Hi there! I will be traveling to Japan in October and the part that I am most excited about is biking the Shimanami Kaido. I really want to take it slow and enjoy what the islands have to offer. Most itineraries seem to be 2-3 days max (including the first day in Onomichi), so hoping to get some feedback from the community in terms of pacing, and things to do given that we will be doing this over the course of 4 days (including our first day in Onomichi).
**Day 1:** We plan to arrive in Onomichi in the early afternoon. We’ll get a few hours to explore the town before calling it a day and starting our bike ride in the morning.
**Day 2:** We have most of our services through WAKKA. They’re a hotel located on the shore of Omishima Island. We’re renting e-bikes and doing our luggage delivery service through WAKKA. We’ll start biking (with e-bikes) from Onomichi to Omishima around 9:30am. My wife and I are slow travelers, so this will likely take us most of the day. At night, WAKKA has a dinner option where they’ll barbecue meats and seafood for you by the beach. **Are there any recommendations on “side islands” to visit as we make our way to Omishima?**
**Day 3:** This is mostly a relaxing day. We plan to visit Rabbit Island and do some citrus picking with WAKKA, but otherwise, we don’t really have any plans. I’d like to potentially catch the sunset at Kurushima-Kaikyo Bridge, but I’m a bit concerned riding at night (so we may go at dawn instead). We may also go visit other islands that we didn’t get to visit on our first day in between Omishima and Onomichi.
**Day 4:** We’ll make our way from Omishima to Imabari. I don’t expect this leg of the trip to take the whole day. My question here would be: If we get to Imabari by the early afternoon, **is it worth it to stay in Imabari and explore the area, or should we just make our way back to Onomichi?** We’ll be going back to Kyoto the next day, so if we go back to Onomichi, we can at least save a few hours in the morning from having to take the bus back from Imabari to Onomichi.
Any advice about this itinerary would be appreciated. Thank you!
1 comment
I did the Shimanami Kaido last year and also used WAKKA. I stayed there overnight as a halfway point & cycled the other half the next day. Their service was great and I don’t regret spending the extra $$ to use them!
– I also hired an e-bike. I underestimated how much of a speed advantage this gave me (not that i’m complaining 😀 ). I started at 9am and had so many pitstops & breaks on each island to take photos & videos. If i didn’t stop at all, I probably could have reached Omishima Island by 1:30- 2pm. With all my stops i got there at 5pm. The next day was about the same.
– The thing i regret the most is that I did the cycle the other way around. From Imbari > Onomichi. It is more beautiful on the Imabari side and I think building up to the views would have felt even more rewarding. I was greeted by industrial land in Onomichi lol.
– There isn’t much to do in Imabari, i’d rather spend more time in Kyoto. The ebike made the whole cycle more relaxing that I dont remember feeling tired at all when i finished it. If you have the energy, I think you could make it to Kyoto on the same night.
Have fun!