Hakone Round course with a single overnight?

i am thinking of doing the Hakone round course without a local guide and i have the following questions:

1. is it better if we schedule this based in Tokyo or leave on our last day from Tokyo to Kyoto, with an overnight at Hakone? I am mostly worried about the fact that in the 2nd scenario we will have our luggage on our trip to Hakone (and we should check in first, meaning that we have to spend extra time to do that). Having that said maybe we shoud skip the round course and make it a full day trip from Tokyo?

2. since we are mostly interested in the Fuji mntn views and of course the hot springs/hot baths staff (onsen experience), where is it better for us to stay? i noticed that there are several villages nearby but i guess some of them are not easy to access when you use public transportation.

3. buying the JR Pass, apart from the Hakone pass should offer us some extra discounts, right?

thanks for tolerating with my questions !
john

1. is it better if we schedule this based in Tokyo or leave on our last day from Tokyo to Kyoto, with an overnight at Hakone? I am mostly worried about the fact that in the 2nd scenario we will have our luggage on our trip to Hakone (and we should check in first, meaning that we have to spend extra time to do that). Having that said maybe we shoud skip the round course and make it a full day trip from Tokyo?
For your luggage there are at least two possible solutions:
1) there is a luggage forwarding service within Hakone: https://www.hakone-tozanbus.co.jp/english/carry/
2) Or you could send your luggage from Tokyo directly to Kyoto and travel only with a minimal backpack for the one night.

Whether Hakone is better as a daytrip or overnight depends. I personally am a slow traveler and enjoyed my 2 nights stay in Hakone. Daytrip has the advantage that you are more flexible when to go, ie you can choose a day with good weather. Overnight gives you more time to explore but unless you are a last minute guy your travel days would be fixed upfront. From a geographic perspective going as a stop between Tokyo and Kyoto makes sense.


2. since we are mostly interested in the Fuji mntn views and of course the hot springs/hot baths staff (onsen experience), where is it better for us to stay? i noticed that there are several villages nearby but i guess some of them are not easy to access when you use public transportation.
Seeing or not Mt Fuji is based on the weather. There is ABSOLUTELY NO GUARANTEE that you can see it from Hakone. If Mt Fuji up close is the most important thing of this daytrip I would consider Kawaguchiko instead. Although even from there on a foggy day or just a day with a lot of low hanging clouds, no Fuji to see.
Regarding where to stay, if you want Fuji views from your hotel, I am pretty sure that hotels that offer that will heavily publicize that fact. In general places in Hakone are relatively easy to reach with public transport. Your chosen hotel will describe in the internet how to reach them.

3. buying the JR Pass, apart from the Hakone pass should offer us some extra discounts, right?
you should not buy the nationwide JR pass because of Hakone. Buy it only if it makes sense for the overall trip.
There are two �gnormal �g ways how to get to Hakone:
https://www.japan-guide.com/e/e5206.html

If you have a jr pass or if Shinjuku isn�ft a convenient departure place for you out of Tokyo, take Shinkansen or normal JR train to Odawara and change only there to Odakyu.
If Shinjuku is convenient and you don�ft have JR pass, then most likely one of the Odakyu passes for Hakone will pay off. Just check it out if you should buy Shinjuku-Hakone/Odawara out of the pocket and get a pass only for Hakone proper if you aren�ft going to come back to Shinjuku. I think that the normal pass from Shinjuku includes a return to Shinjuku so if you don�ft , it is likely too expensive. But you can still get the pass for Hakone only.

Enjoy your trip to Japan!

hello likebike,

thank you for the awesome feedback!

@ hakone > i don;t think i am a last minute guy so maybe i should take the risk of booking in advance. Beyond Fuji the onsens/hot springs is our main concern, so we will still have a great time. However, i realize that there are many different villages around, and i am not sure which one to choose. Mainly, i would like this to be located somewhere easy to access and with mixed baths not separate for men & women.

any recommendations?
best

Um, mixed gender public bathing isn't very popular in Hakone. It is mainly gender segregated, or you need to look for an onsen with a private bath.

With a rapid search it seems that this one is the only one in Hakone with mixed bathing. At least they also claim on their webpage that they are the only ones "�����ŗB��!! �����뉀�I�V" https://onsen.nifty.com/hakone-onsen/onsen001580/

From here you can try to find mixed bathing onsen in all of Japan: https://onsen.nifty.com/ft-konyoku/

If instead what you are looking for is an onsen where you can rent a family onsen (i.e. you can have mixed bathing but only with your travel mates), then you need to look for �ݐ؁Fhttps://onsen.nifty.com/ft-kashikiri/
or for �Ƒ����C Family bath

There are nearly 90 of those in Hakone area: https://onsen.nifty.com/ft-kashikiri/hakone-onsen/?oarea=140701&oarea=... you can click on the �n�}����T�� in the upper right area to see it on a map.
Those places will normally have 1 or maybe a few more rental onsen, but also a lot of gender separated ones. The rental onsen might not be the nicest.

wow! much appreciated, i need some time to digest all this info and i will get back to you if needed.

thanks again