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Will a JR pass help my ambitious itinerary

kippie
kippie
over 8 years ago
3 responses

Hi

My husband and I are first time travellers to Japan and are really excited about the trip. We're going to be there for 15days/ 14nights. Listing below our itinerary and am requesting your help to check if a JR pass will help . If so what kind. Also we will be there from 13 -27th - we realise its a busy period, should we be booking tickets in advance/ buying a green JR pass?

Itinerary
13-16- Tokyo (Landing at Haneda; exploring Tokyo with a day trip to Nikko)
17 - Tokyo to Hakone/ Fuji 5 lakes -overnight stay [also need advise on the best way to get from Hakone / Fuji 5 lakes to Takayama]
18-20 - Takayama and Shirakawa-go [also need advise on the best way to get from Shirakawa-go to Kyoto]
21-26 - Kyoto (day trips to Nara and Hiroshima)
27- fly out from Osaka

Looking forward to hearing from you :)

Cheers!

avatar
Daniel-san
18830 posts
over 8 years ago
Expert

Hello there,

I read your itinerary and there are a couple of tips I can give you.

1.) Consider buying a 7 day JR Pass. This will be the most budgetary option. Use it for travel from the 17th - 22th and include the day trip to Hiroshima within this period. This way you make the best possible savings and use the JR Pass to cover all your long distance travel.

2.) Hakone and Fuji Five Lakes area are two different regions around Fuji. For your itinerary I would recommend sticking to Hakone as it is way easier to access and you can use the bullet train from there to too. The Bullet train station is called Odawara. To get from there to Takayama, take the bullet train to Nagoya and from there a ltd. express train to Takayama.

3.) For travel to and within Hakone, consider using a Hakone Free Pass.

4.) For travel to Kyoto from Nagoya, travel back to Nagoya and use the bullet train from there.

Hope this helps,
Daniel

kippie
kippie
3 posts
over 8 years ago

Thanks so much Daniel-san!

This is indeed very helpful.

realise I didn't mention we are going to be traveling towards the end of Nov which is a busy season - should I be booking tickets in advance or buy a green pass to be safe?

cheers,
kippie

avatar
Daniel-san
18830 posts
over 8 years ago
Expert

Hi again!

There's no need to buy Green Class, if you just want to secure seating. There are plenty of seats to go around and trains rarely are full.

Having said that, Green Class is a nice upgrade if you want to travel in more comfort and quiet.

Cheers!
Daniel

kippie
kippie
3 posts
over 8 years ago

Thank you for your speedy response!! This has been absolutely helpful :)


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