JR East Nagano/Niigata Area or 14D JR Pass

Hi,
I'm having difficulty figuring out which pass, JR East Nagano/Niigata Area Pass or 14D Whole Japan Rail Pass is suitable for my itinerary as follows:
- Day 1: Narita Airport to Nagano
- Day 2: Nagano to Matsumoto, Kiso- Hirasawa, Narai
- Day 3: Nagano to Nozawa Onsen (via Iiyama)
- Days 4-5: Stay in Nozawa Onsen for snow activities/onsen
- Day 6: Nozawan Onsen to Yudanaka (via Nagano)
- Day 7: Visit Snow Monkey park
- Day 8: Yudana to Nippori
- Day 9: Nippori to Yokohama and back (unconfirmed trip)
- Day 10: Nippori to Narita Airport
Can any kind soul help advise? Thanks in advance!
Cheers,
Regine

The JR EAST PASS (Nagano, Niigata area) for use on your longer travel days:
- Day 1: Narita Airport to Nagano
- Day 2: Nagano to Matsumoto, Kiso- Hirasawa, Narai
- Day 3: Nagano to Nozawa Onsen (via Iiyama) - an optional use day - depending on the actual stop, as low as 790 yen.
- Day 8: Yudanaka to Nippori - but the pass is only from Nagano
- Day 10: Nippori to Narita Airport

In and around the monkey park is not JR so the pass isn't much use. Nippori to Yokohama is a pretty trivial fare, and so is Nozawa Onsen back to Nagano (as long as you don't chose the expensive options).
- Days 4-5: Stay in Nozawa Onsen for snow activities/onsen
- Day 6: Nozawan Onsen to Yudanaka (via Nagano)
- Day 7: Visit Snow Monkey park
- Day 9: Nippori to Yokohama and back (unconfirmed trip)

I mostly agree with the above.

On Day 2, I do not think the JR pass gets you to Kiso valley. If you took the local line paying out of pocket, it would only be about 600 yen each way from Matsumoto. I will say that I do not know if you will have time to do all of those things in one day anyway. Matsumoto visit with round trip is most of a day already.

From Nippori, your fastest trip to Narita is on the Skyliner, which goes right through Nippori station. If you use JR, you have to ride down to Tokyo Station and navigate the maze to the basement and ride the N'EX. It will add 45 minutes to the trip. So I would use your JR pass for day 6 to get back from the Ski resort to Nagano and then pay for one-way far on the Skyliner to the airport on Day 10. I think it is 2300yen or so.

Either way, I don't see a 14 JR pass paying off at all. You'll get your money's worth out of the JR East Nagano pass, even if you do end up paying a few fares out of pocket.

TW is correct - I didn't look at squeezing every last bit out of the pass and there are options. The extra time to the airport on the last day is pretty minimal - even the local trains are not actually much slower than the N'Ex, but for 1320 yen is actually good value (and navigating Tokyo station really isn't any harder than many other stations or even an airport - so many signs).
For Kiso - I was simply looking at their trip to Matsumoto and back.
Certainly you would not get value out of the national pass!

Thanks everyone for the tips about getting the JR East pass!

Can I ask if the JR East Nagano/Niigata Pass include traveling on the NEX as well? I can't find any information that states this explicitly on its website.

- JR EAST PASS (Nagano, Niigata area)
https://www.jreast.co.jp/e/eastpass_n/

On the webpage, a description under "What is it?" section goes: "Also valid for the Shinkansen, Narita Express and Tokyo Monorail."
Narita Express is abbreviated sometimes as "N'EX" in JR signages.

Kiso- Hirasawa and Narai Stations are on JR Chuo Main Line's (#) western part beyond Shiojiri, which is operated by JR Central; JR EAST passes are not valid there.

410 yen: Shiojiri -- Kiso-Hirasawa -- Narai.
320 yen: Shiojiri -- Kiso-Hirasawa.
140 yen: Kiso-Hirasawa -- Narai.

JR EAST PASS (Nagano, Niigata area) can be used
: For Narita Airport -- Airport Terminal 2 -- Narita --
Tokyo -- Shinjuku | Yokohama
by Narita Express.
: For Tokyo -- Ueno -- Nagano -- Iiyama -- Joetsumyoko
of Hokuriku Shinkansen.
: For Tokyo -- Shinjuku -- Hachioji -- Shiojiri
of Chuo Main Line (#).
: For Nagano -- Shinonoi -- Matsumoto -- Shiojiri
of Shin-etsu Main Line + Shinonoi Line.

(#) Here "Chuo" is pronounced like: chew-oar.

JR East Nagano/Niigata definitely works on the N'EX. I had that pass last time I visited Japan and used it myself
To get to Nagano from Narita on Day 1 of your trip, using that pass, you would want to take N'EX to Tokyo Station and then transfer to Shinkansen for Nagano. You could make reservations for both of those train legs while exchanging your JR pass voucher at the airport's JR travel center. I would advise not to schedule too tight a transfer window at Tokyo station as it is HUGE and even if you know where you are going it often takes a lot of time to get there.

Did you look at the map on the JREast page for the pass - they even label Narita Airport.
Short answer - yes.

Does it also cover the the Shinkansen Hakutaka from Iiyama to Nagano?

Yes Iiyama is covered.

You can always look at a service zone map, note the name of the outer most station and then check if your station you wanna travel to is inside the service zone using google maps etc. Very easy 2 minute process.