Hiroshima: Best Day Trips
Hiroshima sits at the center of a genuinely good cluster of day trips, most of them well under two hours away by rail. Here’s what’s worth the trip out.
Miyajima: the one to prioritize
If you only do one day trip, make it this one. Formally Itsukushima, Miyajima is built around its “floating” vermilion torii gate and Itsukushima Shrine, a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1996. Get there by tram or train to Miyajimaguchi, then a roughly 10-minute ferry, with a small visitor tax (commonly cited around ¥100) collected on arrival. Beyond the shrine, Mount Misen has a ropeway plus a roughly 30-minute hike to the summit, sika deer wander freely through town, and Daishō-in temple and momiji manju stalls fill out the rest of the day. Budget the whole day for it, not a rushed half-day.
Onomichi: temples and a bridge to Shikoku
A hillside port town roughly 40 minutes east by shinkansen, Onomichi is built up steep slopes above a narrow sea channel; a temple walk connects roughly 25 temples across the upper town, and a ropeway to the top of Senkōji Hill gives panoramic views over the channel below. It’s also the western terminus of the Shimanami Kaidō, a cycling route that hops across a chain of bridges to Imabari on Shikoku, worth a short ride even if you’re not doing the full route.
Iwakuni: the Kintaikyō bridge
Iwakuni’s five-arched wooden Kintaikyō bridge, first built in 1673 and rebuilt more than once since, including after 1950 typhoon damage, is a National Treasure-listed structure and one of the more photogenic day trips in the region, especially with cherry blossoms or autumn color.
Tomonoura: a preserved port town
An old tidal port referenced in Japan’s oldest surviving poetry anthology, Tomonoura keeps its circular harbor and a scatter of Heian-era temples largely intact, and it moves at a noticeably slower pace than anywhere in central Hiroshima.
Kure: naval history
Home to the Yamato Museum, focused on the battleship Yamato and the city’s naval shipbuilding history, Kure is a straightforward rail trip for anyone with an interest in that side of the 20th century.
Sandankyō Gorge: waterfalls and quiet
A designated Special Place of Scenic Beauty, this 16-kilometre ravine is fed by a tributary of the Ōta River and known for its waterfalls and autumn foliage, a genuine change of pace from anything in the city itself.
Saijō: sake country
About 30 minutes east by train, Saijō is a historic brewing district with roughly ten breweries along a street of traditional storehouse buildings, home to the national tax office’s own brewery research lab. Its October sake festival draws crowds reportedly in the six figures.
For the memorial sites and the living city that make up the core of a Hiroshima trip, see our full guide , and for how to fit these day trips into a longer stay, our itineraries build them in from day three onward.
Miyajima earns the marquee slot; everything else here is genuinely optional, pick based on what you’re into rather than trying to do all of it in one trip.