Travel that gives back

The Responsible Seven

Duration

12 days

Regions

6 areas

Pace

Active

Style

Responsible & community-led

About this journey

This near two-week journey is designed to show off — and support — some of Myanmar's best responsible-tourism projects, social enterprises, training restaurants and talented local entrepreneurs.

Along the way it quietly raises awareness of the issues the country faces, from drought and deforestation to the plight of the critically endangered Irrawaddy dolphin. Low-impact travel, fair wages and community ownership run through every day.

Trip highlights

Dining at vocational training restaurants that employ disadvantaged youth
Kayah State villages, weaving centres and Padaung culture in Pan Pet
Bathing retired elephants at the Green Hill Valley camp
Low-impact exploration of Inle Lake by bike, foot and kayak
A full day with the Living Irrawaddy Dolphin Project

Tailor this trip

Day by day

A sketch of the route.

A suggested flow rather than a fixed schedule — every day can be lengthened, swapped or skipped to suit you.

Day1
Yangon
Yangon, on foot
A self-guided walk through the colonial downtown with the iDiscover app, the 85,000-jewel Shwedagon at sunset, and dinner at Shwe Sa Bwe — a hospitality school for disadvantaged youth.
Day2
Yangon
Social enterprise city
Breakfast at the Rangoon Teahouse, shopping at the artisan social enterprise Hla Day, a colonial walking tour past the Strand, a ride on the century-old Circle Line, and lunch at the training restaurant LinkAge.
Day3
Yangon → Loikaw
Into Kayah State
Fly to Kayah's capital. Learn traditional sausage-making, visit the Loikaw weaving and vocational centre, explore the animist village of Hta Nee La Leh and its hunting shrine, and ride an ox-cart to the Seven Lakes at sunset.
Day4
Loikaw
Pan Pet & the trek
A morning market (Demawsoe, Wed & Sat), then to the Pan Pet settlement to meet the brass-ringed Padaung women, with a moderately challenging jungle trek and community lunch.
Day5
Loikaw → Kalaw
Across the Shan hills
A 170km drive through Shan countryside, lunch at the eco-social enterprise Sprouting Seeds, and an afternoon stroll through colonial Kalaw.
Day6
Kalaw → Inle Lake
Retired elephants
A two-hour hike to the Green Hill Valley camp, caring for elephants no longer fit to work — bathe and feed them, plant reforestation trees — then the Red Mountain vineyard and the Sunflowers organic-dye weaving studio.
Day7
Inle Lake
The gentle lake
Low-impact exploration by bike, on foot and by kayak to spare the lake from motorboat pollution, paced to suit you, with the afternoon at leisure.
Day8
Inle Lake → Bagan
Temples & training tables
Fly to Bagan. The golden Shwezigon, a local market, lunch at the TREE Alliance restaurant Sanon, shopping at MBoutik, the 920-year-old Ananda temple and a lacquerware workshop, then sunset over the plain.
Day9
Bagan
Bagan by e-bike
Self-guided e-bike exploration — low carbon, and the best way to feel the scale of the place.
Day10
Bagan → Mandalay
The world's largest book
Fly north. A rickshaw to the 1878 Shwenandaw golden teak monastery, the Kuthodaw Pagoda and its 729 stone-slab 'largest book', and the great U Bein teak bridge.
Day11
Mandalay
Saving the dolphin
A full day with the Living Irrawaddy Dolphin Project — upriver to the cooperative fishing villages, learning about the roughly 80 remaining dolphins, a fisherman's lunch and a try at traditional net casting.
Day12
Mandalay
Departure
A transfer to the airport for your onward flight.