Hello everyone! We are planning a trip to Japan next spring (23rd March – 6th April) and I am struggling a bit with the itinerary. That’s going to be my 3rd time in Japan (although the first two were over 10 years ago), but the first time for my husband. This is also going to be our honeymoon (but we are honestly not the richest people and would like to not over-spend).
We want to experience staying on a Ryokan with a private onsen, and we were thinking in either Miyajima or Hakone, however, I am struggling to find anything affordable (less than 300€/night) on the dates I was planning to visit these places. So, my question: Any alternatives?
Here is the Itinerary:
Day 1 (Saturday): Arrive Tokyo at night.
Day 2 (Sunday): Tokyo – Harajuku, Shinjuku and Shibuya
Day 3 (Monday): Day trip to Nikko
Day 4 (Tuesday) Tokyo – Asakusa, Ueno, Akihabara
Day 5 (Wednesday) – Commute from Tokyo to Kyoto and sightseeing around Kyoto (still to define)
Day 6 (Thursday) – Sightseeing Kyoto (still to define)
Day 7 (Friday) – Day trip to Nara
Day 8 (Saturday) – Here we planned to go to Hiroshima and have an overnight stay in Miyajima. Unfortunately, I can’t seem to find any good Ryokans to stay and are wondering whether to skip that part and go somewhere else. I have already been to Miyajima, and tbh, without the Ryokan experience, I feel it loses a bit of attractiveness: we can see a Torii in the water in Hakone and deer in Nara.
Day 9 (Sunday) – Commute from Miyajima to Osaka and sightseeing around Osaka (still to define)
Day 10 (Monday) – Sightseeing Osaka (still to define)
Day 11 (Tuesday) – Here I have the same problem as in day 8. I planned to commute to Hakone and stay the night in a traditional Ryokan, but the only available ones are extremely expensive. I wonder if we should do it as a day trip from Tokyo instead.
Day 12 (Wednesday) – Commute from Hakone to Tokyo
Day 13 (Thursday) – Sightseeing other parts of Tokyo we had missed on the first part of the trip (suggestions welcome 😊)
Day 14 (Friday) – Day trip to Mt. Fuji / Lake Kawaguchi
Day 15 (Saturday) – Leave Tokyo on the evening.
As you can see, we have a clear schedule on the first half of the trip, but from day 8 everything started to fall apart as soon as I started checking for accommodations. We would really like to stay in a traditional Ryokan, but on the places that are highly recommended (Hakone and Miyajima) there’s no availability for our dates. Therefore, from day 8 we are quite flexible to change our itinerary (skipping Hiroshima/Miyajima), and I am thinking about the following:
Either go to Yakushima for 2/3 nights (renting a car)
or
Explore a bit the area of Gunma (I heard there’s nice Ryokan/Onsens, but I have no idea if there’s much to do in this area)
or
Explore Kyushu for 3-4 days
or
Explore Tokushima for 3-4 days (I’ve heard the Iya Valley is beautiful, but I am a bit worried about transportation in that area)
We are nature lovers and, if possible, would like to avoid big cities and hyper touristic areas (although I understand that might be hard). We also LOVE food – but aren’t the biggest fans of seafood (but fish).
If you have any other suggestions on places we should go instead (or any accommodation/restaurant suggestions :p), or itineraries we could do within the options above, I will extremely be grateful.
Thank you so much for your help!
1 comment
Unfortunately, you have scheduled your trip for one of the busiest domestic travel periods of the year: the academic year ends in Japan on about 20 March and the new year begins in early April, so everyone travels in that period. A couple of weeks earlier or later would have open places and lower prices.
On the plus side, a day trip to Hakone is entirely feasible, even if you cannot reserve an express train. Our family goes down there fairly often, and it’s only about a 2-hour train trip using regular trains on the Odakyu Line from Shinjuku or on JR lines from various points in Tokyo or Yokohama. There are onsens you can go to during the day.