Originally Posted by
mtimmer
We could do Kanazawa-Takayama-Kyoto in either order. Any benefit to which direction is best? For example, is Kyoto even more crowded on a weekend?
Train or fly between Kanazawa and Tokyo?
As
jib71 has mentioned, it will make sense to fly out of Kanazawa if you are going to travel Kyoto-Takayama-Kanazawa and your flight out of Tokyo to home is from HND (Haneda Airport), not Narita Airport. In other situations, I think take the Shinkansen (train) between Tokyo-Kanazawa which is about 3 hrs. train ride. Kanazawa does not have an airport and the flight will be out of Komatsu Airport which is about 33 km (20 miles) from Kanazawa.
For traveling Kyoto-Takayama, trains run frequently throughout the day but it will require transfer of trains. However, once a day there is a direct train service between Kyoto-Takayama which does not require any transfer.
Limited Express Hida no. 25
Kyoto: 8:31 a.m.
Takayama: 12:14 noon
Limited Express Hida no. 36
Takayama: 3:34 p.m.
Kyoto: 7:17 p.m.
Above is the only direct train service between Kyoto-Takayama which does not require transfer. All other Kyoto-Takayama train trips require transfer and change of trains.