I’d like guidance on if I’m doing too much and should slash a stop and/or if I should consider cutting out everything than Tokyo to fly up to Hokkaido for the back half given June weather
Background – family of 4, 2 girls – 12 and 10. We are mobile, but my children don’t like to be overscheduled and generally don’t love heat. They love cute trendy stuff and shopping for unique things. I’d like to blend culture, history, shopping and relaxation through our trip with probably a heavier emphasis on eating and shopping.
June 4- fly into Tokyo from Boston. Stay in Airbnb in Ebisu until June 7 – will explore the shibuya, shinjuku areas primarily to eat & shop. Would like to head spa as well. My younger would like to go to Disney sea a day (we have been to Disney world several times). Would say we enjoy Disney but are not super fans.
June 7-9 – Kanazawa with a day trip to takayama (Hyatt centric)
June 9-12 – Kyoto with possibly a day trip to Nara (Hyatt)
June 12-13 – one night day/hakone at Kai Hoshino resort for ryokan experience
June 13-16 – Tokyo in asakusa (5 am flight out on 16) sightsee asakusa, shop in kitchen district. Girls would like to visit borderless, go play games, see sumo practice
I realize this is 5 stops. Is this too ambitious?
by Regular_Chipmunk9831
4 comments
Seems fairly normal?
Yes, this seems rather busy, especially as you’ll be affected by jet lag for the firs few days of the trip.
Five hotels over twelve nights is **a lot** in my view, especially with two kids and the extra luggage overheads that can entail.
My view is that on such a short trip you don’t REALLY need to include Kanazawa (and therefore Takayama). Kanazawa is nice of course (gardens / traditional streets) but all of that is delivered in spades in Kyoto, and then when you potentially add day-trips to Osaka, Kobe, Mineji Castle, Nara – then you are very well covered.
We did a day-trip Osaka-Hiroshima as well – not a cheap Shinkansen exercise, but really pleased we did it. Although I wish I had known about the *JR West Kansai-Hiroshima Area Pass* – would have saved us quite a bit.
Also – is it absolutely essential to do **two** stints in Tokyo? Can’t you fly into Tokyo and straight on to Kansai International, and then have say 4D5N at the end in Tokyo? What I would do. Haven’t been to Hakone, so I can’t comment on whether it’s great or over-rated.
In Tokyo we stayed in Shinbashi and loved it – did day-trips to Shibuya, Shinjuku, Ebisu, Roppongi, Akasaka, etc – but were pleased to “get back to base” each evening.
I would ditch the ryokan with kids that age, tbh. The ryokan will be boring for them, there’s not a lot to do. An onsen is probably a tough sell because they’ll have to be naked in front of their sibling and might not be comfortable with that.
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