15-Day Myanmar Cultural Tour with Bagan Balloon Flight and Inle Lake

Fly into Mandalay International and transfer to your boutique hotel in the royal old city. Mandalay was the last capital of the Burmese Konbaung dynasty and retains the quiet, unhurried feel of a provincial court city. Enjoy a first dinner of Shan noodles and river fish, then an early night to shake off the flight.

Cross the Myitnge River by small ferry to the former royal capital of Inwa, exploring its scattered monasteries, stupas, and the Bagaya Kyaung teak monastery by horse-drawn carriage. In the late afternoon, drive to Amarapura to walk the U Bein Bridge, the longest teakwood footbridge in the world, as the sun sinks into Taungthaman Lake.

Take a morning riverboat up the Irrawaddy to Mingun, home of the unfinished Mingun Pahtodawgyi, intended as the largest stupa in the world, the world's largest ringing bell, and the dazzling whitewashed terraces of the Hsinbyume Pagoda. Back in Mandalay, spend the afternoon at Kuthodaw Pagoda, the world's largest book carved on 729 marble slabs, and the exquisite Shwenandaw Monastery. End the day with sunset from Mandalay Hill.

Start early for the daily alms procession at Mahagandayon Monastery, where more than a thousand monks line up in silence to receive their single daily meal. After lunch, drive four hours south through rice country to Bagan, arriving in time to settle into the Hotel at Tharabar Gate, a boutique property inside the old city walls of the ancient capital.

Enjoy a first sunrise on the temple plain, watching from a raised viewing mound as a hundred spires emerge from the river mist and the sky above fills with hot air balloons. Spend the morning visiting the most extraordinary temples of Bagan: Ananda, Dhammayangyi, Sulamani, and Htilominlo. In the afternoon, visit a traditional bamboo village to meet craftspeople whose techniques have remained unchanged for centuries. End the day at a final temple for sunset.

Drive east to Mt Popa, a dramatic volcanic plug crowned by the gilded Taung Kalat monastery, home of Myanmar's 37 Nats, the pre-Buddhist animist spirits. Climb the 777 stairs to the summit for wide views over the central plain. On the way back, stop at village palm sugar works to see jaggery being made the traditional way. Return to Bagan in the late afternoon.

The headline day. Pickup at 5:00 AM for a Balloons Over Bagan flight: forty-five minutes of silent drift across the temple plain at sunrise, a champagne breakfast in the landing field, and the whole experience wrapped up by 9:00 AM. The rest of the morning is free to rest. In the afternoon, visit the remaining architectural heavyweights of Bagan, the largest, tallest, and most beautiful stupas, for a final, unhurried farewell.

Leave Bagan in the morning and climb east into the cool Shan Highlands, a five-hour drive through terraced hills, villages, and tea plantations. Kalaw was once a British hill station and still carries the bones of a Tudor-era mountain town. Overnight at the 360 Kalaw Hotel with mountain views.

Take a full-day excursion north to Pindaya to visit the Shwe Oo Min cave complex, a labyrinth of limestone chambers holding more than 8,000 Buddha images donated over centuries. Stop in the farming village of Ywagun on the way back for a close view of Shan agricultural life and a lunch of local highland cuisine.

Enjoy a short two-hour drive down the escarpment to Inle Lake, one of the great natural wonders of Southeast Asia. Stop at a hillside monastery en route for tea with the abbot. Arrive at the Novotel Inle Lake Myat Min Hotel, a quiet resort on the lakeshore, in time for a late lunch and an easy afternoon on the water.

Spend a full day by long-tail boat across the lake, visiting the floating vegetable gardens that produce much of Myanmar's tomatoes, the lotus-silk weaving workshops of In Paw Khone, the silversmiths of Ywama, a Padaung long-neck weaver's workshop, a cheroot maker, and a traditional teak-plank boat-builder. Lunch is at a floating restaurant. The fishermen of Inle, who balance on the stern of their boats and row with one leg wrapped around an oar, are one of Southeast Asia's great sights.

Drive east into the hills to Kakku, an extraordinary complex of over 2,400 ancient stupas arranged in a forest of golden, silver, and moss-covered spires. Until 2000, the site was closed to visitors, and it still receives only a trickle. Enjoy lunch in a Pa'O village with a local family before returning to the lake in the late afternoon.

Take a morning flight from Heho to Yangon. The former capital is a city of wide colonial avenues and fading Edwardian commerce, slowly waking up again. Check in to the Lotte Hotel and walk downtown in the cool of the evening for a first encounter with the city's extraordinary skyline of crumbling 1900s buildings and gleaming stupas.

Enjoy a walking tour of downtown Yangon's colonial core: the Strand Hotel, the old High Court, Pansodan Street's ferry terminal, and the Secretariat building where Aung San was assassinated. Lunch is at the iconic Rangoon Tea House. In the evening comes the culminating moment of the trip: golden hour and nightfall at Shwedagon Pagoda, the spiritual heart of the Burmese nation and, by some measures, the most sacred Buddhist pagoda in the world.

Enjoy a final breakfast and an optional morning walk before transfers to Yangon International for your onward flight. Fifteen days, four cities, one lake, two thousand temples, and a country that will stay with you long after you leave.