A country · 121 places · 13 regions

Myanmar, all of it.

121 curated places across 13 regions — photographed, mapped, and noted with the season each is best in.

Yangon · via Wikimedia Commons

The 4 biggest regions — Mandalay Region, Yangon Region, Shan State and Sagaing Region — read below as chapters, with 9 more waiting past them.

Chapter I · Mandalay Region · 27 places

Mandalay Region

Myanmar's second-largest city and the last royal capital before the British annexation of 1885, Mandalay sits on the eastern bank of the Irrawaddy River in the central dry zone. The Royal Palace — partially reconstructed after its near-total destruction in World War II — occupies a walled and moated compound at the city centre, while the surrounding region contains significant religious sites including the Mahamuni Pagoda with its thickly gilded standing Buddha. The city is an important centre for traditional crafts including lacquerware, marionette carving, silk weaving, and gold-leaf beating.

Mandalay

Mandalay Region, Myanmar

✦ October to February · $$

Pyin Oo Lwin

Mandalay Region, Myanmar

✦ March to May · $

Mount Popa

Mandalay Region, Myanmar

✦ October to March · $

All 27 places in Mandalay Region →

via Wikimedia Commons

Chapter II · Yangon Region · 25 places

Yangon Region

The largest city and former capital of Myanmar, Yangon retains what may be the largest intact collection of early twentieth-century British colonial architecture in Asia, concentrated in the downtown grid south of Sule Pagoda. The Shwedagon Pagoda, rising 98 metres above Singuttara Hill and plated in gold donated by devotees over centuries, is the most sacred Buddhist site in Myanmar and is at its most photogenic during the evening when its spire is lit against a darkening sky. The colonial-era Strand Hotel, former post office, and city hall create a concentrated streetscape of Edwardian imperial architecture rarely preserved elsewhere in the region.

✦ October to February · $$

Meet Yangon All 25 places in Yangon Region →

Chapter III · Shan State · 16 places

Shan State

A freshwater lake at approximately 880 metres elevation in the Shan Hills of central Myanmar, Inle Lake is home to the Intha people, who are known for their distinctive one-legged rowing technique — balancing on one leg at the stern while rowing with the other wrapped around the oar — and for their floating garden agriculture. Villages, pagodas, and monasteries built on stilts extend over the water surface, and the lake is particularly photogenic at dawn when mist rises off the water and catches the light through the hills. The Phaung Daw Oo Pagoda, containing five small Buddha images covered in thick accumulations of gold leaf, is the most important pilgrimage site on the lake.

Inle Lake

Shan State, Myanmar

✦ October to February · $$

Hsipaw

Shan State, Myanmar

✦ October to March · $

Gokteik viaduct

Shan State, Myanmar

✦ October to March · $

All 16 places in Shan State →

via Wikimedia Commons

Chapter IV · Sagaing Region · 8 places

Sagaing Region

An extraordinary temple near Monywa covered with hundreds of thousands of small Buddha images in vivid color. Its densely ornamented halls create a dazzling, almost surreal interior.

✦ November to February · $

Meet Thanboddhay Pagoda All 8 places in Sagaing Region →