Been told my 3 week itinerary is too much, thoughts?

Haidee_Hammond · 29-10-2018 11:04pm #1

Hi! I will be visiting Japan for the first time with my husband in May, and of course, I want to see it all, I looked hard, made a lot of hard choice in what to miss and came up with something, but some friends of ours that live in Kyoto think is too ambitious, so I was wondering if anyone else would have an opinion or an idea of what to drop. (the idea is a line per day, with the exception of Tokyo that is). Will be taking the train when possible and was thinking of flying to Yakushima and maybe renting a car in Matsumoto to see Kamikochi and Kiso Valley (since they don't seem to be well connected).

3 weeks, 20 nights in Japan

11 May: flight
3 days: Tokyo
Nikko (day trip)
Matsumoto + Kiso Valley (Narai)
Kamikochi + hiking
return car, train to Kanazawa
Kanazawa, kenroku-en
train to Toyama hiking
Kyoto
Kyoto + Arashimaya
Osaka
Kobe + Himeji
Nara
Koya-san
travel to Yakushima
Yakushima + snorkel
Yakushima + hiking
Tanegashima
Travel + Tokyo (capsule hotel)
1 st June: flight back to Dublin

Any help would be much appreciated!

jam_mac_jam · 29-10-2018 11:10pm

I think its way too much. You are spend a lot of your holiday travelling. While I get you want to see everything you will see very little of anything. Kyoto is a very special place I would personally spend longer there. Spend a few days in a few places rather then just a day in loads of places. You can go back and there is a lot to see in japan so it is tempting to try and see every thing but you can't do it in three weeks. I would take it a bit slower and get a feel for places. The itinerary you have you will get there see one or two top things and then be going again.

Haidee_Hammond · 30-10-2018 9:21am

jam_mac_jam wrote: »

I think its way too much. You are spend a lot of your holiday travelling. While I get you want to see everything you will see very little of anything. Kyoto is a very special place I would personally spend longer there. Spend a few days in a few places rather then just a day in loads of places. You can go back and there is a lot to see in japan so it is tempting to try and see every thing but you can't do it in three weeks. I would take it a bit slower and get a feel for places. The itinerary you have you will get there see one or two top things and then be going again.

Thanks, you might be right, it's just hard to take things out

I guess Yakushima is the likely candidate, but I was so impressed by that forest! I thought of going to Nara, Himeji and so for the day and go back to sleep to kyoto so I assumed I would end up seeing enough of it, but I see what you mean, there is indeed a lot of travel

Thanks a lot for your feedback!

jam_mac_jam · 30-10-2018 9:32am

Oh I think you will be sorry about Kyoto it's worth more time. I had the same problem wanted to see it all. You will just have to go back. Don't cut nara though very near and a lovely and interesting place.

troyzer · 30-10-2018 9:38am

I'm interested to see how this one develops.

Me and the other half are heading over next year for the world cup and apart from match days, the schedule is pretty open.

We were thinking about doing the Tokyo/Kyoto/Osaka/Hiroshima axis on the Shinkansen and maybe divert one or two days if we can.

But we only have two weeks and everyone who has been there is telling me it's not enough time.

They're all saying the same thing: you don't need that long in Tokyo and you need to spend as much time in Kyoto and Hiroshima as possible.

Haidee_Hammond · 30-10-2018 10:33am

troyzer wrote: »

I'm interested to see how this one develops.

Me and the other half are heading over next year for the world cup and apart from match days, the schedule is pretty open.

We were thinking about doing the Tokyo/Kyoto/Osaka/Hiroshima axis on the Shinkansen and maybe divert one or two days if we can.

But we only have two weeks and everyone who has been there is telling me it's not enough time.

They're all saying the same thing: you don't need that long in Tokyo and you need to spend as much time in Kyoto and Hiroshima as possible.

I have been wondering about Hiroshima, but since I was a bit creep out and some things had to go, I did not include it. In my case I really wanted to go to Yakushima, but I suspect, being so far, it might be the first one to fall, then maybe Kobe and something in the alps, not sure what

I just need to get 3 months leave and that's it XD my boss would be glad to hear XD

troyzer · 30-10-2018 10:43am

Haidee_Hammond wrote: »

I have been wondering about Hiroshima, but since I was a bit creep out and some things had to go, I did not include it. In my case I really wanted to go to Yakushima, but I suspect, being so far, it might be the first one to fall, then maybe Kobe and something in the alps, not sure what

I just need to get 3 months leave and that's it XD my boss would be glad to hear XD

I think the general idea is that you can either city blitz on the Shinkansen or rent a car and do the outdoorsy/alpy stuff. You won't have time to do both.

You can of coruse dabble in a bit of nature between cities or spend a night or two in a city on your nature holiday but if you try to force both into one holiday you'll probably regret it.

I think you already know the answer to your question, you're trying to do two holidays at once. It would be similar to someone saying they're spending three weeks in the states doing New York, Boston, Washington, the Appalachians, rural Connecticut and maybe go to Philadelphia. You could probably theoretically do it but you wouldn't enjoy it.

Haidee_Hammond · 30-10-2018 10:52am

troyzer wrote: »

I think the general idea is that you can either city blitz on the Shinkansen or rent a car and do the outdoorsy/alpy stuff. You won't have time to do both.

You can of coruse dabble in a bit of nature between cities or spend a night or two in a city on your nature holiday but if you try to force both into one holiday you'll probably regret it.

I think you already know the answer to your question, you're trying to do two holidays at once. It would be similar to someone saying they're spending three weeks in the states doing New York, Boston, Washington, the Appalachians, rural Connecticut and maybe go to Philadelphia. You could probably theoretically do it but you wouldn't enjoy it.

And I guess that was the point, yeah XD damn work! Wish I could just stay until I saw it all... Maybe a reachable by train point in the alps, really would love to see mountains and hike some...

troyzer · 30-10-2018 10:57am

Haidee_Hammond wrote: »

And I guess that was the point, yeah XD damn work! Wish I could just stay until I saw it all... Maybe a reachable by train point in the alps, really would love to see mountains and hike some...

You could probably spend a day doing an alpine hike. But realistically, you need to build your holiday around either the train or the car.

Which is more important to you? Seeing the cities or seeing the nature? Because like I said, if you choose the cities and go with the Shinkansen then you can look at your options.

Mount Koya for example seems like it would be accessible during an Osaka visit. It's a Buddhist monastery on top a mountain which is accessible from Osaka by public transport. A lot of people spend the night there and there would be plenty of opportunity to hike in the vicinity.

You need to think about it in terms of tying your plans together in a three week schedule rather than grasping at everything possible. You have to take travel time into account etc as well.

Koya looks amazing by the way. I want to go next year.

EDIT*: Just noticed you already had Koya on your list.

mt-koya-jnto_1400_859_c1.jpg?x16577

Been told my 3 week itinerary is too much, thoughts?

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