Kyushu travel

If you drive around in Singapore, then I doubt you'll have issues in Fukuoka and Nagasaki.

Since money is no issue. I would fly into Fukuoka. Taxi/train into town. On day you wanna depart Fukuoka, go back to airport using taxi/train and get a car from the hire place. So you don't have to drive around Fukuoka.

Do your round trip of Kyushu whatever way you see fit. Return car to airport on last day + fly out.

I'm afraid I don't use GPS, only my trusty road map, so wouldn't know how to plug in the coordinates for the Milk Road.

But the chances are you will be approaching Aso on Route 57 from the west if you are coming from Fukuoka/Nagasaki.

About 10-15km short of Aso on Route 57 you will see a turn-off for Route 339 on a big blue road sign marking 339 Daikanbo (look for the big two-storey blue and yellow building on the other side of the road for bearings).

Do NOT turn off here, as the first stretch of Route 339 is not interesting. Rather keep on Route 57. About 10km further on, you will see another big blue sign marking 325 for Takachiho/Aso West Route to the right. Again, do NOT turn off here.

Keep on Route 57 for about another 4-5km until you see a blue sign marking 23 Kikuchi to the left. This is the turn-off you need. You will pass a Joyful restaurant on your left and at the crossroad just past it (you will see an Eneos gasoline station on the far side) turn left.

Follow Route 23 (by this time you will be seeing in front and to the right of you the hills that you'll be driving along the top of).

You will see about 4-5km further on a blue sign marking 23 Kikuchi straight on, 339 Kumamoto/Ozu to the left and 339 Oguni/Daikanbou to the right. Turn right.

You are now on the amazing Milk Road.

About 10km further on, you will see another blue sign marking 12 Yamaga/Kikuchi to the left and 12 Oguni/Daikanbo to the right. Turn right.

About 6km further on, you will see a blue sign marking 12 Hita/Oguni/Kumamoto/Aso East route to the left and 45 Beppu/Senomoto straight on. Go straight on Route 45.

About 8km further on, you will hit a T-junction, marking 11 Beppu/Senomoto to the left, 11 Aso East route to the right.

Turn left and follow Route 11 all the way to Yufuin and onto Beppu.

I have no idea whether you want to stay in Beppu or visit Usuki instead (which I would very highly recommend). If you do decide to visit Usuki, I'd suggest that you hop on the motorway at Beppu and do the 40km or so stretch to Usuki on that as it will save you a lot of time.

One more important point - you will be travelling during the shortest daylight period of the year and it will be getting dark by about 5pm, so early starts are strongly recommended if you want to make the most of your days! Especially on the days where you plan to do a lot of driving, I'd be looking to be on the road by about 8am...

Thanks a million, Hana, for the so detailed road directions to Milk Road.

I should be skipping Beppu to visit Usuki instead. I plan now to self drive from Nagasaki to Mt Aso/Kumamoto, Takachiho, Yufuin, Usuki, Yanagawa and Daizaifu. I should also spend 1 day in Fukuoka and 3 days in Nagasaki. That would leave me 5 full days for the self drive. Would you be able to recommend where I should pick up and return the car?

I would also appreciate any recommendation on where I should spend the 4 nights of my self drive in.

Thank you in advance.

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My gut feeling would be something like this:

10th arrive Fukuoka
11th leaving very early, drive to Nagasaki, spend afternoon sightseeing, making sure to go up to Mt Inasa after dark to get the stunning night views of the city
12th Sightseeing Nagasaki
13th Leaving very early, drive to Shimabara via Unzen, take car ferry across to Kumamoto and drive to Takachiho
14th Morning sighseeing Takachiho (there's actually not a huge amount to see!). After lunch drive to Aso
15th Leaving early, drive to Usuki via Milk Road, Yufuin
16th Sightseeing Usuki
17thLeaving early, drive to Yanagawa using motorway as much as possible. Afternoon sightseeing Yanagawa
18th Leaving very early drive to Daizaifu. Afternoon sightseeing Dazaifu. Either spend night in Dazaifu or drive onto Fukuoka
19th Fukuoka
20th Fly to Tokyo

Shimbara-Kumamoto ferry timetable, prices:

http://www.kumamotoferry.co.jp/lang_en/

Thanks Andy for the suggested routing. I would like to avoid driving in Nagasaki if possible hence will check out the fee for
returning the car at a different location and then decide.

Thank you very much again.

do take note that it gets dark very early. when you are driving long distances, try to make sure that you reach your end destination by around 5pm. Trying to navigate small mountain roads can be rather scary at night especially if the roads aren't lit. In the city area, driving at night can be frustrating too , especially since we aren't familiar with the roads, buildings and road signs. I think we circled around Tenjin in Fukuoka for more than 30 minutes trying to find the correct building to return the car (even though we had GPS).

Hi hana,

Thank you very much for your tip on driving. I am
aware and thus am trying not to have to drive in Nagasaki.

Regards