Beach hotels - cheaper to reserve in advance?

According to your experience, is it cheaper to make reservations for hotels at Ngapali- or Ngwe Saung Beach in advance (e.g. via Internet) or shall we just go there? Is it possible to negotiate good prices on the spot? We want to go in early November.

Beach hotels - cheaper to reserve in advance?

I guess you contacted me by e-message through Trip Adviser. I have sent you my reply. I used to make arrangements before I leave via e-mail with a travel agent in Yangon. I felt the prices wre reasonable if not cheaper. Many whom I met in Myanmar seem to be able to negotiate prics; but I%26#39;d not wanted to do that because I like to just check in upon arrival. I understand at the moment, with fewer tourist, arrangements are much easier to make upon arrival in Myanmar and negotiate prices (this is from speaking to friends in Myanmar; I have no experience yet - but I%26#39;ll also be in Yangon at the beginning of November and I%26#39;ll find out more)

Best Wishes,

Khayeethe

Beach hotels - cheaper to reserve in advance?

Hi,

Its%26#39; me again. Browsing through Myanmar Forum, I noted someone mentioned the travel agent I used. Looks like they continue to be in business:-

Indochina Services

(they have offices in Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos and Myanmar)

e-mail: info@is-myanmar.com

web: www.indochina-services.com

Khayeethe

Hi there,

My experience in 2 trips to Myanmar is yes, DEFINITELY book in advance. Some hotels, but not all, will allow negotiation on arrival; I personally would not bank on it, even with the low number of tourists in country this season.

';Booking in advance'; can literally mean having an in-country travel agent call the same day or day before you plan to show up. Their rates can be significantly less than rack rates.

FYI on both of our trips we%26#39;ve used Radiant Tours (based in Yangon) and have had great experiences with them each time.

Enjoy your trip!!

Thank you guys for your very helpful response ;-)

wow, I love the modern world with internet forums and all that ;-)My parents have been in Myanmar more than 15 years ago... I wonder how they managed without it!?

I was still undecided between Ngapali and Ngwe Saung but after your comments I think I will go for Ngapali.

Did I understand you correctly that you would reserve in advance but not with one of the big internet-travel-pages but rather with a local travel agent in Yangon? Why that? Do you get better rates there?

Also I would like to ask you to have a short look on our planned itinerary. Do you think that is feasible without too much stress? I would rather see less but more intensively: We will arrive 24th of Oct. early morning from BKK in Yangon (3days, fligt to Heho on the 27th), continue to Heho/Inle Lake (2days, flight to Mandalay on the 30th) from there to Mandalay and surroundings (4days, flight to Bagan on the 2nd of Nov.), then Bagan (4days, flight to Thandwe on the 6th) and from Bagan to Ngapali(4days, back to Yangon on the 10th of Nov.). In total we are in Burma from early morning 24th of Oct. to early morning 11 th of Nov. We fly in and out from Yangon.

We plan to do all longer trips by flight. Is there a flight between Bagan and Pathein? Also between Bagan and Thandwe?

Thank you very much for your help in advance and best regards from D眉sseldorf, Christian

P.S. If you ever need advice for either Mexico, South Africa or Germany...or any other place where I have been - I am always here to help ;-)

Hi,

Yes, if at all possible, I would make arrangements with local travel agents in Yangon rather than with one of the internet travel pages (ITP). The reasons being,

1. Myanmar is not one of the much travelled travel spots; so I doubt very much the ITPs are familiar with the establishments or how things are done in Myanmar.

2. Especially making travel arrangements - flights cars, coaches etc. it is the local agents who know how to go about it. Remember, things and how they operate in Myanmar is so different and they don%26#39;t fit in to the way people in the west think and act.

3. On the other side, as I promote or encourage tourism which will help the people, by using local services, I know most of the money is for/go to the people working in these agencies ( I know I cannot say 100% but I know a large proportion - this is another topic of discussion which I will not expand here)

Your itinerary: In general, it is feasible. You have allocated sensible time at each destination rather than rushing around in a ';whirlwind tour';. However, In Myanmar, in the main, flying is in and out of Yangon, so on 30 October you may find yourself flying from Heho back to yangon to catch another flight out to Mandalay (there are routes between Heho and Mandalay, but dependent on how the flights are routed on the day! see, not like in the west where you can fly from Munich to Dusselddorf directly, for example) The same on 2 November when you are trying to get from Mandalay to Bagan. The normal route is Yangon Bagan Mandalay; but occassionally there are reverse routes! If they do fly that route on that day, you are lucky!! The same goes for Bagan - Thandwe (to Ngapali) the usual route is Yangon Thandwe Bagan/Mandalay. There are no flights to Pathein from Bagan. That I am quite sure. Pathein is in fact a very little flown route, easily accessible by car/coach and much cheaper that way!. They might just be starting from Yangon for the sake of onward journey by car//coach to Ngwe Saung (3 hours) But then the journey time Yangon - Pathein is estimated to be 30 - 45 minutes, hardly time to get properly airborne!!

