Hakone 2 Days 1 Night – What To Do, Where To Stay, How To Get There

One of the most popular day trips from Tokyo recommended by travellers around the world or tour agencies is Hakone. It is about 85 minutes by Odakyu Line from Shinjuku Station to Hakone-Yumoto Station, which makes it a short distance to travel out of the modern metropolitan (Tokyo) to a scenic countryside (Hakone). Hakone, known for its natural beauty and vast greenery has a lot to offer. The moment you step out of Hakone-Yumoto Station, you are like transform into a slow-pacing paradise with fresh air and uncongested space.

What To Do In Hakone

Scenic Rides With Different Modes of Transportation

My recommendation is to take the scenic rides using the Hakone Free Pass from Hakone Yumoto Station to Lake Ashi with different types of transport eg. Hakone Tozan Railway, Cable Car, Hakone Ropeway and Hakone Sightseeing Cruise. Please take note that these rides are in slow-pacing so that the passengers get to enjoy and appreciate the nature and the scenery around Hakone. Therefore, if you are in a rush, then I would recommend taking the Tozan bus for faster connections from one point to another.

Some of the highlights from the above scenic route are:-

• Hakone-Yumoto station has lines of shops for souvenirs and food where you can find a snack for your next train ride.
• Hakone Open-Air Museum with a Picasso exhibition and lots of beautiful gigantic sculptures in a big park. Not to mention a children playground where the kids can enjoy themselves.
• See the steam coming out of the volcanic stones in Owakudani. Be warned that you get to smell sulphur when you get close to Owakudani while riding the Tozan Ropeway.
• Photo shots of the magnificent Mount Fuji while riding the Tozan Ropeway and on Sightseeing Cruise.

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Stay In A Ryokan With Onsen Bath

This is highly recommended because Hakone is also known as an onsen town. Staying overnight you get to experience Japanese cuisine, onsen bathing, wandering around ryokan in yukata and sleeping on tatami mats. This is the ultimate Japanese experience that should not be missed.

Choose a ryokan with onsen bath and half boarding (dinner and breakfast included) would be ideal. If budget permitted, you may want to try having a room with an outdoor onsen bath where you can dip into the hot spring anytime you want. This was what we chose because as a first-timer trying out Japanese onsen could be a daunting task, especially we are not used to being naked with strangers.

The dinner and breakfast prepared by ryokan are usually traditional Japanese cuisines such as sukiyaki (Japanese hot pot), kaiseki dinner or Japanese breakfast with fish and many small dishes for your palette. Having half boarding is a good excuse to laze around the ryokan and enjoy doing nothing but bathing and sleeping. This trip was done in early December, so the weather was cold and hot tubbing sounded like a great idea to me.

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Where To Stay

Ichinoyu Shinkan Hotel

I had done research on the hotels in Hakone and decided on Ichinoyu Shinkan Hotel because it has what I had been looking for in a ryokan.

• a room that comes with an outdoor onsen open-air bath that we could each take turns to dip in hot spring water while having privacy (too shy to show off my imperfections)
• breakfast and dinner are included so we do not have to fuss about looking for places to eat or arguing about taking a bus, a cab or walking to get to the restaurant and back
• it has very good reviews from other hotel guests (rated 8.2 according to Booking.com)
• it is the cheapest hotel I could find among all the hotels on the date I chose (for a room with an open-air bath)

Mind you this experience is not cheap. But once in awhile, we have to indulge ourselves in something and this is one of the choices we decided to take to pamper ourselves.

If you are interested to find out my experience and reviews on this hotel, click the following link.

Tokyo Hotel Reviews

Click here to read about my ryokan experience

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How To Get To Hakone

This is the most important stuff. How did I get to Hakone from Tokyo? Easy! After doing research on the internet, I found out that the fastest way to travel to Hakone from Tokyo is by Odakyu Romancecar train. This limited express train operates from Shinjuku station to Hakone-Yumoto station and travel time is about 75 minutes one way. This option is not the cheapest way but it cuts down on travelling time significantly compared to other options. If you were travelling with kids or parents, as I did, you would appreciate the no fuss and minimal travel time.

Because this is a limited express train, you will need to have seat reservations. I did this by reserving the seats online using the Odakyu Limited Express Romancecar website. I paid 1,090 Yen per adult and 550 Yen per child for this booking. Take note, this payment is for the limited express surcharge for Romancecar, you still need to buy a regular train ticket that costs 1,190 Yen per adult or 595 Yen per child in order to get on board of the Romancecar. To ride the Romancecar, a limited express ticket is required in addition to a regular ticket or a discount pass.

Is it confusing enough for you?

Fret not!

Let me explain by taking my booking as an example. I travelled with my family of four, i.e. two adults and two children between 6-11-year-old. In order for us to enjoy the Hakone scenic rides, I bought each of us a 2-day Hakone Free Pass (the discount pass) which comes with a regular round trip train tickets. However, the Hakone Free Pass only allows us to travel from Shinjuku Station to Odawara Station, not the Hakone-Yumoto Station which is the main station in Hakone. So, by buying the reserved seats (or so-called limited express surcharge) on Odakyu Limited Express Romancecar, we got to travel from Shinjuku to Hakone-Yumoto in a special train that dedicates to getting us to Hakone. If you purchase only the Hakone Free Pass, it can get you to Odawara Station. And then from Odawara Station, you either buy a limited express train ticket to Hakone-Yumoto station or you use the discount pass on Hakone Tozan Railway. This option you need to do transit and spend 5-25 minutes waiting for another train to go to Hakone-Yumoto.

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Other ways of getting to Hakone from Shinjuku Station are:-

• taking a highway bus runs by Odakyu which costs 2,010 Yen to Hakone Togendai via Gotemba, travel time about 2 hours.
• Using JR pass to take a train and transit in Odawara with a Hakone Free Pass or buying an Odakyu Limited Express Romancecar reserve ticket.
• Using SUICA (IC card) together with either the Hakone Free Pass or the Odakyu Limited Express Romancecar reserve ticket.

The conclusion is getting a Hakone Free Pass together with a limited express reserve ticket of Odakyu Limited Express Romancecar is the simplest and convenient way of getting to Hakone. And the discount pass gives you unlimited rides on transports operated by Odakyu in Hakone. Your transportation is easily taken care of and all you have to do is sit back, relax and enjoy the scenery.

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Check out the following for more details:-

• Hakone Free Pass

• Odakyu Limited Express Romancecar

• Ichinoyu Shinkan Hotel

Read about my other Japan travel stories here:-

• Tokyo 5 days itinerary
• Osaka 5 days slow and relaxing itinerary

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