Page 25 - The Rough Guide to Myanmar (Burma)

GettinG there BASICS 23
Getting there Other airlines that fly to Bangkok or Singapore
with a stop en route from London include Air
Travelling to Myanmar used to be a France (Wairfrance.com), Jet Airways (Wjet
question of flying into Yangon or airways.com), KLM (Wklm.com) and Lufthansa
catching one of the few international (Wlufthansa.com). if you’re travelling to Myanmar
flights to Mandalay. Then, in 2013, four from another UK airport or from the republic of
of the five border crossings between ireland, you will need to fly to London heathrow
Myanmar and Thailand opened fully to or another hub city first. From the UK, the lowest
independent foreign travellers. Now, available return fares to Yangon, changing planes
there are lots of interesting possibilities in Bangkok, Kuala Lumpur or Singapore, start at
for entering Myanmar overland, around £500.
especially in the south of the country.
even so, most visitors continue to arrive at Flights from the US and Canada
Yangon International Airport, which has been
radically modernized and enlarged over the past When flying to Myanmar from US and Canadian
few years. the least expensive way to get here is to cities on the east coast, your route might see you
travel through a regional hub. Bangkok and transiting through europe or via Asia – the latter is
Singapore are the best options, with regular often more direct, as well as slightly cheaper.
low-cost flights to both Yangon and Mandalay there are regular flights from new York, Chicago
International Airport. Flight prices are slightly and toronto to Beijing on Air China (Wairchina
higher during the winter peak season (December to .com), hong Kong on Cathay Pacific (Wcathay
February) and over the thingyan Water Festival, or pacific.com), Seoul on Asiana (Wflyasiana.com)
Burmese new Year (see p.42), which falls in April and Korean Air (Wkoreanair.com), and tokyo on
each year. All nippon Airlines (Wana.co.jp) and Japan
As well as an increasing number of routes in and Airlines (Wjal.com), with direct flights from all of
out of the country, visa restrictions have recently these cities to Yangon. emirates (Wemirates.com)
been greatly eased up and today visas can be fly from new York, Boston, houston and a number
obtained from a Myanmar embassy in your home of other east coast cities to Dubai, where you can
country or online. then catch one of their daily flights to Yangon.
Boston, Chicago, Montreal, new York and several
Flights from the UK and Ireland other destinations are also served by daily flights
to Doha on Qatar Airways (Wqatarairways.com),
At the time of research there were no direct flights from where you can take one of the five weekly
BUDDHIST MONK WITH CHEROOT
from the UK and ireland to Myanmar. the most flights to Yangon. return fares with emirates and
convenient (and frequently the cheapest) indirect Qatar start from $1300 (Can$1420), and flight
flights transit through Bangkok (11hr 30min), times are all upwards of 20hr.
Kuala Lumpur (12hr 30min) and Singapore (12hr the major Asian airports are also the most
50min), with daily flights from each of these cities convenient transit points between the west coast
directly to Yangon, as well as from Bangkok direct to and Myanmar. there are flights from Los Angeles,
Mandalay (see p.24). Air China (Wairchina.com), San Francisco, Seattle and Vancouver to Beijing,
Cathay Pacific (Wcathaypacific.com), emirates hong Kong, Seoul, tokyo and taipei (the latter on
(Wemirates.com) and Qatar Airways (Wqatar China Airlines (Wchina-airlines.com), with direct
airways.com) also operate daily flights from London flights from all of these Asian hubs to Yangon.
to their airport hubs, with several direct flights on to return tickets start at around $1100 (Can$1200),
Yangon each week. and the shortest flights take around 18hr, including

A BETTER KIND OF TRAVEL
At rough Guides we are passionately committed to travel. We believe it helps us understand
the world we live in and the people we share it with – and of course tourism is vital to many
developing economies. But the scale of modern tourism has also damaged some places
irreparably, and climate change is accelerated by most forms of transport, especially flying.
All rough Guides’ flights are carbon-offset, and every year we donate money to a variety of
environmental charities.

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