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13 day trip (Tokyo, Kyoto and Hakone) - 7 or 14 day JR Pass?

ualstar
ualstar
about 2 years ago
2 answers

Hello,

We will be traveling to Japan late March to early April, 2023. Based on our itinerary, which JR Pass do you recommend? Seven years ago, we visited Nara, Shirakawago, Mt. Fuji, and Miyajima. During that time we stayed in Tokyo, Kyoto, Hiroshima and Takayama.

Day 1 Arrive in Narita (Airport Limousine bus to hotel)
Days 1 - 5 Stay in Tokyo for 5 nights
We hope we will be able to view cherry blossoms (Meguro River, Ueno Park, Yoyogi Park, Shinjuku Gyoen and Chidori-ga-fuchi) and visit food markets.

Day 6 Tokyo to Kyoto
Days 6 - 10 Stay in Kyoto for 5 nights
Day trips to:
1) Himeji
2) Mount Yoshino
3) Kobe and Osaka
4) Kanazawa
When we arrive back from the day trips, we'd like to visit Maruyama-koen Park, Philosopher's Path, Toji Temple, Shimbashi Geisha district, Kiyomizu-dera Temple, Kinkaku-ji Temple,
Are we being too ambitious during our stay in Kyoto? We're both in our 60's and don't mind walking and seeing the sights for up to 8 hours a day.

Day 11 Kyoto to Hakone
Day 11 - 12 Stay in Hakone for 2 nights

Day 13 Hakone to Narita Airport - back to USA

The number of nigths in Tokyo and Kyoto can be adjusted if needed. ie: less days in Tokyo and more days in Kyoto.
Thank you for your assistance!

avatar
Daniel-san
18919 posts
about 2 years ago
Expert

Hi there,

My JR Pass recommendation is to use a 7-day Japan Rail Pass for travel from Day 6 to day 12. This will cover all your planned expensive JR routes and help you make very good savings at the same time.

Regarding your itinerary, it does look very active, even for people in all age ranges. That does not mean, it is not feasible or enjoyable, yet I can't really answer this for you, as it comes down to personal experience. The best advice I can give you here is to plan out each day in advance, get an idea of the travel time involved and what you want to see and do. Kyoto is really easy to explore at your own pace, so I'm not worried there about it. Personally, I can highly recommend to hire bicycles and explore the city that way, you see way more than others. You could also switch one day from Tokyo, that would allow you more time to do all your planned trips and still cover the return by JR Pass back to Tokyo.

Kind regards,
Daniel

ualstar
ualstar
2 posts
about 2 years ago

Thank you Daniel. We'll look into some adjustments during our days in Kyoto. Since we don't travel from Hakone to Narita until day 13, do we just purchase train tickets for that day? Do we buy a ticket from each train station (Odawara, Shinagawa for the Narita Express) or can we purchase the entire trip at Odawara Station?

Thanks for your recommendations and help!


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