Hi all,
I’m putting an itinerary together that ends with nine days in Okinawa after a 21 day J-Rail pass trip. I’d love advice on that portion as well, but first things first!
We’re looking for a relaxing end to our trip with less moving around, especially considering we’ll be traveling with a toddler.
After doing a bit of research, I felt like it may be wise to skip Naha and Okinawa island altogether and to spend the time more evenly divided between Miyakojima and Ishigaki (around four days each). Both are served by small airports making for less long stretches with the kiddo and both seems to have a wealth of relaxing and/or beautiful options nearby.
What do y’all think? Critical mistake to skip the main island or does this make sense? Any other areas you’d recommend other than Miyakojima and Ishigaki?
13 comments
Well, frankly it depends on whether you are interested in two things:
* whether you are interested in exploring the difference between the historical culture of Okinawa and Ryukyu Isles; or
* whether you are interested in exploring WW2 memorials
Until Shuri Castle is restored, there are no real places that can’t be missed in Naha itself and even with a car rental sights are spread enough around Okinawa that it’s only possible 2-3 of them a day. And well, with a toddler in tow, you might just want to relax after what can be a fairly exhaustive trip.
Honestly, you can spend a week solely on Ishigaki and you’ll be satisfied more than enough. Tons of food to entertain you, AMAZING beaches, scooter rental to travel the island, astounding snorkel/scuba options, and day trips to other nearby islands.
I skipped the main island and went straight to Ishigaki, and had a brilliant time. We took the ferry to Taketomijima as well, and you can get ferries to the further out islands too. Be sure to visit Kabira Bay, it’s one of the most gorgeous beaches I’ve been to! Hire a car though if you can, there’s not much public transport about.
There’s a ton of stuff to do on Ishigaki-Jima and the surrounding islands (ferries). On one of the islands you can go canoeing in the mangrove jungle and the hike up the mountain to the top of a waterfall. It’s straight out of the movie UP.
Amazing food, island culture, nice people, absolutely beautiful nature.
If you go *please* try the kokutoh chocolate by Royce. It’s incredible.
If you’re interested I can DM you a scenic travel route through the mountains on Ishigi island a local told me about.
We stayed a week on Ishigaki part of a month trip to Japan. Ishigaki is one of the most amazing places you could visit. Make sure you and your family are prepared for intense heat though. I’ve been around some pretty hot places in the world but the humidity on Ishigaki is quite something.
We moved around a bit on the island but I really want to recommend the northern part. The lighthouse, beaches, food and some of the walks we did there in the mountains were really great. There’s an Airbnb there run by a family that was actually just featured on their homepage. Really amazing place to stay, highly recommend it.
I forwarded this to my daughter who lives in Okinawa. Maybe she can help.
Skip Naha all together.
Nothing but US American bases and resorts. With all the US bases on the island the city also feels like North American city trying to Japanese.
Stick to the smaller islands if you want to get the proper Okinawa lifestyle
Ishigaki is amazing and I highly recommend it. The general advice is to rent a car – I didn’t and went on foot or vis bus but also I don’t have kids and am perfectly comfortable to sit on a bus for long stretches. We did island hopping with Ishigaki as base. You can do a boat ride and hike on Iriomote, a water buffalo cart ride on Taketomi. We spent 4 days on Ishigaki and I feel it wasn’t enough.
I don’t think you need 9 days, Okinawa is so dang small unless you’re going to do a lot of diving and surfing here.
Keramas are nice if you want easily accessible beautiful beaches. I would def plan for Ishigaki
I’ve been to both Ishigaki and Okinawa and I have to say I enjoyed Ishigaki wayyy more. If you’re looking for the idyllic island life then Ishigaki is better. Okinawa is not as crowded as Tokyo or Osaka, but it still feels quite packed abd hectic compared to Ishigaki.
Imo there’s very little that you can find on Okinawa itself that you cant find on Ishigaki. If you want beaches and diving, Ishigaki is nicer. From Ishigaki you can take a short ferry ride for a day trip to even smaller islands. The only things interesting about Okinawa were the Aquarium, shopping street and the pottery street. If those dont appeal to you then Ishigaki is a good choice.
I lived in Okinawa for three years and I would recommend at least coming to the main island for a day or so, there’s some really interesting cultural novelties here, and the Kerama’s are very unique imo.
I would suggest going to both mainland and the islands. I have not been to Ishigaki, but I would assume it is pretty similar to Miyakojima. So maybe choose 1 island instead of both.
Miyakojima is probably my favorite place in Japan. The scenery, the food, the people are absolutely fantastic. The water and the beaches there were way nicer than mainland Okinawa. I’m not sure if the road is blocked off now but look up 17End, and the triangle point, just absolutely stunning views.
The mainland has more to see, such as the aquarium, international street, Umikaji terrace, Kouri Island.