Ise Peninsula a day trip or overnight stay?

Hi folks,

We are planning to visit Ise Shrines near the end of our trip in Nov 2014. We will be in Kyoto a day before, then to Ise and finally to Osaka. But we are not sure ifa day trip to Ise will be enough, or we need to stay overnight.

We are only interested in visiting both Ise Shrines, and exploring Oharaimachi. Maybe Meoto Iwa as well.

Is it better for us to stay overnight at Ise, or at Nagoya or go straight to Osaka that night?

Cheers,
R.

It can be done as a day trip if you get an early train; i recommend travelling from Osaka as there's kintetsu ltd. express trains twice an hour. Just get a train back to Osaka after sunset. The trip takes 1 hour and 50 minutes from Namba.

I think the JR Pass doesn't cover Kintetsu Ltd Express? In any case, we will be coming from Kyoto the day before. How early should we leave for Ise from Kyoto if we want to do just a day trip?

Well, you never said you were using a Japan Rail Pass in the first place. In that case the trip will take around 2 and a half hours. Just get a Hikari Shinkansen to Nagoya and change for a JR Rapid Mie train to Iseshi

Thanks Aerond, so if we leave about 9am from Kyoto, via JR Shinkansen - Nagoya - Ise, we should arrive there around 11.30-11.45am?

Would a half day trip (5-6 hours) be enough to visit both Ise Shrines, Meoto Iwa and Oharaimachi?

Does the Ise-shi station have decent size lockers for our luggages, do you know?

I would leave the luggage at Nagoya, since you are going to get to pass through there.
In the case of Kyoto Hikari trains pass past half hour, so there's a Kodama Shinkansen Train at 8:59 and you'd be arriving at Iseshi at 11:52. You'd be better off leaving Kyoto on the Hikari train at 8:33 since that offers a better combination at Nagoya and you'd get to Iseshi at 11:06.
Anyway, for getting to Ise I'd seriously consider getting a Kintetsu train despite having the Japan Rail Pass as getting from Kyoto to Ise is just two hours on a direct train.

I don't know about lockers, but the whole thing should be doable in 5-6 hours, yes.

Since Meoto Iwa is quite a long bus ride from Ise, you might consider staying overnight in Toba. You can use a Kintetsu Rail Pass from Kyoto to Toba and Ise, then on to Nagoya. It's good for 5 days and 3 Limited Express tickets.
http://www.kintetsu.co.jp/foreign/english/useful/ticket/rpw1-3.html

If you go to Toba first you can see Mikimoto Pearl Island and the Aquarium on that first day. You can visit Meoto Iwa either that evening or the next morning on your way to Ise.

The WIDE version of the pass gives you unlimited bus rides around Toba and Ise and discounts at many places.
I did the same trip in April and it worked out nicely.

Wonderful, thanks for the link and info on transport & time, Aerond and Dick. This should help us decide.

Push comes to shove we may skip Meoto Iwa. We are thinking of going to Osaka Aquarium later on, so we may pass on the aquarium at Toba too.

We will look into Kintetsu as an alternative :)

Thank you.