Excursions & Tours – Overview
There are quite a few excursions that help tourists explore the area in and around Takayama city. Starting from a 1 day tour package and as low as 11,000 ¥ to a 3 day package pricing at about 110,000 ¥. For the basic one day tour, tickets are delivered to the hotel room a day before the actual tour begins along with the program for the next day so that one knows the exact itinerary for the next day.
Travelling within – Overview
There are 2 basic ways of travelling within the Takayama city, by the intercity buses or by taking the rickshaws. Takayama being a fairly small city, most tourist spots are well within walking distances of about 15 minutes from the main city centre. However, some tourists spots such as the Hida no Sato museum that is completely open air, may take to about 35 to 45 minutes of walk. Alternatively, if one can reach the Takayama Station, it would hardly take 10 minutes by boarding into a bus to reach this destination.
Another way to travel within the Takayama city and catch major tourist attraction is by boarding the Sarubobo Bus that connects top touring spots in the city. There are other buses that take circular routes in the city so that travellers can get a complete ride in the city from the old town. These buses are usually hourly in frequency and a single ride would cost up to 100 ¥. On the other, bus rides to the Hida no Sato start at every 30 minutes and costs 200 ¥ per ride.
One can also board into a rickshaw or a jinrikisha that offers guided tour of the old town for about 5000 ¥.
Buses to and from Takayama are frequent and a list of them can be found on http://www.japan-guide.com/bus/shirakawago.html. Buses start from as early as 8.50 am from Takayama and lasts up to 7 pm in the evening. Most buses are daily whereas other either work on weekdays or on weekends or public holidays.
Takayama being a smaller town, there are not many options in terms of taking a taxi or a train to travel within the city. Most of the area is covered either by means of buses or by rickshaws that also offer a guided tour of the city.
The Nohi bus service also provides comforting and expedient bus lines in and around Takayama. The bus centre is also located next to the Takayama train station and offers a variety of open tickets for unlimited tours inside and across the city. The open ticket passes start at around 600 ¥ per person that allows unlimited one day access in the bus to around 10,000 ¥ that provides unlimited bus ride for 4 consecutive days and covers a lot of important tourist attractions such as Okuhida Onsen-go, Shirakawago,Norikura, Shirahone, Norikura Kogen, JR Matsumoto Station, Kamikochi including the JR Takayama station.
