Three long weekends from Tokyo by rail, none of them Kyoto

Tokyo to Kyoto is a little over two hours on the Nozomi and costs ¥14,000–15,000 each way with a reserved seat. Tokyo to Kanazawa takes 2 hours 30 and costs about the same. Tokyo to Matsumoto also takes about 2 hours 30 and costs half as much. Tokyo to Nikkō takes under two hours and costs a fifth. Three trips with similar clock times and a fivefold spread in price is the kind of thing I cannot leave alone, so I rode all three.

I took three weekends in August and September 2026, each three days and two nights: Nikkō on 14–16 August, Matsumoto on 28–30 August and Kanazawa on 11–13 September. I round each fare to the nearest ¥500, use adult reserved-seat fares and leave out local rides to the hotel. JR East changed its fares on 14 March 2026, so any figure you find from before then is low. Treat my numbers as a guide and look up your own date before you buy.

Kyoto is the first answer to every long weekend, and the sums are poor. A Nozomi return costs about ¥28,500, close to Kanazawa, and Kyoto is fuller. The weekend crowds fill Fushimi Inari and the Higashiyama lanes from late morning, and rooms near the station sell out first. If Kyoto is your goal, our Kyoto without the queues story has the quieter towns, and the 10-day first-timer's loop puts it in the right place.

The three below spread the price and the mood. One-way, Nikkō costs me about ¥30 a minute of train, Matsumoto about ¥45 and Kanazawa about ¥100, using the rounded fares in the sections that follow. That ranking tells you most of what you need before the details do.

I gave every weekend the same frame: leave Tokyo at 9am on the Friday and be home by 6pm on the Sunday, which is 57 hours away. Out of that, the return rail time is about 3 hours 40 minutes to Nikkō, about 5 hours 10 minutes to Matsumoto and about 5 hours to Kanazawa on the Kagayaki. That is 6% to 9% of the weekend on a train, so the extra travel time is small for all three.

The fare is where they separate. Divided over the 57 hours, rail costs about ¥105 an hour away for Nikkō, ¥230 for Matsumoto and ¥510 for Kanazawa. Kanazawa costs ¥23,000 more than Nikkō in train fares and gives you about 80 minutes less ground time, so what you pay the extra for is what is at the end of the line. Whether that is worth it depends on the season, which is why each section below ends with who it suits and when.

I picked the Obon weekend, which was a mistake. The Spacia limited express sells seats a month ahead, and I tried on the Tuesday before. The first train with two seats left was after lunch, so I took the Tobu rapid instead: 2 hours 40 minutes with two changes, at about half the Spacia price. On the way back, a limited express from Kinugawa took a little over two hours. Tōshōgū at 2pm on the Saturday had a queue at the Yōmeimon gate, and the stairs to Ieyasu's tomb were the only place with room to move.

Day 2 went better. The bus up the Irohazaka road to Lake Chūzenji takes the better part of an hour, and the lake edge was 5°C cooler than Tokyo had been. Kegon Falls drops about 97 m, and the viewing platform is worth the few minutes of queue. That night I stayed at Kinugawa Onsen, about 40 minutes down the Tobu line, which gave me a hot spring and a Sunday train home without a change.

The pass sum is awkward. Tobu's World Heritage Area pass at ¥3,000 covers one return between Asakusa and Shimo-Imaichi, Tobu buses in the World Heritage area and the Tobu lines between Shimo-Imaichi, Tobu-Nikko and Shin-Fujiwara, which takes in Kinugawa Onsen, for two days. A limited express ticket costs extra. My trip was three days, so the pass would have run out on the Sunday, and I bought single tickets instead. The lake bus is paid separately, and Tobu's page has the current fare.

Nikkō suits first-timers and short budgets, and anyone who wants a weekend where the train is the smallest line on the bill. Skip the weekend of Obon and the middle weekends of the color season, when the Irohazaka bus is the choke point. Our Nikkō day trip guide has the pass details and the hours, and the Nikkō hub has the rest.

