12-Day Myanmar Pilgrimage Tour with Inle Lake, Bagan and Ngapali

• Your Myanmar tour guide will pick you up from your hotel.

• Visit Sule Pagoda and downtown Yangon, which is suitable for a walking tour, then continue to the Strand Hotel, the first hotel in Myanmar.

• See Botahtaung Pagoda.

• Proceed to the Chaukhtatgyi Reclining Buddha idol.

• Late in the afternoon, visit the beautiful Kyauktawgyi Pagoda and see the white elephants.

• Continue to Kabaraye Pagoda and Scott Market, a tourist shopping paradise.

• Explore Chinatown to see Platform Market.

• Make a photo stop at Karaweik Hall, the royal floating barge.

• Visit Shwedagon Pagoda with its glittering gold stupa. At the pagoda, observe local pilgrims and monks offering their prayers and enjoy the fantastic sunset view.

Overnight stay at the hotel.

Meals included: Breakfast.

• Transfer to Yangon Airport and board a domestic flight to Heho.

• Upon arrival, the station guide will pick you up at the airport. Then drive down into the valley to Nyaungshwe on the edge of Inle Lake and board your private local boat to take you to your hotel.

• In the afternoon, you will be picked up from your hotel and travel by long-tailed boat across the lake to Indaing, on the western end of Inle, for one of the most scenic trips on the lake.

• Pass through the busy village of Ywama, the largest on the lake, with many channels and tall teak houses on stilts. Enter a long, often tree-lined canal, on either side of which farmers cultivate their land against the backdrop of the Shan Hills.

• Disembark at the jetty and walk for 15 minutes through Indaing village to reach the ancient pagoda ruins of Nyaung Ohak. Many pagodas here remain charmingly unrenovated, with plants and even small trees growing out of them, making the area very mystical.

• Take the covered walkway, filled with souvenir stallholders, up to Shwe Inn Thein Paya, a complex of weather-beaten 17th-18th century zedi.

• Return to the river, where you have the possibility of walking along a lovely shady path for 30 minutes to the village of Sema.

• From here, continue by boat downstream past Yethar village, watching local life on the banks and birds in the trees until rejoining the lake near Phaung Daw Oo Paya.

Accommodation: Hotel in Inle Lake.

Meals included: Breakfast.

• Travel by boat to Nyaung Shwe.

• Visit Shwe Yaunghwe Kyaung Monastery and Kan Gyi Kyaung Monastery in Myaung Shwe.

• From there, drive up through pine-clad hills to Taunggyi (about 1 hour, 31 km), the capital of southern Shan State and a former British hill station.

• Continue for around 2 hours into the Taunggyi countryside inhabited by the Pa-O people.

• Visit the 'lost' ruins of Kakku, a pagoda encircled by dozens of small stupas. Little is known about the origins of this unusual place - the Pa-O believe that the original pagoda dates back some 2,000 years. Wander through the stupas, decorated with fine stucco work and Buddha images, some in good repair and others not.

• Head to a Pa-O village and a large monastery on the way back to Taunggyi.

• Continue from here to Nyaung Shwe, where you board a boat and return to your hotel.

Accommodation: Hotel in Inle Lake.

Meals included: Breakfast.

• In the morning, drive to the former royal capital of Innwa, Ava, located on an island between the Ayeyarwady and the Myitnge Rivers.

• Catch a local ferry to the island, where your horse cart and driver await you - no cars are allowed here.

• Pass through the ancient city walls to visit the brick and stucco monastery of Maha Aungmye Bonzan, also known as Ok Kyaung, before continuing to the impressive wooden monastery of Bagaya Kyaung.

• In the afternoon, visit picturesque Sagaing, known as the living centre of the Buddhist faith in Myanmar today. The hills here are dotted with numerous pagodas and monasteries.

• Cross the Ayeyarwady River to the third former capital, Amarapura, via the Ava Bridge, built by British engineers.

• Take a sunset stroll on U Bein Bridge, which is believed to be the longest teak bridge in the world at over a kilometre.

• Return to your hotel in Mandalay.

Accommodation: Mandalay.

Meals included: Breakfast.

• Transfer to the jetty. En route, stop at the Zeycho vegetable market.

• Board your boat and travel upstream on the Ayeyarwady River from Mandalay to Mingun (11 km, about one hour). The river is always busy - small long-tail boats, bamboo rafts, and ferries carry goods up and down the river.

• Visit the Mingun Bell, which at 87 tons is the world's largest intact bronze bell.

