Road Trips
Oita is a destination best explored by car, motorbike or, if you have the legs for it, bicycle. Between its coasts and towering mountains, the prefecture’s beautifully verdant scenery, which is dotted with natural wonders, charming villages, atmospheric temples and shrines, is enchanting to journey through. Whether you have weeks, days or only few hours, a road trip will tickle everyone’s taste.
With very many and varied delights, few regions have as much to enjoy as Oita Prefecture so try not to rush your venture. Much of the fun comes from stopping to take photos of awesome scenery, dipping into warm seas at deserted sandy beaches, hopping from one architectural and artistic highlight to another, and throughly exploring Oita’s diverse and delicious gourmet scene. Oita is an onsen hot springs heaven, which adds a rare and luxuriantly relaxing appeal to thread into any journey.
Oita is easily explored by road and the following road trips are to help you find your way. Please also refer to the Visiting Oita page on this website for helpful information about driving and cycling in Japan, and car rental.
Maybe exploring Oita’s railway heritage by road does seem to be a little non-sensical but please bear with us and read on.
Oita’s 775 kilometre (482 mile) long coastline is intricately varied and strung with myriad highlights including tremendous sea views, one remote beach after another, and unique vermilion-coloured torii shrine gates perched on rocky outcrops. Almost…
Although one of the most picturesque driving experiences in Japan, the Yamanami Highway remains a less-driven way. Running through the heart of Oita from Beppu via Yufuin to the Kanda Kogen highlands and the Kuju mountains, and beyond to Aso in…
There are many producers of alcoholic beverages dotted throughout Oita Prefecture, a result of the qualities of spring and well waters found here. Its is particularly famed for its mugi-jochu wheat shochu, but also has some great nihonshu sake breweries,…
The Kunisaki Peninsula is imbued with a placid spirituality embodied by 1,300 year-old Rokugo-Manzan, an esoteric Buddhist-Shinto religion now uncommon elsewhere in Japan. Quiet country roads and narrower lanes weave through Kunisaki’s beautifully verdant…