Hello! I would love insight on the best way to plan out this small part of our trip. We will be leaving Tokyo early on March 25th to head to Hakone (big bags forwarded to Kyoto so traveling only with overnight backpacks). I have a reservation for a ryokan with private onsen in Gora on the 25th. I’d like to be at the ryokan to check in on time at 3pm that day and relax the rest of the day (want to use the onsen, get a massage, and then we have the kaiseki dinner around 5 or 6).
We have all of the morning and early afternoon of the 25th (2h 45 min journey with RomanceCar from hotel), and most of the day of the 26th to explore the Hakone region before heading off to Kyoto (about a +/- 4 hour journey with bus and Shinkansen).
The main issue seems to be that none of the walking distance activities are in the same walking direction so we would likely only be able to do 2 a day. The other logistics is picking the right last activity to allow us to easily continue on our journey to Kyoto most efficiently. I also am not sure if there’s a limit on how late we can arrive in Kyoto to still be able to check in so don’t want to get there too late.
**Activities interested in:**
\- Hakone open air museum (25 min walk from ryokan)
\- Hakone ropeway Sounzan station (20 min walk from ryokan) (would we need to buy a separate ticket to take it back to get to the same station or can we just stay on it?)
\- Hakone Museum of Art mainly for the gardens (7 min walk from ryokan)
\- Lake Ashi boat cruise (approx 45 min by train).
\- Mt Fuji (seeing from a distance if weather permits…don’t need to visit)
Most interested in the Shinsenkyo garden as I love nature. Open to other activity ideas as well and we don’t have to do all 4 of these things. For reference our ryokan is a 1 minute walk from the Naka-Gora station.
Thank you for any insight/advice.
by Nietzsches-Whore