Need some advice on this Okinawa itinerary

We will be flying into Okinawa from Tokyo on July 11. We would like to arrive by 12:00. Here is an idea of what we are thinking about doing while we are there.

On July 11, possibly tour these sites: Peace Memorial Museum, Zakimi Castle and Nago Castle ruins.

July 12 - get rental car and drive to visit scenic sites and do some swimming and snorkeling. We would like to see moon beach, maeda flats and maeda point, manzama and maybe shuri castle. Maybe ride to Sezoko island.

July 13 - take a ferry to either Zamini, Aka, Tokashiki or Ie island.

Jully 14 - spend time before noon seeing anything we didn%26#39;t get to see on 12th.

Here is what I need advice on:

Where should we stay on Okinawa? Near some of the sites we want to see or the beach? We would rather stay in a pretty area near the beach and not in the middle of a city.

We really want to visit some amazing, beautiful beaches with clear pretty water. We are not sure which beaches on Okinawa that would be.

We also want to visit whichever island would have the best snorkeling and the prettiest beach. We would be taking the ferry and would need to be able to access the beach for snorkeling without a car.

We are open for and ideas or changes to our itinerary. Thank you.

Need some advice on this Okinawa itinerary

Is it tour bus or by yourself on 11 July schedule? because it seems so wired to me. Peace memorial is southern part of Okinawa main island and Zakimi is middle and Nago is northern part. We don%26#39;t combine them in a day.

If you go and drive northern (Onna or Nago) from airport or Naha city, you can drive through the scenic road beside ocean. on 12, moon beach and Maeda is middle of island, Manza is bit northern, Syuri is sourth close from Naha, you have completly mixed up all area in day of 11 and 12.

ferry depart / arrive from Tomari port in Naha city to Zamami, Aka and Tokashiki. a port to Ie island is in Nago city or northern.

You need to know which part/area you want to go first day (11 july)and second day(12 july). then I can tell where is better to stay. Also I would like to know that you want to stay one hotel throughout your whole stay or change hotels where is close to places to see.

If you wil visit or stay northern part, Sezoko or Kouri island where you can reach by a car and enjoy swimming and snorkeling.

Need some advice on this Okinawa itinerary

July 11 - Peace Memorial Museum and Syuri castle then heading to Hotel

July 12 - Zakimi castle ruins, Maeda, Manza and Nago castle ruins

July 13 - (You don%26#39;t need to visit a world famous Aquarium??) and Sezoko island

if you visit to Sezoko, I don%26#39;t think you need to go to one of Kerama islands by ferry. Because Sezoko has enough clear beachs and a lot of fishes.

July 14 - Kokusai street and market?

If you can skip to visit island hopping, hotels will be in Yomitan village(Zampa misaki hotel or Nikko Alivila) or Onnna(there is many hotels). If you stick to visit the island by ferry you better be in Naha city for whole your stay or only one night at beach side and other nights in Naha.

Yully,

We will be flying into Okinawa. We are not with a tour. We have read about Okinawa and picked out these things to do. I know it is unorganized right now. I haven%26#39;t figured out where everything is located on the island. I need to figure out the best way to see these places and still get a ferry to another island for a day of snorkeling and exploring. What do you suggest?

July 11 - Peace memorial(rent a car or buses which you need to transfer once) and Syuri castle. If you don%26#39;t rent a car first day, you can go to syuri by monorail and then enjoy Kokusai street. stay a hotel in Naha city

July 12 - get ferry to one of Kerama islands (Zakimi or Aka) from Tomari port. Stay a hotel in Naha or any hotel in Yomitan or Onna if you have time to drive after being back from the island. on the way to hotel in Onna or Yomitan village, you can stop and enjoy at Chatan and Mihama area.

July 13 - (by car) Zakimi, Maeda, Manza, Nago and more wherever you like to go. visit an Aquarium this day if you interested in it and reach Sezoko island to swimming.

