Hello everyone! My girlfriend and I have been slowly planning an itinerary for our first trip to Japan this May, and we’ve hit a roadblock and came here for help. We’re going from May 11th to May 28th, but even though it’s a decent amount of time, there is perhaps too much that we want to do.
We want to arrive in Tokyo and spend 4 or 5 nights there, we’re thinking of taking day trips to Kamakura and Hakone, and maybe staying in Nikko for the night (we initially planned it as a day trip but it seems if you want to do the hikes it may be better to stay there).
After Tokyo, we want to visit Central Japan (Chubu Region), more precisely Kiso Valley (Nakasendo trail, Magome-juku and Tsumago-juku), Shirakawago, Takayama, Okuhida, Korube Gorge and Yamanouchi. Here is where we are the most confused, should we pick a couple of base cities and take day trips from there? We do not drive and it seems it might be annoying changing hotels every night. On the other hand we don’t know in which order to plan this bit of the itinerary, what places to pick as base,what is the best order in relation to trains and public transport, etc. Honestly, we are quite overwhelmed.
For the last 4 or 5 nights of the trip, we want to stay in either Osaka or Kyoto and take day trips from there to: Nara, Himeji, Koyasan and Osaka/Kyoto depending on our base city.
If there is any help you guys could provide, mostly in regards to the middle part of the trip, or if you think there is something not worth visiting, or something that may be missing from our plan, please let us know.
As you may guess from this post, we want to experience mainly 2 things, the main attractions that you CAN’T miss on a first japan trip and then nature, hiking, historic shrines and places.
Thanks again, any help is incredibly welcome!
