Planning a Honeymoon in Japan

PLANNING A HONEYMOON IN JAPAN

Japan makes a compelling honeymoon destination.

It offers extraordinary food, fascinating cities, beautiful countryside and some exceptional places to stay. You can spend the morning exploring a temple in Kyoto, travel by Shinkansen through the country and finish another day soaking in an onsen before dinner at a ryokan.

There's also enough variety to make two weeks feel like a genuine journey rather than a conventional resort holiday.

But we don't think planning a honeymoon in Japan should begin with a list of the country's most romantic hotels.

Nor does adding luxury to every part of an itinerary necessarily make the honeymoon better.

The more interesting question is:

What would make this particular journey feel special to the two of you?

Start with the Japan you actually want to experience

Being on honeymoon doesn't change what interests you.

If you love food, that should influence the journey. If you want to walk, cycle or spend time outdoors, don't replace those things with supposedly romantic experiences because you're on honeymoon.

Perhaps contemporary art is important to you. Perhaps you've always wanted to experience traditional Japan. You might want busy cities and nightlife, or you may be looking forward to escaping into the mountains after several days in Tokyo.

The honeymoon should still reflect those interests.

What changes is how we put the journey together.

There may be places where you stay longer, experiences that you make private, or accommodation that becomes an important part of the trip rather than simply somewhere to sleep.

The result should feel more special.

It shouldn't feel less like you.

Don't make every hotel the special hotel

This is one of the easiest ways to spend a great deal of money on a Japanese honeymoon without necessarily improving it very much.

Japan has some extraordinary hotels.

Tokyo and Kyoto have internationally renowned luxury properties, while elsewhere you'll find contemporary retreats, traditional ryokan and small independent accommodation offering completely different experiences.

But if every hotel is intended to be the highlight, none of them really is.

We'd rather decide where spending significantly more will genuinely change the experience.

That might be a wonderful ryokan with a private onsen for two nights. It could be an exceptional hotel at the end of the journey, when you're ready to slow down before returning home. Somewhere else, the better decision might be a smaller hotel in precisely the neighbourhood where you want to stay.

Contrast makes the special places feel more special.

It also allows the budget to be spent where it makes the greatest difference.

A ryokan can be particularly good on honeymoon

For many couples, a ryokan becomes one of the most memorable stays of the holiday.

Part of the appeal is that the experience is so different from a conventional hotel.

You arrive, change into yukata, perhaps have an onsen bath and then sit down to a carefully prepared multi-course dinner. Futons may be laid out while you're eating, and breakfast the following morning can be as distinctly Japanese as the evening before.

For a honeymoon, a room with its own private onsen can be particularly appealing.

Public onsen are generally separated by sex, which means couples don't normally bathe together. A private bath allows you to share the experience.

But the ryokan itself needs to be right.

A private bath doesn't automatically make a property romantic or worth the money. The setting, food, room, service and location all matter.

And we'd usually rather choose one excellent ryokan experience than add several simply because traditional inns seem appropriate for a honeymoon.

Kyoto deserves time rather than simply a better hotel

Kyoto is an obvious inclusion for many first visits to Japan, and it works particularly well on a honeymoon.

But its appeal isn't limited to beautiful accommodation.

There is something rather special about being able to explore parts of the city early in the morning or walk through its historic districts in the evening after many visitors have gone.

Gardens, temples, food, traditional architecture and cultural experiences give Kyoto enough depth to justify staying for several nights rather than treating it as somewhere to see the principal sights and move on.

A private guide can help bring the city to life, particularly at the beginning of your stay, while leaving some time unplanned gives you the freedom to return to somewhere you particularly liked or simply explore together.

That balance between understanding a place and discovering some of it yourselves works particularly well on a honeymoon.

Tokyo isn't just the place where you arrive

Tokyo provides a completely different kind of honeymoon.

There are extraordinary restaurants, small neighbourhood bars, contemporary art, architecture, fashion, gardens and some remarkable views across the city.

Choosing the right area to stay can make a significant difference.

You might want to step outside into somewhere lively in the evening, or prefer a quieter neighbourhood with excellent restaurants nearby. Another couple may want the views and facilities of one of Tokyo's leading hotels.

There's no single honeymoon district.

The important thing is to choose the Tokyo that suits how you like to spend your time.

We also like the idea of returning to Tokyo at the end of some itineraries.

After travelling around Japan, coming back for a final night or two can feel very different from arriving there at the beginning. You're familiar with the city, more confident about exploring and can simply enjoy it without feeling that you need to understand everything at once.

It can also be a good moment for that exceptional final hotel.

Consider somewhere beyond the obvious route

A honeymoon provides a good reason to include somewhere that changes the rhythm of the journey.

That doesn't necessarily mean travelling somewhere remote simply for the sake of being different.

It might mean spending time in an onsen town, staying in the mountains, visiting an art island, walking part of an old route or including a smaller city that particularly suits your interests.

Japan becomes very different once you move away from its largest cities.

That contrast can be one of the best parts of the holiday.

Several days of Tokyo followed by a small ryokan surrounded by mountains feels like a much bigger change than simply moving between two expensive city hotels.

