Kyoto to Narita Airport
 

Hi,
I'm planning the "on the ground" part of our trip to Japan. Already set in stone are the flights to and from the US. We'll be leaving the US on July 7th flying into Narita and leaving July 21st from Narita. For the first part of the trip we'll be based in Tokyo. For the second part, we'll primarily be in Kyoto. Since we'll be there during the Gion festival, I'm going to be making hotel arrangements ASAP. My question is how difficult is it to travel from Kyoto to Narita airport? I see that a train leaves at 6:22am (using June 30th as my date since I can't figure out times for July yet and it's the same day of the week that I'd want to leave in July) and arrives at Narita airport at 9:10am. Our plane leaves at 11:45am. I think we'd have the hotel send the luggage the night before? Am I cutting it too close? We'd have to get our luggage and check-in and go through security and what-not... Am I better off either staying in Tokyo the night before our flight, or even Narita?
Thanks for any help.

At hyperdia.com for June 30, I see that there is a Hikari *#400) that departs Kyoto at 6:25 and arrives at 9:10. Problem with that is that it ARRIVES TOKYO station at 9:10. There is a Nozomi before that at 6:18 that arrives Tokyo at 8:30 but that would be just late for the Narita Express that departs at 8:30.

emd did what you want to do last weekend.

Unfortunately the departure time of my flight is making this option un-doable....I guess if I do Tokyo first and Kyoto last, then I really should just book a room in Narita for the 20th. I considered going right to Kyoto at the outset but that looks to be a grueling trip after an overseas flight....

jmday: Yes, as mrwunrfl said, last Sat. I did what you want to do, even sending the bags ahead to Narita. But one difference- our flight was not leaving til 2:45 p.m.

I am sorry to say that what you want to do seems, as you realized, undoable to me. Even if you take the #400 Hikari at 6:25 and get to Tokyo sta. at 9:10, you still won't be able to get the NEX there and get to Narita in time.
I really wish you could stay that last night in Kyoto but the early departure is a drag. Getting from Narita to Kyoto is rough after a long flight, I suppose I could have done it but we wouldn't have gotten to Kyoto station til almost midnight I think it would've blown my 1st day in Kyoto and quite possibly have increased the potential for jet lag. We got into Narita at 4:30 p.m. adn were able to be at the hotel and in bed by 10:30 pm. What time do you arrive at Narita?
If you ended up going from Kyoto to Tokyo the night before departure, if it was me I would not stay at Narita. I would stash my stuff at the train station in Kyoto or store it at the hotel, and have a full day Kyoto, get a Hikari around 5 pm (see #380) getting me into Tokyo at around 7:45, stay around the station and drop my stuff at hotel, and have a fun last night in Tokyo, maybe go to Tokyo Tower and see the city up high at night or have something similar planned; then go to Narita on NEX in the a.m. You'll have time to get there and not waste that last night and next morning in Narita. Or do the same routine but stay in Yokohama (also on the NEX lines) and go to MM21 or some fun thing there (although Tokyo is more appealing to me)

Good luck!

Thanks for confirming this for me.
If we take the 7:15 N'Ex from Tokyo Station, and arrive at Narita airport at 8:15 am, do you think that will leave us enough time to check-in and make our 11:45am flight? I'm thinking that it should be ample time, but after reading about how hectic Narita can be, I guess I just want confirmation that it's enough time!
Also, we arrive at 5:15pm, so I'm thinking that we'll probably take the hotel's airport limo to our hotel...

As someone else mentioned, it was surprise to me just how long it took to get checked in and get to the gate. We had a 5pm flight and we only had about 15min to spare before boarding after arriving NRT around 3pm.

Pretty much everyting took a long time, getting thru the security, waiting to get to the counter, get checked in, and a long walk to get to the gate.

I was there last Sat. and it took from noon til 2:15 to get in door, get the baggage that had been sent ahead (the counters to do this are close to the check-in area, by the restrooms; there are like 5 companies), get in line for the first baggage screening, get to the eticket machine, get the baggage checked in, get through the second pre-boarding security, and get to the gate.
Based on that timing, you would be done w/all of that by 10:30, giving you 45 min. before boarding.
Your hotel has its own limo to take you from Narita to the hotel? Can I ask what hotel, I'm curious about it.

Hopefully Narita will be less crowded when jmday4 wille be there. emd and nickn had afternoon flights, right? I don'k know if that is what made difference between my cases and theirs but I have been taking flights leaving Narita always in the morning since more than 10 years with last flight being the latest departure, 13:00 (so I'm in bed at home in Geneva in the evening of the same day). That means I arrived at Narita always at latest by 11:00 and honestly all the procedures were smooth and fairly quick. Maybe the airport is less crowded in the morning with less arrivals/departures? For me the annoying part is getting to the airport takes a long time.

emd: I don't have a hotel in Tokyo yet. But I just realized that the one I was thinking about simply "greets" us at the airport! No limo - But I thought that I HAD read somewhere that a hotel did offer a limo service to their hotel...maybe the Four Seasons...In any case, I'm still really re-thinking the whole "on the ground" portion of our trip and I think I'll just play it very very safe and stay overnight in Narita and get to the airport nice and early on our day of departure!