Traveling from Mandalay to Inle Lake or the other way from Inle Lake to Mandalay? You’ll have a few options, all of which are time-consuming. No matter what route you take, the road from Mandalay to Inle Lake will go through mountains, and there are tons of turns.
When planning out your Myanmar itinerary we suggest spending at least 3 days in Inle Lake as it will take one full day to travel to Inle Lake.
*When looking for the best price and biggest selection of hotels in Inle Lake check prices on Booking.com, we’ve found they are the best option and have a great cancellation policy.*
How To Get From Mandalay to Inle Lake
We personally traveled from Inle Lake to Mandalay in and considered all of the following options. The cheapest option is the bus, click here to check rates and book online.
Bus From Mandalay to Inle Lake
Night buses and day buses to Inle Lake run every day of the week. The only proper full-size buses run at night, which means you will be arriving into Inle Lake at 3:30 am-5:30 am. The only day buses are minivan shuttles where you will be crammed in there like sardines.
- Cost: $10-16
- Time: 7-8 hours
- Book Tickets Online Here
The buses drop off right in the main town of Nyaung Shwe where there are tons of hotels and taxis within walking distance. If you are staying at a higher-end hotel, it will most likely be outside of Nyaung Shwe and you’ll have to take a taxi or a local truck similar to a collective taxi.
Call our recommended Inle Lake taxi driver 0949300255 – He was reasonably priced and came to get us as soon as we called.
Related Article: Myanmar Travel Tips
Taxi From Mandalay to Inle Lake
You can hire a private driver to take you to/from Inle Lake and you’ll be on your own time schedule. You’ll have the freedom to stop along the way and take photos as you drive through the mountains.
- Cost: 130,000k ($100 USD) after negotiations
- Time: 6-7 hours
- Distance: 227 km to Mandalay Airport from Nyaungshwe
We contacted the driver Koh Fatty who we hired to explore all the things to do in Mandalay earlier in our trip. He wasn’t available, but he arranged for another driver to take us from Inle Lake to Mandalay Airport. Our driver was Mr. Shay drove from Mandalay the night before and spent the night in an Inle Lake guesthouse to ensure he wasn’t late.
He was at our hotel at 8 am to take us to the Mandalay airport from our Inle Lake hotel. I would highly recommend either of these two drivers. Koh Fatty and Mr. Shay are available to bring you all around Myanmar or for a Mandalay guide, just contact them for rates:
Ko Fatty Mandalay Private Driver
- Facebook message him
- Phone: +95 9 40372 7817
- Email: [email protected]
We opted to take a private taxi for several reasons. Our Inle Lake hotel Amata Garden Resort was a $25 USD taxi ride to the Nyaungshwe bus station and the bus would then drop us off at the Mandalay bus station where we would have to take another taxi to the Mandalay airport $10-20 more.
It wasn’t that much more for us to hire a driver than if we would have paid for those two taxis and the bus ride, plus private taxis are so much better than buses.
Flights From Mandalay to Inle Lake
It is now possible to fly to Inle Lake from Mandalay. The nearest airport to Inle Lake is the Heho airport (HEH), which is 46 kilometers from Nyaung Shwe. Taxis from the airport to Inle Lake take 45 minutes and cost 20,000k + depending on your negotiating skills.
There are several airlines offering daily flights but Golden Myanmar Airlines has a direct flight every morning.
- Cost: $65+
- Duration: 30 minutes
Flying is the fastest and easiest way to travel to Inle Lake. If you are on a tight schedule in Myanmar I would fly rather than spending a whole day in the car. If you’re on a Myanmar honeymoon we highly suggest flying because there is nothing romantic about buses & trains in Myanmar.
Recommended Inle Lake Hotels
There is accommodation for every budget in Inle Lake with the higher end hotels located right on the lake. Staying at a hotel located outside of Nyaung Shwe has its ups and downs.
You’ll have to take a taxi into Nyaung Shwe for more dinner and nightlife options HOWEVER you will have gorgeous views of the lake. We choose to stay on the lake, our hotel was a 40-minute drive to town and cost 20,000k each way.
- Amata Garden Resort this is where we stayed and highly recommend this 4-star hotel right on the lake with gorgeous views. |Booking.com
- Mingalar Inn this budget 3-star hotel is located right in town within walking distance to everything and is under $30 a night | Booking.com
Recommended Inle Lake Restaurants
Inle Lake has a wide range of restaurant options. We only had 3 meals in Inle Lake and one restaurant was so good we went back again. We highly recommend
- Innle Hut Indian Food House #3 restaurant on TripAdvisor the best Indian food we have ever had. Get the chicken tikka masala, butter chicken, and garlic naan.
- One Owl Grill serves real coffee and breakfast all day. We had their soup, hummus, and fries all were tasty.
- Pub Asiatico Inle has a great rooftop bar with 2,000k happy hour cocktails. The inside restaurant looks straight out of a magazine.
Related Article: How to get from Inle Lake to Bagan
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