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14 days student budget trip: Regional or National JR Pass?

Hello, I intend to visit Japan with my friends from 10th October (will land in Tokyo on 11th) to 25th. We want to spend few days in Tokyo and 8 to 10 days in other places. We thought of Nagano-Kanazawa-Kyoto-Nara-Osaka and then back to Tokyo with plans of getting to see Yokohama, Niiko and Hakone. I figured that instead of paying for National for 14 days, maybe we shout get JR Central PASS Osaka Tokyo Hokuriku Arch Pass, Hakone Free Pass, Tobu Nikko All Area Pass and a local train to Yokohama. Which option would be better? My friends thought national pass would be better, since they were also thinking about visiting Miyajima Island, but I'm sceptical whether we would have enough time to visit Hiroshima, it's pretty far from other destinations and it's only 2 weeks.

Comments

  • edited June 2017
    Hello, Henny!

    Clearly, you've done the research on the regional passes. The 14-day pass is another story.

    Remember that if you buy a national pass, you are not covered for any travel within Hakone and you'd still might want a pass for doing the Hakone course.

    Another thing that I usually like to point out is one's effective days in Japan. The national passes pay off for inter-city travel. Travelling within a city is a non-factor, relatively speaking. You will only be in Japan for 13 full days, some of which should be spent in Tokyo. You would have a harder time justifying the 14-day national pass for each day under 14 that you're not based outside of your flying city (i.e. travelling throughout Japan)

    Ideally, a 7-day pass would be 7 days out of Tokyo, a 14-day pass would be 14 days out of Tokyo, and so on.
  • Thank you for responding so fast. So in other words, would you recommend 7 days regional pass or 7 days national one? It appears that we'd spend 7 days outside Tokyo, plus some quick one day trips to Hakone and Yokohama.
  • Hi,
    The most important question above all is if the pass will pay off for you. You can in fact go see Hiroshima & Miyajima as a day trip from Kansai with an early morning start. You can cover the Peace Park/Museum, castle, Shukkeien Garden and Okonomiyaki-mura in the morning, and then go down to take the JR ferry to Miyajima.
    If you don't go to Hiroshima, then a 14 day pass would be a waste of money.

    The next question is getting the 7 day full JR Pass or the Hokuriku Arch Pass. If you go from Tokyo down to go to Hiroshima and back within 7 days, then you must choose the 7 day pass but it will pay off very handsomely. If only down to Kansai, then there is the choice of the Arch Pass or regular 7 day JR Pass. The former is about 5000 yen cheaper, but you must return back the same way (through Hokuriku) and that will take you about 2 hours longer than the straight run of the Tokaido route. So it's your choice to save the money or the time.

    For Hakone, look into getting the Hakone Free Pass.
    http://www.japan-guide.com/e/e2358_008.html
    The Hakone Loop Course is a common way to see the area.
    http://www.japan-guide.com/e/e5210.html
    For Nikko, you can still use the JR Pass if valid, otherwise use the Tobu Nikko Free Pass.
    You could see Yokohama and it is very close (the Sankeien Garden is especially good) but you might consider seeing Kamakura/Enoshima instead. There is also a good pass for there too.
    http://www.odakyu.jp/english/deels/freepass/enoshima_kamakura/
    http://www.japan-guide.com/e/e2166.html
    http://www.japan-guide.com/e/e3117.html

    Since you are already seeing Tokyo, you can largely skip Osaka during the day. After the temples of Kyoto close down around 5 PM, you can zip over to Osaka for the evening. At night the city comes alive and has some great places to see, such as Dotonbori, plus the night views from the Umeda Sky Bldg and Abeno Harukas Bldg are wonderful.
    On another evening, you could also go and see Kobe.
  • Henny

    Well, now that you're looking at the 7-day national pass, I think it's a really smart choice. It's hard to argue against Miyajima!

    It will be up to you how to allocate your time between Nagano, Kanazawa, Kyoto/Nara, Osaka and Miyajima, but for their major spots, they would all be pretty reasonable to cover in a week.

    Now, for however much was going to be spent on a 14-day pass, you can think about using for Hakone/Nikko passes. Don't forget about your days in Tokyo, though! Up to you!
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