Hakone Itinerary
 

Hi I have a trip to Japan in November and finalizing my itinerary. I want to include Hakone and plan on purchasing the free pass and staying a night. Normally I see people making the trip from Tokyo early in the day but I am thinking of coming from Osaka/Kyoto at night. My plan is below:

From Osaka/Kyoto in the afternoon take the shinkansen (have JR Pass) to Hakone and arrive in the evening. Check into hotel/ryokan and do the majority of exploring hakone the next day. I then plan on heading to Tokyo that evening.

Won't have too many bags so I thought exploring Hakone after checkout won't be that bad. Is this a good idea and is there anything I should be concerned with? Thank you

It depends on what time you arrive at your Hakone ryokan in the evening. But generally speaking, it doesn't seem like a great idea. I assume you're interested in staying at a place in Hakone that has onsen and gives you dinner and breakfast? If so, then you're going to want to get there right at check-in time or not much past it. And you definitely won't want to get there after 7pm. These places have limited dinner hours, generally something like 5.30p-8.30p if buffet or 5.30p and 7p if course meal. It's going to be difficult for them to accommodate you or difficult for you to enjoy if you arrive too late. Also if you're like me (and most people are), you typically go have a dip in the onsen before changing to yukata (which is optional btw) for dinner. Check-out time is mostly 10am, although some are 11am. These onsen ryokans are not cheap, so you're going to want to maximize your relaxation time from check-in to check-out. You do sightseeing before and after, but when I stay at a ryokan I stay put from check-in to check-out.

Also, lot of people feel that it makes sense to do Hakone en route from Tokyo to Kansai or vice-versa. You could do that. But it may be logistically easiest to do Hakone as an overnight trip from Tokyo. From Osaka, Kodama stops at Odawara, but they're slow. Most Hikari don't stop at Odawara, and no Nozomi does. It's also kind of a hassle having a rollerboard or something in tow as you ride different trains of Hakone. Easier just to leave most of your stuff behind with your Tokyo hotel's front desk for one night and just do Hakone from there. You could try to find a locker at Odawara station, but you can never bank on locker always being available.

Is this your first trip to Japan or Hakone? Do you have any other onsen ryokan stays on your trip? Did you plan on viewing the fall colors/leaves?

There are some mega-ryokans in Hakone which might offer overnight stay plans without dinner and only includes breakfast if you're mostly interested in Hakone sightseeing. You'd want to find one which will offer train station pickup later in the day, check the bus schedule to make sure it is still running in the evening, or take a taxi. If this is your first trip to Hakone and the only ryokan stay then I'd advise arriving early to enjoy the facilities & meals. It might also make sense to arrive in the daytime and go check out the fall leaves https://www.japan-guide.com/blog/koy...16_hakone.html and you'll want to have dinner included at the ryokan as finding an open standalone restaurant for dinner might be a little challenging without a car. OTOH, if you are planning some good meals elsewhere and aren't a fan of onsen or prefer to be "doing" rather than "relaxing" then look into a breakfast + room plan. You can forward your bags from Osaka/Kyoto to Tokyo via takkyubin and just pack an overnight bag.

Like evergrn, as an onsen aficionado, I typically stay put from check-in to check-out at onsen ryokan like most people treat an all-inclusive resort. Hakone is a convenient location and the ryokans are mostly first time foreigner friendly but to be honest, I haven't visited Hakone in many years as I prefer to explore smaller onsen areas with superior onsen water. I also find it better bang for the buck to go further from Tokyo. I might consider a later solo arrival with room + breakfast, no dinner plan if I was just going to see the fall colors the next day and splurging somewhere else. If I was traveling with others then it would be the traditional half board stay and arrive a bit after check-in opens or at latest, probably 5 pm.

Thank you both for your detailed advice. It definitely gave me a lot to consider. This will be my first visit to Hakone and only stay at a ryokan during the trip so I understand now that I should make the best use of it as I can. I am flying in to and out of Tokyo so wanted to fit Hakone en route from Tokyo to Kansai or vice-versa as you said evergrn. I was trying to maximize time in Osaka but it seems like I should be maximizing time in Hakone.

Again thanks for your help. It was greatly appreciated!

Just to be clear (since I'm not sure that my post made it clear), my opinion is that it doesn't necessarily make sense do Hakone en route from Kansai to Tokyo (or vice-versa) as many people are led to believe and, in fact, it may be logistically easier to go there as a round-trip from Tokyo.

Thank you for the extra clarification. I understand it's more of a hassle and actually prefer doing what you suggest but my itinerary is pretty tight on time. Still have some planning left and definitely considering your advice.

The Shin-Osaka->Hakone->Tokyo itinerary is quite feasible; I have done it myself few years back. There are Hikari trains that stop at Hakone every two hours. Try to leave no later than noon and you'll be in Odawara before 3 PM. Depending on where the hotel is, it can take up to an hour to get to Gora, for example.

While the Odakyu Romance Car is the simplest way to go from Shinjuku to Hakone-Yumoto, it still takes 1:40 and you can't use JR Pass.

I also need assistance. I feel lost trying to design a booking even after days of research. Travel period is late February. I am a 66 year old female traveling with my 91 year old mother. She is in great shape for her age but even so if we can get 3-4 hours a day of solid sightseeing in, it is a good day. So we need to take it somewhat slow and easy.

We have both been to Japan 6-8 times before but I have never been to Hakone area. We'll have one week in Tokyo and then plan to take a train to Ito peninsula, and spend 2 nights, one in the Kai Ito to get somewhat of a ryokan experience. Ryokans are difficult for my mom. We need a real western bed with mattress and preferably a boxspring and private bathroom facilities. So a Kai (or similar) is probably as close as we will get to a ryokan but we expect Kai to be fantastic albeit $$$$.

4-5 days remaining to plan. We prefer museums, poking around small towns and local shops, and exploring Japanese culture and food rather than hiking and partaking in nature. We will not have a car so it is probably necessary for our hotel to be fairly near a train station or for the hotel to have a reliable and frequent shuttle to the station. Also being in town would provide us more dining options than being at a resort in the middle of nowhere. Where should we base?? From reading it seems Hakone and Odawara are areas with things that would most interest us. Seem to be a lot of museums near Hakone and there will be a Plum Blossom festival in Odawara in late February. If the weather cooperates we should get a nice view of Fuji. Are we missing a lot by not going to Fuji itself? It would be nice to see an onson, particularly if on the grounds of the hotel, but we would probably not partake.

So I would appreciate assistance with 1) which town(s) we should base ourselves (1 or 2 places) and 2) specific hotel suggestions given our parameters. We would prefer to spend less than $200 per night for the hotel. Seems impossible and still get a comfortable western bed and privacy at our price point so I look forward to your recommendations (if we need to spend more we will and if we can spend less, so much the better). Thanks in advance.

We stayed at the Prince in Hakone, gorgeous location by the lake, and the hotel provides transportation with their own bus from the Odawara train station. Comfortable western bed, lovely surroundings, and lake tour boats are just steps away.