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Maximising a 7 day pass

wendy08
wendy08
over 12 years ago
2 answers

Hi Mari my boyfriend and i are traveling to japan on the 3rd of February, and we are staying in japan till the 23rd of february. i've been to japan before through travel agent and i never had a trouble planning my itinerary coz they did it for me, and now i am traveling with my boyfriend and we are on a tight budget. I suggest my boyfriend to get a Rail Pass coz i think it will save us a lot,please i badly need your help to plan, this is our itinerary

We can only afford a 7 day rail pass due to a very tight budget and we mostly spend the rest of the day
in tokyo.

Feb 4 - arriving Narita-Tokyo staying in tokyo
Feb 7 - from Tokyo to Kyoto( leave A.M
Feb 9 - Kyoto to Osaka( staying overnight )
Feb 10- Osaka to Nara(day trip)
Feb 11-Osaka to Hiroshima ( if possible to make it to Kobe same day? )back to osaka
Feb 12- Nikko for a night
Feb 13- Nikko to Nagano for snowboarding ( Shiga-Kogen) staying for 4 nights
Feb 17- Nagano to Omagari ( Akita )
Feb 18-Akita to Tokyo

Really Appreciate your Help i been planning this for a long time and it feels like i can't get it right:( Badly need help to breakdown the Rail pass for me Thank you in advance.

Regards
Wendy
my itinerary

avatar
mari
1950 posts
over 12 years ago
Expert

Hi Wendy!

You're certainly packing in a lot! Lets take a look at your costs:

  1. Narita airport terminal 1 > Tokyo: ¥3140, (62mins, 79km)
  2. Tokyo > Kyoto: ¥13420, (165mins, 513km)
  3. Kyoto > Osaka: ¥540, (28mins, 42km)
  4. Osaka > Nara: ¥780, (62mins, 48km)
  5. Nara > Osaka: ¥780, (55mins, 48km)
  6. Osaka > Hiroshima: ¥10150, (103mins, 345km)
  7. Hiroshima > Kobe: ¥10150, (103mins, 345km)
  8. Kobe > Osaka: ¥10150, (103mins, 345km)
  9. Osaka > Nikko: ¥18420, (318mins, 706km)
  10. Nikko > Nagano: ¥10980, (186mins, 311km)
  11. Nagano > Omagari(akita): ¥20370, (253mins, 772km)
  12. Omagari(akita) > Tokyo: ¥16510, (216mins, 610km)
  13. Tokyo > Narita airport terminal 1: ¥3140, (58mins, 79km)

TOTAL: ¥118530 for 13 legs

Well - there's no doubt that a rail pass will be good value here :)

Looking at recommendations, you have some pretty busy periods in there. Maybe I can suggest a slightly reduced itinerary?

For both financial and time reasons I would recommend you decide on either doing the trip to Omagari or the trip to Hiroshima and Nara. You have 9 days worth of specific travel days planned that needs to fit in a 7 day rail pass (excluding to/from the airport) - so no matter which way we cut it you're going to need to remove or compress some of your days. As your itinerary is pretty full already, I recommend removing rather than compressing further - you really don't want to spend all your time on the train!

Here is a suggested itinerary excluding Omagari with a few more days snowboarding in Shiga-kogen or in Tokyo, this itinerary also removes the Kobe stop from your plans. You have a few busy days of travel in here (Hiroshima day trip and Osaka to Nikko), but in general the spacing is pretty good. The 7 day rail pass starts from the 7th:

  1. Tokyo > Kyoto: ¥13420, (165mins, 513km)
  2. Kyoto > Osaka: ¥540, (28mins, 42km)
  3. Osaka > Nara: ¥780, (62mins, 48km)
  4. Nara > Osaka: ¥780, (55mins, 48km)
  5. Osaka > Hiroshima: ¥10150, (103mins, 345km)
  6. Hiroshima > Osaka: ¥10820, (109mins, 345km)
  7. Osaka > Nikko: ¥18420, (318mins, 706km)
  8. Nikko > Nagano: ¥10980, (186mins, 311km)

total: ¥65890 for 8 legs

This will all fit into a 7 day rail pass at ¥28,300 - a large saving of ¥37,590 over separate tickets

On top of this, you will need to purchase a return [N'EX/suica travel ticket combo] for your trip from and to the airport and some metro travel around Tokyo and the return bullet train from Nagano to Tokyo after snowboarding:

  1. Narita Express + metro card (N'EX+suica): ¥5,500 (this is by far the best deal for travel)
  2. Nagano > Tokyo: ¥8,170 (alternatively, you can get the bus from Nagano to Tokyo for around ¥4000)

extra tickets: ¥13,670

TOTAL SPEND ON TRAVEL: ¥28,300+¥13,670 = ¥41,970 per person

Phew! I know this isn't getting it all in to a 7 day pass, but I think this is about the best I can do without really limiting what you do on your trip.

Hope this helps!

wendy08
wendy08
2 posts
over 12 years ago

Thanks Mari,
it helps a lot, i know its a pretty hectic schedule.
it will change thanks for your help.


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