Hakone to Takayama or Tsumago

Depends..from those two starting points it would be different.What do you want to do in Tsumago? Do you want to sleep there?

Will you have a JR pass? If not,budget no problem? (ie are you ok spending the cash for shinkansen?)

Thanks for your reply.
We are hoping to do the Magome/Tsumago walk.
We are thinking about staying a couple of nights in Takayama and renting a car to drive around smaller villages.

The places we're hoping to visit across 18 nights are:
Tokyo
Kyoto
Hakone
Kawaguchiko
Rabbit Island
Miyajima
Tsumago
Takayama

Just really stumbling about the best way to get to each place and the order to do it.
We'll probably get a JR pass. Also keen to do a little bit of car driving. Not keen on buses (two young kids) and enjoy the flexibility of stopping along the way.
Would it be worthwhile getting a car from Hakone to Kawaguchiko (or nearest train stations) as we'd like to do the safari park and outdoor museum.
Would it be worthwhile getting a car in Takayama to do some sightseeing across two days?
Would it be worthwhile getting a car to drive from say Matsumoto to Takayama and then keep it for the two days? Will the roads be accessible in late March?

Thanks so much.

I don't know much about the driving part...I never drive in Japan.Maybe someone else can help you with that.

If you have a JR pass its easy enough to do Tsumago-Magome by train.Depending where you start from.

Takayama is fine as a base for Shirakawago etc but a bit far for Tsumago walk...Matsumoto would be a better base for that.

I've never driven between Matsumoto and Takayama (except in a bus), but there's a (tolled) tunnel along the road, so I imagine it stays open year round. No idea really if you'll need snow tires, but I suspect not, if you take the tunnel.

Takayama's a good base to have a car - lots of lovely day-trips possible there. You need to be careful driving in the Japanese mountains though: roads are often very narrow.

Kawaguchiko and Hakone are best accessed from Tokyo. From Hakone you can get to the Tokaido Shinkansen line, but likely only stations that have slow Kodama services on them, so if you are continuing south you will need to change trains to get on a semi express rather than a local. I usually think it makes sense to go back to Tokyo from Kawaguchi and maybe Hakone before going anywhere else. I also wouldnt go to Kawaguchi AND Hakone. One is enough.

If going to Tsumago, you will need to transfer onto a slow train at Nagoya, only the locals go to Nagiso where you will have to get on a bus to Tsumago. Magome on the other hand is served by more frequent buses from Nakatsugawa, which is served by all trains coming from Nagoya.

From Magome or Tsumago to Takayama by train, you will have to backtrack to Nagoya. Better to continue north to Matsumoto and take a bus to Tsumago.

Just really stumbling about the best way to get to each place and the order to do it.

If you are returning from the south to Tokyo, it might be better to go pick up some things on the way back, rather than struggling to try and fit everything in in a line.

We'll probably get a JR pass. Also keen to do a little bit of car driving. Not keen on buses (two young kids) and enjoy the flexibility of stopping along the way.

I think those ideas are conflicting. The JR pass is a huge sunk cost that you will end up wasting if you take a few days to rent a car around villages. The JR pass also isnt very flexible, as it denies you the possibility to take the fastest trains or private railways.

Would it be worthwhile getting a car from Hakone to Kawaguchiko (or nearest train stations) as we'd like to do the safari park and outdoor museum.

I think if you are going to spend time in the Japanese alps you really dont need to go all out in Hakone and Kawaguchi. Both are nice, but being so close to Tokyo they are move developed and touristed.

Would it be worthwhile getting a car in Takayama to do some sightseeing across two days?

Yes, you could loop around the villages in Shirakawago

Would it be worthwhile getting a car to drive from say Matsumoto to Takayama and then keep it for the two days? Will the roads be accessible in late March?

They will be accessible, but then you would either have to drive back to Matsumoto or pay a steep drop fee.

The places we're hoping to visit across 18 nights are:
Tokyo
Kyoto
Hakone
Kawaguchiko
Rabbit Island
Miyajima
Tsumago
Takayama

That's a bit jumbled and going to make things difficult.

What I might do, assuming you are flying in and out of Tokyo:

Arrive Tokyo, get over jet lag
Activate a 7 day JR pass and travel all the way to Hiroshima(stopping one night in Tsumago/Magome if you like)
See Miyajima
See Rabit island
See anything else south of Kyoto
travel to Kyoto stopping in Himeji
Explore Kyoto and Nara, your JR pass will expire sometime in Kyoto
Take train to Takayama
Rent a car in Takayama and explore around the area.

Return the car in Takayama
Take the bus to Tokyo(because of the geography, the bus from Takayama to Tokyo is faster than the train.)

If still interested in Mountains, you can do Hakone or Kawaguchi as a day trip from Tokyo.

You could also take a short bus from Takayama over the mountains to Matsumoto, and then take the train from Matsumoto to Tokyo.

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