Pick your hours and you get a finished day — every step timed from the gangway and back, and each route says how much room it leaves you before all-aboard. Swap anything you don't fancy.
Timed shore plans, measured from your gangway · port-of-japan.com/beppu/ · Verified
Finished days, timed from the gangway
Your day in Beppu, hour by hour
Pick the one that fits your call. Times count from the moment you step off, and every plan is back on board an hour before all-aboard.
For a 5-hour call or longer · 3 hr door to door
Bathhouse & downtown
Short calls — the 1879 grand dame and a toriten lunch
Fits a 5-hour stop with nothing to add (off the ship 30 minutes after arrival, back at the gangway an hour before all-aboard). A longer call gives you the extra time; on this one, do not add a stop.
+0:00
Taxi to Takegawara Onsen (~10 min)
Book the sand bath the moment you arrive. Closed 3rd Wednesday
+0:15
Sand bath: buried to the neck, 10 minutes
Attendants shovel; you surrender
+1:15
Downtown arcades stroll
Yukata shops and retro kissaten
+1:50
Toriten at Toyoken — the 1926 originator
Order the original cut with ponzu-mustard. Lunch from 11:00 (last order 15:00); closed 2nd Tuesday. Early ship? Stroll the arcades first and arrive at 11:00
+2:40
Taxi back to the port
Running late? Sand slots gone? The regular Takegawara bath costs pocket change and the wooden lobby alone rewards the trip.
The volcanic circuit plus the lunch the earth cooks
Fits a 7-hour stop with nothing to add (off the ship 30 minutes after arrival, back at the gangway an hour before all-aboard). A longer call gives you the extra time; on this one, do not add a stop.
+0:00
Taxi/bus to Kannawa (~20 min)
The steam plumes announce the district
+0:25
Umi Jigoku — the cobalt pond
The one unmissable hell
+1:15
Jigoku-mushi Kobo: steam your own lunch
Rent a vent, lower the basket, obey the timer. Opens 10:00; closed 3rd Wednesday
+2:30
Kannawa steam lanes walk
Every gutter exhales
+3:15
Taxi or bus (routes 16A/26/26A) to Chinoike (blood-red) + Tatsumaki geyser
They sit together, about 3 km from Kannawa
+4:15
Taxi back to the port
About 20 minutes. Fits a 7-hour call, with the hour before all-aboard kept free
Running late? Bus timetable unkind? The two-hell version (Umi + lunch) is a complete story — cut Chinoike, not the margin.
Transport spend: taxis between clusters ~¥2,000 pp; hells combo ticket + sand bath fee on site. Full route, map and photos
For a 9.5-hour call or longer · 7 hr 30 min door to door
Hells + heights
Calls of 10 hours or more — the circuit, the ropeway, the mineral hills
Fits a 9.5-hour stop with nothing to add (off the ship 30 minutes after arrival, back at the gangway an hour before all-aboard). A longer call gives you the extra time; on this one, do not add a stop.
+0:00
Kannawa hells + steamed lunch (the half-day core)
Same order as above, less hurry
+3:30
Taxi up to Myoban — yunohana huts
Thatched mineral farms, 300 years old
+4:15
Jigoku-steamed pudding at Okamotoya
The caramel tastes faintly of sulfur — correctly. Shop open 8:30–18:30 every day (last order 17:30)
+5:00
Mt. Tsurumi ropeway (weather permitting)
The bay and a hundred plumes from about 1,300 m (last ride up 17:00, or 16:30 from Nov 15)
+6:30
Taxi down to the port
About 20 minutes. Fits a 10-hour call, with the hour before all-aboard kept free
Running late? Cloud on the summit? Swap the ropeway for a Takegawara sand bath — altitude for depth.
Transport spend: taxi legs ~¥3,000 pp; tickets as above — cash for the small vents. Full route, map and photos
Rainy day · 4 hr door to door
The rainy-day Beppu
Wet weather — this is the most rain-proof port in Japan
Fits a 6-hour stop with nothing to add (off the ship 30 minutes after arrival, back at the gangway an hour before all-aboard). A longer call gives you the extra time; on this one, do not add a stop.
+0:00
Bus or taxi up to Kannawa
~20 minutes; the steam is more visible in rain, not less
+0:30
Steam-cook your own lunch at Jigoku Mushi Kobo
Buy the ingredients, lower the basket, wait ten minutes. Opens 10:00; closed 3rd Wednesday. Early ship? Walk the steam lanes first
+1:45
Walk the Kannawa steam lanes
Foot baths and drain steam. Wet weather suits it
+2:30
Takegawara Onsen sand bath
Indoors, in the 1938 wooden hall of a bathhouse founded in 1879. Ten minutes under the sand. Closed 3rd Wednesday
+3:55
Taxi back to the pier
About 10 minutes and ¥1,100 from Takegawara; it is 35–40 minutes on foot
Running late? Skip Yufuin in rain — an hour each way to walk an outdoor village in the wet is the worst version of this port day.
