Takayama or Tsumago/Magome stay

Hi,
After advice on our Japan trip Oct/Nov 2023.

We are flying on/out of Tokyo. total trip is 11 days. We (Myself and my wife) plan to spend 3-4 days in Tokyo and same for Kyoto.

Then a stay for 3 nights in either Takayama or Tsumago/Magome. We prefer to spend a few days in one spot each time and relax, looking/enjoying the local region rather than rushing around to lots of places and only 1 night stays.

So my question: Which do you recommend: Takayama for 3+ nights.. or stay in one of the post towns of Tsoumago or Magome? Looks like Takayama has more to see for a 3+ day stay, though Tsumago/Magome look great and the walk between them is tempting.
Thanks!

Hi Brendan. I'm a huge Takayama fan and October/November is a nice time to visit as it gets autumn colour early-ish there. There is a lot to see and do, and you can bus off to Kamikochi, or to Shirakawa-go, each of which is a biggish half day thing.

While Magome in particular is very pretty, and the walk is nice (not amazing) I didnt think that the area was quite as interesting as Takayama. We had stayed at Hotel Kisoji a few nights several years ago and maybe the area did not live up to my pre-conceptions. That said, and completely contrary to what I just said, in our trip in March next year we are basing ourselves for 3 nights at Kiso-Fukushima with the view of trotting backward and forward alone the train lines to visit Narai and Tsumago/Magome and a few other post towns.

So I think (or at least I hope, and will be able to tell you in a few months) it would possibly be a fun area, but you need to be able to get on a train to go from town to town, rather than being at Tsumago or Magome where access is a bit of a production.

Many thanks for such a quick reply. I expect this will be first of many trips to Japan!

I�fll settle on a few days staying in Takayama, then off to Kyoto before heading home via Tokyo.

And presumably the easiest way to get there from Tokyo is via Nagoya as per here?: https://www.japan-guide.com/e/e5908.html

Any other sightseeing/things to do in Takayama region other than those listed : https://www.japan-guide.com/e/e5900.html

Magome-Tsumago is nice but it's a couple of hours walk between the two post towns. It's more of a 1 day and potentially night type of thing

Takayama is a good couple of days and also includes other locations such as Fukuroda which is just a short train trip away.

Haha, yes well we are up to trip 14 or 15 I think, we try other places but they dont hit the sweet spot for us.

Ok, there are a few ways to get to Takayama. One way would be Tokyo to Matsumoto, Matsumoto to Takayama via Kamikochi, using buses. That would be fun and you would see the Matsumoto castle along the way, and Kamikochi as well for a few hours, but honestly unless you were OK to set off by maybe 7 or 8 AM it would be a massive day.

Another is to take the shinkansen to Nagoya and then the wideview Hida to Takayama. That is a fantastic trip, my favorite train trip. Probably the only drawback is that you will have the same trip back to Nagoya.

So if you are up for a big travel day, think about going via Matsumoto, otherwise Nagoya is the way to go.

Places I like in Takayama other than those on the page - the squirrel park is fantastic if you havent met squirrels before (short taxi ride out of town). Takayama Park has some great walking tracks and nice views, especially good around end of October early November with autumn colours coming on. We also like the beef restaurant near the red bridge - it has chalk drawings everywhere inside, the food is fantastic, we end up there every day at least once.

Thanks