The number of tourists visiting Japan this year (2017) hit a new record, exceeding the previous high of over 24 million last year, and it’s no wonder! Japan is very interesting, especially to Westerners, many of whom immediately think of sushi, sumo wrestling and samurai when they think of Japan. While these three things are very much a part of Japanese culture and tradition, there’s much more to discover in Japan, such as the people, the food, traditional & contemporary Japanese culture, as well as Japan’s efficiency and cleanliness.
According to Lonely Planet’s “Getting around Japan by Train” page, the cheapest train ride is from Tokyo to Niigata, Japan, for 5,620¥ (That’s $50 USD or 42 Euros); the most expensive is to Hakata, Japan, for 13,820¥ ($123 USD or 103 Euros); and according to Lonely Planet’s “Getting around Japan by Bus” page, bus rides from Tokyo to other cities can range from 3,200¥-10,230¥ ($29-$91USD).
The cheapest and fastest way to travel to a few cities around Japan is by plane. In this blog entry, you’ll learn how to build the most cost-effective multi-city flight itinerary for Japan using SkySurf.Travel. For this example, I was able to build a flight itinerary to 6 cities in Japan for only $277 USD. That’s an average cost of about $46 USD per flight, which is cheaper than any train ride in Japan, and about the average cost of a bus ride. The average bus travel duration is 8 hours, whereas average flight duration is 1.5 hours. Not only will you be saving money, but also time!
Here’s how I built this cheap Japan flight itinerary:
First, I visited SkySurf.Travel and clicked on the “Multi-city” tab. In the “Traveling From” field, I entered in ‘Tokyo’ and selected ‘Tokyo, (Japan) – TYOA’ from the autosuggestion dropdown. I then selected ‘Japan’ from the “Country Destination” dropdown box, followed by selecting my departure date, which for this example is January 11, 2018. If you are flexible, you can choose ‘anytime’ or an entire month. Finally, I clicked on the “Explore Best Deals!” button and a list of the cheapest flights were displayed.
The cheapest flight option from Tokyo was to Osaka, Japan for only $40 USD. I add this flight to my ‘BookIt List’ for later booking by clicking on the “+ Add to BookIt List” button. A popup then appears, such as the one below:
I planned on staying in Osaka, Japan, for 5 nights, so I selected January 16, 2018 as my departure date. I then selected “Japan” from the ‘destination’ dropdown, and finally clicked on the “Explore best deals!” button to explore the cheapest flight options from Osaka, Japan.
I repeated the above process until I was at my final destination, which, in this case, was Tokyo. Not bad, huh? Six cities in Japan by flight for only $277 USD including taxes. All non-stop flights. Once you are done adding all your flights to your ‘BookIt List’, just click on the ‘BookIt List’ tab in the top navigation, and then click on all the ‘BOOK IT NOW’ buttons to book all your flights.
Here’s a screenshot of my BookIt List:
Here’s where I’ll be traveling to:
- Tokyo, Japan (Starting point)
- Osaka, Japan – January 11, 2018 ($40 USD)
- Fukuoka, Japan – January 16, 2108 ($40 USD)
- Okinawa, Japan – January 20, 2018 ($54 USD)
- Nagoya, Japan – January 25, 2018 ($60 USD)
- Sapporo, Japan – January 29, 2018 ($36 USD)
- Back to Toyko – February 2, 2018 ($47 USD)
And here’s a screenshot of my flight route, which was generated at SkySurf.Travel:
Here’s how to travel around Southeast Asia to 9 cities (7 countries) for under $400 in one trip.
And here’s how to travel around East Asia by plan to 12 cities (3 countries) for under $750 in one trip.
安全な旅行
Safe travels,
Gregory Rzeczko