The Best Things To Do in Hakone, Japan25 min read

Most people treat Hakone as a box to check between Tokyo and Kyoto. A quick look at Mt. Fuji, a boiled black egg, a photo of a red torii gate in a lake — done by dinner. That’s a mistake. Hakone is the place you slow down. It’s where Japan swaps neon and crowds for cedar forests, sulfur steam, and a hot spring soak with a volcano in the background. This guide covers the best things to do in Hakone — built to help you do it properly, not as a rushed day trip, but as the day or two overnight onsen escape it was always meant to be. You’ll get the transport figured out, and honest picks on where to stay and what to eat.

The short answer? Give Hakone two days. One night in a ryokan here will reset you in a way no Tokyo hotel can. If Tokyo’s on your itinerary too, our guide to the best Things To Do in Tokyo is a good next stop before or after Hakone.

Things to do in Hakone

Ride the switchback train

The Hakone Tozan Railway isn’t just transport — it’s one of the more memorable things to do in Hakone in its own right. Between Hakone-Yumoto and Gora, the mountainside gets too steep for the train to simply curve around it, so the line zigzags instead: three separate switchbacks where the driver and conductor physically swap ends of the train, reversing direction each time. In places the gradient hits 8%, among the steepest a conventional railway handles anywhere. The trains themselves are tiny — two or three carriages — which is exactly what makes the quick end-to-end swap possible every 15 minutes. Grab a seat near the front, watch for the crew change, and enjoy the ride through the wooded valley in between.

Hakone Open-Air Museum

A sculpture park where the art lives outdoors on the grass — Henry Moore, a whole Picasso Pavilion, works by Taro Okamoto, and installations kids can actually climb on. It’s one of the most rewarding things to do in Hakone if you want a change of pace from onsen and volcanic steam. Give it a couple of hours. It’s open year-round, and it’s a two-minute walk from Chokoku-no-Mori Station on the Tozan line.

Cable car and ropeway to Owakudani

From Gora, the Hakone Tozan Cable Car climbs 208 meters to Sounzan in about 9 minutes, stopping at a handful of small stations along the way. At Sounzan, switch to the Hakone Ropeway for the roughly 15-minute ride over to Owakudani — one of the most photographed legs among all the things to do in Hakone, since this is where the cable cars pass directly over the volcanic valley’s steam vents. In Hakone, the transport itself is part of the sightseeing — the cable car, ropeway, pirate ship, and switchback train are each highlights in their own right, not just ways to get around.

Owakudani and the black eggs

Step off the ropeway at Owakudani and you’re standing in an active volcanic valley — hissing steam vents, sulfur springs, and the unmistakable smell of rotten eggs. Fitting, because the thing to do here is eat a kuro-tamago: a black egg boiled in the sulfuric springs, sold in bags of five. Local legend says each one adds seven years to your life. The math is generous. Eat one anyway — it’s one of the more memorable things to do in Hakone, sulfur smell included.

Hakone GeoMuseum

Right next to the black egg stand, tucked into the Owakudani Kurotamagokan building, is a small museum that explains exactly what you’re standing on top of. The Hakone GeoMuseum breaks down the volcanic activity that shaped the whole region — Owakudani’s steam vents, Mt. Kamiyama, Lake Ashi’s caldera origins, and why all that sulfur underground is the reason the onsen exist in the first place. It’s a quick, worthwhile stop among the things to do in Hakone if you want context for what you just walked through. It’s a one-minute walk from Owakudani Ropeway Station — easy to fold in right after the eggs.

Take a pirate ship cruise

From Togendai, board one of Lake Ashi’s pirate ship cruises for the roughly 25–30 minute sail to Hakone-machi, stopping at Moto-Hakone along the way — on a clear day, this is where Mt. Fuji lines up behind the lake’s floating torii gate. It’s a can’t-skip stop on any list of things to do in Hakone. Worth the upgrade: for an extra fee per person, you can move up to the Special Cabin on the upper deck — cushioned seating, big panoramic windows, and a quieter bow observation area, away from the standard cabin’s first-come, first-served crowding. Keep in mind the Hakone Free Pass only covers the standard cabin, so the upgrade is paid separately.

Hakone Shrine

The red torii gate standing in Lake Ashi is the shot everyone comes for — and it deserves the hype. But go early. By mid-morning the queue for that photo is brutal. The shrine grounds are open around the clock with no admission fee, so there’s nothing stopping you from showing up at sunrise: walk the lantern-lined path up through the cedars to the shrine itself, and you’ll get the quiet version most visitors miss. It’s one of the most rewarding things to do in Hakone if you’re willing to trade a bit of sleep for it.

Soak in an onsen

Let’s be honest — this is why you came. Hakone’s volcanic geology means hot springs everywhere, from historic ryokans with private cypress tubs to big day-use bathhouses. If you’re staying overnight, book a ryokan with its own onsen and don’t leave.

