Hi,
looking for rail passes now for my nine day trip.
schedule is now:
day 1-3 in Tokyo
4-5 in Nagano
6-8 in Kyoto
and then back to Tokyo again
could it be an idea to have a tokyo pass the first three days and then activate a seven day JR pass? As far as i understand this will save me about USD 60 compared to a 14 day railpass. if so, is it a smooth operation to activate the jr pass when in central tokyo?
many thanks in advance
Frederic
0
Comments
It's not hard to activate your pass - but it may take 20 minutes; it depends how busy it is.
I don't see why you'd be thinking about a 14-day JR Pass for this itinerary, since you have a nine day trip and you're out of Tokyo for less than a week.
The idea of combining a 7-day JR Pass with any other regional pass is also very questionable. Simply put, you won't be travelling to spend that much. It really needs to be stressed that you don't need to be covered by a major rail pass for days spent in Tokyo.
Actually, it's entirely possible to do Tokyo-Nagano-Kyoto and back with a single regional pass. It's called the Hokuriku Arch Pass.
As its name implies, it's not the most straightforward option, but will get the job done for even cheaper than a 7-day national pass, and still allows you to experience the cutting-edge Hokuriku Shinkansen.
http://hokuriku-arch-pass.com/en/
Regardless of your choice of 7-day pass, I wholeheartedly recommend exchanging your pass voucher at a JR East Travel Service Center in central Tokyo, not at the airport. You should still make sure that the last day of validity for the pass coincides with the day you depart Japan, so you can take JR back to the airport.