5 top tips for choosing family hotels in Burma

This post is part of our family month, during which we’re exploring all the fantastic family travel options across our destinations. For more inspiration, check out our dedicated family page.

Choosing the wrong accommodation is the easiest way to ruin a holiday, and when you’re travelling with children the risks are even higher. An adult traveller might be willing to put up with a certain amount of poor hygiene, bad food and crap service for a night or two until they can find a better hotel – but parents have their children’s safety to think of. Dirty or poorly maintained hotels then become more than an inconvenience; they become dangerous.

The right accommodation, however, has the potential to make a good holiday fantastic – and luckily there are plenty of excellent hotels in Burma for those who know what they’re looking for. So how do you know which to choose? Here are some of our top tips:

You have to spend more to get more…

“Thanks, Captain Obvious!” I hear you cry – but it’s worth mentioning. The higher the grade of hotel, the more likely you are to find better arrangements for families: connecting rooms, multi-room suites, and large quad rooms. Quite simply, you get what you pay for.

This doesn't mean you can't find good family hotels on a budget, but it does mean that it can be worth splashing out a little more on accommodation if you can stretch to it.

…but there are budget options too.

If you’re travelling on a smaller budget, however, don’t despair. There are some good moderate hotels that can accommodate families, they’re just harder to find and require more research. Though few will offer connecting rooms, many will be able to put an extra bed in a double room or offer you two adjacent rooms on request.

Requesting cots & cribs

Children under five tend to sleep in their parents’ beds in Burma, so mid-range hotels may not offer baby cots/cribs as standard. Even at higher-end hotels, you should always request a cot at the time of booking as they may only have one or two for the whole hotel.

If there are no cots available, many hotels will allow young children to share a bed with another child or adult. If this is the case, try to find somewhere with generously sized beds!

The Rupar Mandalar Resort offers family suites for up to six people in Mandalay

Location, location, location

Choose hotels that are close to town or city centres. Properties on the outskirts can be cheaper or have a lovely setting, but there’s a huge trade-off on convenience. Staying in the town centre will cut out the faff of taking a taxi or shuttle into town, it will allow you to easily pop back to the hotel throughout the day to balance downtime with sightseeing, and it’ll mean you don’t need to lug a hefty bag of supplies around all day.

Check out the facilities

In hot and steamy Burma, a swimming pool is a must for families, keeping the kids occupied while you take some time to relax. There’s nothing worse, however, than booking a hotel with a pool and finding out on arrival that it’s not open to children under 12. All that shimmering blue water and a hot-and-bothered toddler who isn’t allowed to go in it. Nightmare.

Always check in advance whether your hotel pool is available to families, whether it has a shallow area, and whether there are lifeguards on duty. It’s also worth finding out which hotels have kids’ clubs or included activities, and whether there’s a babysitting service available if you want to go out for some grown-up time.

The Shangri-La in Yangon offers a child-friendly pool, buffet meals, a kids menu - and up to two children under six can stay for free

Finally, if you really want to make sure that you get the very best family accommodation for your money in Burma, consider booking your holiday with Inside Burma Tours. We have personally visited all the hotels we recommend, so you can rest assured that nothing is left to chance!

For more tips on planning a family holiday to Burma or one of our other destinations in Asia, take a look at our dedicated family page – packed with tips and stories from our staff and customers.