11 days to Chubu area

Hi everyone, we (family of 2 adults & teen) would like to explore Chubu area in 11 days start from 20th Nov, flying in to Komatsu,out fm Nagoya. This will be my 1st visit to Chubu area, therefore,would like your advise on my itinerary.

Here's the plan,do let me know whether is workable,too rush, or any better suggestion.Thanks.

Day 1 : arrived at Komatsu at around 2.30pm, travel to Kanazawa (where shd we explore in this hour?)
Day 2: continue to explore Kanazawa (Kenrokuen, Higashi Chaya District, Ninjadera,Omicho market,21st Century Museum...) travel to Toyama stay near Unazukuonsen so that we could go to Kurobe Gorge as early as possible?)
Day 3: Kurobe Gorge, stay overnight at Toyama (which area is better?)
Day 4: Tateyame Alpine Route (today is 23 Nov, can we still go? coz I saw online ticket on till 10 Nov.. ?) Stay overnight
at Matsumoto
Day 5: Matsumoto castle - Nagano
Day 6: Nagano-Snow monkey park-Takaoka Big Buddha-Takayama
Day 7: Takayama-Shirakawa go-Gokayama- Takayama
Day 8: explore Takayama
Day 9: Takayama- Nagoya
Day 10: Nagoya-Kiso Velley
Day 11: Nagoya-Home

Did I miss out any thing?
We're thinking to self drive at some part outside Nagoya,but not sure whether is cost effective to do that? If yes,which part should we drive?

Hope to hear from you soon!

Thank you in advance.

Cheers! :-)

Hi!

The Alpine Route is open at until the end of November, but parts of it might close depending on weather starting in November. It is recommended if you want to do the route in November to start in Ogizawa on the Nagano side vs. Toyama because the bus between Bijodaira to Murodo can be suspended due to snow or high winds.

https://www.alpen-route.com/en/about/seasonal.html

I would honestly re-work your trip if you want to do the route.

Good luck!

Thanks Rkold. Yes,I read about it too, that's why is quite headche on how to plan. we'll definetly wants to do the route since we're already so close to it.

I'm thinking to change my itnerary to
Day 1-2 Kanazawa-Toyama
3 Kurobe gorge & Takaoka
4 Toyama-Shirakawa go - Gokayama -Takayama
5 Takayama - Matsumoto
6 Alpine Route....

Is this work? Shd I stay one more day in Takayama and go alpine route on the 7th day?

Hi!

I'm probably the wrong person to ask that to, I was not overly fond of Shirakawa Go and Gokayama and actually preferred Takayama. I really liked the Hida no Sato village.

I do think that is a smarter plan though because if you cant make it all the way through the route you can go back to Nagano and see the monkeys then and even if you do make it through the route, getting from Toyama to Nagano via shinkansen is easy. I can see why it's challenging to make it work, but I definitely wouldn't want to risk going in the Toyama side that late in the season.

Good luck!

I see, Hida no Sato village is in my bucket list too, I do heard that is better than Shirakawa go.

I wouldn't want to risk myself too, so will definately going from Ogizawa side.

Do you think selfdrive would be better in this area?

I think... it self-drive would depend on:

1) How comfortable you feel driving in snow. (I would think there is a good chance there will be snow between Matsumoto and Takayama, The route has a lot of side roads that close, like the one to Kamikochi in mid-November for the Winter.)

2) Making sure you can work it out to return the car to the same prefecture you rented it to avoid drop-off fees which can be substantial (I looked into renting a car in 2017 from Takayama to Matsumoto for 1 day and the drop off fees were 10,000 yen just as an example)

3) Knowing where you will park. You can't drive the Alpine Route or the Gorge, so you would need to make sure you get back from both to where your car is.

It's possible if you rented a car in Nagano, it would be faster for seeing the monkeys and/or visiting Matsumoto.

Good luck.