Dithering over which passes to buy

MCCC

bijna 4 jaar geleden

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Hi Daniel-san,

I and my wife are going on a honeymoon in Japan next January and we plan to visit a few locations.
I was told the most convenient and cheapest way to travel around Japan is to take their trains.
But what we wonder which JR pass should we buy?

Here is our itinerary
Tokyo -> Karuizawa
Karuizawa -> Kanazawa
Kanazawa -> Takayama
Takayama -> Nagano

There are regional passes and passes for specific areas. I have found that there are 30 different regional passes in your web site but we really don't know which one covers the areas we are going to travel in. Can you give us some suggestions or guidelines about which one to buy? Is there web pages where we can find the lines that pass covers?

Thank you.

Cheers,

Marcus

Daniel-san

19375 post

7669 like

bijna 4 jaar geleden

Hi Marcus,

Congrats on your honeymoon, Japan is a fantastic choice for it.

As a starting point for regional passes, we recommend reading this Expert Guide to regional passes. It help you understand when and where a regional pass is useful. To find the right pass, first find what area you are traveling in and who operates this are (like JR-East, JR Central, JR West etc.). Then go through the passes offered by these individual companies and see if one matches your plans.

I reviewed your itinerary and there are few to no regional passes that match it. That is simply because you will travel through more than 1 region. In this case there are two options that potentially would be useful. A nationwide Japan Rail Pass or a Hokuriku Arch Area Pass (with addon ticket to Takayama).

The best option will depend on how many days you plan to stay in each area.

Hope this helps!
Daniel

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MCCC

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bijna 4 jaar geleden

Hi Daniel-san,

Thank you so much for your reply and information. :)
I have changed my plans for a bit now - instead of going to Takayama, I will go to Kaga from Kanazawa and then head to my
final destination, Nagoya.
I just read up about the information of Hokuriku Arch Area Pass, which does not cover the routes from Kanazawa to Nagano.

Here is a bit of the summary of my consideration,
1) I guess the JR pass I should consider is more or the less the same as the original one?

2) I may probably need 1 more pass for my travel within Tokyo.

Marcus

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