A question regarding Alpine Route

I am going to Nagoya on March, and would like to stop by Alpine Route in my 7 day trip. I would like to know if transportation (especially from Toyama to Omachi) and/or the Alpine Route itself will be open during the first week or two of March.

Thank you!

In average years, access to the Tateyama Kurobe Alpine Route won't be opened till the latter half of April.

I will be going on 3rd to 11th of March 2015. I'm planning to go to Shirakawa-go and around it, Alpine Route too. If Alpine Route won't be open in those days, is there any place I can go to as a replacement for it? A recommendation or two would be awesome!

Another question, if I want to go to Alpine (not the usual Alpine Route), is there any other ways I can take?

Thanks!

If Takayama is on the itinerary, consider doing a side trip to Shin-Hotaka. Take a look at post #3 on the following thread in another forum.

http://www.tripadvisor.ca/ShowTopic-g1121155-i26142-k7542717-Early_Apr...#

thanks q lot for ur nice att, help

Will a 7 days JR Pass save more money for the trip? I am going to be landing in Nagoya and will come back there to go home later on. I'm wondering if it will be worth to buy the JR Pass, considering I will only go to the area around Shirakawa-go.


Thank you for your help.

So, I will be arriving at Nagoya on the first day, then I'll go straight to Takayama and stay there for 3 days. I consider going to Shirakawa-go, Shin-Hotaka, Kanazawa, and Oyama. Would you reccomend me staying in Kanazawa? Or will it better extending the stay in Takayama?

Another question, do Matsumoto have any special tourist attraction that's different then the one I listed above?

Will JR Pass (7days) will be cheaper than buying per day basis? (my plane will be departing from Nagoya again)


Thanks a lot!

It is difficult to say whether a rail pass is worth getting without knowing the intended route you want to take, and there is why I didn't response earlier. Even now it is hard to say, especially seeing Oyama on the list. There are a few Oyama destinations in Japan, one in Kyushu and a couple north in Tokyo and Tochigi Prefecture and none of them are near the other places you intend to visit! You can do some route search on the following hyperdia site and work out the cost to see whether a rail pass would come on top.
http://www.hyperdia.com/

If you want to keep travelling cost down there are also bus services although it is not as comfortable as riding on a train. Also note that for some of the places like Shirakawa-go and Shin-Hotaka access is only possible through bus. There is even one daily bus between Nagoya and Shirakawa-go. You can take train from Takayama to Kanazawa but a more popular route is to take bus with an enroute stop in Shirakawa-go. BTW, Kanazawa is definitely worth a stay for a couple of days.

Matsumoto is also a highly worthwhile destination. The main draw is of course its castle but there are other town sites to keep you occupied for at least a day. An interesting side trip from Matsumoto is the scenic Daio Wasabi Farm, the largest wasabi farm in Japan. Again you can take train to Matsumoto but there is also bus service between Takayama and Matsumoto passing through the scenic Japanese Alps. Too bad you are going during March or else enroute you can take in beautiful Kamikochi whose access is opened each year around mid April.

Thank you for answering all of my questions, I found them all very helpful!

Thank you so very much!