Travelling in Myanmar with kids
Burma may be far-flung and new to tourism – but the Burmese friendliness and fondness for children more than make up for these practical shortcomings![]()
Markets provide a sensory overload for inquisitive minds, while the mountains, lakes, rivers and forests provide ample space for exploration – most are filled with pagodas and temples of all shapes and sizes, allowing little legs to wander off and discover their very own piece of history.
In many places, westerners are a rare sight, and those in Burma with kids even more so, meaning they are likely to be fussed over and welcomed.
Be prepared for heat, chomping insects and stomach upsets – but there are so many colourful distractions that children will have their mind taken off tummy troubles soon enough.
Activities for families in Myanmar
Burma encourages travellers to stretch their legs with hikes and climbs – but to get a little further than you can on foot, you can rent bikes. Bagan is flat and filled with hidden temples, staircases and miniature carvings and paintings; families can cycle amongst the ruins, finding their own favourite temples to play hide and seek in.
Sail on a long tail boat around the spectacular Lake Inle. Children – and adults! – will be charmed with its floating markets and vegetable gardens, stilted villages and leg-rowing fishermen.
Burmese markets are a whirlwind of colours, smells, tastes – and smiles. Kids can squeal at stinky dried fish, sample the crazy-looking fruits and marvel at the wonderful local dress of the hill-tribe people who come to trade in the towns.
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Myanmar tips for families
Lesley Schofield, from our supplier All Points East, shares her advice on travelling in Burma with kids: “I don’t feel that very young children would get that much out of it, but I do think that from ten or eleven onwards it’s a great destination. You’ve got a very safe environment with extremely friendly, welcoming people who care about children and feel that they are important. There’s a great variety of things to see and do in Burma – particularly for older ones. It’s also a tremendous eye-opener for them to see how happy and different other children’s lives are.
You see children without every electronic gadget that they can possibly have – but they’re happy. And I think that’s quite a nice introduction to the rest of the world – without traumatising them with how dreadful other people’s lives are. They see things in a different way – and with a different point of view of things like possessions.”
You see children without every electronic gadget that they can possibly have – but they’re happy. And I think that’s quite a nice introduction to the rest of the world – without traumatising them with how dreadful other people’s lives are. They see things in a different way – and with a different point of view of things like possessions.”
Liddy Pleasants, from our supplier Stubborn Mule, travelled in Burma with her two young children. She shared her advice on a holiday in Burma with kids: “Burma was amazing with children. The people are just so interested and delighted and hadn’t seen very many people travelling with children, so they were just unbelievably welcoming and bent over backwards every step of the way to help you, they’d give up their seats on the bus... often in restaurants we couldn’t communicate if they had no English menu, so they invited us into the kitchen so we could point to the different ingredients.
The other thing that’s really nice is that there’s lots of very different ways of doing sightseeing that work for children. So you can cycle round Bagan, take a boat around Inle Lake, take a horse drawn cart around the ruins near Mandalay, you cruise up the river to Mingun... so all the time you’re doing sightseeing which ticks the adult boxes, but in a fun way which makes the children happy as well.”
The other thing that’s really nice is that there’s lots of very different ways of doing sightseeing that work for children. So you can cycle round Bagan, take a boat around Inle Lake, take a horse drawn cart around the ruins near Mandalay, you cruise up the river to Mingun... so all the time you’re doing sightseeing which ticks the adult boxes, but in a fun way which makes the children happy as well.”
More Myanmar (Burma) articles
You want to avoid the intense heat and the intense rain, so the best time to visit is between October and March.
Myanmar opened up to tourists again in 2011, piquing the interest of travellers around the world.
Discover the best way to meet the craftspeople of Inle Lake, how to get around the thousands of stupas in Bagan.
The journey becomes the destination in Myanmar, as every step of the way is lined with ancient stupas and pagodas.
Myanmar’s relative isolation has helped to preserve its long, rich culture and visitors today will be dazzled.
Not visiting the temples of Bagan in Burma is akin to avoiding Angkor Wat in Cambodia.
Myanmar’s second largest lake is a little bit special and not just for the 70,000 Intha people living and working around its edges.
Find out the place to meet elephants, how to bring up Burmese politics, and where to see Genghis Khan murals.
This country is just opening up to tourism after decades of dictatorship and isolation.
