Reviewed 30 Jan 2013 by Janette Gledhill
1. What was the most memorable or exciting part of your holiday?
The trek from Kalow into a village. The highlights were the elegant pink nuns we met along the way wielding a double handed saw to cut down some trees. The village family we visited, seeing their house and meeting their neighbours sharing tea with them all and trying on their national costumes.
2. What tips would you give other travellers booking this holiday?
Don't take too much luggage as you really don't need it.
3. Did you feel that your holiday benefited local people, reduced environmental impacts or supported conservation?
I hope that we made a contribution to the local economy but, of course, we travelled by air and minibus so I guess our environmental impact was quite high.
4. Finally, how would you rate your holiday overall?
It was a wonderful holiday which I have been recommending to everyone I meet!
Reviewed 25 Mar 2013 by Fran Pearce
1. What was the most memorable or exciting part of your holiday?
The whole trip was action packed and very enjoyable so it is difficult to itemise
a specific memorable or exciting part although it is fair to say that the visit
to the stunning Shwedagon Pagoda on the first evening set the scene for the
holiday. We did especially enjoy the visit to Inwa, the walk across the U Bein's
bridge and the morning river trip to Mingun.
2. What tips would you give other travellers booking this holiday?
Be prepared for a significant number of visits to various "traditional
workshops/crafts" - most of which were identified on the itinerary and were
interesting .
3. Did you feel that your holiday benefited local people, reduced environmental impacts or supported conservation?
Tourism benefits the local people that we met i.e. tour guides,drivers, hotel
workers, craftsmen and villages. All the travel arrangements were perfect and
we would not have been able to see as many sights as we did in 9/10days without the four internal flights and the private cars however this mode of travel
clearly has a negative environmental impact. Whilst we enjoyed our time on Inle
Lake we are concerned about the environmental impact of the many tourist
motorboats and their speed which seemed unneccessarily fast.
4. Finally, how would you rate your holiday overall?
Very good - all arrangements were exactly as described in the agreed itinerary.
We booked the private tour within four weeks of the start date and our operator
explained clearly to us the current problems with accomodation in Myanmar due
to the increased demand. Overall we were very satisfied with the accomodation
allocated with the exception of the hotel at Inle Lake which was isolated and
did not offer any facilities (e.g. swimming pool, bar)other than a large dining
hall that was totally geared to catering for large tours and where we
experienced inferior service. This was particularly frustrating as (unlike the
rest of the tour) we had a "free" afternoon and no where to go!
Reviewed 23 Feb 2013 by Mike Smalley
1. What was the most memorable or exciting part of your holiday?
The most positive memories of our trip were the journey to, and being at, the Kyaiktiyo Pagoda and the days hike we had in the countryside at Lake Inle. The most negative memory we had was the fact that we wanted to spend some time wandering around Yangon and we built in extra time in our itinerary to do this. However, about a week before the holiday was due to start the oeprator switched us from a downtown hotel to one in the outskirts. Our guide said that because of the distance and the traffic congestion a round trip from our hotel in a taxi to the downtown area would be two hours plus, thus nullifying one of the reasons for going tailor made.
2. What tips would you give other travellers booking this holiday?
From our experience in the past and again with this holiday we would suggest to other travellers not to pay the extra for a tailor made holiday unless they want to visit areas not covered by the standard group tourist package. On a number of occasions now our hotels have been changed (never for the better) just days before the start of the holiday and long after the final balance had been paid! As well as the hotel change in Yangon our hotel in Lake Inle was also changed from one reasonably close to Nyaungshwe to one in the middle of the lake with nowhere to go in our free time (of which we had plenty)! The hotel itself was dire! We now believe that true 'Tailor Made' holidays are a myth - for example, it would have useful if out tour operator had discussed these hotel changes and the likely effects on our itinerary before we left. As it was we were left high and dry in the middle of a lake without a paddle!!
