I am making a autumn trip this year end of Nov to early Dec. (16 day, but day 16 morning flight)
Fly in Fukuoka on Saturday morning. I am currently plan to cover whole Kyushu. I would like to cover as much theme train as possible.
Basic transport plan would be having day 1 using one-day fukuoka pass
I will be mainly travel with only 1 bag pack with 4 day worth of clothes, and will be doing coin laundry at night every 4 day
then have 2 \* 7 day Whole Kyushu JR pass (14 day total)
Route 1:
Fukuoka day 1, ohari park
Sasebo day 2, 99 island tour (try sasebo burger, lemon steak)
Nagasaki day 3, 4, Peace park, chinatown, dutch town, (can do unsen day trip or do unsen then shimabara ferry to kumamoto on same day)
Kumamoto day 5, castle
Kurokawa Onsen day 6 (Theme train toward miyaji, one station back to Aso to take bus to kurokawa onsen)
kumamoto day 7
kagoshima day 8, 9, sakurajima, night view observation, museum, head south for ibusuki (theme train)
miyazaki day 10, aoshima, ugo shrine, beef
nobeoka day 11(go takachiho)
Beppu day 12, hell onsen, sand bath
Yufuin day 13 Onsen, ryokan, lake, Yufuin no Mori.
Fukuoka day 14,15 (here can get a luggage and buy souvenir) Dazaifu, yanagawa, tosu steam train.
​
Route 2: (same activity but different order)
Fukuoka day 1
Yufuin day 2 (Yufuin no Mori train)
Beppu day 3, 4
Nobeoka day 5 (takachiho)
Miyazaki day 6 (umisachi yamasachi train)
kagoshima day 7 8
kumamoto day 9
kurokawa onsen day 10
nagasaki day 11 , 12
sasebo day 13
fukuoka day 14, 15
​
Would like to ask if any oversight and advice on Kumamoto to Aso and then overnight at kurokawa onsen on same day, is it doable and i feel bus information a bit scarce, any experience to share.
Is Kumamoto => Aso => Kurokawa onsen on one day then next day Kurokawa onsen => Aso Stn => Takamori stn => takachiho , doable? if so i would plan to proceed downward to nobeoka and heading south to miyazaki and kagoshima.
Is stop one day at Nobeoka to visit Takachiho for gorge and iwato shrine worth it?
Sorry if my english is bad, not native speaker.
Any activity in kumamoto?
Is Huis Ten Bosch worth a stop?
​
Will constantly update this post.
2 comments
Aso and Kurokawa on the same day might require an early start as you will usually have to check-in at the ryokan for 5pm.
Aso to Takamori should not be too difficult now that the train have resumed (Not JR so have to pay for it) then bus to Takachiho is possible. However, might not be possible in a single day depending on the bus schedule. I can tell because I did just that, minus Kurokawa, but on the other direction. I stayed in Hyuga, visited during the day then slept there. Day 2 train to Nobeoka in the morning an bus to Takachiho, got there just before lunch, had lunch, visited the goerge, stayed for the night as I wanted to see the Kagura performance. Day 3 had to end to the end of the day for the bus to Takamori. Day 4 visited Takamori and moved to Aso. Day 5 visited Mount Aso. I could probably have cut the Takamori visit, especially now that the train resumed, so it might have been possible to take the train after getting out of the bus in Takamori.
Ugo-jingu is not close to any train station, you will either have to take a bus, that is not that frequent, or rent a car. It was nice but a bit of a pain to reach.
While I did see a bit more places, my tour of Kyushu took me a full month. Also just check to make sure you need the full pass twice. Depending on the itinerary, might be possible to only use the North and south pass. Personally I did not even use a pass (did not take that many limited express train, but did use 4 different scenic trains).
Try Cafe.5 for Sasebo lemon steak and if you’re near 99 Islands in November, you might make the oyster fest thing in the park.