Dawei, also known as Tavoy, is a quiet port city in far southern Myanmar, set behind a long peninsula that shields it from the Andaman Sea. The city itself has a grid of leafy streets, old wooden houses, colonial-era buildings, markets, and pagodas; the beaches begin once you cross west over the low hills.
This is not an easy, polished beach base. Distances on the peninsula are longer than they look, roads can be rough, and travel in Myanmar depends heavily on the current security situation. But Dawei has a distinct pull for independent travellers: a lived-in old centre, seafood at Maungmagan Beach, and quiet sand farther south at Sin Htauk Beach.
If you come, give it time. A day is enough for the town and Maungmagan, but the peninsula's better beaches and cliff pagodas need a motorbike, driver, or patient local transport.