Last Updated on November 6, 2025 by Christine Kaaloa
Myanmar. What can you see in 7 days? Probably more than you think.
Myanmar is a country that runs slow, so I didn’t feel harried even if I was sprinting it. While there were places where I could stay longer, I also felt satisfied with the amount I saw and still managed to learn much about its culture.
Could I travel Myanmar without a guidebook, push through three cities in a week and still feel like it was enough time? You’d bet I’d try! My choice to visit Myanmar was a last-minute decision and because life doesn’t always offer perfect timing, sometimes, when the opportunity arises, you’ve gotta grab the proverbial bull by the horns and go… even if you don’t know exactly where you’re going!
I expected my trip to be a rough and stressful. Surprisingly, it wasn’t.
As a woman traveling Myanmar alone, during off-peak season, it all felt easy. Much of my secret has to do with the guesthouses I stayed it and the travel friendly Burmese services I used. Due to guesthouses that either, offered airport pickups, helped book my long-distance bus transportation and offered amazing low cost tours, getting around Myanmar in a week a breeze.
Yangon
Table of Contents: How to Spend 7 days in Myanmar Itinerary
Yangon is Myanmar’s largest city, but you can cover it’s main sights in one day and explore the city on foot another, making it a total of two days.
Shwedagon Pagoda is by far the most stunning landmark in all of Yangon. 2,500 year old, the gold-plated pagoda has 4531 diamonds at the top and enshrines strands of Buddha’s hair. What makes it additionally magnificent are the smaller pagodas and altars around it. Dress code is conservative. Leave your shoes at the shoe storage area or buy a plastic bag to carry it with you. Tip: Take sunglasses, because it’s so bright there, you’ll squint until your eyes hurt. Also, explore the markets nearby the main entrance as they offer interesting insight into some of the culture.
Admission: $8. Hours: 4:00 am – 11:00 pm.
Read How to Catch a Bus in a Foreign Country (when you don’t know the language).
Exploring downtown Yangon on foot, you’ll see historical British Colonial architecture to shopping malls, outdoor “cafe culture” and a lot of street food that may be hard to resist. Browse Mingalar Market and Bogyoke Aung San Market, to do souvenir shopping and to see what fixes local lifestyles.
Avoid: Yangon Zoo – Perhaps the saddest display of animal care is the Yangon Zoo. While the park is built to the size of an amusement park, the cages and pools for the animals aren’t large enough for decent care. Animals looked depressed, hungry and even a bit crazed.
Where I stayed in Yangon
Motherland 2 Guesthouse – I’d heard decent things about Beautyland Hotel II, which offers free wifi; but somehow I still ended up at Motherland 2. What sold me was their free airport pick up / drop off service. The guesthouse is old, a little removed from central downtown and at $25/night for a non-air-conditioned room (with communal bathroom), it’s overpriced. But they offer good exchange rates, a free breakfast and conveniently located five minutes from the guesthouse and past the railroad (yes, there’s a train that runs right around the building) is a large grocery/department store, which has an ATM. It’s worth a visit to buy food or bags of milk tea for souvenirs. The downside: Staff is young, occasionally carries an attitude and there’s no free WiFi. Instead, you’ll pay by the hour for the slowest internet I’ve experienced out of all my guesthouses in Myanmar. For alternative accommodation options check here.
Bagan
Old Bagan was once the capital of the kingdom of Pagan from the 9th-13th centuries.With over 10,000 pagodas, Bagan bleeds miles into the horizon, joining the league of famous UNESCO ruins, such as Angkor Wat, Macchu Pichu and Hampi.
Visiting the temple ruins of Old Bagan (via bike, balloon ride, tour or horse carriage) can easily take two to three days. My guesthouse tour knocked it out in one day, allowing me to move onward the next day! We saw old monk residences, a local village and caught the sunset over the land from one of the pagodas. It’s best to hire a guide to learn the history of the pagodas; that information is invaluable. Dress code: Wear flip-flop or sandals as you’ll need to remove them each time you enter a temple. Admission: You’ll need to pay a $10 admission to the ruins. It’s good for three days and you must hold onto your ticket in case you’re asked.