The Azusa from Shinjuku took a little over 2 hours 30 minutes on the train I rode, and every seat on it was full by Tachikawa. The main street from the station to the castle is walkable in 15 minutes. On Friday evening I saw the black donjon lit and the moat empty of people. Matsumoto Castle is a National Treasure and one of Japan's oldest original keeps, and a morning is enough for it: the stairs are steep and the queue forms by about 10am.

On Saturday I did what I tell other people not to. I reserved the Azusa and not the Kamikochi bus. Kamikochi is 1.5 to 2 hours each way by train and bus, and the early buses sell out, so my first available departure was late enough to cancel the plan. I walked the old town instead, ate soba, and learned that the restaurants around the station thin out on a Sunday evening; by 9:30pm my choices were two izakaya and a convenience store. Our Kamikochi day trip guide puts the bus reservation first for a reason.

The cost works out neatly. Matsumoto's return fare is about ¥13,000, which is less than half the Kanazawa figure for the same travel time. Rooms were $$ at the places I looked. The season matters more here than at the other two: Kamikochi opens in spring and closes in mid-November, so check the dates on the park's official page. Outside that window Matsumoto loses its second day.

Matsumoto suits walkers and early risers, and anyone who wants mountains on the horizon without a mountain trip. It does not suit anyone who wants nightlife. The Matsumoto hub lists the rest.

This is the expensive one. The Kagayaki was full on the Friday, so I rode the Hakutaka, which stops more and took closer to three hours for the same fare. If you can reserve a Kagayaki, do. From the station, Higashi Chaya is a bus ride, and it is crowded between 10am and 5pm; I went at 5:20pm and had the lanes to myself.

On Saturday I was at the gate of Kenroku-en when it opened at 7am. For the first hour there was one other person and two gardeners. Ōmichō market was crowded by 11:30, and I ate lunch there at a counter with a view of someone else's fish. The 21st Century Museum has a weekly closing day, so check its calendar. On Sunday I walked Nagamachi, the old samurai quarter, and was back in Tokyo by 4pm.

The pass sum is simple: do not. The Kanazawa return is about ¥29,000, and a 7-day JR Pass at ¥50,000 would need all three of these weekends inside a week to come near it. Nikkō is outside it on Tobu, and they are weeks apart. Our JR Pass guide shows how to run the sum for your trip.

Kanazawa suits people who want food, gardens and a museum and have a larger budget for the train. The season runs the other way from Matsumoto: from early November the crab is in, and Kenroku-en's pines get their rope supports for the snow, which stay up until March. Heavy snow can delay the Hokuriku line, so leave margin before a Monday morning. More on where to base yourself is in our Kanazawa where-to-stay guide and the Kanazawa hub.

I would not repeat the Obon weekend, and I would reserve everything on the first morning sales open. Seats for a Friday evening departure go first, because that is when the office crowd leaves. A Saturday departure at 8am and a Monday return before 2pm, when you have a Monday holiday, is the way I would book it next time, although I have not tested that on a holiday weekend.

I would also carry less. One small bag per person made the Azusa and the Kagayaki easy and the Tobu rapid bearable, and the luggage racks on all three were full by the second stop. Pack for 5°C swings between the station and the lake or the mountain, and carry some cash, because small bus operators and market stalls in all three towns still prefer it.

The ranking depends on the month and the budget, so here are the rules I use.

If your weekend falls between mid-September and early November and you want the best return on the fare, go to Matsumoto. Book the Azusa and the Kamikochi bus on the day sales open. If rail is the limit and you want a first trip out of Tokyo, go to Nikkō and avoid Obon and the middle weekends of color season. If it is winter, or you want a weekend that feels most like a trip, go to Kanazawa and accept that the fare is the biggest line on the bill.

Between late November and mid-April, Kamikochi is closed and Matsumoto drops to second choice, so Kanazawa takes over. In midsummer Nikkō is cooler than Tokyo, though not at Obon. If your only free weekend is a holiday weekend, reserve all rail seats on the first day sales open, and book the room before the train.

Rail for the three together is about ¥48,000, a little under the price of a 7-day pass, but the weekends are weeks apart and one of them runs on a private line. Rooms add to that, and I stayed at $ in all three. If I could do only one, it would be Matsumoto in October.

Our Tokyo guide has the stations and where to base yourself before and after.