Myanmar (also known as Burma) is a country in Southeast Asia. It lies on the Bay of Bengal and Andaman Sea coast with Bangladesh and India to the west, China to the north, and Laos and Thailand to the east.

While not as inexpensive as neighboring Thailand, Myanmar has surprisingly good hotel accommodation at reasonable prices. Rooms with attached bath are available for under US$10 everywhere except in Yangon and with shared bath for anywhere from US$3 to US$6 in most places.

Almost every hotel licensed for foreigners has running hot water (though, in remote areas, availability may be restricted to certain hours of the day). Hotels, with a few exceptions, are usually clean though, at the budget end, sheets and blankets may be threadbare and the rooms may be poorly ventilated.

A few low-end hotels, particularly in Yangon and other large cities, specialize in cubicle rooms – small single rooms with no windows – which, while cheap and clean, are not for the claustrophobic. Rates are quoted as single/double but the rooms are usually the same whether one person or two stay in the room, making good hotels a real bargain if traveling as a couple. Except at the top-end, breakfast is always included in the price of the room.

Myanmar has a problem providing enough electricity to its people and power supply is severely restricted everywhere. In many places, electricity may be available only for a few hours each evening or, in some cases, only every alternate evening. If you don’t want to spend your nights without a fan or AC, ask if the hotel has a generator (most mid-priced hotels do). On generator nights, the AC in your room may not work (the price is usually lower as well).

At the top-end, Myanmar has some excellent hotels including one or two great ones (The Strand in Yangon and Kandawgyi Palace Hotel in Yangon). The Myanmar government runs many hotels, including some beautiful colonial era ones (though not the two listed in the previous sentence). Many large five-star hotels in Yangon and Mandalay are run by friends of the government or by people with connections to the drug trade. Socially conscious travelers may want to avoid these two types of hotels.