If you’re on a budget and staying somewhere without one — like a hostel — or if you’re just passing through for the day, day-use spots like Hakone Yuryo or Tenseien do the job just as well. Soaking in mineral-rich water after a full day on the loop is the whole point of this guide.

A few rules keep it enjoyable for everyone. Onsen bathing is done fully nude — no swimsuits, even in private or mixed baths. Wash and rinse completely at the shower stations before getting in; nobody enters the water dirty. Bring two towels: a small one for washing, which never touches the bath water (rest it on your head or set it aside), and a larger one for drying off after. Tie up long hair so it stays out of the water, skip the diving and splashing, and keep conversation low — onsen are meant to be quiet.

Leave your phone in the changing room; cameras and photos are not okay in the bathing area. And know before you go: many public onsen still turn away visible tattoos, so if you have one, look for a private ryokan bath or a tattoo-friendly facility instead. Get these right and the rest of your things to do in Hakone onsen stops go smoothly.

Stay in a ryokan

This is the part of the trip that makes the rest of it worth it. A ryokan isn’t just a place to sleep — it’s a tatami-floored room with a futon laid out for you, a yukata robe to change into the moment you arrive, and, if you choose well, your own private onsen bath just steps from the bed. Check-in usually opens around 3:00pm, which gives you time to settle in, soak once, and still make it to dinner around 6 or 7.

Dinner is the centerpiece: a multi-course kaiseki-style meal built around whatever’s local and in season, served in your room or a private dining space depending on the property. Breakfast the next morning is just as deliberate — smaller, but no less considered — and check-out isn’t until 10:00 or 11:00am, which is exactly enough time for one more bath before you go.

Know which bath you’re using. The communal bath (daiyokujo) is split by gender, open whenever the ryokan’s bathing hours run, and follows the same etiquette as any public onsen — nude, washed first, quiet, no tattoos in most cases.

A private bath (kashikiri) is different: you reserve it, either at check-in or on the spot if it’s free, for a 40- to 60-minute session — many ryokans throw in one session per stay at no charge. Because it’s just you and whoever you’re traveling with, kashikiri lifts the gender separation entirely, so couples and families bathe together, and tattoo restrictions are almost always relaxed.

Some ryokans also have an in-room bath you can use anytime, no reservation needed, or a kashikiri-rotenburo — a private outdoor bath tucked into the garden. If a communal bath feels like a stretch for your group, book the private one and don’t think twice about it.

Where you actually book matters just as much as the room itself — see where to stay in Hakone below for area-by-area picks, real properties, and booking links. Skip an attraction if you have to, but don’t skip a proper ryokan night. It’s the one entry on this list of things to do in Hakone that everything else is really building toward.

Enjoy the autumn foliage

Hakone’s foliage doesn’t turn all at once — elevation staggers it into a rolling show that runs nearly six weeks. Time your trip right and you can chase the color as it moves down the mountain.

For the best views, Gora Park is the standout — Japan’s first French-style formal garden, its maples flare bright red in early November, with a historic teahouse serving matcha right in the middle of it. The Hakone Museum of Art plays foliage against its moss garden for a striking contrast. Lake Ashi cruise gets you the shrine’s torii gate framed against colored mountains. For something quieter, Soun-ji Temple near Hakone-Yumoto offers foliage without the crowds.

If autumn is your season, this is one of the most rewarding things to do in Hakone you can time a trip around.

Go hiking

Hakone isn’t just something you ride through — a lot of it is meant to be walked. The Old Tokaido Road Trail is the standout pick: a 7 km, 2- to 3-hour walk along the old Edo-era highway, through cedar forest and past moss-covered stone steps and a historic checkpoint. It’s history and hiking in the same trail, and it fits easily into an afternoon.

If you want a real summit, Mt. Kintoki is the one to go for. From Hakone-Yumoto, take the “T” bus to Sengoku, then transfer to the “M” bus to the Kintoki-jinja-iriguchi stop — about 30 minutes total, and covered by the Hakone Free Pass. It’s a 2.5- to 3.5-hour round trip, moderate to difficult, climbing to 1,212 meters — and it’s said to have some of the best Mt. Fuji views in the entire region, earned rather than ridden to.

If you’re planning a longer trip and want to go beyond the essentials, Hakone has more to offer: the Owakudani-to-Kamiyama Ridge trail cuts straight through the active volcanic zone up to the region’s highest peak at 1,438 meters, and Mt. Myojogatake — home to the Hakone Daimonji Fire Festival site — is a 3- to 4-hour round trip with views over Sagami Bay. Any one of these earns its spot on a serious list of things to do in Hakone — just check trail conditions before you go, since parts of the region occasionally close for volcanic activity.

