April 2023 itinerary

Hi all, We are planning a trip to Japan in April. My husband and I (mature travellers whofve visited Japan quite a few times) will head there first on 2nd April and then our daughter and 14 year old grand-daughter will arrive on 11th – and we all go home on 24th.

The time we are all together (11th – 24th) is pretty well decided and booked: day 1 stay Narita, days 2-4 train to Nagano pick up a car, stay Nagano, days 4-6 drive to and stay in Matsumoto, days 6-8 drop car back to Nagano early and train to Odawara for two days in Hakone. Then train to Tokyo and stay in a house in Oshiage for 6 nights before heading home.

I hope that sounds doable??

The part I have questions about is the time my husband and I are on our own. We arrive in Narita and stay the first night there to rest a bit (and enjoy Narita which we love). Then we have 7 nights before we need to get back to Narita to meet the girls there.
We really need some help with the plans for this time!

There are a few things to consider here:
We have been to Japan many times and visited many of the beautiful places; we are now in our seventies so although we still travel a lot, hiking and difficult travel is not enjoyable; we do like to hire a car but the dropoff fees are rather high so we try to find a way to return it to the pickup spot; we love beautiful gardens, great temples, castles and village life especially with good food.

We were thinking of visiting both the Ise and Izu peninsulas, having not been there before, but wefre finding it hard to get much information about them and wonder if they are good places to go in April?

Here is one idea wefve been working on. Please tell me if it sounds like a good one or not? Or please suggest beautiful places we SHOULD investigate.

Arrive and stay Narita;
train to Nagoya and pick up a car,
drive to Ise and stay 2 nights,
take the car ferry from Toba to Cape Irago then drive up to Lake Hamana area to stay two or three nights.
Return the car to Nagoya and train to Mishima at the top of the Izu Peninsula, hire a car if we can and spend two nights there before getting a train to Narita to meet the girls.

Is this possible? Is it a good plan or can you suggest a better one? Will we find the things we really enjoy about Japan in these places? Or are there better places to go in that area?

Looking forward to your advice!

Izu Peninsula is a great place for nature lovers. We (Tokyo residents) have visited the area a few times, but by trains as we donft have a car and Ifm not a very experienced driver. And going by trains, exploring the eastern half of the peninsula (Atami - Ito - Shimoda) is easy.
If you are going to have a car in Izu, then it would be a great way to explore western half of Izu peninsula, along the coast - go south to Shuzenji, Izu city, then either get out to the west coast (on route 136) from there and drive south along the coast, or go down the middle of the peninsula straight to Shimoda (there are some small waterfalls along the way), then explore the western coast a bit.
Maybe a night in Shuzenji, then in Dogashima? Or Dogashima and Shimoda, then back up to Mishima to drop off the car.

I am not that familiar with Ise but I thought that you could get to Ise by Kintetsu railway - and somehow the idea to have to return from Hamana-ko area to Nagoya just for the car drop-off sounds like a bit of a waste of the time...
Enjoy planning and traveling :)

Thanks so much AK, YOu have rekindled our enthusiasm for the Izu Peninsula and I think we will spend a couple of nights there on the way back to Tokyo.

Please be kind enough to send us more information about the various towns and what there is to do there. Also what is best to eat in that area during April.

We have been to 1, 2, 5, 6, 10 - 14 on this page (URL provided below), and enjoyed all locations, though for you, 1 would not be blossoming in April, and 2 & 5 might require at least a bit of walking.

https://www.japan-guide.com/e/e6310.html

If you scroll down toward the bottom of the same page (above), youfll find some transportation info as well.

If you go for hot springs and nature, Izu would be wonderful. Food - any seafood would be great, we enjoyed all our meals there.
Have fun looking through the info! :)