Thus far I have booked a few nights accommodation, it's all with free cancellation so can change where needed, but as some of the dates are holiday weekend, quite a few hotels showing full so wanted to get something in.

Day 1 -- Kumamoto -- Dormy Inn - arrival from Kobe
Day 2 -- Kumamoto -- Dormy Inn
Day 3 -- // looking to book ryokan in Kurokawa Onsen //
Day 4
Day 5
Day 6 -- Yufuin (Onsen) -- Hotel Shuhokan Half Board
Day 7 -- Hakata / Fukuoka -- Dormy Inn Premium Hakata Canal
Day 8 -- Hakata / Fukuoka -- Dormy Inn Premium Hakata Canal
Day 9 -- Fly (or train) back to Tokyo

Does this look about right so far?
Any further input, into that empty bit?

Day 4 could be spent driving from Kurokawa Onsen through the Mt Aso area with stops at places of interest then working your way down to Takachiho to see the sights there.....maybe a leisurly row through a short part of the gorge followed by an overnight there or Miyazaki.

Day 5 might be spent driving down through to Kirishima mountains where you can sight see and do a little hiking sleeping in Kirishima city or even down into Kagoshima if you like.

Day 6- drive back up the coastal highway to Yufuin passing by Usuki and the stone buddahs and Beppu's sights.

Aloha!

Thanks HT, that sounds good, wanted to see if you thought that would fit (as I liked sound of the ideas in your earlier post) but thought I'd leave it open to see what people proposed for those days.

Am going to look at that right now.

Any accommodation recommendations in those places?

x

I visited Kyushu by public transit so I don't know the distances/times if you travel by car. But if you can manage it I also recommend a visit to Usuki and the Buddhas - there are other interesting places to visit nearby as well which are reachable by car.

I only stayed in Beppu long enough to have a sand bath at Takegawara Onsen - I flew in to Oita, took the airport bus to Beppu and then went on to Usuki by train....

I took the bus from Yufuin to Kumamoto which went to Aso-san for a lunch-time visit so I recommend Aso-san as well...

Oooh just added Usuki to my map/ plans, thanks!

This is what it's looking like now... (am waiting on bookings for Kurokawa)

Day 1 -- Kumamoto -- Dormy Inn - arrival from Kobe
Day 2 -- Kumamoto -- Dormy Inn - explore Kumamoto
Day 3 -- // looking to book ryokan in Kurokawa Onsen // - visit Takachiho and area on way to ryokan
Day 4 -- // looking to book ryokan in Kurokawa Onsen // - explore Mount Aso etc
Day 5 -- Yufuin (Onsen) -- Hotel Shuhokan Half Board - TBC Usuki visit / Beppu
Day 6 -- Yufuin (Onsen) -- Hotel Shuhokan Half Board - Meander up through Oita towards Fukuoka, afternoon/evening there
Day 7 -- Hakata / Fukuoka -- Dormy Inn Premium Hakata Canal - explore city
Day 8 -- Hakata / Fukuoka -- Dormy Inn Premium Hakata Canal
Day 9 -- Fly (or train) back to Tokyo

Actually let me make that clearer:-

Day 1 -- arrival from Kobe
-- overnight Kumamoto, Dormy Inn
Day 2 -- explore Kumamoto
-- overnight Kumamoto, Dormy Inn
Day 3 -- visit Takachiho and area
-- overnight <looking to book ryokan in Kurokawa Onsen>
Day 4 -- explore Mount Aso etc
-- overnight <looking to book ryokan in Kurokawa Onsen>
Day 5 -- Explore Oita (Usuki, Beppu)
-- overight Yufuin Hotel Shuhokan BB only
Day 6 -- in Yufuin
-- overight Yufuin Hotel Shuhokan Half Board
Day 7 -- To Fukuoka, afternoon/evening there
-- overnight Dormy Inn Premium Hakata Canal
Day 8 -- Explore Fukouka / Hakata
-- overnight Dormy Inn Premium Hakata Canal
Day 9 -- Travel back to Tokyo

If you're staying at Kurokawa for 2 nights, you shouldn't and won't be going to Mt Ato during the day. You'll be enjoying the onsen at your ryokan and other ryokans. And walking around the village, enjoying the food, etc.

RKK, can't we do both? Had imagined getting out in the car and exploring Mount Aso in the morning, then coming back to Kurokawa for lunch and leisurely afternoon.

Whilst I love the idea of visiting the other ryokans, I'm not brave enough to strip off on my own for the shared onsen (as I'm sure they're all divided by gender) so does anyone know if the passes that allow you to visit other ryokan onsen include private rotenburo onsen baths?