Where that place should be depends on the rest of the itinerary.

We'd rather find somewhere that fits naturally into the journey than make a lengthy diversion because a particular hotel happens to appear on lists of Japan's best honeymoon stays.

Experiences don't all need to be private

There's a natural temptation on honeymoon to make everything private.

A private guide, transfer, dinner or cultural experience can sometimes be absolutely worthwhile. A good private guide can create a much more personal day, while a transfer can make an awkward journey considerably easier.

But privacy isn't automatically an upgrade.

Sitting at a lively restaurant counter can be more enjoyable than eating alone in a private room. Travelling through Japan by Shinkansen is part of the experience, not something that needs replacing with a car. A small shared workshop may provide far more interaction than an expensive private version.

We'd use private arrangements where they genuinely improve the experience, rather than simply because the trip happens to be a honeymoon.

Food deserves a place in the planning

You don't need to reserve every dinner. In fact, we'd strongly advise against it.

But a honeymoon is a good opportunity to choose a few meals that matter. One might be the kaiseki dinner included in an exceptional ryokan stay, while another could be a particular style of Japanese cooking you've always wanted to experience.

Then leave space for the ordinary meals too.

A bowl of ramen, yakitori at a counter or something discovered while wandering around a neighbourhood can be just as much a part of the honeymoon as the expensive dinner you planned months earlier.

One of the pleasures of eating in Japan is the contrast, and there is little benefit in planning that spontaneity out of the journey.

Give yourselves some time with nothing booked

This matters on any good holiday, but it matters particularly on a honeymoon.

If every morning begins with an appointment and every evening ends with a reservation, you can eventually feel as though you're completing a programme rather than travelling together.

There should be days, or parts of days, when nothing particularly needs to happen.

Have a late breakfast. Spend longer somewhere because you're enjoying it, or change your plans because the weather is beautiful. You might go back to the hotel for a couple of hours before dinner simply because you feel like it.

A honeymoon doesn't need to justify every hour of the day. Time together is one of the reasons you're there.

Think about when you're travelling

Japan changes dramatically through the year.

Cherry blossom season understandably appeals to honeymooners, but it is also one of the busiest and most sought-after periods for travel. Popular hotels and experiences can become difficult to secure, and prices reflect the demand.

Autumn brings another particularly attractive period, with changing leaves and generally comfortable conditions, but popular areas can again become extremely busy.

Other times of year shouldn't automatically be dismissed. Winter can bring clear skies, snow in parts of the country and wonderful conditions for onsen stays, while travelling outside the most sought-after weeks can create greater choice in accommodation.

The best time for a honeymoon isn't simply the season that produces the prettiest photographs. It depends on what you want to do, where you want to go and how you feel about crowds, weather and cost.

Decide where the money will make a difference

Honeymoons can create a certain pressure to upgrade everything, but spending more throughout the journey doesn't necessarily make the holiday more special.

We'd rather identify the points where the additional expenditure will genuinely change the experience. That might be the ryokan you've been looking forward to for months, a couple of nights at an exceptional hotel towards the end of the journey, or a private experience connected to something you're both particularly interested in.

Elsewhere, there may be very little reason to spend more. Travelling on Japan's excellent trains is part of experiencing the country, and some of the meals you remember most may cost remarkably little. Equally, there will be destinations where a comfortable, well-located hotel makes far more sense than paying substantially more for somewhere you will barely see during the day.

This variation is part of what makes a honeymoon interesting. A simple bowl of ramen one evening doesn't diminish the wonderful kaiseki dinner you enjoyed at a ryokan the night before. If anything, the contrast makes both experiences more memorable.

The aim isn't therefore to make every element of the honeymoon exceptional in isolation. It's to decide which elements deserve to be special and allow the rest of the journey to support them.

It should feel like your honeymoon

There is no correct way to honeymoon in Japan.

For one couple, the ideal journey might combine Tokyo and Kyoto with several nights somewhere quieter, staying at an exceptional ryokan with an onsen. Another might be much more interested in walking, contemporary art and discovering smaller towns, with relatively little interest in conventional luxury. For somebody else, food and accommodation may be central to the entire journey.

All of those can make excellent honeymoons because the important distinction isn't how luxurious the itinerary appears. It's how closely the journey reflects the two people taking it.

That's ultimately how we think a honeymoon should be planned. The fundamentals don't change: the route needs to make sense, destinations need enough time to be properly experienced and the pace shouldn't leave you feeling that you're constantly moving on.

What changes are the choices made within that journey.

Perhaps you stay somewhere you wouldn't ordinarily have considered because the experience itself is worth travelling for. You might spend considerably more on one hotel because you know you'll actually have time to enjoy it, or arrange something privately because sharing that particular experience just between the two of you will genuinely add to it.

And just as importantly, you leave some space.

Because years later, the things you remember may not all be the things that were planned as honeymoon highlights. It might be an evening wandering through Kyoto, a train journey across the country, a tiny restaurant you found by chance or a morning when you decided not to do what was on the itinerary at all.

A honeymoon in Japan should certainly feel special.

But above all, it should feel like the two of you went to Japan, rather than Japan's idea of what a honeymoon ought to be.

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