Golden week 2024 less crowed places

We are going to Japan from April 30 to may 16. Want to go to Tokyo, Kyoto, Osaka, Hiroshima. We want to avoid, if possible, Golden week crowds. Which place is less crowed Tokyo, Kyoto, Osaka or Hiroshima?.
We were thinking in staying in Tokyo until the 5th and then go to Kyoto or Hiroshima. Would appreciate suggestions...

GW crowds are overrated. The main tourist spots in Kyoto are busy all year around. So if just make your own plan as the days best fit in your schedule and try to not go only for the gmust see g places on everyonefs lists.

Yes, as long as you are not joining the herd, fighting for the same seats and going to the same places (like theme parks), it does not have to be a nightmare. It's also one of the most beautiful times to be in Japan. This year in GW I got to see the shibazakura near Mt Fuji, wisteria at the Ashikaga Flower Park, and nemophila at the Hitachi Seaside Park at their peak.
If you think outside the box, you can avoid the mobs. Kyoto has a long list of lesser known jewels, which are no less beautiful. As for the more famous places, go early in the morning or evening.

What Ken and LikeBike say about Kyoto is absolutely true. I constantly hear reports about how insanely crowded Kyoto is, but I consistently find that the places I go to are quite wonderful, and not crowded. So if you want to go to the same places that everyone else goes to, donft expect them not to be crowded, especially during Golden Week when there will be more Japanese tourists (that is, not just foreigners) visiting these places. You have to do a little more research and not just rely on gtop tenh lists, but I never have trouble finding terrific and uncrowded places to go in Kyoto.

Osaka and Tokyo are not quite as easy. If you go to Dotonbori, for example, you can expect huge crowds at any time of year, especially later in the day. I expect it will be dreadful during Golden Week. But I recently went to the Osaka aquarium during fall foliage season (of course people donft go there for foliage, but many are in Japan because of it), and it wasnft crowded at all. In Tokyo, a lot of places were very crowded, especially on weekends. I didnft go to Hiroshima but Miyajima wasnft bad at all.

So for any gmust-seeh spots you feel you must see, try to visit them after golden week, and on weekdays if possible. (Riding out golden week in Tokyo is not a bad idea, but youfll have to pick your venues carefully. And hotel prices will probably be high.) For the famous places, as suggested by Ken go as early as you can.

I'm in both camps here. It is possible to find almost deserted places during the busiest times in Kyoto (for example recently in Arashiyama which was mentally crowded, we walked to the Senkoji temple along the western side of the river, the place was amazing and barely anyone about). But then even trying to get about in Kyoto was a complete PITA. Buses jammed full like sardines, trains likewise, taxis taking forever because of heavy traffic, train ticket offices with hour long plus queues, quite apart from trying to get a seat in a restaurant or cafe at lunch.

Sure you could plan for it, if you know what places are less likely to be super busy - eg by crossing Kiyomizudera, Gion generally, Golden Pavillion, Nanzenji, Arashiyama, Tofukuji, and Fushimi Inari off your list - and you'd still have plenty of things to do, but it takes a lot of the spontaneity out of it. Also it seemed to us that the business is taking its toll on the workers, they seemed pretty much exhausted and they were talking about it, a marked difference from how it was in late Feb '23 when it was more or less still opening up.

Personally, I would recommend going somewhere else in peak time or restricting the Kyoto part of the visit to 2 days maximum. For alternate places with a lot of historical sites that cater well for tourists (trinket shops, restaurants etc) Nara is always a good pick because at least you can get out of the crowds there, maybe Kamakura.

For the cities you have chosen, I would have thought Hiroshima was the least likely to be really busy. Osaka isnt brilliant for a visitor in my experience, though we enjoyed staying at Namba Parks (Keihan Grande) recently more than any other time we have stayed in Osaka.