Where is Hakone?

Hakone sits about 85 km southwest of Tokyo, tucked into the mountains of Fuji-Hakone-Izu National Park in Kanagawa Prefecture. It’s built around volcanic geology — which is exactly why it’s covered in hot springs — and it wraps around Lake Ashi, the caldera lake where, on a clear day, Mt. Fuji lines up perfectly behind a floating red torii gate.

The whole area is compact but vertical, which shapes most of the best things to do in Hakone: you’re constantly going up and down the mountain by train, cable car, ropeway, and boat — which sounds like a hassle and is actually half the fun.

How to get to Hakone from Tokyo

The best way in is the Odakyu Romancecar — a limited express that runs direct from Shinjuku to Hakone-Yumoto, the gateway station, in around 80 minutes with no transfers. It’s a proper sightseeing train: reserved seats, huge panoramic windows, and if you can snag them, front-row observation seats behind the driver.

Book those seats up to a month ahead on Odakyu’s English site. They sell out fast on weekends and holidays — this is non-negotiable if you’re traveling in autumn.

If you’re already carrying a JR Pass, there’s a second route: take the Tokaido Shinkansen from Tokyo to Odawara (about 35 minutes), then switch to the Hakone Tozan line for the last short hop to Hakone-Yumoto. The JR Pass covers you as far as Odawara. For everything inside Hakone, you’ll want a different ticket — the Hakone Free Pass, which covers most of the things to do in Hakone once you’re on the ground — which brings us to the single most important thing in this guide.

The Hakone Free Pass

One Hakone Free Pass, unlimited rides on Odakyu-affiliated trains, buses, cable cars, the ropeway, and the Lake Ashi boats — plus discounts at museums and onsen. Buy it and stop thinking about individual tickets for the rest of the things to do in Hakone on your list.

How to buy and redeem Hakone Free Pass

Buy the Hakone Free Pass through Klook — at checkout, you’ll choose between an e-ticket or a physical ticket, since your ticket type determines how you redeem it later.

If you choose the e-ticket, follow Klook’s redemption instructions carefully — there are a few easy-to-miss steps (don’t download the voucher, and if you’re traveling with others, each person needs to activate their pass separately on their own device).

If you choose the physical ticket: present your mobile voucher at the Odakyu Sightseeing Service Center in Shinjuku West or Odawara to receive your physical pass. Bring government-issued photo ID — it’s required to collect it. Keep in mind counter hours: Shinjuku opens at 8:00am, Odawara at 8:30am. If you want the physical ticket, book a Romancecar departure after the counter opens; otherwise, the e-ticket is the safer choice for an early train

Mistakes to avoid

Two things trip people up constantly.

First, the Free Pass does not fully cover the Romancecar — it pays the base fare, but the reserved seat is a separate fee. Buy that seat reservation before you board at Shinjuku; if you don’t, the conductor will collect it on the train and it’s a scramble.

Second, don’t tap a Suica or PASMO card at the gate out of habit — the Free Pass is what should go through the gate. If you tap an IC card instead, you’ll be charged the standard IC fare for that leg and the Free Pass won’t register. If it happens, don’t just walk off the platform: find the manned gate or ticket window immediately and ask staff to correct the charge before you leave the station. This one habit is worth remembering for every stop on your list of things to do in Hakone, since you’ll be passing through gates constantly.

The Hakone Loop

The classic circuit — locals call it the Round Course — strings together the whole region and covers most of the essential things to do in Hakone in a single day. Most people run it counter-clockwise, and I’d do the same:

1. Hakone Tozan Railway from Hakone-Yumoto to Gora — a switchback mountain train that claws its way up more than 400 meters through a wooded valley. In June and July the tracks are lined with hydrangeas.
2. Cable car from Gora up to Sounzan.
3. Hakone Ropeway from Sounzan over the mountains to Togendai — around 4 km, with Mt. Fuji hanging in the window on clear days.
4. Owakudani, the volcanic valley, where you get off from ropeway to stand among the steam vents.
5. Lake Ashi pirate ship from Togendai across the water to Moto-Hakone.
6. Tozan bus back down to Hakone-Yumoto.

You can do the whole loop in a day, but if you’re staying overnight, split it — loop in the afternoon, soak in the evening, and hit the shrine early the next morning before the crowds.

Day trip or overnight?

Here’s the honest answer. You can do Hakone as a day trip from Tokyo — the Romancecar makes it easy, and if you’re tight on time, one full day gets you round the loop and back by night.

But Hakone was built for an overnight. The whole point is the onsen, and the onsen is best after the crowds thin out — soaking in a bath as the evening mist rolls in, then waking up to a kaiseki breakfast and a quiet shrine before the day-trippers arrive. Weighing the full range of things to do in Hakone against how little time a day trip actually gives you, staying the night wins every time.

