Kiso valley

Hello all

I would like to visit tsumago and magome.(kiso valley).
I want an advice:
How much time i need to spend both of places?
Daily trip from kyoto to tsumago and magome and then heading to kanazawa? It is normally?
Or second option is from takayam to take a bus/car to daily trip and go back to takayama.

Best regards

Hi. I think it can all be pretty comfortably done in a half a day plus travel. I was there for a few days and Sunday was busy and lively, Monday was as dead as a doornail, though that was a few years ago.

Magome isnt big so maybe an hour tops for that. The walk takes a couple of hours especially if you detour to look at the waterfalls which is the prettiest part. Then Tsumago which might take up a few hours on a weekend, but probably much less if nothing is open as was the case when I was there.

I'm not sure what would be the best way there, I'd have thought Takayama would be quickest but I might be wrong. We came from Nagoya.

It can be done very easily as a half-day trip.

I left Matsumoto and headed for Narai first. I spent about an hour there as I arrived on pretty much the first train and the town was still sleeping. I did enjoy that though for photography.

I then took a train to Nagiso where I took a bus to Tsumago. I stayed there for about 2 hours, maybe a bit more. It was already mid morning, so shops were open and the town was alive.

After that, I took another bus to Magome and stayed for about 1.5 hrs. It's enough to go up the hill and back down leasurely. I preferred Tsumago to Magome, but that's just me. I had better personal experiences in Tsumago.

I then took a cab to Nakatsugawa as the bus would be too late for me to catch the train to Nagoya. At Nagoya, I took a shinkansen to Shin-Osaka, checked into my hotel, and was having dinner at the eateries in Dotombori.

So it can be done in half a day if you factor traveling time.