Regarding car rental:

I've looked a the TooCool site and it's confusing me - it forces me to pick one agency before allowing me to enter dates and give me back a quote. Does that mean I need to go through every agency to compare the prices? Is there any way of just asking them to do the comparison based on my chosen pick up/ drop off location and dates and let me know cheapest?

Am also looking at Japan Experience for car rental, which uses Nissan on the ground but has a much simpler booking interface and clarity on English language GPS, one way drop off fee.

None of the sites seem to have any information about whether they charge for a second driver?

:D

No, the Kurokawa passes don't include private rotenburos, as those are almost always reserved for hotel guests only.

The reason I don't think you'd even want to leave Kurokawa is that even though we stayed 2 nights in the Kurokawa area, we felt we were too rush to just try out all the onsens in our ryokans and outside. And we didn't even have much time to walk through the village at all. Just cannot imagine trying to go somewhere else and come back during the day.

And looking at the info in our picture, it took as about 2 hours in very light traffic in December to get from Kurokawa to the top of Mt Aso. So, it's 4 hours on the road, not including actual sightseeing on Mt Aso and surrounding area.

Anyways, that's just us, but rushing out somewhere and come back is exactly the opposite of what staying in an onsen town like Kurokawa is about, in my opinion.

---

As for rental car, yes, I search for the rates for each of the rental companies on ToCoo's site. Didn't feel it took me too long to do so. And we didn't get charge for 2nd driver with either JR at Hakata or Orix on Yakushima. Both rented via ToCoo.

Kavey,
I agree with rkkwan that if you do book a ryokan stay in Kurokawa. Day 4 would be better spent enjoying the town and relaxing. For the price you will pay for an onsen stay it wouldn't make sense to only be there before 8:00 am and after dark when you get back.
Keep in mind check in time is usually 15:00 so with a early start your trip from Kumamoto to Kurokawa could perhaps encompass both Takachiho and Aso in a long loop drive?
You could play around with google maps and your gps to find a fun route.
Just looking on Google Maps, Kumamoto to Takachiho takes approx 2 hrs and takes you right past Aso. Then from Takachiho to Kurokawa another 2 hrs approx, past Aso again.
Then Day 5, Kurokawa to Usuki approx 2 hrs . Usuki to Yufuin 1 hr.
Keep in mind though that actual drive times may be different.

We took the bus from Kumamoto to to Kurokawa that passed through Aso and I was satisfied with that brief encounter. We had a rest stop at a scenic look out and the continued past the museum and ropeway then back down through the town of Aso and on to Kurokawa. To have stopped and done some hiking would have taken up almost a whole day.

We did the onsen tour and the baths offered are the public ones. In our case we had them mostly to ourselves. It was fun to see the inside of the different ryokan and the various gardens and outdoor hearths. We did ask the lady at the desk of the Sanga to recommend those ryokan that would be best and we weren't disappointed.
Same with Yufuin, I'd enjoy an onsen town day of relaxation and the next day the day trip to Beppu?

It was high season at the end of Dec when we visited Kurokawa. Even so, at several of the onsens we visited, there were at most one or two others using the rotenburos.

Just don't go to the really popular ones like the cave ones at Shinmeikan or Ikoi. And you don't have to walk far for quiet ones - the tiny Okyakuya right next door to Ikoi was incredibly quiet and quaint, for example.

I had been wondering if I could combine Aso with the Kumamoto -> Takachiho -> Kurokawa so very happy to hear you suggest that, kalihiwai2.

RKK Good to know re TooCoo, I'll have another go...

As I know I won't be braving the shared onsen unless I can wear a swimsuit (which I'm pretty sure wouldn't be allowed) I don't think we need to time that in but we do love to amble slowly around a village so happy to relax in the town there...

I am of a different mind when it comes to onsen and onsen towns. We usually find and hour or two walking around a town enough to suffice our curiosity. I don't particularly like going from onsen to onsen. We like to relax at our ryokan and do our bathing there....to each his own I guess. We use the daytime (especially if we have rented a car) from about 9 am to explore the surrounding countryside or where ever we want and try to be back by 2:30 pm to enjoy our own ryokan's baths in leisure.

Aloha!

HT, we won't be doing bathing in the other onsen, since I know I won't brave the public baths... we'll stick with using the private bath in our room and the family baths in our ryokan...

Am just confirming between two that have availability, with Japaneseguesthouses as one of the ones I was looking at has a Japanese-only website and google translate not enough for me to do it directly. Think JGH is brilliant service...

But we'll stick with the 2 night booking and we can work out the day-to-day itinerary nearer time.

