Northern Mandalay hotels & places to stay

I find Mandalay hotels to be very very pricey in general. I booked Mandalay Hill Resort as it was on the average-low end of the cost of 4-5 star hotel category. This hotel is very popular with tour groups and they do operate quite efficiency. Front desk is fantastic and is very helpful in trying to get you settled / around the city. Rooms are smallish but acceptable. Breakfast was very good Location is on the northern side of the palace so it is quite a trek to most of the night life / restaurants (on the southernside) . By car it would be about 15 min drive. Not walkable.

O found this place by accident and expected nothing. But when I entered my room I fell in love. This hotel is in a green and quiet area near Mandalay Hill and some other top sights. You can walk by feet around and explore another face of Mandalay. I enjoyed it so much.. The palace is only a 15min walk away. Nice neighbourhood. My favourite place to be in Mandalay. I regret to stay only for two nights. Super furnished room. Super clean. Not smelly. Great breakfast. The pool is super. Always clean. The staff is a bit more special than in other hotels because they all have a glow. I am in love with this Hotel and if you want a quiet place after busy sightseeing and noisy Mandalay, this is your place.

My wife and I had a wonderful 3 night stay in Mandalay in Best Western – Eastern Palace Hotel. We were given an upgrade to the suite room. It was brand new and fabulous. The resturaunt was wonderful too with some great cuisine. We also had the opportunity to try the health club and swimming pool which were great as well. They also arranged a taxi for us at 4 am in the morning to catch our boat to Bagan. The airport transfer offered through the hotel is rather expensive though at 30 USD. We took a local taxi to the hotel at 12,000 kyat which is closer to 9 USD. The hot water facility is not very environment friendly as we have to empty out about a quarter tub of cold water before we begin to get hot water. If these can be corrected, it would be perfect.

This place definitely exceeded our expectations. Pros - super friendly, smiling staff, easy to ask questions to and get help from. Able to refill our water bottles with filtered water, instead of wasting plastic bottles. Awesome breakfast buffet, a good mix of food and you can serve yourself, great coffee. Free bike rentals, this helps you get to the sites, since you can bike along the sidewalk along the moat of the walled city, you don’t have to worry too much about cars in the main tourists area. Otherwise, be careful on the roads! Arranged bus to Bagan for us, with hotel pick up. Mini market (Coco) around the corner for basic foods. Rooms clean where is was needed. Cons - It’s a bit far from the main sites, but the bikes make it easy, or grab a Tuk Tuk from outside (ask staff for reasonable prices), or use GetRide app. It’s not-picky, but although the room is clean, it’s aging and certain decorations in the room are dirty and falling apart. Corners could be cleaner. Sheets are clean, but have some stains (they seem a bit old). This is all small stuff, the only major negative was the bus to Bagan, the guy who picked us up was on time, but the next people for pick up delayed us 20 minutes, so he got angry and started driving like a maniac to make up time. Driving 80-100 km/h while avoiding cars on all sides of the road in downtown Mandalay is not safe! It was a bit scary. The bus was okay overall, a bit slow with inexplicable stops, but was on time to Bagan. (Travel tip : Bagan bus station is quite south of the cities, near the airport, read about the taxi mafia here, they will overcharge you like crazy (asking $10-$15 per person)!Tuk-Tuks outside are more reasonable. Price in taxi should be maximum 4,000 MMK per person, however less is possible. Tuk-Tuk 4000-6000 for two people. Haggle, haggle, haggle! But stay polite and respectful!). Overall we really enjoyed our stay here, thank you to everyone! We will stay again there if we come back to Mandalay!

The Ayarrawaddy River View is a nice hotel overlooking the river in Mandalay. The rooms are not new but in good condition and spotlessly clean. The bathroom is large with a bath tub, and it's own hot water tank. There is a flat screen TV with English channels, and a safe. The rooms are quite spacious. The rooms either have a river view or a city view. We had a city view room which looked all the way to the mountains and Mandalay Hill. Quite a good view! The hotel has a Happy Hour on the spectacular roof top terrace where you receive free house cocktails for the hour. Cocktails are normally K5000-6000 each. The main reason to be at the Happy Hour is to see the sunset which of course is spectacular. The river is wide at this point and there are numerous small boats going up and down the river. The sun sets behind the hills opposite the hotel. It is then rather nice to stay on the roof terrace after Happy Hour and have dinner. The food is OK and consists of pizzas, sandwiches, burgers, pasta dishes, and asian standards. The surrounding area is mostly local markets. It's all a bit dirty and dusty, and chaotic, with cars, buses, and motorbikes weaving in and out near the market, and further down the road herds of Brahman cows grazing on the nature strip. We did not explore the immediate area, although there appeared to be nothing much of interest. You could walk along the riverfront road if you wanted but it's a bit difficult to get a view of the river due to all the stalls. It may be interesting to view local life first hand. The best thing to do if you don't dine in the hotel would be to get a taxi into town. The hotel has a small clean pool with a few deck chairs.. Overall a nice place to stay for a good view of the river and town. The staff are all very nice and helpful.

Room is good. Breakfast buffet is nice. Location is great: not on a noisy street but it's located near the historical Mandalay Palace's entrance, supermarket, money changer, restaurants. The best asset of this hotel is the front office staff named Elsa, who speaks English well and super-helpful in arranging private car to-&-from Inle Lake and also tours around Mandalay city, Mandalay Hill, Sagaing Hill, Inwa.

