Hi everyone! We’ll be traveling to Japan this spring, and part of our trip unfortunately overlaps with Golden Week. Our itinerary is:
April 22 – 25 (3 Nights): Tokyo
April 25 – 27 (2 Nights): Hakone
April 27 – May 2 (5 Nights): Kyoto
May 2 – 5 (3 Nights): Tokyo
All hotels are already booked, but I’m a bit anxious about intercity travel during Golden Week, especially since we’ll be traveling with a 2.5 year-old.
I’m planning to pre-book all train travel and forward our luggage from Tokyo → Kyoto and Kyoto → Tokyo to minimize the stress. I’d love any tips or feedback, particularly on the following:
(1) Romancecar from Shinjuku to Hakone – Planning to book exactly one month in advance. Is this generally sufficient during GW (technically the days before GW)?
(2) For the Odawara > Kyoto (April 27) and Kyoto > Tokyo Shinkansen (May 2), I’m planning to reserve the family car in advance via SmartEX. How competitive are seat reservations during Golden Week? Should I be ready to book right at 10:00 AM one month out?
(3) I see that SmartEX allows bookings more than 30 days in advance (excluding family-only cars), but from what I’ve read, the tickets aren’t actually issued until the one-month mark. Is there any real advantage to pre-reserving this way esp during GW, or is it better to just book right when seats become available (1 month before)?
Thanks in advance!
by PunchedKeanuReeves89