So still for me to do:-

Book flights / train back to Tokyo from Fukuoka/Hakata.
Confirm the Kurokawa accommodtion.
Book a rental car for Kyushu

Then I also need to sort accommodation in Tokyo for beginning and end of stay, review accommodation in Kyoto (have a holding booking with free cancellation in meantime) and consider whether to overnight in Osaka or extend Kyoto by one day. Already have my Kobe booking sorted.

And I'll need to look at train prices, as JR Pass won't make sense for this trip, so trains will cost more than previously.

:D

You are totally short-changing yourself by not giving Nagasaki a full day and night. Traveling to northern Kyushu and skipping that city is like taking a trip to northern California and not visiting San Francisco. Sure, there's plenty to do and see, but . . . . Not to mention the champon!

Kagemusha, I'm not a traveller who likes to rush around just to tick everything off, and I simply can't see everything Kyushu offers in one short week.

For this first trip I've gone for a short selection of what appeals the most and fits nicely together in a simple loop.

I'd also like to visit Nagasaki, Kagoshima and a long list of other places but they can wait for next time. I'm not dismissing Nagasaki as being uninteresting, but I opted for Fukuoka and Kumamoto for the two city destinations for this trip.

:-)

As an aside......The people at JGH will also call and make reservations for you in other ryokans throughout all of Japan that are not on their listing. Just send them a note and one of the friendly service people will be in touch with you. They just need the name of the ryokan and some contact info if you have it. They are a travel agency after all. I have used them many many times now and they have also happily done this service for me.

Aloha!

Yes, they did that for us last year when I asked their help in finding an overnight in Osaka - they suggested a well priced Western hotel which suited us perfectly. Vincent is very on-the-ball!

Hello my dears, how are you all?

So, here is where I ended up, let me know what you think!

Day 10 Kyushu - Arrive by train from Kobe around lunch time. Afternoon/ evening in Kumamoto
* Night in Kumamoto (Dormy Inn Kumamoto)
Day 11 Kyushu - Full day in Kumamoto, meet a local online friend there for dinner.
* Night in Kumamoto (Dormy Inn Kumamoto)
Day 12 Kyushu - Pick up car. Visit Takahicho Gorge (and Mount Aso/ Komezuka)
* Night in Kurokawa (Sanga Ryokan)
Day 13 Kyushu - (early morning Mount Aso if not been on previous day) Most of day in Kurokawa Onsen
* Night in Kurokawa (Sanga Ryokan)
Day 14 Kyushu - Drive to Usuki (to see stone Buddhas and samurai district). Could include Miyazaki?
* Night in Yufuin (Hotel Shuhokan)
Day 15 Kyushu - Morning/ lunch in Beppu and afternoon/ evening in Yufuin
* Night in Yufuin (Hotel Shuhokan)
Day 16 Kyushu - Drive to Hakata. Could stop in Dazaifu on way or go direct and spend more time in Hakata
* Night in Hakata
Day 17 Kyushu - All day with guide in private volunteer guide in Hakata
* Night in Hakata
Day 18 Kyushu - Morning flight to Tokyo

Some questions:

I can either do both Takahicho Gorge and Mount Aso/ Komezuka on day 12, making for a longer day but leaving the entirety of day 13 free in Kurokawa or make each of the days shorter, with Takahicho on the first and Mount Aso/ Komezuka on the second, giving me a full afternoon in Kurokawa on both days. Thoughts?

Given that we'll likely return to Kyushu in the future to visit the Southern areas, and Nagasaki in the East, is it worth including Miyazaki in day 14? I'm tempted to skip it this time, just visit Usuki and give ourselves more time to enjoy Yufuin? We're staying at the Shuhokan, so would love more detail on what it's like, kalihiwai2?

On day 16, my plan was to drive straight to Hakata to give us more time there, as I think there will be plenty to do. Our one full day there is already booked in with a tour guide, so for shopping, ambling and other attractions, we'd only have the afternoon of day 16. Should I stop at Dazaifu anyway or leave it for another time and give the time to Hakata?

p.s. Why is it that one city is seemingly called both Hakata and Fukuoka? This is constantly confusing me and I've ended up writing both every time I've referred to it, until now...

Thanks again, all.

Oh and by the way, I did book the car with ToCoo and it all went fine. Took me a while to work through their site, it's poorly organised and could do with some intelligent hyperlinking, but with lots of back and forth between pages, I eventually worked out which agencies offered my desired pick up/ drop off location, English GPS and a suitable car model. We booked with Nissan, which I think some of you have done before.

Hakata is the area centered around the Hakata station on the east side of the river. There is another city center west of the river, Tenjin. Fukuoka is name of the whole metropolitan.

JR's main stop is Hakata. But the private Nishitetsu's main station is Tenjin.