Hello!
My wife and I are planning to travel Japan for the first time on early May this year. We will be traveling for 7 nights and 8 days between Osaka and Kyoto area.
I’ve been trying to plan the trip and came up with some schedule, but would like to get some advice from here.
We will arrive in Kansai airport on Monday and leave on the next Monday.
Our high level trip plan is:
1. 2 nights in Osaka Namba area (Monday\~Tuesday)
2. 1 night in Arima Onsen (Wednesday)
3. 4 nights in Kyoto Kawaramachi area (Thursday\~Monday) – Couldn’t find a good hotel here yet, and heard Kyoto station area was not suggested.
So the order will be: Kansai airport -> Osaka Namba -> Arima Onsen -> Kyoto -> Kansai airport
Do you guys think our order of travel looks good? Wasn’t sure if we should stay in Kyoto on a weekday and stay in Osaka on the weekend instead.
If we start Kyoto first, then we will be riding a train straight from the airport to Kyoto. And guessing Kyoto -> Arima Onsen -> Osaka Namba order.
As for the places we are trying to visit are:
* Osaka: Mostly food tour at Dotonbori, Kuromon Ichiba market.
* Arima Onsen: Want to stay here just for 1 night and experience the onsen. Not sure private onsen is worth the price for the hotel.
* Kyoto: Arashiyama for bamboo forest and monkey park, Kiyomizu-dera, Higashiyama Jisho-ji, Kinkaku-ji.
To summarize the questions:
1. Could you take a look at the order of traveling to see if it’s good? Any other suggestion will be appreciated. (Kyoto on a weekday vs weekend?)
2. Any other places that you would suggest us to visit?
3. Any suggestion on the travel pass? Was looking at Hankyu kyoto line pass, and wasn’t sure if it’s worth it since we might be using other train lines as well.
Thank you in advance.
4 comments
The order is fine as Osaka and Kyoto are only half an hour apart.
Personally I’d recommend an extra night in Osaka and one less night in Kyoto but I’m probably of the minority here.
Definitely don’t worry about travel passes. You’re staying locally for a week so just buy tickets as you go. Passes don’t generally work on all lines either (esp. private subways).
Good luck!
I also recommend another day in Osaka.
The order does not matter much. Arguable Osaka could be a better choice for the weekend because it is more known for the nightlife, that people often prefer when there is actually other people too.
For pass, you are more than likely going to use more than just Hankyu. So yes you can get the Hankyu pass is you see that you would have enough use to make it worth. What could make sense is to just get an Icoca card, or better the Kansai One Pass (that despite the name is not a pass but a tourist version of the Icoca, it offer rebate or benefits in different attractions in Kansai). Then just use it to take whatever train/subway/bus make the most sense. Also, you can use the Icoca & Haruka discount ticket to return to KIX.
For private onsen, there is typically two options, either a onsen in your room or go to a ryokan with a private onsen you can rent or reserve. The second option is obviously the cheapest of the two. And yeah, maybe avoid Arima on a weekend, possibly less people in the ryokan (so in the onsen too).
No idea what your criteria are for good hotels, but there is absolutely options around Kawaramachi/Gion/Sanjo. This area is more suggested than around Kyoto station for the simple reason that it will be more interesting to hang out in that area at the end of the day than around Kyoto station. For example you could go for a walk to Yasaka shrine and Gion and go get a drink around pontocho. It’s also relatively well connected to other area of Kyoto.
As for the split Kyoto/Osaka, what you have it fine, it also depend a bit on what kind of experience you are looking for, obviously if you are there for the nightlife, then switching to have an extra night in Osaka could be good.
I wouldn’r go to the Onsen but spent a night in a monestray in Koya San. Much better experience and mostly they have a Onsen bath too. About 1,5 hours from Mamba station. 2,5 from there to Kyoto.