Atami to Shimoda on the Tokai Bus in Izu

I will be heading to Izu in 2 weeks time, and am still in a dilemma on whether to rent a car or not, since I've discovered the whole Izu bus passes.

Is it feasible to travel from Atami to Shimoda with large luggages on the Tokai bus? Is there even a direct bus connection between these 2 areas, or would I have to switch buses? It would turn our to be very economical to use the buses (buying the 4 day pass - 4,900), as compared to taking the train connection from Atami to Shimoda, which costs nearly 2,000y.

Traveling around Izu also seems very possible by bus. We are traveling in a group of 3,so we're just trying to see whether renting a car or just buying the bus pass will be more value for money.

It's been a while since I've visited Izu-Hanto, but are you aware that there is a train that travels from Atami to Shimoda? Also, if you travel on the weekend in summer there may be traffic jams on roads next to the ocean.

Others will know more

There's also three day passes that cover both trains and busses: http://www.izudreampass.com/english/
They start from Ito, but the cost of the train from Atami to Ito is only 320 yen.

Hi thanks for the replies.

Perhaps traveling with the Izu dream pass will be feasible. However, as I'm residing in Shimoda, I've heard that restaurants are few and far away from each other. We will not be ordering food from our Ryokan, so perhaps that may be a reason that we need to hire a car.