I am currently leaning toward doing a day trip to Nara from Kyoto rather than spending a night there. We are trying not to switch locations too often on this trip. Our itinerary currently looks like this:
4 nights Tokyo
1 night Noto Peninsula
3 nights Kanasawa
1 night Yamashiro Onsen (Ryokan)
5 nights Kyoto
If we were to spend a night in Nara, we would then stay 4 nights in Kyoto. Does anyone have a very compelling reason not to do a day trip? My understanding is that we can reach Nara from Kyoto in 33 minutes by train.

I like to stay overnight in Nara because I want to eat at the Vietnamese restaurant in the arcade...

Using kintetsu line it is fast and easy to go to Kyoto.

We did the day trip. Very easy. And my wife was bit on her back end by a deer. Don't trust those buggers.

It depends on what you want to see and experience!

I found more than enough to see in/around Nara - including some trip highlights - to keep me fully and delightfully occupied for 2 full days - not counting my time (4+ days) in Kyoto. And there were places I wanted to see between Nara and Kyoto (such as Uji) that were more convenient for me to visit en route rather than to try to fit them into a day-trip or even a second day trip.

Too, there was an evening performance of Noh in Nara at the time I was there, and that was definitely a priority for me.

But I don't mind switching locations frequently, and many people do.

Hope that helps!

PS - OMG, colduphere!

You two might have interest in a overnight in Nara. Not only for the temples, sights and Kim's Vietnamese treats but Nara is also very scenic at that time of year with the fall colors happening and hopefully you will see some while your there. Next fall will be earlier than the last two....or so someone here says. Check some fall pics of Nara and its sights:

http://tinyurl.com/aro69r4

Aloha!

Nice photos - and photos of the killer deer as well.

I did a day trip to Nara, I didn't see that much reason to stay there overnight - it's quick by train. Personally, I find taking trains around Japan really easy and prefer to not switch hotels too often because I don't want to take my luggage on the train - it's too expensive to switch hotels by taxi as I would in say, China or Thailand.

Kja - our eight year old son was holding some peanuts, as I remember. The deer were swarming him so my wife rescued him by grabbing the peanuts. One deer did not appreciate her intervention and bit her on the rear. I showed my protective nature by snapping pictures through it all.

[cold ... LOL. With apologies for laughing at what I'm sure was an awful experience. Still laughing, though. (Please forgive me.) OMG! I hope your wife and son came to recognize the 'wisdom" of your decision to catch the perp in the act, as it were! I had heard that the deer in Nara Park can be "a bit" aggressive; I must admit that I always thought those stories exaggerated. So sorry I was wrong! I walked through the park in the early morning, no problems at all - just some nice views of grazing deer. I'm going to try to not take that as a comment about the desirability - or lack thereof - of my bite-able parts! Gotta' love the things one learns on Fodor's]

I hated the deer in Nara. they were very cute for the first few minutes, but then they nipped my daughter ( about 6 at the time) and then ripped my purse when one big deer stuck his head in it.

I'd do a day trip and stay in Kyoto.

We did a day trip to Nara for Kyoto and found that was sufficient, as we didn't want to switch hotels either.

When we arrived at the train station and asked the info center, they directed us to some visitor center a few minutes walk away that was hosting some free programs for travelers. They were having a kimono dressed-up party and afterward a tea ceremony demo--all free for tourists. There were a bunch of Japanese volunteer ladies helping giggling tourists dressed up in kimonos in a tatami-floored room strewn with different outfits, hair pins, etc. Three ladies fussed over me and helped me wear mine, and did up my hair with hairpins, etc. I didn't wear a kimono but a simpler one for a maiko, more suitable for my young age, they said, --ok, that was back in 2004. My husband also got to wear the equivalent one for males. It was fun and everyone was giggling laughing and posing for photos.

Aftewards, we went to another room for tea ceremony in our outfits. We didn't walk into the next room, but crawled through a tiny square hole in the wall to go the next room. I still don't know what's the deal with that, as the ladies didn't speak much English. They directed us to the proper tea cermoney. First sit on our shins on the tatami mat floor, admire the ink-brush painting on the wall, and the fresh flower arrangement. Then another lady demo-ed the tea ceremony--almost in slow motion--rinsing the cups, spinning the bowl, etc. It was a fun experience and probably took up 2 hours of our time in Nara.

Afterwards, we met up with a volunteer student guide who showed us the famous temple at Nara. His English was quite decent, and he told us to crawl through Buddha's nose (hole in a pillar), like all students were doing for good luck. We treated him out to lunch at an udon shop, and we parted ways. We spent the rest of the afternoon going to another temple and wandered the streets of Nara and took the evening train back to Kyoto.

And yes, watch for the deer. They were trying to nibble my butts.

i too got a good laugh...

JC98, what a wonderful experience! If you were young enough to be given what I assume is a furisode-style kimono in 2004 then you are still young.

Now that I've joined this thread, I will add my 2 sen: I have no very compelling reason to not visit Nara as a day trip.

Craig, you have me thinking about whether to re-arrange my itinerary a bit and just visit Nara from Kyoto.

> you have me thinking about whether to re-arrange my itinerary a bit and just visit Nara from Kyoto

Oh, but there really is so much to see in Nara! Do think carefully before you shift your plans.

Kathie, I started this thread because of the posts on your thread - LOL. I am leaning towards doing Nara as a day trip. We can always return there on our next trip to Japan .

Checking on the travel time:
35 minutes on Kintetsu limited express train to Kintetsu Nara station or 47 min on an express. 45 minutes on JR Rapid Service train to JR Nara station or 72 minutes on JR local.

Yes, a limited express is faster than an express in Japan.

Nara to Kyoto:
Last Kintetsu ltd exp at 20:58. Last express at 22:58
Last JR rapid train is at 18:55. Last local at 23:09

The map here shows the locations of both stations:
http://www.jnto.go.jp/eng/location/rtg/pdf/pg-507.pdf

If I understand, Kathie and Craig, you have different time frames in mind: Kathie is thinking of 7 nights in the area, 5 in Kyoto and 2 in Nara - perfect IMHO! Craig has 5 nights for the area, and so will have to be selective no matter whether he sees Nara as a day trip or not. Different planning scenarios!

Just what I was thinking kja.

Kathie has the two more days which really does give them the option.

Craig has five nights in the area making a day trip for them more viable if and only if they can squeeze it out of their Kyoto time especially when the first night in Kyoto will have been a move and travel day. But there are sights and countless Kodak moments in Nara that I felt at least Jeane would be interested in an overnight.....decisions decisions, lol

Aloha!