Have a great trip Ronni! We aren't heading back until November and already can't wait.

Thanks for such an informative reply. Much appreciated.

Hi Nick, although it's in Kyoto prefecture it's more time consuming and complex to get to than many destinations in a neighbouring prefecture. If you wanted to do an independent day trip you'd take the limited express from Kyoto to Amanohashidate (just over 2 hours) and great to explore then a bus up to Ine which is another hour or so, you'll need to allow waiting time though as the bus is infrequent. The public boat trip in Ine runs about half-hourly. Whether you do it independently or as a tour a lot of the day will be taken up with getting to and from Kyoto city if you do it that way.

A tour has the connections and transport worked out to maximise what fits into the day but you lose the flexibility to stay longer at one place and skip another. For tours I would usually use Klook but their Ine / Amanohasidate tour leaves from Osaka not Kyoto, I've also booked activities through Viator who do a day tour that leaves from near Kyoto Station.

For us, Ine on a day trip would be pushing too far, that hour on the bus each way from Amanohasidate and roughly an hour between buses would be too time-consuming. I don't mind the 2-hours to Amanohashidate because you can do that by limited express each way so it's comfortable and you just sit back until you arrive, there is only a couple of direct limited express each day but they would work OK to get there and back. Depending on your travel style, how long a day you were prepared for and what you wanted to do there, you could do it.

Can you recommend anything, a tour or some transport options please?
Is Ine suitable for a day trip?

Thanks in advance.

Ouch $200 over budget on data has got to hurt! We are big data users too with the blog, social media and I accidently left the cloud file upload running while taking a ton of video, oops. I also just noticed the reader discount on my site had expired, I can't have set a diary note on that one did Wifi2Go still give you the deal?

Great thanks for your help. Ive ordered a rental wifi unit from Wifi 2 go and see how it goes. I'm quite a big data user and it often traps me. I just blew an extra $200 in NZ recently because of my data usage!I'm so excited to be going to Japan! Thanks for your help.
I said you recommended me to Wifi 2 go.

Hi Sally. In Japan you can't just purchase a SIM card for your phone as a visitor as you do in many other countries, you need to live there, even for foreigners living in Japan it takes a fair bit of perserverence and effort to get one. You can rent a SIM but our experience travelling as a couple is that the pocket WIFI is a better option for us as it can serve to multiple devices. I've written about it in the linked article and discuss the various options, I choose the option of getting the device before I left and return it when I got home as it was no more expensive than organising it there and to be honest yet another queue at the airport when I get there is the last thing I feel like doing usually. https://www.2aussietravellers.com/pocket-wifi-japan/

Thank you Toni, much appreciated