Very nice, smalk, family-run lodge. Have stayed here on two separate occasions, five years apart. The family who run it and the staff are exceptionally attentive, helpful, and accommodating, and can help you with any questions or problem. It's not a fancy inn in terms of room quality, but it's clean, quiet, and a great place to relax at the end of the day. Beds are a bit firm, but I still slept well. The courtyard out front is the best physical part of the lodge. It's a great place to eat or just relax and collect your thoughts without being stuck in your room. A much better alternative to an impersonal six-story tourist hotel in downtown Mandalay.

This was my second trip to Mandalay and the 2nd time I stayed at Hotel United. I like the location - close to Mandalay Hill and also close to the Palace Moat. There is a lively market on the opposite side of the street and an up-market supermarket/mini-mall 2 minutes walk towards the Palace Moat on 19th Street. Breakfast has a wide choice and the view from the 7th floor dining room onto Mandalay Hill is great. The staff are friendly and helpful and smart looking too. The hotel is very good value for money and a comfortable place to stay.

+ + + A nice and small structure to stay in Mandalay, one kilometre from the Royal palace walls and the heart of Mandalay. Nice garden with a large swimming pool. Rooms are nicely decorated but probably not maintained enough (shower, evacuation of grey waters...). Luckily those few issues are compensated by a very king and welcoming staff, always ready to answer customers/guests wishes to make their stay as confortable as possible. - - - The hôtel is unfortunately infested by pigeon nests under the roofs which make the first eyesight not really attractive.

Over the years I have been staying in most of the budget hotels in that area of Mandalay including the original Nylon Hotel. They have now opened up the so called "New Nylon Hotel" which is in my opinion at the moment the best option to stay for less than 20$. I arrived very early and they could not offer me a room immediately because they were fully booked and had to wait for a guest to check out. I was still able to check in at around 8.30am and before that they offered me a free breakfast buffet while I was waiting. Stayed only one night because I was in transit to Khamti on the Chindwinriver. Used the stable fast Wifi , had a good sleep in a comfortable bed, clean bathroom with good shower and bathtub. The friendly staff organised my transport to the airport in the early hours for a very competitive price. Will stay here again next time I come back to Mandalay.

The Owner and Staff at Hotel Mega Stars couldn't do more to welcome and help their guests. They provide welcome drinks not just on their guests' first arrival but on every return to the hotel at the end of each day. The owner Htun is always personally available to guests to make them feel at home, and encourages a spirit of generosity in his staff. Htun is personally excellent with kids: our two, a boy of 7 and girl of 10, absolutely loved him. He is also part of a small team of players of the national ball game Chinlone / Caneball who not only play a nightly game in the hotel garden - which is absolutely riveting to watch - but also invite guests and their children to have a go, and it's not easy to play!! The hotel restaurant food is beautiful: a nice mix of Asian veg and meat dishes, noodles and some sensational "finger fish" and fries: battered fish fingers and English-style chips, which were great for our fussy western children! The breakfast is good: cereals, lovely brown bread (to counter the prevalence everywhere in Asia of slightly sickly sweet white bread), eggs and some Asian breakfast options such as rice, veg and noodles. Most amazing of all about the restaurant is the view of misty Mandalay Hill which is to die for. The swimming pool is pleasant although we didn't use it much as the evening temperatures in December when we stayed were relatively low and the water was a little cold: it would be great in the hot season months from April to October. Probably the jewel in the experience of staying at Hotel Mega Stars is the presence of "Jewel", the resident monkey, who is a sweetheart. At first we came with our Western preconceptions of "is this animal safe?" and "is it right for there to be a wild animal kept in a cage in the garden?" In fact, Jewel is a rescue monkey whose mother was killed by hunters - she is free to roam, and as and when she wants to, she enters and leaves her large garden habitat which is surrounded by netting and shared with some

A beautiful guesthouse with wonderful owners. Mama Alice is the perfect host, very gracious and accommodating. Make sure to have a meal there at least once. The food they served was one of the best local meals we had in Myanmar. A home cooked meal indeed. The rooms are big, spacious and clean. Nearby is a Thai massage place with blind masseuses. For an additional fee, the massage can be done in your room. Walking distance to the teakwood monastery, Mandalay Palace and the Mandalay Hill. Highly recommended.

We stayed for two nights after a day of delay (missed connections on the trip to Mandalay from the US) and communicated with the hotel via email during our transit through airports in China. The communication was effortless and the staff responded quickly and courteously to almost each of my 4-5 messages. They were also helpful booking a private driver that took us on an afternoon/sunset tour to U-Bein bridge and a few other local attractions. We received a room upgrade - a nice consolation for a missed night - and the room was spacious and lovely, with a giant bathroom with tub and shower. Breakfast buffet by the pool...magnificent. It would have been 5 stars if we wouldn't have felt the dinner and lunch items we tried out weren't a little overpriced. Altogether I'd still recommend Triumph Hotel to anyone interested in staying in this quieter section of Eastern Mandalay.

I've stayed in lots of hotels in Mandalay for both business trips and tourism, and usually find that the mid-low price range hotels are very poor quality - old, tired and not very clean. Hotel Iceland was completely different! For about $16 I got a good-sized double room with lots of light, attractive furnishings, a really comfy bed and pillows with crisp white bedclothes, and a decent bathroom. The room had been extremely well cleaned - no dust anywhere to be found! The breakfast was quite nice, with an egg station plus fruit, toast and various asian options. The restaurant also made me a pretty good club sandwich and chips for about $3, which was very good value. The location is a little far from the centre of town, but is a very easy taxi ride to get to the river or the palace, and other key sites. I'll definitely stay there again!