Even better, if you have the time, spend a second full day just for the onsen and relaxation — no loop, no itinerary, just slow mornings and long soaks. If you can spare one night, this is the place in Japan to spend it. Day trip if you must; overnight if you can, and two nights if you really want to unwind.

Where to stay in Hakone

Where you sleep in Hakone matters more than in most places, because the town is spread up a mountain. Pick your base by how much you want to move around.

Hakone-Yumoto

The safe first-timer pick — you step off the Romancecar and you’re there, surrounded by restaurants and ryokan. Gateway town, busy on weekends, but nothing beats it for convenience.

• Hakone Pax Yoshino — a riverside ryokan with a private semi-outdoor cypress bath built into every room, right on the Sukumogawa River.
• Yamagaso — a more secluded, home-away-from-home stay: standalone quarters that feel like your own little Japanese house, with a separate bedroom and dining area.
• Ichinoyu Honkan — the real deal for traditional. Founded in 1630 and still run by the same family, now 16 generations in, it’s a registered Important Cultural Asset perched over the Hayakawa River in a quiet wooded valley one stop from Hakone-Yumoto Station.

Gora

Up the mountain, central to the cable car and ropeway, home to the best kaiseki dining on the loop.

• Gora Kansuiro — a genuine slice of history. It started life as the Iwasaki family’s villa (of Mitsubishi fame) in 1920 and became a hot spring ryokan in 1949. Two on-site spring sources feed an open-air rotenburo overlooking the garden, and the multi-course kaiseki is the real thing.
• Tokinoyu Setsugetsuka — a contemporary take on the ryokan, a short walk from Gora Station and close to the art museums. Hotel-scale comfort with the onsen-and-kaiseki ritual intact, and easier on the wallet than the historic houses.
• Hakone Kowakien Ten-yu — Few minutes from Gora by bus. Every single room has its own private open-air bath, plus a large communal outdoor onsen with an open horizon view for sunrise soaking. The pick if “private onsen in the room” is non-negotiable for you.

Other

Beyond Yumoto and Gora, three more options are worth knowing about.

• The Fujiya Hotel — one of Japan’s oldest Western-style resort hotels, founded in 1878. Several of its buildings, dating from 1891 to 1960, are registered tangible cultural properties. If you want somewhere with genuine history rather than a recreation of it, this is the pick — and it’s a different kind of stay entirely from the ryokan-and-onsen experience covered above.
• Hotel de Yama — built on the former villa estate of Baron Iwasaki, the same family behind Gora Kansuiro, with gardens inherited from the original property. Right on the lake, closest to Hakone Shrine and the pirate ship dock, at the cost of being farther from the train and cable car loop.
• Hakone Hostel 1914 — the budget pick. Dorm beds and Japanese-style private rooms with futons, well-located right in Miyanoshita, for anyone who wants to stay based in Hakone without ryokan-level prices.

What to eat in Hakone

Hakone’s food is built on one ingredient you can’t see: clean, mineral-rich mountain water. It shows up in everything.

• Soba. That water makes for exceptionally smooth, fragrant buckwheat noodles.
• Tofu and yuba. The same spring water produces some of Japan’s silkiest tofu and yuba (tofu skin).
• Kuro-tamago. The black eggs from Owakudani. More novelty than fine dining, but you’re not leaving without one.

• Hakone-style manju. Skip the Momiji manju — that’s actually a Miyajima specialty, not a Hakone one. Instead, look for kurotamago manju: a Hakone-born take on the classic manju, molded egg-shaped and coated in chocolate so it mimics the black egg’s dark shell. It’s the local shops’ way of turning Owakudani’s most famous souvenir into a sweet you can actually pack for the train ride home.
• Wakasagi. Lake Ashi’s own freshwater smelt, usually deep-fried whole or grilled on a skewer, sold at restaurants right along the water. Good with a cold beer after the pirate ship crossing.
• Hakone Beer. A local craft pilsner brewed with the same mountain spring water that fills the region’s onsen — it won gold at the Asian Beer Cup and took first in its class at the Japan Brewer’s Cup Festival, so it’s not just a novelty pour. Worth ordering with dinner if your ryokan or a restaurant nearby carries it.

Final thoughts

Hakone is proof that the best part of a Japan trip isn’t always the big city. It’s the morning you wake up in a ryokan, slide open the door to cold mountain air, and lower yourself into a steaming bath while the mist lifts off the valley.

Do the loop, eat the black egg, get the shrine photo — but don’t rush it. Give Hakone the night it deserves and it’ll be the part of your trip you talk about for years, and easily the most memorable entry on your list of things to do in Hakone.

Planning the bigger picture? Our Japan Travel Guide  has more on planning a trip around the country, and the Japan Transportation Guide breaks down transportation logistics in the rest of the country.