Hakone tour reviews
Eight products on GetYourGuide will get you into Hakone for a day, and I have read the traveller reviews for all eight. Six of them are Mt. Fuji coach tours that call at Hakone on the way; two are pure Hakone and are sold at the operator’s own face value. That split tells you more about which one suits you than the star ratings do, so it is the first thing each review below deals with.
All eight, in rating order
Rating order is not the order I would book them in. It is simply the least arguable way to lay them out, and it puts the awkward numbers where you can see them: a 4.0, a product with thirteen reviews, and a private day that never leaves Hakone. Prices are per person, in yen, as read on 12 August 2026.
Mt. Fuji & Hakone Tour: Arakurayama, OshinoHakkai, Owakudani
The best-rated of the eight and among the cheapest. Mostly Fuji-side viewpoints, with three short stops in Hakone.
from ¥7,800Read the full review ›
Tokyo: Mt. Fuji Tour, Hakone Ropeway, Owakudani, Lake Ashi
By far the most-booked. Ropeway one way only, and the Lake Ashi cruise is a paid extra you sort out on the day.
from ¥8,640Read the full review ›
Hakone Private Tour: Bespoke Day from Your Hotel
Starts in Hakone. Travel from Tokyo is not included, which disqualifies it as a day trip for most people.
from ¥38,499Read the full review ›
Hakone: Hakone Ropeway One-Way / Round-Trip E-Ticket
Just the ropeway, at the operator’s own fare. Thirteen reviews is not much to go on, and one of them is a 3.
from ¥2,000Read about the ropeway ›
Tokyo Mt Fuji 5th St & Hakone Cruise Bus Tour w/Bullet Train
The most complete package here: ropeway, cruise, lunch option and a bullet train home. Also the priciest coach day.
from ¥24,000Read the full review ›
Hakone: Train Pass with Unlimited Rides & Activity Discounts
Two days of unlimited rides on eight transport systems. There is no one-day version, and the Romancecar surcharge is extra.
from ¥7,100Read the full review ›
From Tokyo: Mt. Fuji & Hakone Tour w/ Return by Bullet Train
Hotel pickup and a Shinkansen leg home from Odawara, for less than the all-inclusive coach day above it.
from ¥18,160Read the full review ›
Tokyo: Mt. Fuji and Hakone Tour with Cable Car and Cruise
The weakest of the eight at 4.0. Eleven hours, Owakudani only as a pass-by, and a two-and-a-half-hour coach ride home.
from ¥14,400Read the full review ›What I would actually book
If you are comfortable reading a station sign, do it yourself. The Hakone Freepass at ¥7,100 puts you on the loop at your own pace, and you are never waiting for forty other people to come back from a toilet stop. The catch is real and I have given it a page of its own: the pass is only sold with two days of validity, so a one-day trip buys a day it cannot use. The arithmetic is on is the Freepass worth it.
If you would rather be driven, the ¥7,800 viewpoints tour is the highest-rated product on this page and the cheapest coach day of the eight, which is an unusual combination. The ¥8,640 most-booked tour spends more of its day in Hakone. Both are compared against everything else on all tours.
If your whole reason for coming is the gondola over the sulphur vents, buy the ¥2,000 ticket and nothing else. That is covered on the ropeway page rather than here, because at thirteen reviews there is not enough traveller feedback to write a review page around.
How I read these numbers
A 4.7 built on 7,661 reviews and a 4.6 built on 13 are not the same statement. The first is a settled verdict. The second is a handful of people, and one bad week would move it. Where a product is thin, I say so on its page instead of quoting the score as though it were solid.
I also do not treat a high rating as a recommendation on its own. The best-rated tour here spends most of its day on the Fuji side, with Hakone stops of fifteen and thirty minutes. That is a fine day out. It is not a Hakone day, and the score does not tell you that.
The three complaints that come up on every tour
Read enough of these and the same three things surface, regardless of price.
Traffic. Every coach tour on this page leaves Tokyo between 7:30 and 8:00 in the morning and runs eight to eleven hours, and the schedule has no slack in it. Two reviewers, on two different tours, describe losing a stop to it.
Weather. The ropeway suspends in high wind and the cruise changes route or stops in heavy fog. Neither is unusual. One of the reviewers quoted on this site lost both on the day he arrived. Check live status at hakonenavi.jp before you travel.
Cash. Optional extras on the coach tours, the lunch and the Lake Ashi cruise in particular, are paid on the day. At least one reviewer spent part of his trip finding an ATM.
Are these reviews independent?
I am not a tour operator and I do not sell tickets. If you book through a link here, GetYourGuide pays me a small commission and you pay the same price you would have paid anyway. It does not move a score, and the 4.0 on this page is the evidence: the easiest thing in the world would have been to leave it off. If you want the wider question first, read is Hakone worth a day trip.
Frequently asked questions
Which Hakone tour has the best reviews?
The Arakurayama, Oshino Hakkai and Owakudani tour, at 4.9 from 336 reviews and ¥7,800 per person, which is also the cheapest coach day of the eight. Read the full review before you take that at face value: most of the day is on the Fuji side, and the Hakone stops are short.
Which is the worst-rated Hakone tour?
The cable car and cruise tour, at 4.0 from 65 reviews and ¥14,400. It is an eleven-hour day that passes Owakudani rather than stopping there and returns to Tokyo by coach. The review sets out why and what to book instead.
Is a coach tour better than doing Hakone yourself?
It depends on whether you would rather buy the transport or the decisions. The Hakone Freepass at ¥7,100 covers eight transport systems and lets you set your own pace; a coach tour from ¥7,800 removes all planning but fixes the stops and their lengths. Costs for both are on what a day really costs.
Do any of these tours guarantee a view of Mount Fuji?
No, and any page that suggests otherwise is guessing. Reviewers on the same tours describe thick fog and a clear summit within a few lines of each other. The ropeway and the Lake Ashi cruise also suspend in bad weather, so a single booked day carries real risk. Getting there and back is covered on Tokyo to Hakone.