I hope I%26#39;ve answered your queries. Let me know if you have more.

Khayeethe

I agree with Khayeethe on the reasons to use a local travel agent. We just returned from our second trip to Myanmar. We had prebooked flight tickets out of Yangon to Mandalay, but the flights got cancelled. Because we used a local travel agent, they simply put us on another carrier, no problem. Some ';big internet site'; likely wouldn%26#39;t have done or been able to do that.

I want to comment on the car trip to Ngwe Saung. On our trip we just returned from, we travelled by car from Yangon to Chaung Tha beach, which isn%26#39;t that far from Ngwe Saung. The road between Yangon and Pathein has been utterly destroyed by Nargis; it took us about 7 hours to go the 150 miles Yangon-Chaung Tha. We were able to make the return trip in about 6 hours. The roads are very bad, so it%26#39;s a slow journey. We deliberately chose Chaung Tha over Ngapali or Ngwe Saung since it%26#39;s ';where the locals go to vacation';; the beach however is not supposed to be as nice as in the tourist beach areas.

When we passed by the Pathein airport in both directions, the only airplanes we saw on the tarmac or in the sky were military, not civilian. Due to the lack of tourists and the fact that regular flights between major cities have been cut, I wouldn%26#39;t think flying to Pathein could be relied upon -- although, if available, I might take it over the car trip!

As mention above, local agent can update you quickly and can arrange you easily. However, there are some international travel agency like, Indochina service, Diethelm, Asia Trails also operated in Yangon if you do not want to use local .

For the hotel also , the travel agent have buying power and they can give you more cheaper than the hotel can offer to you. The hotel have to rely on travel agent so much in Myanmar and the hotel dare not to give the rate cheaper than travel agent.

However, this year is few tourist and you may possible to negotiate on spot.

I think Khayeethe have mistake with driving time. Yangon-Pathein will be 3 hrs and Pathein-Ngwe Saung might have 45 minutes. I haven%26#39;t been for quite long time. When I have been that time, there is no bridge and we have to use the ferry to cross the river . Pathein-Ngwe Saung road is pretty bad and later, they have repaired it and now new bridge was build as well and easy to get there.

If you want to make sure, you can plan your trip as follow :_

Yangon to Bagan .. Usually fly from Yangon at morning around 6.30 am. Flying time is about 1 hr 30 minutes more or less depend on your type of aircarft . Please note that we have only 3 types. ATR 42 , which is small plane, carry 40 peoples, ATR 72, carry 70 peoples and One Jet from Air Bagan , which carry 100 passengers.

That flights rest at 10 to 15 minutes in Bagan and then fly to Mandalay. At Mandalay , they take about 20 minutes , top up oil and fly to Heho . At Heho take about 10~15 minutes and fly back to Yangon.

Bagan to Mandalay .. 20 minutes flight and then about 1 hrs drive to city.

Mandalay to Heho .. 20 minutes flight and if you want to go Heho , about 45 minutes by car. Mostly, drive to Pindaya and visit golden cave and then back to Heho. As per your trip plan, I suggessted to reduce one day in either Bagan or Mandalay and one more day in Inlay . Visist near Inlay lake , such as golden cave in Pindaya , Ketkku in Taungyi .

Heho to Yangon .. about 1 hr flight . if you can catch the connection flight to Ngapali, you can fly to Ngapali or you can stay one night in Yangon. Mostly , Ngapali flight are in afternoon.

For flying time is depend on how they go . If direct flight , it will take about 50 minutes . Sometime, they flay to Sittwe first and then to Ngapali (Thandwe).

Sorry, my mistake at Mandalay to Heho, If you want to drive to Nyaung Shwe, Inle lake directly from Heho , it will take about 45 minutes drive.

I received a Yangon Airways schedule from 21 st to 31 st Oct and they have flight to Ygn- Heho-Mandalay and Ygn-Mandalay- Nyaung Oo-Ygn flight every day. Those flight are in afternoon or in evening. So you can schedule as your plan if you wish.

However, morning flight are hardly cancelled unless weather is not permited and therefore more recommended.

Yangon airways and Airbagan have ususal morning flights to Ygn-Nyaung Oo- Mandalay-Heho- Yangon flight every day at 6.30 am.