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On the fence: Don't need a 14 day pass, but is the convenience it brings worth it?

nickylou
nickylou
over 9 years ago
3 answers

Hello all! I am a London based Kiwi and I am very excited about my upcoming trip to Japan! However having done a lot of research on transportation options, I am still sitting on the fence whether to get a 7 day pass or 14 day pass.

My itinerary is as follows:
30 April-1 May: Tokyo
2 May-3 May: Hiroshima/Miyajima
4 May: Naoshima
5 May-7 May: Kyoto
8 May 13 May: Tokyo

I know I could just purchase a 7 day pass, activate it on 2 May when I travel from Tokyo to Hiroshima, and then the 7th/final day of the pass will be used on 8th May when travelling back from Kyoto to Tokyo.

However I also know I could use the JR pass to get me to and from the airport (Arriving into Haneda, Departing from Narita) and also in and around Tokyo via the Tokyo circle line/Yamanote line.

I have calculated how much it would cost me to do travel to/from airport and around Tokyo separately and estimate this to be roughly £70 in total (using cheapest methods -and sorry, I didnt calculate in yen!).

The 14 days pass is roughly £120 more than the 7 day pass and even if I use it for the additional £70 worth of travel, it would still be £50 more - so from a financial standpoint it is still cheaper to do the 7 day pass and then purchase separate travel. But is that a hassle? Is paying an extra £50 worth having the one pass and not have to worry about how to get the additional tickets etc or are those relatively simple to get/work out how to use?!

I hope my question make sense! :)

avatar
Daniel-san
19375 posts
over 9 years ago
Expert

Hi there,

Certainly, your questions makes sense but it up to you if it is worth it. For some £50 is quite a bit of cash, while not so much for others.

Let me give you some information, hopefully that will make deciding easier. So what would you personally get with this itinerary when using a 14 day pass.

-7 days of additional unlimited travel. Which sounds great but it looks like you'd just use it for local travel in Tokyo. This can still be nice as you just show your JR Pass whenever you get on the train and there's no need to buy any tickets or figure out the right fare. You can also use the Narita Express to Narita Airport (assuming you fly from there). The best reason I can come up with for getting a 14 day JR Pass would be to do day trips from Tokyo. This would quickly pay for the JR Pass, think of visiting Nikko, Kamakara, Yokohama, Hakone, Takao-san, the list goes on. Having a JR Pass gives you this flexibility without having to think about costs.

That said, if you want to live economic, then you may be cheaper off buying normal budget tickets and staying local in Tokyo.

Hope this helps,
Daniel

nickylou
nickylou
3 posts
over 9 years ago

Hi Daniel, really appreciate your detailed response! I have learnt not just from your response here but your responses to many others as well, so thanks for being so thorough with your help!

You make a very good point about the day trips out of Tokyo that would also be covered by the JR Pass, I had not started thinking into much detail what I would actually be doing on my days in Tokyo yet - just thinking about the main itinerary above, but you have now got me thinking about the Tokyo day trips too - Hakone for example was definitely a day-trip I was thinking of doing.

Ok, thanks for pointing out that to me, definitely helpful!

Many thanks,
Nickylou :)


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