narita or kansai? japan itinerary help
 

hi, sorry about the similar topic/questions on toky & kyoto trip. but we seem to have a slight different problem here. my husband and i's original plan (as suggested by previous posts) was:

day 1: arriving via narita airport, activate our 7 day pass and go straight to kyoto via shinkansen.
day 2: kyoto
day 3: kyoto
day 4: kyoto
day 5: leave for takayama, stay overnite
(do we have to change in nagoya? or we can go straight to takayama from kyoto?)
day 6: take the last train at 6:30PM to Nagoya, bullet back to Tokyo
day 7: tokyo
day 8: tokyo
day 9: tokyo
day 10: leave japan via narita airport
(now that our 7 day pass has expired, how much would it be to get to narita from tokyo?)

this was our original plan.
but some friends advised us that we might want to arrive japan via kansai airport, for it is much closer to kyoto than narita/tokyo. they said that we should go from kansai to osaka, activate our jr pass and bullet to tokyo from osaka. spend a few days in tokyo, then to takayama, then at last kyoto. by then our 7 day pass will have expired, but we wont need the pass to get to kansai airport from kyoto.

is their advice valid? since both narita and kansai airports are of no problem for us, which itenerary should we choose? and please please advice if there are problems we overlooked. thank you all~

why not get an open jaw ticket arive in kansia and leave threw narita it should cost too much more and it will make traveling and schedualling much easier.

Neither NRT-NRT nor KIX-KIX seems to be ideal for your itenerary. KIX-KIX does not make sense.

Open jaw into KIX, out of NRT is a better way PROVIDED you can 1) find a flight 2) and the cost differential is not overwhelming. Unlike open jaw ticket in Europe, this particular type of open jaw seem to come with a premium and availability problem, at least from where I live.

You can easily "what if" using any of the internet airline booking sites to compare in NRT, out NRT against in KIX, out NRT options.

It is a trade off you need to weigh. From where I live, arriving at KIX cuts about 4 hrs from the trip, but the availability of flights is a fraction of arriving at NRT and also costs $200 more.

Answering your two questions about rail to Takayama:
No, you don't have to change trains in Nagoya (you can connect via Gifu, I think, but Nagoya would probably be quicker and more convenient).
No, you can't go straight to Takayama from Kyoto (nor can you go there straight from Tokyo).

Your advice about KIX is not really valid. See the "Smart Travel Tips" about Kyoto and Tokyo in the Destinations section at fodors.com. It looks like NRT is closer/faster/cheaper to get to Tokyo that KIX is to get to Kyoto. Anyway, it's just the same itinerary in reverse.

If you look into an open jaw, you should also see what the prices would be if you bought the individual tickets. For an itinerary that is Tokyo-Kyoto and return, the JR Pass saves money. But, if you are only traveling one way, it might be a bit cheaper to buy individual tickets.

Actually, after checking hyperdia.com, I think the JR Pass would still save money even if you had an open jaw. Even if purchasing tickets would save some yen, it wouldn't make up the airfare difference that nickn mentioned.

where are you flying from..

Bonjour,

It says in the Regional guide for Takayama (
http://www.jnto.go.jp/eng/RTG/PTG/pdf/pg-409.pdf )

that you can board a direct train from Kyoto without changing in Nagoya (Wide View Hiida, dpt 8:27, total time to Takayama 4 h 34).

For a complete list of regional guides: http://www.jnto.go.jp/eng/RTG/PTG/pdf/pg-409.pdf


If you can arrive via Kansai, go for it, spend the first few days in Kyoto. The hassle you'll spare travelling back and forth between Tokyo and Kyoto is well worth the price difference with flying through NRT.

thanks for everyone's advice, you guys are great.

we are flying from taipei taiwan, that's why either NRT or KIX will be fine for us. per your advice, i called a travel agent today, and found out that - to my great surprise - an open jaw ticket KIX-NRT is even cheaper than NRT-NRT (not by too much tho)!

so this is what we have decided:
open jaw into KIX,
spend a few days in kyoto
go directly from kyoto to takayama (the wide view hiida)
spend a night in takayama
leave for tokyo next evening
spend a few days in tokyo
then fly out from NRT

that sounds like a pretty good plan to me, what do you think? we'll still get the JR pass, it seems like we'll need it for most of our rail trips. if you think this itinerary is ok, maybe i should start with the accomodations now.

again, thank you all~

I agree it's a pretty good plan. Might prefer to spend another night in Takayama.