Kyoto rail pass & public transport options?

Konichiwa - does anyone know anything about Keihan Railway�fs 2-day KYOTO-OSAKA SIGHTSEEING PASS and whether it is useful? My wife and I are pensioners, so not as mobile as before and will stop in Kyoto for 14 days in October next year. We would like to make one or two day-trips from Kyoto to places of interest like Himeji Castle, and any other suggestions, but realise Japan Rail pass is not good value for something 'local' like that, and single tickets are very expensive - any suggestions for how best to make such day trips at reasonable price?

Hi!

The Keihan railway pass can be a decent deal, it depends on where you are staying and where you are traveling to and how much traveling you are doing in one day. If you're making a round trip between Kyoto and Osaka on the Keihan line that's 820 yen there, but if you're not going to Osaka 2 days in a row or not staying near the Keihan line it won't necessarily save you any money. You are also likely to have to pay some additional fares within Osaka to visit tourist sights making the 1200 yen per day pass possibly make more sense, but again, it depends on your interests.

You only mentioned Himeji as a day trip, and the Keihan pass is not going to help you get there. You're better off with a Jr Kansai Area pass for that: http://www.westjr.co.jp/global/en/ticket/pass/ since it's one day cost of 2200 yen is the one way fare from Kyoto to Himeji via Special Rapid. There is also the Kansai thru Pass http://www.surutto.com/tickets/kansai_thru_english.html which can get you to Himeji as well, but you would need to go somewhere else further afield to make the price worthwhile.

You really need to decide where you plan to stay and where you want to go. Passes only save you money if they are helping you get to destinations you want to visit.

Good luck!

One of the tricky things about railway passes is that they tend to be limited to a particular railway company. Keihan have some trains around Kansai, but their network is unlikely to get you to all the places you want to go, and if you try to just use one company then you can spend a lot of time picking poor routes. http://www.keihan.co.jp/travel/en/about-keihan/about-our-trains
Sometimes there isn't a pass that works, or you need to alter your schedule to maximise use. Some of the JR regional passes can be good value for money, but something like Osaka-Kyoto-Nara is all local/short distance stuff. heck http://www.westjr.co.jp/global/en/ticket/pass/kansai/

Arigato rkold you have been most helpful.
On other forums you can send private messages to respondents and supply them with email address to ask further questions of particularly helpful people like yourself. Is there any way of doing that on this forum?

Yes, it is possible to send private messages to registered users (but not to "guests"). Click on the user name and then click "contact this user".

Thanks Uji - much appreciated