Amanohashidate Bus Tour from Kyoto: Ine Funaya Day Trip

What Is Included

Every package includes the round-trip coach from the designated meeting point in an air-conditioned vehicle and a guide. The Include Tickets package also covers the Ine sightseeing cruise and the Amanohashidate chairlift, both paid rides on the route. The Exclude Tickets package leaves those two tickets out, and you buy them on the day if you want the rides.

For reference, the Ine Bay cruise is 1,200 yen for adults and 600 yen for children, and the Amanohashidate View Land chairlift and monorail ticket is 1,000 yen round trip.

• Round-trip bus from the meeting point
• Guide
• Ine sightseeing cruise and Amanohashidate chairlift, Include Tickets package only
• Free cancellation 24 hours or more before departure

What You Pay on the Day

Lunch is not included on any package and the listing names no restaurant stop, so bring food or buy it where the bus parks. Drinks and personal expenses are on you too. The seagull feed on the Ine cruise is an extra you buy on the boat if you want it.

Coffee and cake at Ine Cafe, one of the listed stops, is self-paid. Personal expenses are not covered.

How the Price Compares

At $55.10 this is the cheapest listing in the catalog of day tours from Kyoto, and the badge on the card says as much. The closest alternative on the same coast is the Amanohashidate, Ine Funaya and Miyama day tour from Kyoto from $86, a 10 hour day that adds the Miyama thatched village and rates 4.9 from 768 reviews.

Ine Village and the Funaya

The bus reaches Ine, a fishing village on the Sea of Japan coast where around 230 wooden funaya boathouses line five kilometers of Ine Bay. The itinerary gives the village itself 25 minutes. Four short stops cover it: 25 minutes in the village, 25 minutes at the Funayanosato Park observation deck over the bay, 20 minutes at Ine Cafe for coffee and photos, and 20 minutes at Ineura Park in the center of the boathouse area for a close look at the buildings.

The Ine Bay Cruise

Then comes the ride the funaya are really about, 30 minutes on a sightseeing boat across the bay. Seagulls follow the ferry from the moment it leaves, and you can buy food on board and feed them from your hand. This is the stop that needs the ticket, so travelers on the Exclude Tickets package pay for the ride themselves, and the Ine Bay cruise adult fare is 1,200 yen.

Amanohashidate from Above and Below

The coach then moves to Amanohashidate, the pine covered sandbar named one of the Three Most Famous Views in Japan. You take a chairlift or monorail up to the Hiryukan-kairo Observatory for the famous view, 50 minutes in total for the ascent and the panorama. Back at ground level the itinerary gives 20 minutes at Chionji Temple at the southern entrance of the sandbar, where visitors buy fan-shaped omikuji fortunes and hang them from the pines, then 20 minutes at the rotating bridge that turns 90 degrees when ships pass, and a final 20 minute stroll along the white sand beach on the eastern side of the sandbar.

The Ride and the Return

The rest of the 9 hours is coach time, and the coast is a long way north. The listing states no departure or return clock time and no time on site figures, only the stop durations above. Travelers who start in Kyoto can choose to be dropped at Osaka instead of Kyoto on the way back, which is worth knowing if your hotel is there.

The operator warns that road traffic on holidays and weekends can delay the return and shorten the stops, so leave no evening plans pinned to the arrival time.

Access and Health Limits

The listing does not recommend the tour for wheelchair users, pregnant travelers, people with spinal injuries or those with poor cardiovascular health. Prams and strollers can come, but you must tell the operator at booking, and the same applies to large luggage. All fitness levels are fine otherwise, and infants up to age 2 ride on an adult's lap while travelers from age 3 to 75 are listed as adults.

If any of these limits applies to you, a private day with hotel pickup such as the private Kyoto and Nara customized day tour from Kyoto with hotel pickup fits better, even though it costs $510 for a group of up to 6.

People Who Hate Big Groups and Long Days

The bus can carry 45 people, so you queue, board and walk with a crowd. The day runs 9 hours and there is no hotel pickup, so you get yourself to the Hachijo entrance square of Kyoto Station 10 to 15 minutes before departure, and latecomers get no refund. The guide details only reach you by email around 6 PM the evening before, which makes same-day questions hard to ask.

If you want a smaller group, the early morning Nara walking tour from Kyoto Station by train caps its group at 12.

People Who Want More Than the Coast in One Day

This itinerary spends its whole day on Amanohashidate and Ine. If you also want the thatched roofs of Miyama, the closer listing is the Amanohashidate, Ine Funaya and Miyama day tour from Kyoto, which fits all three into 10 hours from $86. And if the long ride north sounds like too much for one day, a 2 day trip from Kyoto lets you split the coast from the city sights.

Getting to Amanohashidate

The direct JR Hashidate limited express from Kyoto Station to Amanohashidate takes 2 hours and costs 4,800 to 5,400 yen one way, with seat reservations mandatory. The cheaper route is the JR Kinosaki limited express to Fukuchiyama, 75 minutes at about 3,050 to 3,650 yen, then the Kyoto Tango Railway for 40 to 60 minutes at 800 to 1,750 yen. The Japan Rail Pass does not cover the Kyoto Tango Railway section, though the JR Kansai Wide Area Pass does.

The Tankai highway bus from Kyoto Station to Amanohashidate takes about 2 hours for 3,200 to 3,400 yen.

Adding Ine

Ine is a second leg. The Miyazu and Amanohashidate to Ine sightseeing express bus costs 1,200 yen one way and takes about 40 minutes, and the hourly local bus takes about one hour for 400 yen. At Ine the bay cruise costs 1,200 yen for adults and 600 yen for children, with large boats every 30 minutes from 9:00 to 16:00, no reservation needed.

Add the View Land chairlift and monorail at 1,000 yen and you have a workable day, but the express train fare alone is 4,800 to 5,400 yen each way, several times this tour's fare.

Where the Tour Earns Its Price

The train makes the sandbar itself easy for a confident traveler, and the day trip from Kyoto to Amanohashidate page covers that route in detail. What the tour buys you is the Ine leg without timetable stress. Several bus and train connections in one day, with mandatory seat reservations on the express trains, and a 9 hour round trip is a lot of logistics for one sight.

For $55.10 the coach takes care of all of it, and that is a fair deal even at 45 people. Read more on free day trips from Kyoto by train if you would rather test the DIY side somewhere easier first.