Okinawa Itinerary

Hello,

My fiancee and I will be travelling to Okinawa in December this year. Overall we have 11 nights to spend in the Okinawa islands. Currently I was looking at the following itinerary:

Okinawa Main Island - 5 nights
Iriomote - 3 nights
Ishigaki - 3 nights

I'm pretty happy with the 5 nights on Okinawa main island. I just am wondering about the best amount of time to spend on Iriomote and Ishigaki. Will it be better to spend 3 nights each on Iriomote and Ishigaki, or would it be better to spend 4 nights on Iriomote and only 2 on Ishigaki?

The types of activities that my fiancee and I will be interested in are hiking, kayaking and snorkelling.

Thank you for any advice you can offer.

December won't exactly be prime tropical beach/swimming season, but I guess you've already checked the weather.

I guess you've also checked likely timings for transport between the islands. This is important, because it can mean that "2 days" ends up being pretty much two full days, or that it ends up being little more than a day (especially by the time you've picked up a hire car - which you'll almost certainly want on Ishigaki, for instance - checked into your accommodation, etc...).

December is low season, so expect fewer connections/more things to be closed. We were in Ishigaki in early April, and even then some of the places were closed, or only just opening up before the season starts.

Thank you for your response Winter Visitor.

Having a look at the flight times to and from Osaka (we will be entering the country via Osaka), I think I will reverse things and go to Ishigaki/Iriomote first and Okinawa main island second.

And you are correct in the fact that often when you are staying three nights in a place, you only really get two days there after the travelling time is taken into consideration. This is why I am leaning towards staying on Ishigaki only. I'm thinking that it will be more relaxing to stay at Ishigaki for six nights (or maybe Ishigaki for five nights and Okinawa main island for six nights) and take the time to explore the island and do some day trips to the other Yaeyama islands. From previous holidays I have always found it more relaxing to be able to stay in one location for an extended time, rather than having to keep moving about.

I think three nights each on Iriomote and Ishigaki would not be quite enough. You could do one night on Taketomi Island (only accessible from Ishigaki by ferry) if you would like a bit of a change from Ishigaki, without going all the way to Iriomote.