Hello folks. Requesting some assistance with my itinerary. I’m kinda new to this and haven’t really traveled anywhere before.
Would love to hear any suggestions or changes I could make and recommend any places you think would make for an amazing time.
This holiday will be a 2 week trip with my girlfriend.
Day 1: Arrive in Tokyo and ideally just for the most part head straight to the hotel, drop off the business and go out and explore.
Day 2 and 3: we’ll be spending 3 days in Tokyo so possibly experience the night life, visit some museums potentially or even head over to the weeb place. Experience some night life.
Day 4: Leave Tokyo either through a rental car or by train. (Not sure which is more practical and realistic). And make our way towards Gero in Gifu.
Day 5 and 6: ideally want to spend 3 days just chilling In a countryside ryokan. Relaxing and maybe going on a hike through the countryside or mountains. Gero is the first place that comes to mind but if anyone knows of any amazing countryside Ryokans on the way towards Kyoto that would be great.
Day 7: leave for Kyoto either again by rental car dropping it off in the process or by train.
Day 8 and 9: now here i think it’ll be good to explore Kyoto and Osaka, maybe stay in a traditional Kyoto place, look at the old historical capital, maybe try not not get murdered by a Geisha.
Also probably a brilliant idea to get mad drunk in Osaka considering it’s pretty hip and if my bank account can forgive me try out Kobe beef.
Maybe sleep between both cities either one or the other.
Day 10: now I have 1 of two options. Either do the Honshu/Shinkoku island bike ride and then take a boat to Hiroshima and stay the night or go to hiroshima and the next day do the bike ride.
Day 11, 12, 13 and 14: having done the bike ride I feel it might be a good idea to spend the remaining time in Shinkoku. I don’t know much about the island or what can be done but what I’m thinking is maybe a mix of being in the city and resting in the countryside. Maybe find a nice place to camp out in the countryside and stargazing maybe.
Now I’m new to holidays but Shinkoku does have an airport so I’m hoping we’ll be able to return home from that flight or if it’ll have to be from Tokyo.
Either way going from Shinkoku to Tokyo shouldn’t be too bad.
So yeah that’s about it, would look to hear any suggestions or changes I should make. Places you personally recommend.
This is quite an early draft of what we want to do and still a while before it happens so plenty of room for changes and what not.
Especially curious about whether or not it’d be cheaper using a rental car to get around but I kinda doubt I’d be able to just get one in Tokyo and leave it in Kyoto maybe maybe not. Don’t mind taking the train or any other transport if necessary. Just depends which is cheaper.
7 comments
>Especially curious about whether or not it’d be cheaper using a rental car to get around but I kinda doubt I’d be able to just get one in Tokyo and leave it in Kyoto maybe maybe not. Don’t mind taking the train or any other transport if necessary. Just depends which is cheaper.
Lol definitely not going to be cheap at all. Just take the train or fly like a normal tourist. Makes things so much easier
Public transport is quite good. So for renting a car, consider that on top of daily rental cost you have to pay for gas, highway toll, parking and if you do not return the car in the same city, you have to pay an extra. Gero onsen is not especially hard to reach from Tokyo by train. In my opinion, should only consider a car if you want to go to places that are hard to reach by public transport, so especially true in the countryside, like some area in Shikoku could make more sense then between Tokyo and Kansai.
Day 10 is a bit confusing. The popular bike ride between Honshu and Shikoku is the Shimanami Kaido and if you start in Onomichi, you end up in Imabari, so it would make no sense on that day to take the train to Matsuyama to take the ferry to Hiroshima (if you even have time do do it all in one day)… and you would be back in Honshu, so not a good start for a Shikoku trip.
So if you want to do both, then I would probably enter by the Shimanami kaido and out by Hiroshima at the end of the shikoku trip, and you can fly out of Hiroshima. Or you can completely skip Hiroshima too and fly out of Shikoku. Or you can enter Shikoku closer to Tokushima (by bus or ferry) and out by one of the two previously mentioned routes. Or yes on day 10 you can go all the way to Hiroshima and next day backtrack to Onomichi to do the shimanami kaido.
Great job so far on the itinerary, I love seeing travel plans that go outside of just Tokyo/Kyoto/Osaka. Don’t worry about it being a rough draft, it’ll come together, and don’t forget to repost the refined version just to be sure = )
To echo everyone else, public transit is easy, affordable and will be far less stressful (and even faster in most cases) than driving a car.
For Kyoto/Osaka, it isn’t practical to stay “between” the cities. I would pick the one that is most convenient. While staying in something really “traditional” in Kyoto is cool, it seems that going to Shikoku and getting “mad drunk in Osaka” would have me leaning towards Osaka as your place to stay and just doing day trips to Kyoto. It also seems you have plans to stay in a Ryokan at some point anyway, so that will cover the “traditional” feel you are looking for.
As for flights, I’m not aware of international airports on Shikoku (that doesn’t mean there aren’t any though). But I am confident it wouldn’t be cost effective. Your best bets are Tokyo or Osaka.
Are they even going to be letting people in the country in October? I have vacation to use and want to go back to japan
> Gero is the first place that comes to mind but if anyone knows of any amazing countryside Ryokans on the way towards Kyoto that would be great.
Frankly, Hakone, Shuzenji and Ito are the first destinations between Tokyo and Kyoto that come to mind, as far as countryside onsen are concerned. If going via Hokuriku route, visiting Unazuki Onsen and Kurobe Gorge, or staying at Kaga Onsen might make some sense.
> Day 10: now I have 1 of two options. Either do the Honshu/Shinkoku island bike ride and then take a boat to Hiroshima and stay the night or go to hiroshima and the next day do the bike ride.
My take on it: visit Hiroshima/Miyajima first; take a ferry to Matsuyama and visit Dogo Onsen there, then take morning train to Imabari, do Shimanami Kaido, visit Temple Walk in the evening and stay the night in Onomichi and then go whatever you like.
Driving in Japan is not for the faint of heart, QT!
If you want to drive, don’t drive out from a major city. You’re better off using the train, then hiring the car in your destination town. Most stations long the major train routes will have car hire offices.
Driving in rural Japan is actually quite pleasant and I like the flexibility, but I did have a toddler. I wouldn’t try driving in urban areas though. And highway tolls get quite expensive.