Myanmar Itinerary Advice

Hi!
My friends and I are traveling to Myanmar via Bangkok late in April. We are a group of 5, late 20s - early 30s, and interested to see a mix of culture, religion, nature, food, a bit of city life.

I would love to get your insights on our planned itinerary so far. We fly in and out of Mandalay, skipping Yangon.

Day 0 Flight to BKK
Day 1 BKK - Mandalay arrive 12:15pm
Day 2 MDL - Bagan (BUS 5 hours)
Day 3 Bagan
Day 4 day trip from Bagan
Day 5 BAGAN to INLE (Car Hire)
Day 6 Inle Lake
Day 7 Heho/Inle to Mandalay (Plane) or the next day
Day 8 Mandalay to BKK 12:45 - 15:00
Day 9 BKK BKK to home

We generally can only afford only 1 domestic flight within Myanmar, so we plan to hire a tour operator that can drive us from Bagan to Inle and take us around while there. (e.g. Red Mountain Vineyards, Kekku, Pindaya).
Will this be possible and is this generally a 'normal' route? Are there other interesting stops between Bagan and Inle?
Are there also any good day hike routes? We would have loved to go trekking from Kalaw to Inle but the time is not enough for this trip.

Any other tips would be very much welcome! Restaurants, cafes, hotels, etc. Would love to read your blog posts about Myanmar as well.

Thank you!

A car from Bagan.to Inle is an all day drive, faster than the bus but it's a mountain road. But Kakku and Pindaya are not close to Inle so pretty much impossible to see in the same day. Red Mountain Vineyards is close but after an all-day drive perhaps a walk in Nyaung Shwe and a glass of wine or beer there is more enjoyable.The vineyard is not that special and might be closed by the time you get there.

So its rushed but possible; but a 'normal' route would take like 10 days for what you want. One week in Burma is exactly 7 days so don't try to see everything and spend many, many hours just on (boring and bad) roads.

Thank you, bytelife! Appreciate it, and will definitely consider this in our plan.

It seems you aren't leaving any time to see Mandalay itself, which is fine for your timeframe. So if I were doing the same, I would completely skip it, and leave the same day for Bagan to give more time there.

I would also fly from Bagan to Heho, and take the night bus from Nyaungshwe to Mandalay at the end. Once in Nyaungshwe it's easy to find tours to Pindaya, etc. Ask at your hotel about day hiking, I've done this but a long time ago. I am pretty sure you can ride bicycles to Red Mountain.

If you feel confident in the night bus you could arrive in Mandalay the morning of your flight with plenty of time for a non-airport breakfast. Or if there's time, take the night bus one day early and actually see a little of Mandalay.

To follow up on my post...I checked my old notes and had written that my day hike was pretty boring. Discussions with my guide and a hermit monk were decent, we visited a cool meditation cave, and I liked that my guide was a woman but her English was pretty bad. And I remember now that most of the scenery was dry and dull. You probably need to ask for a lot of specifics before going with a guide.

Hi, Nancy! Thank you! We considered your feedback and came up with an updated plan. I understand our initial plan was pretty ambitious. We opted to stay longer in Bagan (3 days), 2 days in Inle and a full day in Mandalay.

Will take a flight from Bagan to Inle / Heho and we will take the overnight bus from Inle to Mandalay.
Saw breathtaking photos from a blog on the Kalaw to Inle route. To bad that the day hike option is dull in comparison.

Thanks again! Other advice will be most welcome.

It's possible there are nicer hikes and that my guide was simply inexperienced...I don't have anyone to compare her to. This was in 2008 so trying to find things to do nearby besides the lake & town itself was a little more difficult (but much, much cheaper than now). It's also possible that there's a reason more people bicycle than walk...to get through the dry/dull bits faster :).

Although I haven't done the Kalaw-to-Inle hike myself, the photos I've seen don't compare at all to the northern Shan State hikes! You don't have enough time for that either, although you are temptingly close when you're in Mandalay.

By the way, if you want to just see Kalaw town itself and spend a night there, it can probably be reached in about 3 hours of very local-style transport from Nyaungshwe, changing at Shwenyaung junction. Or maybe there's some sort of direct transportation set up for tourists.

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