Kyoto to Tsumago. Tsumago to Tokyo

Let's see:

• Kyoto to Magome/Tsumago at least 2 hours
• Magome/Tsumago to Tokyo at least 3:30 hours
• hike: 2-3 hours
• seeing the post towns (which are tiny): at least 1 hour each, i.e. 2 hours together

Total time: 10 hours

So yes, if you only want to see Tsumago and Magome it is possible to do this on the way from Kyoto to Tokyo if you start reasonably early. Make sure to check train/bus timetables beforehand to minimize waiting time.

If you want to spend a night somewhere, you could do this in one of the post towns in the Kiso valley or in Matsumoto. If you do this, you could see more of the Kiso valley and of Matsumoto (excellent castle and art museums).

IMO, there is not much point spending the night somewhere along the way if all you want to do next day is taking the train to Tokyo.

You could stay in Tsumago, but it is really tiny. You could as Bamse says stay in Matsumoto, which is a fairly interesting town. Or you could head to Toyko.

I agree with Bamse, if you are going to just be heading to Tokyo, you should just continue on that night. Stopping in say Nagoya only to then head to Tokyo early the next day is just wasting time.

I'd say around 12 hours start to finish.Is that doable? For me,yes..its obviously a long and tiring day.

Thank you very much for your replies. We’ve decided not to rush to Tokyo and have look at Matsumoto first. We should have booked a longer stay in Japan :)

Ok,it's a good decision.

Matsumoto has a great castle and a couple of very good art museums,if you are interested in that....one is old Japanese ukiyoe woodblock prints,and the other is contemporary art,including work by Yayoi Kusama.

We’ll definitely look into that. Thank you!

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