Partner and I are finally flying to Japan for our honeymoon after 3 years of the holiday being cancelled (due to covid). Excited! I’d like some feedback/advice on the itinerary we have planned. We arrive March 21st into Tokyo and leave April 10th back out of Tokyo (20 nights total).
We’re looking forward to a mixture of city life, history, culture and relaxing nature, and don’t want to rush around a million places just to fit everything in; we also want to have some decent downtime (lots of onsens!!). We have a reasonable budget to play with as it’s our honeymoon.
Here’s the draft itinerary:
* 5 nights in Tokyo for the city experience, tourist attractions, nightlife, galleries, food etc.
* 1 night stay in Hakone for views of Mt Fuji.
* 4 nights in Kyoto – for history, culture, food, sightseeing etc
* 2 nights in Nara – to see the deer parks, amazing temples, maybe walking tour.
* 3 nights in Kanazawa – for the gardens, heritage, food etc.
* 3 nights in Takayama – for the riverside towns, nature on doorstep for hikes, onsen etc. We might also rent a car here potentially for wider exploring.
This takes us to 18 nights, allowing us an extra night somewhere (either somewhere new, or an extra night at any of the above) and one final night in Tokyo before we return home.
I’m aware that this itinerary misses out a lot of the rest of the country, and I’ve seen other 3-week itineraries that include Hiroshima or Fukushima. Are we doing it wrong? Is there something missing that absolutely SHOULD be in our itinerary? Or is this a good 3-week honeymoon? Thanks!
2 comments
I think this seems leisurely and nice. The only thing I would really suggest is don’t stay in Nara and either extend Kyoto by two days or do 2 days in Osaka. Nara is a 30-45 minute train from Kyoto and could easily be a day trip instead of completely uprooting yourself and heading there.
There is so much to see in Kyoto or Osaka and their outskirts, but also it’s a very easy day trip to places like Kobe and Nagoya, or if you get up early and are okay with a 2 hour train ride both ways, you can make a day trip out to Hiroshima/Miyajima ~~or Kanazawa~~ (edit: I overlooked you were already thinking of staying in Kanazawa).
I’d say when you’re booking hotels, Booking is a great site for it and you can find places that have onsen (or non-onsen but still very nice public paths) in any city you stay. I’m going in a couple of months (I’ll be there between March 25th and April 7th, I think our Kyoto days overlap) and all of my hotels have onsen in them. Last time I went to Japan I had one night at an onsen and I felt like it changed/saved my life so I’m going all in now.
This is my own personal take, but I think the only thing you can do “wrong” when going to Japan is plan *too much*. I see some itinerary on this subreddit that just make my chest tight with anxiety when I see how much they’ve planned out. Imaging someone stressing about a schedule or being sad/frustrated at timing while in Japan breaks my heart.
Japan is a very, very good place to be leisurely in and go where your whims and the wind take you. I can’t even count the number of times, in every city/town I went to, I saw something that piqued my interest and just headed towards it on the way to whatever the “plan” was, and I think my experience was richer for it. Plus you’ll be taking trains and walking basically everywhere and that in itself takes time and offers you many chances to see and do interesting things. If you’re late to or miss something, don’t let it get you down, because right around the corner is likely something as incredible or interesting. And I always like to say that you shouldn’t be disappointed or worried that you can’t fit everything you want to do, because this is very likely not your only trip to Japan. It’s just you *first* trip, and you’re going to want to go back.
So, it’s great to have ideas of what you specifically want to do, but I would strongly suggest against being married to your plans. Let yourself get lost, let your curiosity guide you towards new food and sights and experiences (I understand this may not be for everyone, but it’s certainly what I suggest) and for *fucks sake* wear some really comfortable walking shoes. Some that are broken in but not old/worn out. Getting some nice insoles is a great idea, too.
2 nights in Nara? That can be a bit much. The area around Nara park (what 99% of people plan) can be done as a day trip from Kyoto. You would need a plan to do more to justify spending 2 nights there.