Mandalay Royal Treasures 2026–2027

Mingalabar! On arrival at Mandalay International Airport, your guide and driver welcome you and transfer you to your hotel (approx. 45 minutes). After check-in and time to refresh, begin with the city's beating heart: the Mahamuni Buddha, Myanmar's second-most sacred image, its body grown lumpy under a 15-cm crust of gold leaf applied daily by devotees.

Continue to a traditional gold-leaf workshop in the artisan quarter, where young men hand-pound gold for hours into sheets thinner than breath – one of the world's last places to witness this craft. As the light softens, ascend Mandalay Hill (by car and escalator) for a glorious first sunset over the royal moat, the endless plain of pagodas and the silver ribbon of the Ayeyarwady. Overnight in Mandalay.

Meals: No meals (welcome drink at hotel)

After breakfast, drive 30 minutes south to Amarapura, the 'City of Immortality'. At Mahagandayon Monastery, share the moving silence as more than a thousand monks file to their morning meal, then visit the silk-weaving workshops where Mandalay's famous wedding longyis take shape on wooden looms.

Continue to the jetty and cross a small river by boat to Innwa (Ava), royal capital for nearly 400 years. Explore the dreamy island the traditional way – by horse cart – past rice paddies and banyan trees to the magnificent teak Bagaya Monastery with its 267 carved pillars, the brick-and-stucco Maha Aungmye Bonzan Monastery and the leaning 27-metre Nanmyin Watchtower, all that remains of King Bagyidaw's palace.

Late afternoon brings the day's crescendo: a private wooden sunset boat on Taungthaman Lake beneath U Bein Bridge. From the water, the entire 1.2-km teak bridge stretches in black silhouette against a blazing gold-and-crimson sky while monks, cyclists and fishermen cross above you – the single most iconic image of Myanmar, and you are in the front row. Return to Mandalay for overnight.

Meals: Breakfast

This morning, board your private river boat at Mandalay's Mayan Chan jetty and cruise gently upstream on the mighty Ayeyarwady (approx. 1 hour) – fishermen casting nets, bamboo rafts drifting south, river life unchanged for centuries. Arrive at Mingun, King Bodawpaya's audacious dream city.

Stand before the gigantic cracked cube of Mingun Pahtodawgyi – had it been finished it would have been the largest pagoda on Earth – then ring the mighty Mingun Bell, at 90 tonnes the heaviest ringing bell in the world, and wander the snow-white wave terraces of Hsinbyume Pagoda, built as an image of the mythical Mount Meru. Cruise back downstream to Mandalay (approx. 40 minutes).

After lunch (own account), cross the river bridge to the Sagaing Hills, Myanmar's spiritual sanctuary, where hundreds of white-and-gold stupas crown the green ridges and some 6,000 monks and nuns live in study and meditation. Visit a hilltop terrace for sweeping river views and call at a nunnery school before returning to Mandalay. Overnight in Mandalay.

Meals: Breakfast

After breakfast and check-out, discover royal Mandalay: the vast moated Royal Palace citadel, rebuilt on the plan of the last kings; the exquisite Shwenandaw 'Golden Teak' Monastery, the only surviving building of the original palace, carved inside and out; and Kuthodaw Pagoda, whose 729 inscribed marble slabs earn its title 'the World's Biggest Book'.

Time permitting, browse the jade market – where fortunes change hands over palm-sized stones – and the marble-carving street of Kyauksittan, where Buddhas emerge from clouds of white dust. Pick up final souvenirs at Zegyo Market before your transfer to Mandalay International Airport for departure – or let us extend your journey seamlessly to Bagan, Inle Lake or Yangon.

Meals: Breakfast