Here the tide sets the day.
The great torii floats at high water and stands on wet sand six hours later. Ferry times, walking routes, prices and what each guided day covers, across Hiroshima and the island.
The bookings that anchor a Hiroshima trip.
A licensed guide for the Peace Memorial Park, a ferry to Miyajima ahead of the coach parties, an evening at an okonomiyaki counter you would walk straight past on your own. These carry most first itineraries.
Hiroshima and Miyajima UNESCO Sites 1-Day Tour
One day linking Hiroshima Peace Memorial and Miyajima’s UNESCO shrine, with English guide, ferry ride, okonomiyaki lunch options, and smooth transport.
From $122 per person
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The island earns a whole day.
Ferries leave Miyajimaguchi every fifteen minutes and the crossing takes ten. Itsukushima Shrine stands on stilts over the water, the deer ignore you completely, and a ropeway climbs most of the way up Mount Misen. Go early or stay late; the middle of the day belongs to the tour coaches.
Miyajima on the same day, or its own?
The park and the ferry pier sit forty minutes apart by tram and train, so the real choice is how much of the day you hand to the island. Three ways to split it, each with its tours already priced.
Both in one day
The full day out
from $129 · 5,309 reviews
One guide, one vehicle, the Peace Memorial Park in the morning and the ferry after lunch. It moves at the pace of a group, and it takes every timetable and ticket queue out of your day.
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The island alone
Miyajima, unhurried
from $109 · 213 reviews
Ropeway to Shishiiwa, forty minutes on foot to the summit, then the long way down past Daisho-in temple. Stay into the evening, once the last ferries have taken the crowds off and the torii is lit.
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On foot, in the city
The city at walking pace
from $122 · 437 reviews
The Peace Memorial Park, the A-Bomb Dome and the museum with a licensed guide, then the castle grounds, Shukkei-en and the rivers of the Ota delta. Three to four hours, flat the whole way.
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The park, the dome and the museum.
The Peace Memorial Park occupies the delta island where the commercial centre of the city stood on 6 August 1945. The A-Bomb Dome is the one structure left standing near the hypocentre, held in the condition it was found in. The Peace Memorial Museum sets out what happened that morning and what followed.
Allow about three hours for the three together. Guided walks in English run through the morning and the early afternoon, and a guide is the difference between reading the plaques and understanding the ground you are standing on.
Hiroshima eats late and close together.
Okonomiyaki here is layered rather than mixed: batter, a nest of cabbage, then noodles pressed onto the hotplate a foot from your elbow. The counters around Nagarekawa and the lanes off Hondori fill up after eight, and plenty of them seat six people and print no English menu.
An afternoon in a workshop.
Kyudo on the range below Hiroshima Castle, a brush and ink at a low table, a kimono fitted properly before the tea is whisked. Two hours indoors, and you leave holding something you made.
The city keeps its quiet corners.
Shukkei-en was laid out in 1620 as a whole landscape in miniature, hills and a lake inside a single city block. The castle keep stands in its moat ten minutes north of it. Between the two are covered arcades, riverbanks and the delta the whole place is built on.
The sea here is a road.
Setouchi is shallow, island dense and almost always flat, and it has been travelled rather than admired for a thousand years. Fast boats to the island jetty, the bridge road out of Onomichi that hops six islands to Shikoku, and Okunoshima, where the rabbits outnumber the day trippers.
Choose your ground.
Miyajima for the tide and the torii. Mount Misen for the ridge walk. Shukkei-en for an hour of quiet. Saijo for the sake. Onomichi for the bridges out to sea.
Pick the shape of the day.
Guided or on your own, two hours or a full day, on foot, on a bicycle or out on the water. Everything behind each tile is priced and reviewed.
How three days fit together.
The city is small and the island is close, so the order matters more than the hours. This is the sequence that wastes the least of them.
Day 1
The city on foot
The Peace Memorial Park, the A-Bomb Dome and the museum in the morning, with a guide who can answer the questions the plaques leave open. Shukkei-en and the castle grounds after lunch, okonomiyaki when the counters open.
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Day 2
Across to Miyajima
An early ferry, the shrine while the water is still high, the ropeway up Mount Misen before the queue builds. Check the tide table the night before and build the day around it.
Plan day two →
Day 3
Out along the sea
Saijo and its brewery street for the short version, Onomichi and the first bridges of the Shimanami Kaido for the long one. Both are a straightforward train from Hiroshima station.
Plan day three →
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