Need some advice on the following itinery and what is best rail pass

Hi there,

Firstly, here's the price breakdown of your itinerary as mentioned:

1. Kansai airport > Osaka: ¥2400, (51mins, 57km)
2. Osaka > Kinosakionsen: ¥5450, (160mins, 183km)
3. Kinosakionsen > Kyoto: ¥4710, (153mins, 158km)
4. Kyoto > Shirahama: ¥6080, (176mins, 220km)
5. Shirahama > Kyoto: ¥7170, (181mins, 220km)
6. Kyoto > Nara: ¥690, (49mins, 41km)
7. Nara > Kyoto: ¥690, (46mins, 41km)
8. Kyoto > Tokyo: ¥13220, (161mins, 513km)
9. Tokyo > Nagano: ¥7970, (105mins, 222km)
10. Nagano > Kyoto: ¥10630, (228mins, 398km)
11. Kyoto > Kansai airport: ¥3490, (79mins, 99km)

TOTAL: ¥62,500 for 11 legs

Looking at your dates, you'll be travelling for 17 days. There are certainly savings to be made here as even buying a 21 day at ¥57,700 you will make some saving over separate tickets.

As your Nara visit is probably not movable in the middle of your trip, I think it'll be most cost effective for you to buy a 14 day pass starting on the 6th and ending on the 19th. This would mean you would pay a total of: ¥50,990 (¥45,100 for 14 day pass + ¥5890 in separate tickets to and from the airport), a saving of ¥11,510 over individual tickets.

If you could move your Nara visit (and miss Omizutori), and shorten your stay in Tokyo then there are possibilities to save more by compressing more into a 7 day pass, but I think your itinerary is great (I especially like the idea of retreating to an Onsen to get over the initial jet lag!). It gives you a lot of space to explore, and if you have a specific thing you want to see in Japan you should certainly do it!

Hope this helps!

THNAKS HAVE CHANGED ITINERY A BIT TO THIS:
kansai-kyoto
kyoto-kinosaki
kinosaki-kyoto
kyoto-nara
nara-kyoto
kyoto-nagano
nagano-tokyo
tokyo=kyoto
kyoto-kansai, i can change itinery but wanted to be in nara march 12-13 for fire festival and in kyoto/osaka for sumo tournament between 15-25march in osaka (providing we can get tickets is this possible during these times)
open to any suggestions, also there will be numerous day trips ex kyoto and tokyo during the days there

looks good! - can you fit this in a 14 day rail pass still? (Hard for me to say with no dates).

M

thanks

Here is guide to dates. Most are flexible except 12-13 must be near kyoto, and 15-25 near osaka for sumo tournament.

I arrive pm march 5 and depart 5 pm march 21, so if i stay the first 4 days and sightsee based from Kyoto then start tours and travels on March 8, a 14 day rail pass would finish on march 21st which would include the cost to get back to kansai airport.

If i travel direct from kinosaki to Nara I save a nights accom. in kyoto, and on the last day march 21 can use the bullet train from tokyo to kyoto and on to Kansai. I have to be in Kansai airport around 4.30pm to make my 8.50pm flight back to Australia.

So using a 14 day JR Pass and a one day pass to cover the kansai-kyoto leg on arrival may be my best option?

• march 5 kansai-kyoto
• march 6 kyoto
• march 7 kyoto
• march 8 kyoto-kinosaki
• march 12 kinosake-nara
• march 14 nara-nagano (maybe suggest place for onight between nara and nagano)
• march 17 nagano-tokyo
• march 21 tokyo-kansai,

thanks for your help

Hi there!

Here are your JR Pass legs now, just to check that you'll still make a saving this way:

1. Kyoto > Kinosakionsen: ¥4710, (145mins, 158km)
2. Kinosakionsen > Nara: ¥5450, (210mins, 199km)
3. Nara > Nagano: ¥11470, (316mins, 440km)
4. Nagano > Tokyo: ¥7970, (106mins, 222km)
5. Tokyo > Kansai airport: ¥14800, (266mins, 613km)

TOTAL: ¥44400 for 5 legs

With this new itinerary, the 14 day Rail Pass is the same approximate cost as individual tickets. This means that if you add in any additional day trips (eg. Hiroshima from Kyoto, Nikko from Tokyo), you'll be doing these essentially for free!

For a stop off in between Nara and Nagano, you go pretty close to Lake Biwa, so could stop anywhere along there, or perhaps look at places to stop along the railway as it winds through the Japan Alps... Nagoya is a fairly typical 'big city' so unless you fancy that i reccomend you don't stopover there. Here's a map of the route your train will take for reference.

Hope this helps!