July 14 - (by car) heading to Naha airport. visit Zakimi and Maeda if you miss on 13. or visit Ryukyu-village theme park, Shin-toshin area, Katsuren castle, Nakaguzuku castle or frea market in base if it is weekend.

do you have anything more to see or do?

Yully,

Thanks for your help. I think I now have a good itinerary. Let me know what you think of this:

July 11 - arrive around noon. visit underground naval h.q., Peace Memorial park and museum, and Shuri castle. Probably in that order.

We can either go ahead and get a car from the airport when we arrive or get around on public transportation. I am not sure how easy that would be. It also depends on where we end up staying, which is another question for you.

July 12 - go to one of Kerama islands to snorkel and explore. (haven%26#39;t decided which one yet)

If we haven%26#39;t got our car yet, we could get it and drive north a bit and stay the night.

July 13 - Drive to see the following: Toguchi beach (I saw pictures of cool rock formations on beach), Manzamo, Maeda Point and Maeda flats, moon beach and sezoko island.

I guess we would stay at another hotel. I am not sure how long it takes to get to each of these places. It would be nice if we could stay at the same hotel for the 12th and 13th at least. It is so hard to keep packing and unpacking.

July 14 - Drive to Cape Hedo and see anything we didn%26#39;t get to see from the 13th before heading to airport. From what I can tell, the only flight on ANA to Takamatsu leaves around 2:50.

What do you think? Also, we don%26#39;t want to pay a furtune for a hotel. We need two rooms because we are a family of 5. We want a very clean and comfortable hotel in a good location. Do you have any suggestions?

July 11 - you can go all those places if you have a car. If you use public transportation(Bus), no time to go to Syuri on this day since this bus is not frequently running. Stay at Naha city.

-Kariyushi Urban resort Naha (reopens on July 1st). this hotel is just above the ferry port. also rental car shop is in this building.

convenient for leaving early morning by ferry. http://www.kariyushi.co.jp/urban/index.html

-hotel Oranjur Okinawa this hotel is next to the port. once I have booked once but didnt stay because I%26#39;d found another hotel we liked in center of Naha city. http://www.hoteloranjour.com/concept.html

or any hotel in Naha city

July 12 - sure you must head to north and stay at Onna village or yomitan.

Toguchi beach is so good and quiet. I love this beach where mostly local people comes.

all places you must drive on route 58 which is only a road everybody use. It means daytime you stick in traffic so easily.

I understand you want to avoid packing and unpacking every day. But if you want to go to Cape Hedo, better stay anywhere northern around Nago city than a hotel on 12 July since Cape Hedo is so far and no high way there.

need 2 hours from Kyoda (Northern exit point of highway). If you stay around Onna village, you need more 3 hours to reach to Hedo.

But if you stay at Nago city on 12 and 13, you drive back same way two times from hotel to each places(where you listed up on July 12), then back to hotel again.

July 14 - if you go to Cape Hedo and must be back around Naha before 1pm (return your car 2 hours before your flight), it means you must leave cape Hedo around 10am. if you stay at a hotel in Onna, you better start to drive about 7am or 8am if you stay at Nago area. Can%26#39;t tell exact hours you need since there may have traffic or not.

Okinawa has many hotels all area of the island. Decide area where you want to stay and price range and I can recommend some hotels.

Hello Yully,

I saw that you stayed at the comfort hotel. We are considering it, but we were looking at the photos online and noticed that there are 2 different looking rooms. One is nicer and newer looking and one is older looking. I am attacting the links. Will you tell me what the rooms look like?

This is the link on tripadvisor if you want to check prices. The rooms look older here. www.hotels.com/property.do鈥?/a>

That is a really long link.

The other one is the comfort hotel link. I know that sometimes they try to make the rooms look better than they are. Here is the link:

comfortinn.com/hotel-naha_city-japan-JP070/鈥?/a>

The link above shows rooms that look nicer. How do they really look?

Thanks.

No worries. the hotel is cleaner and newer since it renovated last year. but room looks like smaller.