This is an automated archive made by the Lemmit Bot.

The original was posted on /r/japantravel by /u/I_Am_Kylo_Ren_AMA on 2024-04-29 16:22:38.

I recently got back from a 3 week trip in Japan and the Shimanami Kaido cycle route was easily my favourite part. I’m writing up a brief overview for anyone who’s also interested in including it as part of their trip. If you’re not familiar with the route, it’s ranked as one of the top 7 best cycle routes in the world with many beautiful views and purpose built cycle paths.

We were leaving Hiroshima on a Monday morning and due to arrive in Tokyo that evening, and looking at train times saw that if we left Hiroshima at 6am we could get to Onomichi (where the route typically starts) by 7:30am and as long as we finished the route in Imabari (where it ends) by around 6pm, we could get on a bus at 6:20pm which would bring us back to Fukuyama in time for the last bullet train to Tokyo.

The whole route is ~70km, which is achievable in a day for most cyclists, but neither me nor my gf are cyclists and we wanted to just enjoy the route rather than treat it as a challenge so when we got to the bike hire place we opted for the e-bikes, which were 6000jpy each for the day (inc helmet).

I read different things about how early you need to arrive at the bike hire place to secure a bike (with some saying 4am to guarantee something) as they have 60 bikes available each day for those without reservations (which we didn’t have). It opens at 7am and when we got there at 7:30am, there were only 2 other customers there and loads of bikes to choose from. This was a Monday and a non-holiday so it may vary. Reserving in advance would definitely be my suggestion to avoid disappointment though.

After getting the bikes, you hop on a ferry that takes 5 minutes to get to the first island where the trail begins. As an estimate, I would say 30% of the trail is on bike only paths, 50% on shared pavements (bike + pedestrians) and 20% on the road. The road parts generally had minimal traffic though.

The entire route is easy to follow with blue marks and arrows showing the way.

The e-bikes were great and meant we could stop numerous time to enjoy views, take pictures and get food. My favourite rest stop was just before you start the climb to the Ikuchi Bridge (to the third island) - we’d been cycling past orange trees for a while and stumbled across a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it orange farm serving up fresh orange juice. It’s a small farm, and the owner gives you a basket of freshly picked oranges to choose from, a knife to cut them and a hand press to crush them into juice. They then set up some chairs for you overlooking the next bridge. The address is 竹長区, Innoshimatakumacho, Onomichi (I believe usually it’s only open on weekends though).

I would strongly recommend getting some padded shorts for the ride, as after a few hours we were taking regular breaks just for some relief from the saddle.

The Kirosan Observatory Park is at the peak of the last island and gives you the best views of the entire trail. This is off the main route so you’ll need to be aware of it or you’ll cycle straight past. It’s a 3.5km steep climb and I started at the bottom with 30% charge remaining and my bike died 500m from the top. My gfs bike was fine, but I’m much heavier which drained the battery faster. Something to be aware of for heavier riders as I then had to finish the last ~20km with no charge.

We ended up getting to Imbari station at 6pm (the return place is on the right of the station if you’re looking at the front of it), return took a minute and then we were on the last bus.

We both had backpacks with food/water and I don’t think this was necessary. There’s plenty of places and vending machines along the route to get what you need when you need it. We took 10 hours, but with many stops, you could do this <5 hours on a e-bike quite easily but it wouldn’t be as enjoyable. You could do the route in a day on a regular bike with a reasonable fitness level but again you’d be losing a lot of the enjoyment from stopping at various spots.