Takayama Trip Overview
Explore the beautiful mountain settlement of Shirakawa-go and Gokayama via chartered vehicle exclusively for you and your travelmates. Your English-speaking driver will take you to the World Heritage Site of fairy-tale village.
Shirakawa-go and Gokayama is a remote settlement designated as a UNESCO World Heritage Site located in the mountains of Gifu Prefecture. As the region receives considerable snowfall in the winter, the farmhouses are well-known for their distinctive architecture featuring steep roofs to easily shed snow. Learn more about this unique village on a full-day chartered vehicle tour with English-speaking driver.
On this day trip departing from Takayama, leave the hustle and bustle of the city behind to wander around a unique village, stroll through historic streets, take in stunning mountain landscapes, and enjoy a lunch made of authentic local ingredients.
Your driver will customize your four-hour tour according to your interests and requests!
Additional Info
Duration: 7 hours
Starts: Takayama, Japan
Trip Category: Cultural & Theme Tours >> Cultural Tours
Explore Takayama Promoted Experiences
What to Expect When Visiting Takayama, Gifu Prefecture, Japan
Explore the beautiful mountain settlement of Shirakawa-go and Gokayama via chartered vehicle exclusively for you and your travelmates. Your English-speaking driver will take you to the World Heritage Site of fairy-tale village.
Shirakawa-go and Gokayama is a remote settlement designated as a UNESCO World Heritage Site located in the mountains of Gifu Prefecture. As the region receives considerable snowfall in the winter, the farmhouses are well-known for their distinctive architecture featuring steep roofs to easily shed snow. Learn more about this unique village on a full-day chartered vehicle tour with English-speaking driver.
On this day trip departing from Takayama, leave the hustle and bustle of the city behind to wander around a unique village, stroll through historic streets, take in stunning mountain landscapes, and enjoy a lunch made of authentic local ingredients.
Your driver will customize your four-hour tour according to your interests and requests!
Itinerary
This is a typical itinerary for this product
Pass By: Takayama Station, Japan, 〒506-0053 岐阜県高山市昭和町１丁目２２−２
This tour starts at Takayama. Your driver pick you up at your hotel or Takayama station.
Stop At: Ogimachi Shirakawa-go, Shirakawa-mura, Ono-gun 501-5627 Gifu Prefecture
Ogimachi, Shirakawa-go’s largest village and main attraction, makes a good day trip from Takayama, or a stop on the bus journey between Takayama and Kanazawa. The best way to experience the town, however, is to stay overnight at one of the farmhouses, many of which now serve as minshuku.
Duration: 1 minute
Stop At: Gokayama, Nanto Toyama Prefecture
The Shirakawa-go (白川郷, Shirakawagō) and neighboring Gokayama (五箇山) regions line the Shogawa River Valley in the remote mountains that span from Gifu to Toyama Prefectures. Declared a UNESCO world heritage site in 1995, they are famous for their traditional gassho-zukuri farmhouses, some of which are more than 250 years old.
Gassho-zukuri means “constructed like hands in prayer”, as the farmhouses’ steep thatched roofs resemble the hands of Buddhist monks pressed together in prayer. The architectural style developed over many generations and is designed to withstand the large amounts of heavy snow that falls in the region during winter. The roofs, made without nails, provided a large attic space used for cultivating silkworms.
Duration: 30 minutes
Stop At: Ainokura Gassho Community, Ainokura, Nanto 939-1915 Toyama Prefecture
Set far back in the valley, Ainokura (相倉) is the most remote village in the Gokayama region. It is also the largest of the villages with nearly 20 gassho-zukuri farmhouses. Many of them remain private residences, although a few have been converted into restaurants, museums, and minshuku.
Ainokura, along with Suganuma and Ogimachi, was declared a UNESCO world heritage site in 1995. As it is less developed and harder to get to than Ogimachi, Ainokura is quieter and sees less tourist traffic, and offers similar attractions including the highly recommend overnight at a farmhouse.
Duration: 30 minutes
Stop At: Suganuma Gassho Community, Suganuma, Nanto 939-1973 Toyama Prefecture
Suganuma (菅沼), one of the main attractions of Gokayama, is made up of two areas, Suganuma Village and the Gokayama Gassho no Sato. Pleasant and easy to explore on foot, the two areas are connected to each other by a tunnel, which also connects to the parking lot on the hill overlooking the village via an elevator.
Suganuma Village and nine of its gassho-zukuri farmhouses, were designated a UNESCO world heritage site along with Ainokura and Ogimachi in 1995. A beautiful place to see gassho-zukuri farmhouses, the ones here have been well preserved and a few of them have become restaurants, minshuku, and museums showing the daily life and the washi paper and saltpeter industries that sustained the region.
Duration: 30 minutes
Stop At: Shirakawago, 517 Hatogaya, Shirakawa-mura, Ono-gun 501-5629 Gifu Prefecture
The Shirakawa-go (白川郷, Shirakawagō) and neighboring Gokayama (五箇山) regions line the Shogawa River Valley in the remote mountains that span from Gifu to Toyama Prefectures. Declared a UNESCO world heritage site in 1995, they are famous for their traditional gassho-zukuri farmhouses, some of which are more than 250 years old.
Gassho-zukuri means “constructed like hands in prayer”, as the farmhouses’ steep thatched roofs resemble the hands of Buddhist monks pressed together in prayer. The architectural style developed over many generations and is designed to withstand the large amounts of heavy snow that falls in the region during winter. The roofs, made without nails, provided a large attic space used for cultivating silkworms.
Ogimachi, Shirakawa-go’s largest village and main attraction, makes a good day trip from Takayama, or a stop on the bus journey between Takayama and Kanazawa. The best way to experience the town, however, is to stay overnight at one of the farmhouses, many of which now serve as minshuku.
Gokayama is a little more difficult to access and requires a change of buses in Ogimachi. Less developed and less crowded than Shirakawa-go, its villages are smaller, more intimate and with less intrusion from modern buildings. Gokayama’s nicest villages are Suganuma and Ainokura.
Duration: 2 hours
