Tokyo to Nara Park travel

12 comments

1. I would not go all the way to Nara and back to Tokyo on the same day. Why? It’s going to take you almost half a day to get there.

   You can get there through Kyoto or Osaka, anyway that you want.

   > What are some recommendations to make this travel leg manageable?

   Take more than a day. Or don’t go.

2. There’s very little reason to fly this IMO – it’s around the same amount of time as taking the train when you consider all of the airport bullshit to deal with (arrive early, travel to and from the airport, etc.) – but I would recommend not trying to day trip Nara from Tokyo.

   It’s about 3.25 hours each way from Tokyo Station. Tokaido Shinkansen to Kyoto Station, transfer to the Kintetsu-Kyoto line.

   This means you’re looking at around 6.5 hours in transit.

   Planes are gonna be about as long – the actual flight is short – HND to KIX is about 1.25-1.5 hours, but you’ll need to transit to the airport and arrive at least an hour early for your flight (probably more). KIX to Nara Koen is also a long train ride – an hour or more.

3. It’s not cost or time effective to travel to nara from Tokyo for a day trip. Save it for your 2nd trip to the kansai area.

4. Nara isn’t a day trip from Tokyo. The amount of time and money for what? Deer that will probably already be full by time you get there?

   A day trip is where you take 30mins-1hr to visit somewhere near your hub. It would take you well over 8hrs transit all together just to go there and back. No matter if you flew or took the train (when considering airport customs like arriving early and getting in/out of the airport in general) You wouldn’t have much time to visit the park and all of that time, money, and effort could really be spent doing something more feasible.

   I mean it’s your time and money I suppose but spending 8+ hours and hundreds of dollars to look at some deer and nothing else is a bit much. Make an actual trip to Kansai or just stay in Kanto.

5. I can’t justify paying for 2 hotels because I can’t check out from Tokyo and take all my things to Kansai

6. So many day trips from Tokyo that is not that far. Nikko, Kamakura, Hakone, Izu Peninsula, Kawaguchiko…

7. If you really want a day trip to Kansai, which is not a good idea, at least stick to Kyoto, not Nara, and go by train. It’ll be a 2h30 min ride, you’ll be in the center of the city when you arrive. Taking one of the first trains you can be there by 9am, and still have a decent amount of time.

   Nara park is not that close to Nara station, which is not that close to Kyoto.

8. I would take the Shinkansen to Kyoto and then the Kintetsu Nara line to Nara, the Kintetsu station is closer to everything in Nara.

   Now, as everyone else said Nara is a big stretch as a day trip from Kyoto. There are other places to go. Look for Hakone for example.

9. Wait until you go to Kyoto or Osaka some other time. It’s not worth it for what is essentially a few city blocks of a park. Great day trip if you’re in that area, but not worth hours of travel each way on very finite vacation time.

10. Where should I go instead of Nara Park for a day trip, want to see landscape of the country and local areas

11. Yeaaah, don’t do that. The deer are cool but they’re absolutely not worth that amount of travel cost (in both time and money).

    If you’d like a day trip from Tokyo, I’d suggest Hakone. It’s 45min-2 hours from Tokyo (depending on if you take shinkansen or not) and you can buy the Hakone Free Pass which gets you access to transport + the fun stuff (Gondola! Big silly pirate ship!). It’s a very pretty area, and if the weather is good you get views of Mt Fuji.

    There’s also other nice day trips. We were considering Kamakura or Nikko.

12. Round trip to Nara from Tokyo? Would not recommend, will cost a lot of time and money, not worth in my opinion.