The final stop on our Japan adventure was Kyoto. We left our itinerary somewhat open here, as we figured a set schedule this late in the trip might be too much for everyone. We wanted to keep some flexibility at the end of our trip. That being said, we did book one thing in Kyoto and it was something we were all super excited about. We booked a Hidden Kyoto e-Bike Tour that would take us to some off-the-beaten-path parts of the city. Both the e-bikes and the idea of getting away from touristy areas were exciting for us and …

Our original itinerary had us spending the night on Miyajima. But after a wasted overnight in Hakone and a growing tiredness of changing hotels, we decided to extend our hotel in Hiroshima and visit Miyajima as a day trip. I wanted to be flexible with our itinerary on Miyajima, leaving us time to explore unexpected places or spend more time at places that particularly drew us in. But roughly we wanted to include the following: But our change in overnight plans wasn’t the only thing that ended up changing. About a month before our trip, Reikado Hall was destroyed in …

Our Hiroshima visit centered around two main activities – visiting the Peace Park and Museum and going to Miyajima Island. Originally we planned one night in Hiroshima and one night on Miyajima. We planned to leave Osaka in the morning and spend the afternoon at the Hiroshima Memorial Peace Park and Museum. We would take the ferry to Miyajima the next day, spend the day and night there, and then make our way back to Hiroshima and then on to Kyoto. We had booked a traditional Japanese ryokan, with tatami mats on the floor, futons to sleep on, and a …

We had briefly considered skipping Osaka as an overnight stop and only visiting as a day trip from Kyoto but we were really glad we ended up spending 2 nights there. It had a very different vibe from the other cities we stayed in and offered different experiences. We had fewer plans for Osaka than any of our other stops, which was sort of a refreshing change of pace. We only had 3 things that we really wanted to do and a day and a half to do them in so we had plenty of flexibility. My oldest really wanted …

Hakone was only one day in our itinerary but I spent an inordinate amount of time planning it. It was a place I was really excited to visit and it felt oddly complicated and important to get the plans right. The first decision point was whether we should spend the night or visit as a day trip from Tokyo. There were pros and cons to both options. Staying overnight would give us more time there and allow us to see it when it was less crowded after all the day trippers left, but the logistics (travel, where to stay, luggage, …

We had 4 full days in Tokyo and although we knew there was more than enough to keep us busy in the city, we did want to explore outside of the city as well. We decided to take a day trip and after some research decided on Kamakura. About an hour away by train, we liked the idea of a coastal break from our city explorations. As I worked on our itinerary, it seemed like it would be relatively easy to add in neighboring Enoshima, a small island about 25 minutes west of Kamakura by train. As I did with …

With 4 full days in Tokyo, we knew we could only scratch the surface of what the city had to offer. We came up with a large list of sights, experiences, attractions, stores, and neighborhoods that were most interesting to us, grouped them by location and prioritized them. We knew we could never do everything on our list but we figured it was great to have as a starting point and then whittle it down each day based on what we were in the mood for, logistics, weather, etc. Tokyo is surprisingly easy to navigate, but it is still best …

We started our international travel as a family when my oldest turned 10 and we let him pick our spring break destination that year. (He chose Belize.) Things came full circle this year as he graduated high school and he picked our latest (but hopefully not last!) international family trip before he heads off to college. This one was an easy choice for him – he has wanted to go to Japan for years. I’ll admit that I struggled to get going on the travel planning for this trip. I had never been anywhere in Asia before and it is …

Well, this will be a short post! The goal of this spring break trip was easy. And it doesn’t get much easier than an all-inclusive resort. The main question was what area to stay in – Cancun (inside the hotel zone or not), Playa del Carmen, Tulum. There were a lot of great options outside of Cancun but because we were trying to keep it easy and because it was a relatively short trip (Monday through Friday), we ultimately decided to stay in the Cancun hotel zone. It is super close to the airport and there are so many resort …