Hakone Loop direction advice

Hi all,

Ifve read different recommendations on whether to do the Hakone loop in a clockwise or counterclockwise direction. Seems like counterclockwise is the standard route, but clockwise may be less crowded. Is that true?

Any advice would be appreciated, especially with the railway not running at the moment. (Everything else is operating now). By the way, wefre staying one night at the Hakone Kowakien Ten-yu, but are planning to drop off our bags at the hotel before starting the loop.

Thanks in advance!
John

It seems that the section from Gora/Yunessun back to Hakone-Yumoto is currently the most congested section in the afternoons because all the traffic has to be handled by substitute buses. Keeping that in mind, I would suggest using buses along that section. This really means that travel in the counter-clockwise direction would be preferred, i.e. taking a bus from Moto-Hakone to Hakone-Yumoto or even Mishima, depending on where you are heading next.

Assuming that you arrive by train to Hakone therefs is a baggage delivery service from Hakone Yumoto station. Look up the conditions but it might be a good service if you donft want to spend time in going to your hotel first.

Counter clockwise is the normal route, but especially now clockwise is the way to go. It would be best to take the bus from Yumoto to Lake Ashi...from there you can take the ship to Togendai and then the ropeway up to Owakudani. Getting from Gora to Yumoto will take sometime and there is not a lot of options around this because the train in out...some people just back track if they don`t have any plans between Gora and Yumoto (ie. Outdoor Musuem or their hotel).

I would always do clock-wise given a choice. Getting stuck at Togendai waiting for the boat going counter-clock-wise is deeply dull. Also, I have experienced substantially shorter waiting times travelling clock-wise - seeing the large numbers queued through and out the building waiting for the ropeway at Owakudani is an example of lots of wasted time.

With the substitute buses running from Gora for the next few months, I would probably pick a slightly different route - depends what/where I would be visiting on the day.

Thanks, everyone! We'll plan to go clockwise.