3. Did you feel that your holiday benefited local people, reduced environmental impacts or supported conservation?
There are several ways of looking at this question; any form of tourism will benefit the locals to the extent of providing work for guides, hotel staff and food outlets. However whether the locals benefitted from us staying in a hotel leased from the government in Yangon, a hotel owned by a man described by the Lonely Planet as a 'Pantomine Baddy' in Bagan and a 'Plastic Palace' owned by a Thai in Mandalay we wouldn't know - perhaps you could tell us. We try to be responsible travellers and that is why we chose a tour operator recommended by you to organise our holiday and we expected them to put us in 'acceptable' accommodation. We don't understand the politics of Myanmar to make that judgement ourselves.
We would have dined in local restaurants in the evenings had there been any near to our hotels. We did dine at local restaurants at lunchtime but only those selected by our guides.
4. Finally, how would you rate your holiday overall?
Although we wanted and paid for a 'tailor made' holiday we feel we ended up with something less than a standard tourist package which we could have organised with any number of tour operators, probably at a lower cost. There were several positive moments but overall these were overshadowed by the negative ones.
Read the operator's response here:
We value all feedback from our travellers and welcome the opportunity to address this.
This year Myanmar has experienced an enormous increase in visitors - as a rough guideline, we estimate that the number of British travellers to Myanmar has increased tenfold. Regrettably this has led to a number of problems with booking accommodation, and in common with other operators this season has produced a number of problems that have not been experienced before. Principally, this has manifested itself in hotels in Myanmar routinely overbooking - there are currently insufficient hotels in the country to meet the demand and as a result of this on occasion we have unfortunately found that a small number of bookings made in advance have not been honoured.
This has led to the unenviable position of needing to source alternative hotels at short notice. When this occurs, it is not always possible to find a hotel of the same standard or location, but we endeavour to get as close as possible. Given the huge increase in visitors to Myanmar this year, this means that choice can be limited and we book what is available to ensure that travellers do actually have a room. This does mean that such hotels are not necessarily the first choice that we would select. However, we feel that this is a better option than leaving travellers without any accommodation whatsoever, which is often the alternative. Where this leads to a reduction in costs, we always refund our travellers, as happened in this case, and where it leads to an increase in costs we assume these costs ourselves.
We very much regret that hotels were changed, but sadly this was an issue beyond our control and not one that we could exert any influence over.
This is a problem that is occurring throughout Myanmar, and is common to other tour operators this season. We expect that from October onwards, there will be some increased capacity in terms of hotel rooms and this problem will disappear.
We very much regret that these travellers felt that the change in some hotels overshadowed their trip to Myanmar.
Reviewed 13 Sep 2012 by Jo Brooks
1. What was the most memorable or exciting part of your holiday?
We visited a primary school in a rural village near Bagan, spent some time with the students and talked to the teachers. Then we went on two shopping trips for them and had everything delivered to the school with the assistance of the local tour company representatives who were very supportive of our ideas and wishes.
2. What tips would you give other travellers booking this holiday?
Be confident that you will get what you ask for. Feel free to make any requests for things that are important to you, and your wishes will be taken care of.
3. Did you feel that your holiday benefited local people, reduced environmental impacts or supported conservation?
Absolutely. Teachers and students at the primary school are benefiting directly from the purchases we made for them; guides and drivers around the country had jobs the days they spent with us, rather than staying home not earning anything; hotel employees were working and earning their salaries because we stayed in their hotels.
4. Finally, how would you rate your holiday overall?
Excellent. Going to Burma/Myanmar was a long time dream of ours and now our dream has become memories that will stay with us forever. There was one big disaster one day, but that was the fault of a hotel employee; the tour operator was in no way responsible and the local guide helped us deal with the situation. We expect to have a long term relationship with the school we visited, so the trip changed our lives.
Reviewed 19 Nov 2012 by Karen Griffiths
1. What was the most memorable or exciting part of your holiday?
The friendliness of the local people, the festival procession on Inle Lake, the hot air balloon trip over the pagodas of Bagan.
2. What tips would you give other travellers booking this holiday?
To try to visit Inle Lake when there is a festival
3. Did you feel that your holiday benefited local people, reduced environmental impacts or supported conservation?
Yes - we felt that our visit brought income into the country and that it was the people rather than the government who were the recipients
4. Finally, how would you rate your holiday overall?
Very highly - it was very professionally organised at UK and at local level and was a totally absorbing experience
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