Ifm sorry that Lazy Pious has had such a bad experience with crowds in Kyoto, but I have to beg to differ. I was there recently during foliage season, which normally is a busy time (this year was an off year for koyo, which no doubt reduced the number of visitors somewhat, but foreigners will still come then because they have already made reservations). I went to Fushimi Inari Jinja and Arashiyama, and also to Kurama and Pontocho, and was able to get seats on trains to all places. I did use one cab (from JR Saga Arashiyama station to Otagi Nenbutsuji and then I walked back). None of the places I visited, including five temples and two shrines, were really crowded (except Fushimi Inari, at the bottom part, which was somewhat crowded but not a zoo; Jojakoji in Arashiyama was slightly crowded but not terribly so, and the other three wonderful temples I went to in Arashiyama were practically deserted). The historic preservation street in Arashiyama was also pretty much devoid of people, and the gotherh bamboo forest (at Adashino Nenbutsuji) had two other visitors, part of the time I was there. Restaurants were a mixed bag, but my group simply avoided ones that had a wait, and we had some wonderful meals. We did get some JR train tickets in Kyoto Station, but we used a ticket machine and there was not a very long wait (under 10 minutes).

The places I named above are all popular (Kurama a little less so, but a great place for a hike), but I was showing a first-timer around and wanted her to see some famous sites. I did not even consider going to Kiyomizudera (in my opinion it has lost its value as a sightseeing spot, let alone a religious site, because of overcrowding) or Kinkakuji (no fun getting there, and not worth the crowds, in my personal opinion). And I never take buses in central Kyoto anymore. Subway and trains are my main way to get around, and occasionally I take a cab from a station to a sightseeing venue. I avoid staffed JR ticketing offices whenever possible, and at Kyoto Station I go early in the day or else gshop aroundh (there are at least four staffed offices you can go to there).

So anyway, I would not cut my time in Kyoto short, but I do recommend not going on a weekend, and waiting until after Golden Week. Other tips are to go to the famous places as early as you can, and for restaurants dine early for dinner, and early or late for lunch. And donft take any buses that go to tourist magnet sites. Just donftc

Another suggestion is to visit the Kansai Tourist Information Center on the third floor of the Kyoto Tower building (not the one in Kyoto Station). This is the best TIC I have been to in Japan. The wait times there, if any, are usually short, and they have English-proficient staff who can give you personalized suggestions for places to visit and how to get to them. They also sell a number of transit passes there. (I sometimes get a Keihan pass, which is very good value if you plan a dayfs itinerary around it. I also sometimes get subway day passes, but those are easy to get at any subway station.)

If you want to go to Kyoto at a busy time and go to the gmust-seeh places any time after midmorning, then you will find the crowds that many people are complaining about. But if you play your cards right, you can still experience the essence of Kyoto, without the notorious crowds.

Honestly, the hardest part about Golden Week is hotels and possibly long-distance transportation. If you have those reserved then there is a lot less stress. The Tokaido Shinkansen is now doing "reservation only" on Nozomi trains during peak travel seasons. (They claim it's for "crowd control" and blame foreigners for "overtourism" but it's mostly going to suck more money out of the LOCALS, since those are the ones who cannot help but travel during LOCAL holidays.)

All of the places you list are major destinations, so none of them stand out as places that will not be crowded during GW. A lot of it depends on where you want to visit, especially in Kyoto and Tokyo.

Places like Hiroshima might sound less crowded however, Hiroshima is still a major tourist spot and it has a more finite number of sightseeing spots, so those spots (Miyajima, the Peace Museum, Shukkeien) may actually be equally or even MORE crowded than major sites in Kyoto or Tokyo. Also, if you are visiting the Peace Museum, it will not be worth it if the crowds prevent you from being able to read about the exhibits or if they're moving so slowly that you are forced to skip parts.

The crowds in Kyoto are sort of a constant, especially as others have said, if you need the buses or are visiting Kiyomizu Temple. But Kyoto has more options than anywhere else, so as others have said, even when things are busy overall, there are always nice places with less crowds. It just depends on your plans.

Tokyo used to be the 'recommended' GW destination, because so many people from Tokyo go out on trips.

Like I said in the beginning, if you can secure your hotels and transportation, the worst part of GW is over.

For hotel booking actually places like Kyoto/ Tokyo during GW are easier than smaller towns or countryside villages. Simply because of the abundance of hotels.
Reading this post I just decided to reserve my own stay in Kyoto for GW. So just reserved for 9 nights (entire GW) in Kyoto in a comfortable hotel (with large public bath, large parking lot and about 2 min walk from subway station) in Jujo for a bit under 70,000 Yen. Cancelable until 2 days before arrival. So I can still reconsider completely.

You can consider Dorogawa onsen located in Tenkawa mura, yoshino gun,nara ken/prefect ure in this golden week 2024 ,beside kyoto