Mount Popa is another famed pilgrimage site in Myanmar (which I missed). Located outside of Bagan, this volcano is raised well over 1,200 feet above the sea. You can hike it and it’s said to have a gorgeous view. Dress code: Do not wear red, black or green or carry meat, due to local superstition.
Recommended: Book a tour of Bagan from Mya Thida Guesthouse for $15/day (it was easily worth more than that) . It included two excellent English-speaking guides, who love their job, a shared van and we visited a day’s worth of temples, monk’s residence, village and watched a sunset from a pagoda. Lunch isn’t included. They also offer tours to Mount Popa.
Where to stay in Bagan:
Mya Thida Guesthouse is swank by Myanmar standards. I loved these guys! Spacious, the gentlemen running the front are hospitable and you can tell they love their jobs (which makes all the difference in the world). My bus got in early and they made my room available to me by 8am; while waiting for it, they let me crash in their air-conditioned dorm room, which was also very clean and good. Best deal: They offer the day tour service I took, as well as one to Mount Popa. You’ll not find a better tour for your dollar. They’ll help book your travel reservations to the next city.
Getting there: An overnight bus from Yangon to Bagan will land you in New Bagan anywhere from 3am-5am. Cost approximately: $10-15
Neung Shwe
If your goal is Inlay Lake, then Neung Shwe is likely, the town you’ll want to stay in. Although there isn’t much to do in Neung Shwe, it’s a small port town with interesting traffic and you’ll want to spend a few days there just to explore the area. As the main transportation for the lake, everything converges on the streets from tractors, motorbikes, pedestrians and horse carriages; it’s hard not to for it’s unique character. There are local markets tucked away into streets and young monks from neighborhood temples, wander the streets.
Hire a boat to take you onto Inlay Lake to see the fishermen or book a cheap day tour from your guesthouse. A word of warning about taking the group boat tours sold from your guesthouses- they’re tourist magnets and will stop at every souvenir shop on the lake.
Inle Lake is an often photographed spot in Myanmar, particularly for its fishermen. Don’t get me wrong, seeing those fishermen up close in action is a highlight of taking a boat tour onto the lake. But it overshadows some other sights.
Some boats will make a stop at the village of Pa-Oh in Indein, so you can see the Shwe InnTain pagoda. The village is pretty simple, ordinary and minimal, but the real beauty are the 8th century crumbling conical pagodas, which look like wooden witches hats. They all houses semblances of a Buddha and spiral high into the sky. There are over a thousand of these pagodas and a few unsuccessful attempts have been made to restore some of them.
The village also has a stupa hill, where an 8 minute walk up a hill finds you nestled at the top of a breezy hill of conical stupas that are in ruins. The view overlooking the village is quite beautiful. If you have some time, you can hike up Mt. Shwe U Daung. Duration : 90 minutes.
Getting there, you’ll need to take a boat through some river canals.
Where to stay in Neung Shwe
If you arrive during low season and don’t know where to book a stay, there’s a $1 shared truck taxi for tourists, which will not only take you to your guesthouse, but will also take you around to check out guesthouses if you haven’t booked one. Totally worth the $1.
Remember Me Inn A good 5-8 minute walk from the heart of Neung Shwe, Remember Me Inn offered excellent service, spacious double-bedded rooms and a free Burmese breakfast from their rooftop restaurant. They book shared tours to Inlay Lake; costs based on number of people on the tour.
How to Get around Myanmar:
Traveling Myanmar, I used a various modes of transportation. Watch my video : 9 types of transportation in Myanmar, for a comprehensive guide to how to get around and what you’ll get.
The easy part about getting around Myanmar was that I could book my travel through the guesthouses I stayed in. You can fly or book the train to get from city to city, but I found it more convenient to book day and overnight buses. Costs ranged from $10-25, with the higher prices attached to VIP luxury buses. I used public bus for local skirting .
Some bus stations can be located outside the town or city you’re going to, but a van pickup is sometimes, included in the bus service. Taking a taxi to or from the bus station (for instance, Yangon) can cost approximately $7-10 and it may take you 45 minutes to get there.
