Hokuriku Arch Pass - Takayama

Konnichi wa!
We are planning a trip along the New Golden Route - pretty much like Sam did.
The question that's been bothering me is, that the Hokuriku Arch Pass does not cover all the way to Takayama - but only to Inotani. So do I have to get off the train at Inotani and purchase a ticket to Takayama and wait for the next train, or is it somehow possible to purchase a ticket beforehand and combine the pass and the ticket and not having to leave the train until Takayama?

Thanks in advance!

The pass does not pay off for the trip that Sam did. It is cheaper to use regular ticket (or possibly a Japan Rail Pass if you do some additional traveling).

The question that's been bothering me is, that the Hokuriku Arch Pass does not cover all the way to Takayama - but only to Inotani. So do I have to get off the train at Inotani and purchase a ticket to Takayama and wait for the next train, or is it somehow possible to purchase a ticket beforehand and combine the pass and the ticket and not having to leave the train until Takayama?

You could buy the ticket beforehand at any JR ticket office in Japan.

Well, since we are planning to take the route: Kyoto - Fukui - Kanazawa - Takayama - Nagano - Takasaki - Tokyo, I thought the Hokuriku Arch Pass might be quite a good option, since pretty much every destination exept Takayama is covered. So there really is no option to get there through Inotani? Otherwise we really might have to purchase the JR Rail Pass.

Thank you for your advise so far!

Well, since we are planning to take the route: Kyoto - Fukui - Kanazawa - Takayama - Nagano - Takasaki - Tokyo, I thought the Hokuriku Arch Pass might be quite a good option, since pretty much every destination exept Takayama is covered.

After looking into it in more detail, you are right: the pass will pay off. The more stops you make along the way, the more expensive regular tickets get. So, if you stop at all the stations mentioned above, you are right, the pass will come cheaper than regular tickets.

So there really is no option to get there through Inotani?

Yes, you can get to Takayama via Inotani. I don't understand your concern. The supplement that you have to pay is 1980 yen if you use local trains or 4380 yen if you use non-reserved seats on a limited express (a few hundred yen more if you use reserved seats). As you can see, if you use the limited express, then the total cost is already approaching the price of a 7-day Japan Rail Pass.

Note also, that the Arch Pass does not cover a few more of the side trips that Sam did in the video, such as the train ride between Takasaki and Shibukawa in order to get to Ikaho (the Japan Rail Pass would cover that section).

There are also a few non-JR train and bus rides that are not covered by either pass.

Hi!

It might be faster and easier to go Kanazawa to Takayama to Matsumoto to Nagano unless there is something you plan to do in the Toyama region. The trains between Takayama and Toyama are pretty infrequent (4 expresses and 4 locals) and the shinkansen between Toyama and Nagano didn't seem well timed to the Limited Expresses, at least when we went through since we had a 45 minute layover in Toyama which was sort of dull. It's not enough time to actually do anything in Toyama, but is more than enough to realize how boring the Toyama train station is.

You could just do Kyoto to Fukui to Kanazawa and then do a bus pass from Kanazawa to Takayama to Matsumoto and then you just need to get from Matsumoto to Nagano, which even out of pocket via limited express is not that much money and then it's about 8000 yen between Nagano and Tokyo.

I'm getting 5030+3070+5500+2900+8000== 24500 vs. 24440 for the pass which won't get you to Takayama vs. paying out of pocket and getting a 3 Star Bus Pass will. You might be able to pay even less if you buy a ticket from Kyoto to Kanazawa and then exit at Fukui using stop overs see this link for further details on that. https://travel.stackexchange.com/questions/66616/when-are-stopovers-pe...

Good luck!