The BIGGEST JR Pass Mistake Travelers Make…
You are trying to find the best JR pass for your next Japan trip. And with so many options, it can be tricky choosing one that actually suits your itinerary. The last thing you want is to buy the wrong pass and waste unnecessary money. No. When I buy a Jer Pass, I want maximum savings without sacrificing my comfort or time. So, in this video, I’m going to run through all the options you have so that you can make the best purchase decision and ask yourself, do you need a JR pass? If so, which one best fits your itinerary? And also, what other tickets and transport options pair well with your JR pass? Because this strategy I’m going to share with you is going to let you go to more places. It’s going to help you maximize your savings, and I will show you an example from my previous trip. Let’s get straight into it. So the first thing we need to know is there are two types of GR passes. The Japan Rail Pass, which covers the entire country and the regional passes. The Japan Rail Pass starts at 50,000 yen for 7 days. If you’re doing a round trip between Tokyo and Osaka, the ticket value is less than 30,000 yen. So to make your pass worth it, you will need to go to more places and you only have 7 days to use it. I don’t know about you, but for me, 7 days feels like a rush. For example, you start your trip at Tokyo and then you take a bullet train to Kyoto, spend two nights there, spend two nights in Osaka, and then you take a bullet train to Hiroshima and spend two nights there. Finally, you are left with one day to take the bullet train back to Tokyo. 7 days is definitely not enough. If you want to enjoy your trip and take it slow, you don’t want to rush from place to place just to make your JR pass worth the cost. That is not very smart. You might be thinking, “What about the 14-day pass?” Yes, you do have more time, but with an 80,000 yen price tag, you’re going to have a lot of traveling to do just to break even. Imagine how exhausted you will be after 2 weeks. That is not very smart. So what is the better option? Apart from the Japan rail pass, there are many types of regional passes and they are so much cheaper because they only cover specific areas like the Kai region, Tohoku region, Hokkaido. But what if you want to travel between different regions? One money-saving hack I hear almost no one talking about is combining the power of regional passes with single journey tickets. You can pair a regional pass with single journey bullet trains, highway buses, or domestic flights. If you want the fastest and most comfortable option, always go for the bullet train. If you want a detailed comparison of bullet trains, highway buses, and domestic flights, I have a video about it. It’s in the description. Now, let’s look at another example route. From Tokyo, you will take a single journey bullet train to Kyoto. You spend three nights in Kyoto, three nights in Osaka, and then you can use a regional pass to explore the Kai area such as the Kaiwide area pass. With 5 days of unlimited travel on the bullet trains and JR local trains, you can visit places like Coobe, Kimei, Okama. With this plan, you can save more money than getting the Japan Rail Pass. Also, you can visit more cities over a longer period of time, and you have more freedom to decide how long you want to stay in each city since you’re not always bound by the JR pass. Another tip is to arrive and leave Japan at different cities. For example, you can book your flights so that you land in Tokyo and leave at Osaka. That way, you don’t have to pay for roundtrip train tickets. But, of course, this depends on which flight option saves you more money. If buying roundtrip plane tickets saves you more money, then it’s good to adjust accordingly. The next question is where do I buy my JR pass? I can only think of one place. Clue. I buy all my JR passes, attraction tickets, e sims from Cluke. Good news, I have a link and discount code for y’all so that you can save even more money. When you make a purchase through my link, you can help support the channel so I can keep making helpful Japan videos just like this one. for regional passes. I can give you two examples on how you can use it. The first example is doing day trips and this is how I used my regional pass. The trip started with four nights in Tokyo. Then I took an overnight bus to Kyoto. I spent four nights there and then I took a local train to Osaka. Spent 3 days exploring the city. After that I activated my Kai Hiroshima area pass and I took three day trips. one to Okayama, one to Onomichi, and the last one to Hiroshima. Wait, I also took a day trip to N. So that would be four day trips. And then I took my departing flight from Kai airport. This is roughly the amount of money I spent on transport in Japan. Look at the savings. Unbelievable. Example number two is staying for a few nights in multiple cities. I’m going to use the Hokuriku Arc Pass as an example. For seven days, you can travel between Tokyo and Kyoto via the Hokuriko route. You can take the Hokuriku Shinkansen and also the surrounding JR local trains along with a few private railways. I would definitely want to visit places like Nagano, Toyama, and Kanazawa. I would spend two nights in each city so that on day seven, I can take the train from Kanazawa all the way to Kyoto. Here’s the price comparison. This pass is definitely a better option if you want to visit the Hokuriko region and get from Tokyo to Kyoto. So, if I could give you a simple summary of how you’re going to select your JR pass, it would be step one, compile a list of cities or places you’re visiting. Step two, identify which regional pass covers the most number of places. And step three, use single journey tickets to connect yourself to different regions. So, you can see how choosing the right JR pass can save you money on your trip. But what if a JR pass isn’t the best option for your itinerary? What if you’re only taking one to two long-distance train rides? In that case, you will want to know how to save money on single journey bullet train tickets, which I talk about in this video right here. Don’t forget to use the link and discount code below because it saves you money and it supports what I do because I want to help you guys save money and have the best time in Japan.
Many travelers to Japan choose the wrong JR Pass and end up spending more money than they have to… This video explains the 2 main types of JR passes: Japan Rail Pass and JR Regional Passes. We’ll discuss which option truly saves you more money, and share tips and examples that can improve your transport plan in Japan.
Buy your JR Pass on Klook: https://www.klook.com/en-US/activity/3278-5-day-jr-kansai-hiroshima-area-pass-jr-pass/?aid=58910
Klook 10% discount code: BLAKETTKLOOK
For enquiries ➡ ✉️ contact.calebwf@gmail.com
Related videos:
Bullet train, domestic flight, or overnight bus? ➡ Video coming soon
Save money on bullet train tickets ➡ Video coming soon
Leave your QUESTIONS/FEEDBACK about this video in the comments 🙂
TIME STAMPS
00:00 – Intro
00:52 – Is the Japan Rail Pass worth it?
02:12 – Regional Passes + Transport Hacks
04:01 – Where to buy? + Example itineraries
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