Hi, My friend and me are planning to visit Tokyo in May. One day we want to visit Kyoto. What is the best and cheapest way to transfer to Kyoto and back? Greetings, Vanja
The cheapest way to travel between cities is of course the highway bus (http://willerexpress.com/en/), but this isn't possible for a day trip as it would take much too long - most of a day! - to travel between Tokyo and Kyoto.
A 7-day JR Pass would not pay off just for this trip either, so the cheapest option may be just to buy regular tickets at the station before you travel.
However, if you will be taking any other day trips out of Tokyo within a 7 day period (such as to Nikko, for example: http://www.japan-guide.com/e/e3800.html), a 7-day JR Pass might pay off for you after all. It really depends on your intinerary.
The bus is indeed the cheapest but so time consuming it is really for the desperate. The next option would be to fly - you can get a very cheap ticket on a low cost carrier for even $35 one way. Any time savings from flying pretty much evaporates with the time getting to/from the airports, but it is also very cheap. See: http://www.jetstar.com/jp/en/home http://www.flypeach.com/pc/en http://www.vanilla-air.com/en/
Comments
The cheapest way to travel between cities is of course the highway bus (http://willerexpress.com/en/), but this isn't possible for a day trip as it would take much too long - most of a day! - to travel between Tokyo and Kyoto.
A 7-day JR Pass would not pay off just for this trip either, so the cheapest option may be just to buy regular tickets at the station before you travel.
However, if you will be taking any other day trips out of Tokyo within a 7 day period (such as to Nikko, for example: http://www.japan-guide.com/e/e3800.html), a 7-day JR Pass might pay off for you after all. It really depends on your intinerary.
We hope this helps!
Japan Experience
The next option would be to fly - you can get a very cheap ticket on a low cost carrier for even $35 one way. Any time savings from flying pretty much evaporates with the time getting to/from the airports, but it is also very cheap.
See:
http://www.jetstar.com/jp/en/home
http://www.flypeach.com/pc/en
http://www.vanilla-air.com/en/
Other rail options include the japanican ticket:
http://www.japanican.com/en/tour/detail/VJOPENTK1/
It's much cheaper than the JR Pass.