Hakone Day Trip from Tokyo (2026): Romancecar, Free Pass, Ropeway and Lake Ashi (2026)

Hakone-Yumoto is the gateway: the hot-spring town at the bottom of the valley where the trains from Tokyo end and the mountain railway begins. There are two ways to get here.

Odakyu Romancecar from Shinjuku (my pick). The Romancecar is Odakyu's limited express, about 80 minutes from Shinjuku to Hakone-Yumoto with no change. All seats are reserved. You need a limited express ticket (¥1,200 adult, ¥600 child, one way; ¥50 less as an e-ticket) plus the ordinary fare, a Hakone Freepass or an IC card at the gate. Tickets go on sale at 10am JST one month before travel on EMot Online Tickets, at station windows and at machines. The GSE trains have 16 panorama seats at each end that cost nothing extra and sell out first. Changes and refunds are allowed before departure (¥100 fee for a refund). Odakyu's ordinary trains take about two hours and need no limited express ticket.

JR and the Tozan line. Take the Tokaido Shinkansen from Tokyo Station to Odawara: ¥3,280 one way in a non-reserved seat on JR Central's smartEX (price list dated 1 April 2025). From Odawara, the Hakone Tozan train runs up to Hakone-Yumoto and on to Gora. This makes sense if you're staying near Tokyo Station or holding a Japan Rail Pass, which covers JR trains but not the Odakyu-group lines in Hakone; our Tokyo to Kyoto guide explains which shinkansen the pass covers. Buy the Freepass from Odawara (¥6,000) for the rest.

The Hakone Freepass. Odakyu's pass covers, for two or three days, the Odakyu train between your starting station and Hakone, the Hakone Tozan Train, the Tozan Cable Car, the Hakone Ropeway, the Lake Ashi sightseeing cruise, and Hakone Tozan, Odakyu Highway and Tokai buses in set areas. From Shinjuku it's ¥7,100 (child ¥1,600) for two days or ¥7,500 for three; from Odawara, ¥6,000 or ¥6,400. It doesn't include the Romancecar: With the Romancecar both ways from Shinjuku, that's ¥7,100 plus ¥2,400, or ¥9,500. Two days means the day you start and the next day, not 48 hours. Buy it as a smartphone ticket on EMot or on paper at an Odakyu Sightseeing Service Center or ticket machine, and show it for discounts at around 70 places, according to Odakyu's route map.

On a day trip, the pass pays when you do the full loop: the ropeway alone is ¥2,000 and the boat ¥1,700 one way, before any trains or buses.

The first leg of the loop is the Hakone Tozan Train from Hakone-Yumoto up to Gora. It's a mountain railway that climbs by reversing at three switchbacks, where the driver and conductor swap ends. IC cards work on the train (but not on the cable car).

Two stations before Gora, at Chokoku-no-Mori, is the Hakone Open-Air Museum, two minutes from the platform. It's a hillside sculpture park with a Picasso collection indoors and a footbath fed by hot-spring water, and it's open 9am to 5pm every day of the year. Adults pay ¥2,000 at the door or ¥1,800 online.

It's the best stop on the loop when Fuji is hidden, because the art doesn't need the weather. On a short winter day, give it an hour and a half and move on: the ropeway's last car leaves early in December and January.

At Gora you change to the Hakone Tozan Cable Car, a funicular that climbs 209m to Sounzan. There the Hakone Ropeway takes over: Sounzan to Owakudani, then Owakudani to Ubako and Togendai on Lake Ashi, about 15 minutes for each stretch, with gondolas roughly every minute. You change cars at Owakudani. The first stretch passes about 130m above the steaming valley, and the run down to Togendai has the views of Fuji and the lake, in the operator's words.

This winter's closures. For maintenance, the operator, Odakyu Hakone, is closing the ropeway in two stages and running replacement buses about every 15 minutes:

• Owakudani to Sounzan: 7 to 24 December 2026 (bus about 10 minutes).
• Togendai to Ubako to Owakudani: 12 January to 26 February 2027 (bus about 15 minutes). Freepass and ropeway ticket holders can use the buses. The operator expects them to be very crowded, with traffic on the road, and advises reaching Owakudani on the section that's still running. So in December, you can still do the loop with the bus between Sounzan and Owakudani, but allow extra time. From mid-January, go up from Sounzan to Owakudani and come back down the same way.

Hours and weather. Boarding runs 9am to 5pm from February to November, and 9am to 4.15pm in December and January. The ropeway stops in winds of 30 m/s or more and in bad weather. If a section you've paid for is suspended, the Freepass can be refunded for it, unless other transport is laid on.

