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The beach of luxury holiday in Burma
Traditionally Ngapali is "the beach" for luxury
hotels and to take a beach rest in Burma.
The sea is a lot
more beautiful than in Chaung Tha beach, equivalent to Ngwe Saung and it is currenlty the most
beautiful (accessible) beach in Myanmar.
Until 2004, you had only a very limited
number of hotel, it is increasing quite rapidly, but thanks to a good regulation, the spot is not spoiled and it is still a real pleasure to go to Ngapali for a rest.
You can only reasonnable way to reach Ngapali is by Thandwe's
airport. which limits the number of visitors. The airport has been upgraded with a longer runway from February to April 2006. Now it is safer to use this airport and it is possible for bigger turbopro plane to land at Ngapali.
Ngapali is situated at 1 hour flight in the northwest of Yangon,
near the ocean Indian,at the feet of the mountains of the
Arakan state.
The plane lands at the airport of Thandwe and you
must reach the beach of Ngapali by the road (15 km).
Practicaly, your travel agent or your hotel will organize
the transfer from the airport to Ngapali.
How to go to Ngapali
The best solution is to take a plane, it is fast, safe and you will not need 3 days to recover as if you arrive by car. You have 3 outgoing
cities to join Ngapali by air:
- Yangon (every day in high season)
- Bagan (3 times per week)
- Heho (the Inle lake).
If you have more time (and if you are more
courageous), you can take the bus from Pyay. The road is very
bad and the journey last 12 to 20 hours ( we have met some tourist who did a 20h journey from Pyay to Ngapali.... they need the complete stay to recover...)
When to go to Ngapali
You have three period :
- June to Septembre (monsoon season): It is raining a lot, really a lot. Most of the hotels, even all are closed (unlike at Ngwe Saung beach where some hotels stay open). It is not reasonnable, even unsafe to try to reach Ngapali by car during the rainy season. There is no or a few flight to Thandwe airport's. Definitively not the place to go during the monson.
- Octobre to May : This is the hot, dry season (even very very hot in March, April, May). This is the best time to go, especially from Novembre to February (except if you like very hot weather like in April and May).
- Xmas - new Year (and Buddhist New Year 12-17 April). Hotels are usually full and prices are skyrocketting. It is the "Peak Seasons" and if you like to have a room in some of the finest hotels like the Sandoway, Aureum or Amazing, you have to book long time in advance (and be ready to pay 30 to 50% more). Nevertheless, it is a very good time to go, weather is fine or even very hot in April.
More detailled weather data :
Hotels
There is very few hotels in Ngapali in comparaison with Chaung
Tha and Ngwe Saung.
The hotels in Ngapali go from very correct small hotels (2
stars)to luxury hotel as the Sandoway or the Aureum.
Map of Nagpali beach and hotels localisation ( Acrobat PDF
file) : here
Pictures and hotels information:
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