Best plan for a 2 week holiday?Hi. We'll be visiting Japan for exactly 2 weeks. Arriving on March 30th (Fri) and departing on April 12th (Thurs). I'm debating whether to get a 7 day or 14 day pass. Here's what we'll need it for: Train from Narita to Tokyo Can you give me advice on my itinerary? Does it make sense to stay in Tokyo a few days, do a 7 day pass and try to visit a lot of long distance places, and then come back to Tokyo for a few days? Or is it a better value for time and money to get the 14 day pass and spread the trip out? |
afrome
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Hi there! Firstly, lets get your costs:
TOTAL: ¥75380 for 10 legs
While Fukuoka is a nice city - unless you have something specific to go for, or are aiming to travel deeper into Kyushu, the tourist experience can be a little limited, especially if it's just one night. Maybe here rather than branching out to Fukuoka I'd recommend travelling to Takayama, or a night at an onsen like Kinosaki Onsen. It's around 3hrs from Osaka, but is a fantastic little town with many Onsen, a great atmosphere and routinely described as the best Onsen town in the area of Hyogo. Here's a good forum post with more, and you can also book many onsen online. You will have a few travel heavy days, but as long as you're ok with these things, then you're going to see a lot of great things in Japan!
Looking at your itinerary I'd say that you could do a 7 day pass plus a few extras tickets if you wanted to save a little over a 14 day rail pass by using the following itinerary:
Day 1: to Nagano Planning the day trips also means that you can always cut it out if you are feeling too rushed. This way, your total travel costs will be: ¥28,300 + ¥5,500 + ¥5000 + ¥4300 (kamakura) = ¥43,000 slightly cheaper than a 14 day JR pass, plus you get the added benefits of the free pre-charged Tokyo metro card, and the Hakone freepass benefits while you are in Hakone. Hope this helps! |
mari
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Thank you so much! You are very right - I think Fukuoka is unnecessary. I also think we'll skip Kamakura since we're doing Kytoto anyway. And we will skip Nara. And I was just reading about Takayama yesterday and it sounds lovely (but not accessible from Matsumoto?)! Here is what I am thinking might be a better itinerary for us - please let me know your thoughts: Narita - Tokyo Questions: How many nights do you feel is necessary at each stop? |
afrome
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Hi there, This looks like a really nice itinerary. Here are the costs for the stops you mention:
TOTAL: ¥66720 for 7 legs It's possible to do this trip on both a 7 day (¥28,300) and a 14 day pass (¥45,100) and you will make savings with both rail passes over individual tickets - even more if you plan on going to Kinosaki Onsen (access details are here. For a trip like this, I think that a 14 day pass is perfect, allowing you to really soak in the atmosphere of Japan without being too rushed - it's really good to have full, clear days in a place. You could even extend your trip a little, adding more value to the japan rail pass. How about something like this for an extended itinerary?: Day 1. Narita - Tokyo There's the backbone of a really great trip here, with lots of flexibility. Costwise, it would ordinarily cost ¥70,000 in individual tickets, more if you do any of the day trips, so you'd make really good use of the 14 day japan rail pass at ¥45,100. Hope this helps! |
mari
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