Visiting Tottori Matsue, itinerary help

Dear all, I am planning to visit Tottori and Matsue by train from 24 Dec to 1 Jan. I arrive at KIX.

25/12: I will take train to Tottori and stay 1 night. Visit sand dunes, sand museum.

26 to 28/12: I will stay either Matsue or Izumo. Which is better? I would like to visit Yuushien Garden, Adachi Museum, Matsue Castle, Samurai area, sunset at Lake Shinji, Izumo Taisha and Hinomisaki.

I like public baths and hot springs, but Shinjiko Onsen seems a little away from transport to Yuushien and Adachi. Tamatsukuri ryokans are far from train station., not easy to base myself there for taking trains.

Should I stay at Matsue (Hotel Excel) or Izumoshi (Dormy inn)? I will have one medium size luggage on wheels.

Although Tsuwano sounds nice, it takes long to reach from Matsue. So Tsuwano cannot be done on the way from Matsue to Okayama

I can drive but no experience driving on ice and snow.

29/12: finish visiting Matsue, then take train to Okayama and visit Kurashiki

30/12: Okayama
31/12: Kobe
1/1: Osaka and departure on 2/1.

I would be grateful for any suggestions

We stayed at the Dormy in Matsue. It was within comfortable distance of most sites for us, over to the castle, the old district - and the restaurant with duck soup! Mind you, it was in summer.

To your main question, I'd stay in Matsue rather than Izumo. Most of your destinations are in or closer to Matsue and Matsue is also nicer in the evenings. Izumo is very rural.

If any of the onsen interest you, most will have options for day visitors, so you can enjoy Tamatsukuri Onsen or Shinjiko Onsen without staying overnight.

More of your planned sights are close to Matsue, in fact the Yuushien Garden is going back a bit, so that would look like the better choice.

Just a couple of suggestions:

In Tottori, there was (pre-covid) a cheap 3-hour tourist taxi that you could book through Tourist Information at the station. I don't know if this still exists, but I used it to get to the Sand Museum and a couple of other places. I only stopped at the sand dunes for about 5 minutes - I grew up in Australia on the beach, so seeing lots of sand isn't that exciting for me. :) One of the places I went to was the amazing Watanabe Art Museum, which has a spectacular collection of samurai swords and armor. If that's of interest to you, then don't miss it!

I would be inclined to take the Limited Express from Tottori to Yasugi and go to the Adachi Museum on the way to Matsue. The train stops there anyway. :) Just check the timing of the train and the shuttle bus to the museum from Yasugi. See:

https://www.adachi-museum.or.jp/en/shuttle_bus

The day bus pass in Matsue will get you to most of the places you want to visit, apart from Yuushien Garden. The main Matsue tourist website has a box where it shows the time of sunset and the chance of seeing a good sunset over Lake Shinji. See (towards the bottom of the page):

https://www.visit-matsue.com/

Izumo and Hinomisaki will take a full day. Again, ask at Tourist Information in Matsue or Izumo for the bus timetable to Hinomisaki. The Museum of Ancient Izumo, just next to the Grand Shrine, is also well worth a visit.

Although there's a direct train between Matsue and Okayama, you could also consider the Y500 highway bus to Hiroshima instead. It's a great, cheap deal for tourists and maybe (if you're interested) gives you the opportunity to visit another city on your way to Okayama. You can find information about it on the main page of the Matsue tourist website linked above.

I agree that Tsuwano is too far out of your way. Combine with a visit to Hagi on another trip. :)

Thank you every one for your help!

Yes we took the bus option from Hiroshima, partly because we wanted to stop at a few more places on the S/E side of the island such as Fukuyama & Tomonoura.

We had visited the Okoyama area on a previous trip.

As with all trips not only interests but also time constraints are a factor - which is why Matsue was only on our second trip's plan and I think we enjoyed it more so by having more time and at a slower pace.