Round trips are measured from the gangway and include getting back. Two stops in the same direction overlap, so a real day usually comes in under the total you see, never over it.
¥260 (route 24 fare and times not re-verified)route 24 at :19 past most hours (weekdays 9:45, then 10:15–15:15); back from Umi Jigoku-mae at :32, but no 10:30 or 15:30 on weekdays. Weekends: out 9:45, then 11:15; back from 11:30 only. On a weekend morning take a taxi outIC cards OK
How to get there
① Walk about 0.9 km (about 10 min) to the Shiomicho stop on the main road
② Kamenoi Bus route 24 toward APU, about 15 min to Umi Jigoku-mae. The "Sunflower Terminal" stop by the port only has buses at ferry times (none 9:00–16:00)
IC and contactless cards accepted. From Mochigahama (0.9 km walk) route 20 runs to Kannawa hourly at :29 (¥300). From Beppu Station West exit: routes 2, 5, 24 or 41 towards Kannawa, about 20 min (fare not checked here; IC cards work).
① Walk 0.9 km to the Mochigahama stop — buses to Beppu Station several times an hour on weekdays (the Sunflower Terminal stop has none between 8:20 and 16:15 on weekdays)
② Takegawara Onsen: ~10 min walk from the station area
The one rule: be back on board 60 minutes before all-aboard — every day above already banks it. Phones auto-switch to local time, but all-aboard runs on ship time. Check the daily programme's clock, not your lock screen. More to pick from on the Beppu guide and the Top 10.
MY SHIP DAY — fill this in before you walk off
Ship
Date
Docked at (berth)
All-aboard (SHIP time)
My deadline = all-aboard − 60 min
Last shuttle back
Phones auto-switch to local time; all-aboard runs on ship time. Write both if they differ.
GETTING AROUND — the facts that don't change by day (today's times: ship's program or Google Maps)
The hells (Kannawa): ① Walk about 0.9 km (about 10 min) to the Shiomicho stop on the main road ② Kamenoi Bus route 24 toward APU, about 15 min to Umi Jigoku-mae. The "Sunflower Terminal" stop by the port only has buses at ferry times (none 9:00–16:00) Fare ¥260 (route 24 fare and times not re-verified). route 24 at :19 past most hours (weekdays 9:45, then 10:15–15:15); back from Umi Jigoku-mae at :32, but no 10:30 or 15:30 on weekdays. Weekends: out 9:45, then 11:15; back from 11:30 only. On a weekend morning take a taxi out.
Beppu Station & Takegawara: ① Walk 0.9 km to the Mochigahama stop — buses to Beppu Station several times an hour on weekdays (the Sunflower Terminal stop has none between 8:20 and 16:15 on weekdays) ② Takegawara Onsen: ~10 min walk from the station area Fare ¥190. several per hour on weekdays.
SHOW THIS TO A TAXI DRIVER — 運転手さんへ
Please take me back to the cruise ship (Beppu port)
クルーズ船乗り場までお願いします
The Hells of Kannawa
別府地獄めぐり
Takegawara bathhouse
竹瓦温泉
Mt. Tsurumi ropeway
別府ロープウェイ
Point at a line. Taxis are metered and honest; tipping is not expected in Japan.
THE TWO-MINUTE PORT TALK — read aloud at breakfast
The hells. Beppu has around 2,200 hot spring vents and discharges more hot water than any other town in Japan — a volume second in the world only to Yellowstone. Steam comes out of drains, gardens and the gaps between houses, and the local word for the seven most violent springs is "hells."
Beppu Hatto. Beppu is not one hot spring resort. It is eight — each with different water chemistry, a different character and a different price, ranging from a marble-floored hotel spa to a tin-roofed neighbourhood shed that costs a hundred yen and has no attendant.
Aburaya Kumahachi. Beppu had hot water for a thousand years and was a minor bathing village. Then one man arrived in 1911, decided this town should be famous, and invented most of the techniques Japanese tourism still uses — including the bus tour with a singing guide.
Cooked in the ground. Oita eats things the rest of Japan does not: chicken as tempura, cold noodles with kimchi, and vegetables cooked in a hole in the ground by steam that comes out at a hundred degrees and tastes faintly of salt.
The one rule: be back on board 60 minutes before all-aboard — every plan above already banks it. · Free guide: port-of-japan.com/beppu/ · By Takumi Yamada, Tokyo, Japan
