April 21, 2018

Best ways to get from Yangon Airport to the City

When you first arrive at your destination the last thing you want to deal with is how to get to your accommodation. You’re often tired, grumpy and vulnerable and it pays to have a clear idea in mind when wading through the hoards of touts! The easiest way to get from Yangon Airport to your accommodation is either by a prepaid taxi booked at the pre-paid taxi counter located at the arrival hall of each terminal or to have downloaded the Grab app ahead of time and created an account – or do it there using their free WIFI.

Grab is a ride sharing service that has recently merged with Uber in South East Asia and is widely used throughout. Like Uber you have a fixed price so that you don’t get ripped off, you can pay through the app or pay in cash and you have a set driver who already knows where you want to go. You can use Grab during the rest of your time while in Myanmar to avoid haggling with taxi drivers over the price of trips.

For the more budget conscious or the more adventurous there is a bus stop close to the airport where you can take a local bus nearly anywhere in the city for around 10 cents! The bus that we took was air-conditioned and didn’t take much longer than a taxi would have.

You can take the bus from Pyay Road, which is about a ten minute walk from the airport and depending on where you are going catch the 35 or 37 to the western side of China Town or the 51 to Sule Pagoda.

If unsure, a friendly smile to a local and pointing at the map to where you need to go get you in the right direction.

An excellent app for viewing bus routes in Yangon is Ybus or the Yangon Bus Service Official app available on Google Play.