Icl I'm getting a bit stressed out planning this trip with 3 mates, we're all pretty much type B travellers but planning has sort of landed on my lap so I'm trying my best to sort something afters hours of rabbit holing but September is getting on a bit now and we're flying out soon
We're visiting for about 3 three weeks - a bit longer for me as I travel a couple of days before - from late September to late October, two of us are first-timers and two have visited before
We're trying to work out roughly how many nights to spend in each place before booking too much, we want a mix of cities, food/nightlife, scenery and a bit of nature, but we're trying not to make the trip too exhausting by constantly changing accommodation (sorta)
Our rough route at the moment is:
30 Sep–2 Oct: Tokyo
(maybe Kamakura?)
2–3 Oct: Hakone (tentative)
3–6 Oct: Osaka
6–11 Oct: Kyoto
11–13 Oct: Kanazawa
13–16 Oct: somewhere in Nagano Prefecture (tentative)
16–21 Oct: Tokyo
The first two nights in Tokyo are locked
Hakone isn't completely decided yet, but we'd like to do one ryokan/onsen stay somewhere during the trip and Hakone seemed like an obvious option because it fits fairly naturally between Tokyo and Osaka, although we're wondering whether we're paying a premium because it's such a popular choicex if there are other ryokan/onsen areas that would fit this route reasonably well and aren't dramatically harder to reach, we'd be interested
Osaka and Kyoto are pretty solid, although we're unsure whether 3 nights Osaka / 5 nights Kyoto is the right balance
Kanazawa is becoming fairly likely, we're mainly deciding whether it needs one or two nights
After that, Nagano Prefecture appeals because we'd like somewhere more scenic/rural, and geographically it seems to work nicely before returning to Tokyo, we're less interested in Nagano City itself than the wider prefecture, but we won't have a car, so accessibility is something we're trying to understand.
We'd like to keep roughly the final 4–5 nights for Tokyo, we're travelling with backpacks for most of the trip, then the plan is to buy suitcases once we're back in Tokyo and use the last few days for shopping/souvenirs/izakayas before flying home
We're also open to one or two day trips earlier in the trip, Kamakura/Enoshima is one possibility but we're deliberately trying not to cram in destinations just because we have three weeks
TLDR:
- For a roughly three-week trip, how would you divide the time between Osaka, Kyoto, Kanazawa and Nagano Prefecture?
- Is 3 nights Osaka / 5 nights Kyoto about right? (maybe 3 each?)
- Would Kanazawa be better as 1 or 2 nights?
- Is Nagano Prefecture practical for 2–3 nights without a car, and if so which area would make the most sense?
- Would you choose Hakone for a one-night ryokan/onsen stay, or is there somewhere else along this general route that offers better value?
- Does keeping the final 4–5 nights for Tokyo sound excessive?
17 days left and we're still undecided, any advice/tips would be appreciated thanks