Without a pass, the ropeway is one price for the whole route: ¥2,000 one way, ¥3,000 return for adults since 1 October 2025.

Owakudani is the volcanic valley the ropeway crosses: steam vents, yellow rock and a strong smell of sulphur. Its famous snack is the kuro-tamago, an egg boiled in the hot spring until the shell turns black. Owakudani Kurotamago-kan sells them at ¥500 for four, from 9am until about 4.40pm, and they can sell out. Local legend says each one adds years to your life.

You can walk into the valley only on a guided nature-trail tour. Kanagawa Prefecture says the trail closed after the 2015 volcanic activity and reopened on 28 March 2022 with shelters and guided entry. Tours run four times a day, about 40 minutes each, for up to 30 people; you book online through the Hakone tourism association's site and pay ¥800, cashless only. Tours are cancelled when the gas goes over the safe level or in rain, strong wind or fog.

Is it safe? The Japan Meteorological Agency has kept Hakoneyama at volcanic alert level 1, the lowest, since 7 October 2019, while reminding people it's an active volcano. The gas is the everyday risk. The Kanagawa Park Association says people with allergic asthma, bronchial or lung complaints, heart complaints, a pacemaker or poor health should not get out to sightsee at Owakudani, because it can be life-threatening. It asks pregnant women, newborns, small children, allergy sufferers and older people to think carefully too. Announcements are made when the gas rises; follow them, and if you feel unwell, go back down straight away.

On a clear day you can see Fuji from here, to the west. On a closure day, the operator's notices and Hakone Navi's status page are where it's announced.

From Togendai the Hakone Sightseeing Cruise crosses Lake Ashi to Hakonemachi or Moto-Hakone. The boats are dressed up as pirate ships, three of them, each in a different design. The crossing takes 25 to 35 minutes, and some winter sailings (from 1 December to 19 March) take longer. Fog or strong wind can change or cancel a sailing.

The Freepass covers it. Without one it's ¥1,700 one way to either port since 1 October 2025. The Special Cabin costs extra on top, even with the pass; seats there aren't assigned and tickets are limited.

For Hakone Shrine, get off at Moto-Hakone. From Moto-Hakone or Hakonemachi, the Tozan bus (H and R lines) goes back down to Hakone-Yumoto, which finishes the loop. Odakyu's route map warns that at busy times you may not get on at the stops along the way, so board at the port.

Hakone Shrine sits in the trees on the shore of Lake Ashi, a 10-minute walk from Moto-Hakone port. Most people come for the Heiwa no Torii, the red gate at the water's edge, which you'll see from the boat as you come in. The shrine's own site gives its hours as 8.15am to 5pm for amulets and goshuin (stamps), with the treasure hall open 9am to 4pm.

Going by bus, note that between 10am and 4pm buses skip the Hakone-jinja-iriguchi stop; use Moto-Hakone-ko instead. The bus back to Hakone-Yumoto takes about an hour, so if the light's going, head for the bus first and the photos second.

Hakone has been a hot-spring resort for centuries, and finishing the day in an onsen is the best part. Hakone-Yumoto is the place to do it, near the train home. Two day-use baths with clear rules are below; for how to bathe, the etiquette in our onsen and sento guide applies here too.

Tenzan Tohji-kyo is my pick if you want rustic: open-air baths in the woods by the river, open until 11pm. Adults pay ¥1,450, cash only, and you need a small towel (¥200 at the desk if you don't have one). It's closed for about five days in mid-December, so check its news page if you're going then.

Tattoos: Tenzan admits a tattooed guest who comes alone and keeps a jacket on to cover them around the building. Two or more tattooed people together aren't admitted, even if they arrive separately. If that rules you out, go to Hakone Yuryo, next.

Hakone Yuryo is the easy one. A free shuttle bus runs from Hakone-Yumoto Station, it lifted its tattoo restriction on 1 April 2025, and it has 19 private open-air baths you can book for two hours. The main baths cost ¥1,700 to ¥1,800 on weekdays and ¥2,000 to ¥2,200 at weekends and holidays for adults, ¥1,000 for primary school children; children under school age can only use the private baths. There's no towel rental, so bring one or buy one (¥550 bath towel, ¥300 face towel).

It's open every day, 10am to 8pm on weekdays (last entry 7pm) and to 9pm at weekends. The private baths cost from ¥10,400 for 120 minutes on a weekday, and you can book online from a month ahead.