Loikaw and itinerary advice

I'm currently in Mawlamyine (loving it!) and am revising my itinerary for later in my trip as I'm now keen to visit Loikaw.

Any thoughts on the following itinerary? Does it make sense and any obvious problems?

Bus Yangon to Loikaw (long, I know...)
2-3 days in Loikaw
Bus to Kalaw
Trek Kalaw to Inle lake (3 days)
3 days at Inle lake
Bus Inle to Bagan
3 days in Bagan
Bus to Mandalay, with one day to spare before flight out.

Also, any practical tips on visiting Loikaw as a solo traveller? Is it difficult to get around without a guide?

Thanks!

looks fine....easily doable.
I haven't been to Loikaw yet (next trip probably) but expect you should not visit any tribal villages without a local guide (same as anywhere else). Having a local guide makes the experience that much better (language barrier just one reason).

Do a search on tripadvisor for Loikaw where you'll find useful information. We're using that information to make our future plans for mid-February.

Definitely hire a guide, there's a few places that you'd go that might not have regular public transportation (and then obviously, for the explanations of the sites as well as perhaps the guide's personal history living in a formerly violent area). Am not sure of the costs, as I felt we had to pay a lot already for a guide who only spoke Burmese. Good luck!

Thanks for the advice. As I've just left Loikaw, I thought I'd feedback on my own question! Fortunately I did hire a guide - it would have been hard without, and I'd have missed out on a lot. Soon after arriving (at Friendship Guest House) I realised it was going to be hard as little English spoken (although a lady who spoke good English turned up later) and not even a map available.

I'd already emailed Loikaw Travel Infos who fortunately replied the evening I arrived, so I arranged 2 days with a guide. This felt expensive at $180 for 2 days including guide, car and driver - but it was last minute, so I didn't have time to shop around. My guide was excellent, a very friendly and interesting local guy who spoke good English. As well as a few sights, we spent most of the time trekking around villages to meet members of several ethnic groups. There was a chance to have proper interactions, not just take photos.

So, expensive but to me it was worth it. I'm sure you could save money by arranging in advance or if you had more time to arrange on the ground.

We only toured for 1 day and not in the long-neck villages (I was on the fence about this anyway, and my Burmese friend was not willing to share that cost). We paid 30,000 for an extensive cave exploration, temples, traditional festival/sacrifice sites, etc...no interaction with people besides the monk living in the cave and the people who wanted to buy us rice wine during lunch. I THINK to go to the Padaung villages was closer to 90,000 or maybe 75,000?...the guide showed the distance on a map when we were discussing options. Anyway, we were in a tuk-tuk and with a Burmese-only guide...so basically, I don't think your price is that unreasonable for a car and English-speaking guide, and the experience sounds wonderful.

I was at Minmahaw guesthouse, and they did have their own map to hand out. Uh, but also in Burmese.

$90 a day for a car, driver and guide isn't too bad...depending on distance travelled t the village/s...that is around the price for visiting villages around Kengtung - for the ones a bit further from town...

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