Family of 6 travelling for the first time

Hello!
I would like advice:
Doing Japan for the first time 15th-29th of Nov, 2019 : Tokyo 15th to 21st , kyoto -21 st to 25th and Osaka 25th to 29th of Nov
For a family of 6, is it better/cheaper to travel from Tokyo to Kyoto by shinkansen or by private car?
kids are 11, 14 and 16 and 3 adults.
what are the things you would recommend to do with 3 teenagers?

You can buy 7 Day Bus pass=15000 yen cover Tokyo, Osaka,Kyoto etc prefecture unlimited time for 7 non consecutive days.

Do you come back to Tokyo or do you fly out of Osaka?

A jr Pass will not pay off if you don�ft return to Tokyo.

However with a car you would need to find a very big car plus if you only do 1 direction , you will incur drop off fees.

Generally going by car in Japan is slower than train and parking is expensive. I would only rent a car if going to more remote places.

If for 6 people car is cheaper you can find out by yourself comparing the type of car you�fd like to rent (plus you need to pay for gasoline and the highway fees!!) vs a JR pass or single tickets.

Enjoy your trip to Japan!

If you're not doing a round trip between Tokyo and Osaka, you can also consider flying from Haneda to Itami. I know most of the super discounted flights are out of Narita to KIX but you can also get decent prices from Haneda to Itami. If you fly into Japan, you should be able to use one of the special airfares for tourists at the very last and pay about 60,000 yen for the 6 of you. Getting to Haneda is quite cheap as it getting from Itami to Osaka or Kyoto. I took the Limo bus from Itami to Kyoto Station. It ran quite often and was only about 1000 yen per adult. It was comfy and dropped me off right next to my hotel. The fares between Narita and KIX can be as low as 5000 yen but then you need to get to Narita and KIX.

If every single one of you got a reserved seat and took a Nozomi shinkansen, it would be about ~77935 yen. (5 adults fares and 1 child fare)

Just using the Orix site, assuming you booked the car 15 days out, rented from Machida Station since you can get there relatively cheaply from within Tokyo and you return it to near Kyoto Station for drop off the minimum amount for that rental car for a 12 hour period not including tolls and gas is 47,025 and that is making the assumption you all only have 6 small bags if you have anything larger than 6 carry-on size bags you will need to upgrade to the 8 seater and you're looking at more like 61050. The trip is also going to take you a minimum of 5.5 hours once you get your rental car until you reach the rental car return office in good traffic.

As a PP said, the cheapest way to get between Tokyo and Kyoto is highway bus. Even without a bus pass the fares tend to be much lower. Most buses run through the night so you get on the bus late at night and arrive in Kyoto early the next morning. I've never done it and you would need to pay me a lot of money to do so as I am old and not paying to sleep on a bus.

As for what your teens would enjoy, you know your children best, spend some time looking at this website and ask them for their input. At their ages, the kids should definitely have their own opinions.

If you used Platt Kodama tickets you could save a bundle. It adds an hour to the trip, but the savings x6 would be worth it.



Also don�ft forget to add the cost of an international driving license. As a US citizen, that was going to cost me $130. And will you be able to navigate Japanese road signs? Find parking?

I�fd recommend most tourist not drive themselves.

Yes, it seems that buying a train pass is the best thing to do

https://www.japan-guide.com/e/e2361.html

No, a rail pass *MIGHT* only be worth it if the OP is doing a round trip from Tokyo to Osaka. With just a one way trip between Tokyo and Kyoto, it is most definitely *NOT* worth it.

Dear All,

thank you so much for your advice.
We are starting from Tokyo-6days and one way to kyoto -for 5 days then to Osaka-4 days. Flying then form Osaka To Hong Kong.
So I presume it is then not worth to take the 7 days JR rail pass .
we will then take only one way bullet train to kyoto and travel by normal train from Kyoto to Osaka then.

Thanking you all!!