Hi all! I’ll be in Fukuoka for 2 weeks in March/April at a Japanese language school and afterwards I have 1 week of holiday that I was thinking of using to travel around Kyushu.
I have a rough itinerary below planned but would be very welcome to hear suggestions. I’m into food, hiking, cycling and history. The itinerary ignores Fukuoka as I’ll have been there for 2 weeks already.
Days 1-2 – Nagasaki
* Peace park & museum
* Dejima island
* Potentially day trip around Shimabara peninsula
Days 3-5 – Kumamoto & Mt Aso
* Kumamoto castle
* Takachiho gorge and Kamishikimi Kumanoimasu shrine
* Mt Neko hike
Days 6-8 – either:
* Kagoshima
* Sengan-En
* Sakurajima
* Beppu
* Onabara falls, Mt Taharayama
* Seven hells
* Onsen-hopping
Day 9 – back to Fukuoka for 1130am flight
The main questions I had were:
* What would the ideal combination of using the JR Kyushu passes & car rental would be (given that the Kyushu expressway toll pass doesnt seem to be operating). E.g.
* 7-day JR Kyushu pass + car hire for 1-2 days from Kumamoto for Mt Aso
* 3-day JR Kyushu north pass for Fukuoka –> Nagasaki –> Kumamoto, and hire a care for the rest
* Is there anywhere that would offer a nice cycle (half-day, nothing too hilly)?
* Day/half-day trips from Fukuoka would also be very welcome as I’ll have afternoons and weekends free whilst I’m there for 2 weeks
* The other place I considered was Yakushima but I think the combination of the time & expense to get there makes it a bit of a stretch for this trip
1 comment
I can unfortunately only comment on the parts that involve Nagasaki. Some thoughts:
I had to research the passes for a similar route in 2019. The 3-day pass is not worth it for you. A one-way ride from Fukuoka to Nagasaki costs roughly half as much as the pass, which sounds much at first. However, a) it forces you to leave Nagasaki on Day 3 and b) a lot of the train routes around that area are privately owned and not covered by the pass. As far as I remember, this is true for at least part of the route from Nagasaki to Kumamoto, and even if the whole ride were covered, a single ticket would still cost less.
If you want to to a day trip to Shimabara peninsula, you can do it per bus (or private train, if you only want to go to Shimabara Town). You only need a car if you want to go on top of Mt Unzen, because there’s no public transport on the road between the Unzen-Onsen town center and the ropeway. However, if you plan on doing Mt Aso anyway, I think Unzen is more of the same. I enjoyed Shimabara peninsula, but I think it has a lot of things you’ll also get elsewhere. Things I particulary enjoyed there were: World’s longest foodbath in Obama-Onsen, Hells in Unzen-Onsen, Onsen eggs everywhere and the old Samurai’s quarter in Shimabara.
Nagasaki is great, imo. If you’re sure you’re really ok with only spending 2 days there, consider scrapping the side-trip and going to Gunkanjima instead. Other things I enjoyed in Nagasaki were the Dutch Slope and Glover Garden.