myanmar. The villagers will be out, trading produce at the market and selling the various breakfast snacks that you will likely be familiar with by now.

Breakfast is a simple but fulfilling meal and it’s then time to pack up and return to Bagan by vehicle. Your tour concludes on arrival in Bagan. For those departing the country today, they will take flights to Yangon for connection to international flights back home.

Meals: Breakfast included