Please review my 20-day itinerary

Hi guys,

I will be travelling Japan with my sister from Nov 5th to Nov 25th. I've come up with the following itinerary and was hoping for some comments/advice. Ideally we want to explore, eat out, drink/bars, see temples and castles and hopefully an onsen/ryokan stay in the mountains.

This is what I've come up with:

Nov 5th - Nov 10th: Tokyo, day-trip to Fuji-san

Nov 10th - Nov 13th: Takayama, o/n stay at Kakurean Hidaji

Nov 13th - Nov 17th: Kyoto, day trip to Himeji

Nov 17th - Nov 21st: Osaka, day trip to Nara

Nov 21st - Nov 25th (fly-out): Tokyo

Cheers!

That is a lot of Osaka.

I'd consider visiting another location since you have enough time.

This is autumn foliage season for Kyoto and Tokyo, and the best days should be last 10 days of November. Honestly, autumn foliage is better in Kyoto than in Tokyo so you might better stay your last several days in Kyoto rather than Tokyo.

Hi hakata,

Thanks for the suggestion.

This is my revised itinerary:

5-10 Nov: Tokyo (Fuji-san day trip)
10-11: Tokyo -> Tsumago (o/n stay)
11-13: Magome -> Takayama
13-14: Kakurean Hidaji onsen in Okuhida (o/n stay)
14-18: Kyoto (Himeji day trip)
18-20: Osaka (Nara day trip)
20-21: Koya-san (o/n stay at Fukuchi-in)
21:25: Tokyo

You can day trip to Nara as easily from Kyoto as you can from Osaka. So this leaves you 1 day in Osaka which you can do from Kyoto as well avoiding a change in hotel.

Admittedly this advice is from someone who still needs to find something interesting to do in Osaka. Although I am there often for weeks on business trips. But on weekends i try to escape elsewhere.

Enjoy your trip to Japan!

I might be an odd person (my family certainly thinks so) but personally I could spend a week in Nara and not be bored, it is much nicer staying overnight. So while I dont think that you are "wrong" with your plan, personally I would drop Osaka altogether and do it as a daytrip from somewhere else (looking at you, Nara) and I would also cut Kyoto shorter because it will be horrendously crowded and spend a day of that somewhere else (looking at you Hikone [not Hakone]).

Of course this is coming from someone who doesnt really like normal shopping (which Osaka has heaps of, though pretty expensive IMO) and cities (which Osaka is one of) but really likes parks (which Nara has a lot of) and wildlife (Nara, I see you again!) but not crowds so much (because it is spread out, Nara is better with that as well though Todaiji does get busy). We have stayed at Nara on probably 5 separate occasions for a few weeks all up, it is especially nice around late November. We have stayed at Osaka a few times, aside from the food there which is excellent it has never been our cup of tea.