Hello everyone,
I am a Dutch girl who walked the Camino de Santiago last year and it sparked a fire in me: I need to be a Dual Pilgrim!!
I would like to walk the Kumano Kodo in March 2024. I am currently preparing myself, but I am a bit overwhelmed by all the information and all the possibilities. I would like to ask my questions to someone who has personal experience with walking the Kumano, instead of spitting through never-ending blogposts and information pages, hence my post here. Excuse my very lengthy post.
\- Which trail is the “best”? I read that the Nakahechi trail is the most common, but it is in my opinion quite short, only 37 km. The Kohechi trail is longer, 63 km, but there is also less information available about this trail. Then you also have the Kiji trail, which sounds interesting as well. Which trail did you do? Did you enjoy it? Any recommendations on which trail to pick?
\- I have understood that it is wise to book your accommodations way in advance, especially since I’m planning to do it during spring, the most popular season. But how far in advance should I book? If I book now I’m booking a year in advance, that might be a bit much. Also, where do you book accommodations? Which sites did you use? Are there any accommodations in particular that you visited that you would highly recommend?
\- I am planning to do it in spring, during the cherry blossom period, so end March/beginning of April. However, would you recommend this? I would love to see the trees, but I am afraid the trail might be too crowded during this time.
Thanks so much in advance for reading. Greetings from the Netherlands!
3 comments
Following!
I’ll be walking the Nakahechi trail this summer, but as we’re pressed for time we’ll only do a portion of it.
We are starting out at Tsugizakura-oji (taking the bus there from Kii-Tanabe), then walking to the Akagi-Goe junction and switching over to the Akagi-Goe route to make our way to Yunomine Onsen for the night.
In the morning we’ll walk the Dainichi-Goe route or take some kind of transportation to Kumano Hingis Taisha.
If you remind me, I’ll send you a recap once I’m back from Japan 🙂
I’m interested in seeing other people’s experiences or plans too.
You should note that Kohechi is not a Camino Santiago type of trail – it mostly leads down dirt tracks at best, you need to carry your own food and water for multiple days with very limited possibility to re-supply and since you will not see anyone for hours – there is limited possibility of assistance in case of accident (and the assistance will arrive in a matter of tens of hours rather than minutes).
Kohechi also generally requires full hiking gear as there are parts that are fairly steep or not entirely secured following landslides.
I haven’t completed the trail yet but I’ve been through the booking process. I am doing the Nakahechi route in September this year and I booked through through the kumano kodo website (kumano travel)! I’m doing the suggested itinerary for 5 days/4 nights. The website itself takes some getting use to but, it’s a really good resource! I was able to pick my dates, choose my housing including meals (breakfast, lunch, supper) and send it in to be reviewed by someone before making a reservation. I also arranged a luggage transfer through the website. I did mine 6 months in advance, I think a year might be too much time as some of the housing is small and doesn’t put their availability up until 3-6 months in advance.
Alternatively, you could pick the cities you want to stay in and try to find Airbnb’s or hotels but I found that some cities are so small it was hard to find anything. The nice thing about the kumano kodo website is they have contracts with private homes and have more options available.
I chose the Nakahechi because it fits my itinerary for the rest of my trip and the 3 major shrines plus the traditional boat ride interest me. I chose September because I’m hoping it will be less crowded than the spring so I’m not too helpful there.
I hope this helped a bit! I also had a hard time finding information on this hike, I’ve been researching it for over a year now. Check out the website and see if they have a model itinerary that fits your trip