tokyo to beppu?

my sister and I are going to Japan in May/June. We have two weeks there. We fly into Tokyo, and will spend the first night there, as it is an afternoon flight.

My question is, if we leave Tokyo as early as possible, will me make it to Beppu in a reasonable time. We are hoping to spend two nights at a ryokan with onsen, and here seemed like a good spot.

thanks!

my sister and I are going to Japan in May/June. We have two weeks there. We fly into Tokyo, and will spend the first night there, as it is an afternoon flight.

My question is, if we leave Tokyo as early as possible, will me make it to Beppu in a reasonable time. We are hoping to spend two nights at a ryokan with onsen, and here seemed like a good spot.

I might suggest you to fly from Tokyo Haneda to Oita on one of the airpasses. It costs only from 10,000 to 13,000 and tax and charge per sector and takes 1.5 hrs each way.

Airpass info:
http://www.lonelyplanet.com/thorntree/thread.jspa?threadID=1...

Check flight schedules on ANA or JAL site.
http://www.ana.co.jp/eng/
http://www.jal.co.jp/en/

If you are flying into and out of Japan on one of Star Alliance and Oneworld carriers, you could buy the pass from one sector. If that's the case, you might travel back to Tokyo calling at Hiroshima, Kyoto etc en route on a Japan Railpass.

BTW, please be warned that it takes 7 hrs 20 min from Tokyo to Beppu by train on a JR pass each way. I wouldn't recommend it personally unless you're tempted to do so.

e.g. Tokyo 7:33hrs - 14:51 Beppu

Thanks optimistk

.. we are flying Thai Air (as we are coming from Australia and are traveling through Thailand and Singapore when we leave Japan). Now that the tickets are booked, it seems like it would have made more sense to fly into Kyushu! But I will definitely look into flights from Tokyo to Oita makes more sense to fly to the airport there!

I think I had already decided to spend the night in Fukuoka and then go on to Beppu.

On our trip back we are spending a night in Hiroshima, 3 or 4 in Kyoto, 2 in Osaka, one at Koyasan, one in Nikko, then 5 in Tokyo. So the railpass should get a lot of use!

we are flying Thai Air (as we are coming from Australia and are traveling through Thailand and Singapore when we leave Japan). Now that the tickets are booked, it seems like it would have made more sense to fly into Kyushu! But I will definitely look into flights from Tokyo to Oita makes more sense to fly to the airport there!

I think I had already decided to spend the night in Fukuoka and then go on to Beppu.

G'day again,

As you seem to have noticed, Thai Airways (TG) serves daily between Bangkok and Fukuoka.

TG648 BKK 1:00hrs -- FUK 8:00

If I were you, I'd ask the travel agency if they can arrange an open jaw ticket with the following routing:
SYD?--BKK--FUK (Fukuoka)--surface--NRT (Tokyo Narita)--BKK (stopover)--SYD
and ask them to quote the price.

Make a comparison between the prices of the open jaw, and the simple return ticket into and out of NRT plus the airpass price of 10,000 yen, or AUD 105 plus tax (Star Alliance pass).

The bus from Fukuoka to Beppu runs at least once an hour, takes 2.5 hours and costs 3,100 yen, or AUD 33.

Thailand is very, very addictive, so be warned, lol. I've been there around 20 times so far because of their great smiles, tourist-friendly attitudes and infrastructure and overall reasonable prices.

Be sure to go to the weekend market in Bangkok. You'll find anything there. Ko Phangan boasts very beautiful beaches on the north side. Never been to the full moon party myself.

If you have questions on Thailand, visit Lonely Planet Thorn Tree, Thai Visa and Trip Advisor forums. There are quite a few of Thai gurus.

Happy travels.

There are quite a few gurus on Thai related matters.

I believe you can have your tickets rerouted by Thai Airways. Thai has daily flights to four cities in Japan from Bangkok: Tokyo, Osaka, Nagoya, and Fukuoka. You can fly in to any one of the four cities and depart from another city at more or less the same fare as a round-trip ticket to Tokyo. Rerouting also does not incur any additional cost, I believe. (I did that with Thai Airways before.) It may be best for you to fly to Fukuoka instead of Tokyo.

I have gone and spoken to my travel agent about flying into Fukuoka, Trakarn - that makes so much sense!

thankyou so much for all your help optimistk and Trakarn, and I am sure I will have more questions before we leave :-D

and optimistk - I am really looking forward to Thailand too. I have never been there either.

You're welcome.

I hope you'll have a great time in my country--Thailand, too.