• Continue to the beautiful Hsinbyume (Mya Thein Tan) Paya and the unfinished, mighty Mingun Pagoda, built to be the world's most significant, before returning downriver to Mandalay.

• In the afternoon, visit Mahamuni Pagoda, home to a spectacular Buddha image covered with thick layers of gold leaves.

• Stop at local workshops to see Kalaga tapestries being made and gold leaf being beaten into paper-thin pieces.

• From here, go to Kuthodaw Pagoda, where the Theravada Buddhist scriptures are inscribed on 729 marble slabs, giving rise to its nickname, 'the world's largest book'. Next, visit the beautiful teak-carved Shwenandaw Monastery, the only Royal Palace building to survive the World War II bombing.

• Atop Mandalay Hill lie glittering glass-studded temple walls, which reflect the evening glow as you watch the sunset.

Accommodation: Hotel.

Meals included: Breakfast.

• After breakfast, drive to Monywa by coach.

• On the way, visit Mohnyin Thanboddhay Pagoda, which is said to accommodate 582,357 small Buddha idols:

  • Bodi Tahtaung Pagoda

  • 90-metre-long Reclining Buddha idol

  • The highest standing Buddha idol (129 metres) in the world

• Arrive in Monywa and check in at the hotel.

• After lunch, visit Kyaukka lacquerware village and Shwe Guni Pagoda.

Accommodation: Hotel in Monywa.

Meals included: Breakfast.

• Check out from the hotel and drive to Powin Taung, located on the western banks of the Chindwin River.

• Drive across the Chindwin Bridge to see the Powin Taung and Shwe Ba Taung Pagoda cave complex, about 16 miles (26 km) west of Monywa. These complexes of 492 cave temples are packed with 2,588 Buddhas, and some caves contain beautiful 16th-century wall paintings.

• Drive to Pakokku, a flourishing trading town on the western banks of the Ayeyarwady River.

• On the way, stop at one of the many tobacco plantations and cottage industries.

• Cross the bridge from Pakokku to Bagan.

• Arrive in Bagan and check in at the hotel. If there is time, visit one of the convenient places or pagodas to see the sunset.

Accommodation: Hotel in Bagan.

Meals included: Breakfast.

• In the morning, visit a selection of the most important monuments, such as Shwezigon Pagoda, the first and most crucial architectural pagoda.

• Proceed to Ananda Temple, a masterpiece of 11th-century architecture. Most of the artifacts are still original and preserved in the temple, and Myinkabar Gubyauk Gyi is the best mural painting temple in Bagan.

• See several other monuments.

• Enjoy the sunset at one of the monuments.

Accommodation: Hotel.

Meals included: Breakfast.

• In the company of your tour guide, spend the whole day exploring the countryside around Bagan.

• Drive to Mount Popa (46 km, about 1 hour), home to Myanmar's intriguing 'Nats' (spirits). The 777 steps to the top of Mount Popa provide an energetic climb rewarded by fabulous views from the top.

• In the afternoon, drive to the town of Kyaukpadaung and visit the local market before continuing to Salay.

• Visit Yokesone Monastery, built on 154 teak posts and known for its 130-year-old beautiful wooden carvings of the 'Jataka Tales' (stories from the Buddha's life), which decorate the outer walls. The monastery is closed on Mondays, Tuesdays, and public holidays.

• Continue to Payathonzu, a complex of three brick shrines with mural paintings from the Bagan period, and see Man Paya, a large lacquer Buddha image said to date from the 13th century.

• Return to Bagan through Chauk (53 km, about 1 hour), where you will see old Burma Oil installations, 'nodding donkeys', and the banks of the Ayeyarwady River.

• Arrive in Bagan and transfer to the hotel.

Overnight at Hotel in Bagan/Mt Popa (Popa View Hotel).

Meals included: Breakfast.

• Take the flight from Bagan to Thandwe.

• Transfer from Thandwe Airport to Ngapali Beach, 20 minutes away.

• Here, on the Bay of Bengal, lies the beautiful beach of Ngapali with its charming fishing village and coconut trees. Enjoy two full days of leisure in Ngapali. You can relax on the beach, swim in the sea, or take a biking excursion to nearby villages to meet local fishers and observe their daily life.

• If you seek a more adventurous experience, take a boat trip to swim, snorkel, or dive around the islands.

Accommodation: Hotel in Ngapali.

Meals included: Breakfast.

• Spend the day at your leisure.

• Transfer to Yangon International Airport to catch your flight back home.