Itinerary in Japan with Kids

Hallo ,

I will be visiting Japan for 8 nights in July . With my partner and 2 kids aged 13+15 . Our flight arrives in Tokyo and departs from Osaka . I'm considering the following itinerary:

Day : Arrive Tokyo late evening

Day 1: Full day Tokyo
Day 2: Full day Tokyo
Day 3: Tokyo - Hakone (transport ? ..)
Day 4: Hakone - Kyoto
Day 5: Full day Kyoto ( leave my luggage in the hotel in Kyoto )?
Day 6: Kyoto-Hiroshima ( Early morning ) night in Hiroshima or something else ?
Day 7:Hiroshima -( Okayama / Kobe or Nara...) where to sleep ??
Day 8: Back to Kyoto
Day 9 : Kyoto to Osaka
Day 10 :Departure from Osaka

What are your thoughts? Do you think there�fs an option that offers a better balance than the others, or that is more easily doable by public transport? What would be your preference?

Merushī to/Thanks a lot

Too many hotel changes. Go straight to Hiroshima from Hakone.

Oh and it is very rushed for 10 days. I considers dropping either Hakone or Hiroshima.

I would do Tokyo > Hakone > Hiroshima > Kansai (Kyoto or Osaka). Minimal hotel changes.

There's no need to stay separately in Kyoto and Osaka, as they're very close to each other. It's wasy to day trip from one to the other.

I would stay in Hiroshima, and visit the city on one day and Miyajima the next day. You can visit Nara and/or Kobe as a day trip from Kansai.

A hotel it unlikely to store your luggage when you are not staying with them. If you don't want to take all your luggage to Hakone or Hiroshima, you could use the luggage forwarding service to send your big luggage from Tokyo to Kansai, and take a smaller bag to Hakone and Hiroshima.

For transport options, look at the transport section on the Hakone page on this website.

This blog post about traveling with kids might be helpful: https://thedragontrip.com/6-tips-traveling-with-children-japan/

I agree with other posters about spending more time in less cities. It will make for a less stressful trip. You're gonna have so much fun! Good luck :)

I recommend Tokyo-Kyoto/Nara-Hiroshima, with suggested nights spent of 2-4-2 or 3-4-1. Whether to spend more nights in Tokyo or Hiroshima depends on your family's interests (it is difficult to satisfy all 4 people, but I have a feeling your kids might want to spend more nights in Tokyo). Personally, I hate to spend just one night in any place, because all you do is unpack-sleep-pack.

I would just stay in Tokyo and Kyoto and focus my sightseeing on those cities.

Osaka and Hakone could be done as a side trip from Kyoto/Tokyo. Instead of Hakone I would instead go to Nikko for the toshogu shrine and then go up the mountain to Chuzenji lake.

You can easily spend 5 days in Kyoto covering a new part of the city every day. Too much to see. Visit Himeji or Nara as side trips if you would like to add more variety.