Hakone With Kids

Why Hakone works so well for families

Hakone sits in a volcanic caldera about 90 minutes from Tokyo by Shinkansen, and it delivers something genuinely different from the temple-and-shrine circuit of Kyoto and Nara. Here the landscape itself is the attraction, active volcanic vents, a lake formed inside a crater, gondolas floating through sulphurous clouds, and mountains that frame a view of Mt Fuji on clear days. It feels wilder and more dramatic than anywhere else on a standard Japan itinerary.

For families it’s also refreshingly hands-on. The Open Air Museum has sculpture kids can climb inside and a free natural hot spring foot bath. The pirate ship across Lake Ashi is exactly as theatrical as it sounds. Odawara Castle, just down the Shinkansen line, is a proper keep with views over the Pacific. And the Shinkansen journey itself, with ekiben bento boxes from Tokyo Station, is something the kids still talk about.

Hakone sits naturally on the Shinkansen route between Tokyo and Kyoto, making it the ideal overnight stop rather than a detour. Coming from Kyoto, the journey to Odawara takes around 40 minutes on the Hikari Shinkansen. From Tokyo it’s about 35 minutes. Either way, two nights gives you enough time to cover the highlights without feeling rushed.

Getting there: the Shinkansen experience

The Shinkansen to Odawara is part of the Hakone experience, not just the means of getting there. Whether you’re coming from Kyoto or Tokyo, the bullet train reaches speeds of around 285km/h and the journey feels quick enough to be surprising. From Kyoto, take the Hikari Shinkansen, about 40 minutes to Odawara. From Tokyo, the Kodama or Hikari gets you there in around 35 minutes. For kids on their first Shinkansen, the acceleration alone is worth the ticket. How the rest of the network fits together, seats, luggage and travelling with kids, is in getting around Japan.

The ritual we’d recommend: buy ekiben (station bento boxes) before boarding. Kyoto Station and Tokyo Station both have excellent selections, beautifully packaged regional bento ranging from pressed sushi to wagyu beef sets. Eating them as the city blurs past the window is one of those small travel moments that sticks. Our kids now associate the Shinkansen entirely with unpacking little boxes and finding out what’s inside.

Odawara: more than a transit stop

Most visitors treat Odawara as pure transit, the Shinkansen stop you pass through on the way to Hakone’s mountains. We based ourselves here for our whole stay and found it genuinely worked well as a family. It’s a real town with a coastal feel, far more affordable than the mountain resorts, and better connected than people expect. The Hakone Tozan railway runs from Odawara Station directly into the mountains, so every attraction is still easily reachable.

Odawara Castle is the centrepiece, a proper feudal keep reconstructed to its original design, with views from the top floor over Sagami Bay and the mountains behind. The grounds are free to wander, the castle itself costs a few hundred yen, and kids find it exciting in a way that many temples don’t quite manage.

The Ninja Museum nearby is worth knowing about if you have kids who are into that world. It’s interactive rather than exhibit-based, climbing walls, balance challenges and hands-on activities that kept ours entertained for a solid hour. It doesn’t take itself too seriously, which is exactly right.

Odawara also has a genuinely good food scene that most visitors miss entirely by rushing through. The town centre around the castle has a wide range of restaurants, casual eateries, ramen shops and cafes, far more variety than you’d find in the mountain resort areas. We ate well every night without having to think hard about it, which isn’t always true in smaller Japanese tourist towns.

The Hakone Ropeway and Owakudani

The ropeway is the centrepiece of the Hakone experience and it delivers, even on a cloudy day. The gondolas rise from Sounzan Station and climb over the ridge into the Owakudani volcanic zone, where sulphurous steam vents from the earth and the landscape looks genuinely other-worldly. You smell it before you see it: a sharp sulphur note that arrives as the gondola crests the ridge and the valley opens below you.

Owakudani station sits in the middle of the volcanic zone and you can walk the paths between the active vents. The famous black eggs (kuro-tamago) are hard-boiled in the natural hot spring pools and sold in packs of five, legend says each one adds seven years to your life. Our kids were deeply invested in this claim and ate accordingly.

On a clear day, Mt Fuji appears above the ridge line from the ropeway, one of the most iconic views in Japan, the perfectly symmetrical cone floating above the cloud. Visibility is genuinely weather-dependent and many visits (including ours) don’t get a clear Fuji view. Don’t plan your trip around it, but if the weather cooperates, it’s extraordinary.

Lake Ashi and the pirate ships

Lake Ashi is a caldera lake formed by a volcanic eruption around 3,000 years ago. It’s large, usually misty, and studded with torii gates visible from the shore. The pirate ships that cross it are exactly what they sound like: full-scale replica galleons with painted cannons, figurehead dragons and an actual on-board shop. They’re completely over the top and absolutely brilliant for children.

Hakone Open Air Museum

The Open Air Museum is one of the best family attractions in Japan, and that’s not a claim we’d make lightly. It houses a permanent collection of major 20th-century sculpture spread across hillside gardens, including a dedicated Picasso pavilion and several large-scale pieces by Henry Moore, Miro and others. But it’s the interactive installations that make it outstanding for families.

Several of the sculptures are designed to be entered, climbed or experienced from the inside. The mirror tunnel, the stained glass tower, the giant net structure kids can crawl through, none of this feels like a typical art museum visit. Our kids spent three hours here without any prompting from us to keep moving.

Lunch is easy here, and worth planning for rather than rushing. There is a ninja-themed cafe near Gora station, staff in costume and all, which our two thought was the funniest thing in Hakone. It is not fine dining and it does not need to be; it is a warm sit-down in the middle of a long loop day.

Where to stay: Odawara vs the mountains

The conventional Hakone stay is up in the mountains, Gora or Hakone-Yumoto, ryokan with onsen, the whole experience. That’s genuinely wonderful if your budget allows. But we based ourselves in Odawara town and it worked extremely well for a family. We had a two-bedroom apartment, actual living space, a proper kitchen, room for the kids to spread out, at a fraction of the price of the mountain accommodation. The Hakone Tozan railway runs from Odawara Station directly up to all the main attractions, so nothing felt hard to reach. Our full thinking on family accommodation is in where to stay with a family.

A traditional ryokan with an onsen is the ideal Hakone experience if you can stretch to it, expect ¥20–30k+ per person per night for a proper ryokan with meals included. But for families travelling with kids, a self-contained apartment or guesthouse in Odawara is a practical and genuinely enjoyable alternative. We had bunk beds for the boys and a projector for evening movies, which suited everyone perfectly.

What to eat: Odawara and beyond

Odawara surprised us with how good the food scene is. As a proper coastal town rather than a purpose-built tourist resort, it has a wide range of restaurants, izakayas, sushi spots, ramen, cafes and casual family restaurants, at normal local prices. If you’re based in Odawara, you’ll eat well without any planning. Heaven Meat Street near the castle area is a good evening option: yakitori stalls and grilled skewers that the kids will happily work through. For the wider picture, including the convenience store food that saved us more than once, see our food guide.

Practical tips for visiting Hakone with kids

The details that made this leg easier. Worth reading alongside what the trip cost, since Hakone is where a family budget tends to stretch.