The re-launching of Yangon free Walks comes in a time that travel professionals in the Myanmar Travel industry estimate that the majority of tourist arrivals in Myanmar have not pre-booked a guided tour for their holiday.
Myanmar Travel agency Beyond Boundaries has announced the re-launching of the popular Free Yangon Walks that showcase the history of downtown Yangon from the pre-colonial period to modern days Yangon. The popular tours were set-up by Australian Gino Joseph and ran till Oct 2016 when operations stopped due to logistic challenges and Gino moved back to Australia. Usually each tour attracted a fair number of 20 tourists and Yangon enthusiasts who wanted to know a bit than an average travel guide book or travel website describes about the intriguing Yangon history. Gino passed the stick onto Beyond Boundaries to ensure the walks will continue to feel Yangonites proud about their heritage and share it with overseas visitors.
As previously, Free Yangon Walks are departing every Wednesday and Sunday at 15:00 from the meeting point right opposite Yangon City Hall. There is no set price for these two departures, so people are free to leave behind whatever they may think the tour was worth to them. On Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday, Beyond Boundaries will run the same tour at 09:00 AM from the same location. Apart from the small group tours, the company also organises private walks on request.
Mrs Mya Nandar Aung, Managing Director of Beyond Boundaries said “we are happy to be able to continue these free walking tours as the feedback on TripAdvisor and Facebook of people who have done the tour are fantastic”, she continues “We do hope to show visitors that doing a guided tour is offering so much more in-depth knowledge to the country and that doing a guided tour is certainly worth the money as it offers an experience that make a visit to Myanmar so special.
The Yangon walking tour takes about 2 hours and is conducted by a professional English speaking tourist guide who tells the stories behind the facades of the historical buildings and gives some tips on what else to do while visiting Myanmar. It’s an excellent introduction to Myanmar history and culture and a good way to meet other travellers.
Beyond Boundaries website also offers tours that can be booked directly on line and often focus on the modern “flash backer”. Travellers who often prefer some freedom when travelling around and have booked their Yangon hotel online but are searching from real experiences and want to avoid falling into the standard tourist traps that everybody follows. Ma Nandar continues: we do offer multiple day, private tours from Yangon to Northern Shan state, the dry zone or Mon & Kayin state for example whereby transportation, charming accommodation and some experiences are already included to get familiar with a destination, yet keep enough freedom to decide on the spot what else to do – generally our clients are between 30 and 60 years old she continues, although we also have young millennials and retired people traveling with us”.
The re-launching of Yangon free Walks comes in a time that travel professionals in the Myanmar Travel industry estimate that the majority of tourist arrivals in Myanmar have not pre-booked a guided tour for their holiday. The concept of “free walking tours (or maybe it’s better to say “pay afterwards what you think it was worth to you”) exists in many cities worldwide and Beyond Boundaries hopes “to be able to convince at least a few participants of each walking tour to book similar great experiences upcountry as well” says Ma Nandar.
Angelos is the news editor for TravelDailyNews Media Network (traveldailynews.gr, traveldailynews.com and traveldailynews.asia). His role includes to monitor the hundrends of news sources of TravelDailyNews Media Network and skim the most important according to our strategy. He currently studies Communication, Media & Culture in Panteion University of Political & Social Studies of Athens.