Recommended time for Shikoku

Hi,
This might be a hard question maybe but among the Japan main islands, I still have not been to Shikoku.

I know the travel time there is much slower as there is no shinkansen. I wish to see at least Kochi, Matsuyama, Iya valley, Takamatsu and Shodoshima.

Maybe Uzu, Uwajima and some of the small islands in the inland sea but not too important.

For two weeks will it be too tight to see those places? 1-2 days at each place or what would you recommend?

Should I use some kind of "base" for travelling or would it be better to move along from place to place?

Two days for each would be fine. So fitting Skikoku into 2 weeks is plenty.

I would use Takamatsu, Matsuyama and Kochi as your bases.

If you're happy to hire a car I would suggest you do for Iya Valley and Shodoshima as the public transport isn't the best there. Otherwise the trains are fine, particularly if you catch the limited express trains. Be aware that it will cost more to return the car to a different location than where you picked it up.

We found Shikoku involved a bit of backtracking because of the way the rail lines are set up and avoiding the drop off car fees. We went from Tokushima to the Iya Valley by car and return the next day, then by train to Kochi, then Matsuyama (day trip to Uwajima and Uchiko), then east again to Kotohira, Takamatsu and ferry to Shodoshima. That was an 8 night trip so you will be able to achieve lots in 2 weeks such as the other islands.

Looking at the Shikoku map on Japan Guide page it looks like the train is doing a loop from the Marugame area to Imabari, Matsuyama, Ozu and Kochi, through Iya Valley back to Marugame area. Is that true?
Or is it split where the Tosa Kuroshio railroad passes in the southwest part?

I could use some ferries maybe to go to and from Shikoku. I was actually going to visit Takamatsu and Shodoshima by a ferry from Kobe but the early ferry was cancelled that day so had to skip it.

I could go from Takamatsu to Iya Valley and then Kochi, and unless that is impossible, go there to the Ozu area and Matsuyama and go to Onomichi through the cycling route, or Hiroshima by ferry from Matsuyama.

Or the other way around from Kochi to Imabari, returntrip cycling to Onomichi and then Matsuyama, Ozu area and ferry to Beppu. At least it would skip some backtracking I hope.

I intend to go to Kyushu either before or after Shikoku. Could of course fly into Matsuyama, or Takamatsu of course.



By the way, how big is Shodoshima? Is cycling through it too time consuming?

Kotohira is well worth going to if you can get there.