u/Fri-rice

Hi all! I'm fleshing out my plans for my next trip to Japan (in October, just under 2 weeks). This sub was super helpful when I was planning my previous trip. I'm very fortunate to have been to Japan before, and have already seen parts of Tokyo, Osaka, Kyoto, Nara, Hiroshima, Nagano, as well as several onsen towns.

I love food (just not fried food!), shopping (ceramics, homewares), contemporary art. I love hiking, but my partner is not keen on *too much* hiking this trip. I like the idea of spending time in the forest and seaside for this trip.

For the first part of my trip (3 days), I was planning to first go from Osaka to Naoshima Island to see the art installations OR go to Fukuoka + Arita. After that, I wanted to see south kyushu (Yakushima, takachiko, mt aso, beppu) for 8 days via car.

I'm not sure which of naoshima or fukuoka to pick. I've heard there's not much to do in Fukuoka, but fits more easily in the itinerary, and I don't think I would go back to see Fukuoka otherwise. I'm more excited for Naoshima, but understand it'll involve going back to osaka and then flying to yakushima (which I'm ok with). Where do you think is better to spend 3 days?

Other ideas were to see the nara art forest, but I decided to leave that for another trip instead of cramming it into this one. Should I cut more out of south kyushu? The only thing I'm dead set on is 3 days in Yakushima. I'm happy to change anything else!

Would greatly appreciate any insights and opinions. Thank you (:

Hello all (: I'm planning/booking my trip to Peru, and insanely excited about it, especially Machu Pichu! I went to Chile, Argentina and Bolivia earlier this year and enjoyed it so much that I'm planning this trip already TwT

We are going in Aug/Sept. I want to optimise my chances for seeing the citadel in good weather, and also wanted advice on whether particular locations/tours should be prioritised, given our time is very limited.

My limiting factor is time. I'm OK with a faster paced experience, as I only get a short period!

Day 1 - Travel Australia -> Santiago -> Lima (arriving at night. Bless the international dateline)

Day 2 - Relax in Lima

Day 3, 4, 5 - Peru hop tour - Lima -> paracas -> Huacachina -> back to Lima.

- My thoughts were that this would be a relaxing start to the trip, and allow me to deal with jetlag

- Might it be better to cut this part, and split these days between Lima and Cusco/Ollaytantambo?

Day 6 - Lima -> Cusco or ollantaytambo to start acclimation. I heard Ollantaytambo is really beautiful and it's quite easy to explore the ruins. I was also tossing up whether Cusco would be better, as it seems like it's more lively / more to do. Which do you think is better to stay in?

Day 7 - Sacred Valley tour

Day 8 - Moray / maras / salt mines tour OR Humantay lake hike - Is this second tour worth doing? I find that I do get a bit bored doing too many tours, and maybe the hike would be better variety?

Day 9 - 2 day inca trail day 1 (Alpaca Expeditions). Stay in hotel or camping. (I'm leaning towards hotel)

Day 10 - Machu pichu tour (Alpaca) in the morning. Self-guided tour in the afternoon 2B [the afternoon tickets are paid for and locked in, so i cannot change them].

- I'm also considering moving my 2 day inca trail to day 8/9, and skipping the activities on that day. This will allow me to do the guided tour on day 9, and then have a slower morning on day 10, and do my self-guided 2B route as above.

- This will also mean that I see Machu Pichu on different days, so it increases my weather window!

Day 11 - Empty morning. Head back to cusco in the evening with Alpaca expeditions.

- I would love to head back to Cusco in the evening on day 10, after my self-guided tour. However, the company I want to book my 2 day tour with has a set schedule for their transfers back to Cusco, so I have to spend an extra whole day in AC and go back on Day 11 evening.

- Alternately, I could just pay for my own transport for this portion to get back late on day 10. It means paying more, but it does save me some time, which I'm not opposed to doing. This will mean I get more time in Cusco or Ollantaytambo, and could potentially do one of the tours I missed out on earlier.

Day 12 - Explore cusco and/or do one of the tours or activities we didn't do earlier.

Day 13 - Rainbow mountain hike (Vinicunca, Pallay Punchu or Palccoyo?)

Day 14 - Cusco -> head back to santiago

Day 15 - Santiago (also tossing up spending day 14 in Cusco, and heading back to santiago today, as I have already seen Santiago before)

Day 16/17 - fly back to Australia (dammit, International dateline D:< )

----

Lots of moving parts! Would appreciate everyone's thoughts.

The itinerary is quite fast paced, but I'm trying to figure out what I can cut out to give me a bit of breathing room. My "must do's" are machu pichu, and rainbow mountain. I'd like to do (one of) the sacred valley tour OR moray tour (would love to do both, but happy to scrap one if that works better).

Many thanks!!