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Hakone Bus Guide: Routes by Letter, Fares, How to Pay and Which Buses the Freepass Covers (2026)

Updated 2026-10-12

At the Hakone-Yumoto bus stop, two buses can pull in one after the other, both showing "Moto-Hakone". One is a Hakone Tozan Bus and takes the Hakone Freepass. The other is an Izuhakone Bus, and your Freepass is no good on it. The quick way to tell them apart is the letter in the circle on the front of the bus and on the stop sign.

We went through the bus pages of the Hakone Tourist Association, Hakone Navi (run by Odakyu Hakone, which owns Hakone Tozan Bus) and Izuhakone Bus to build the chart below. It shows the route letters from the official April 2026 route map.

Hakone bus lines by letter. Hakone Tozan Bus, Freepass OK: H Odawara, Hakone-Yumoto, Kowakien, Moto-Hakone-ko, Hakone-machi-ko, about 40 minutes Yumoto to Moto-Hakone; R express on the Hakone Shindo bypass, about 20 minutes Moto-Hakone to Yumoto; K old Tokaido road via Hatajuku and Amazake-chaya, about 35 minutes; T Odawara, Hakone-Yumoto, Sengoku, Togendai, about 40 minutes Togendai to Yumoto; S and M sightseeing buses from Gora; N Tokai Bus Moto-Hakone-ko to Mishima, about 60 minutes. Izuhakone Bus, Freepass not valid: Z Odawara, Yumoto, Kowakien, Moto-Hakone, Hakone Sekisho; J Odawara, Yumoto, Owakudani, Kojiri, Hakone-en; P express bypass Odawara to Moto-Hakone; AT Atami to Moto-Hakone. Tozan Bus adult fares from 1 October 2025: first stop 220 yen, Yumoto to Moto-Hakone-ko 1,210 yen, Yumoto to Togendai 1,330 yen. Izuhakone Hakone Bus Free 1 day 3,500 yen, 2 days 4,000 yen.
H and Z run on the same road and stop at the same places. Only H takes the Freepass.

The route letters you'll see

Hakone Tozan Bus (and Tokai Bus on line N). The Hakone Freepass, the Hakone Kamakura Pass and the Fuji Hakone Pass are all valid here:

Izuhakone Bus. The Freepass is not valid. Pay by cash or IC card, or buy Izuhakone's own pass:

The same official list also puts the TG Togendai Gora Line and the L Hakone-Yumoto/Outlets Line on the Freepass side, plus the Odakyu highway buses (W to Shinjuku, G to Gotemba, V to Haneda Airport). On the highway buses the pass only counts in its designated area: on line W, for example, you pay extra between Tomei-Gotemba and Shinjuku. For any line not in this list, ask the driver before you get on.

Fares on Hakone Tozan Bus

The fare depends on how far you ride. Tozan Bus raised its fares on 1 October 2025:

Ride (adult, one way) Fare
Shortest ride (first fare zone) ¥220
Hakone-Yumoto Station → Moto-Hakone-ko ¥1,210
Hakone-Yumoto Station → Togendai ¥1,330

So one bus ride from the lake back down to Yumoto costs about ¥1,200–¥1,300. Pay that on top of the Tozan Train, cable car, ropeway and pirate ship, and the Hakone Freepass usually comes out ahead on the classic loop. Our calculator does that sum with your own stops. The tables above give adult fares only; for the full list, use the fare search on Hakone Navi.

How to pay on the bus

You pay when you get off, at the fare box next to the driver.

  1. Hakone Freepass (or another pass): don't take a numbered ticket (except on line N). Show the pass to the driver when you get on and again when you get off. Each person holds their own pass.
  2. Suica, PASMO or another IC card: touch the reader by the door when you get on and the reader on the fare box when you get off. Tozan Bus and Izuhakone Bus both take IC cards. If the balance is short, pay the rest in cash or top up with the driver once the bus has stopped. One card for two people? Tell the driver before you touch.
  3. Contactless credit or debit card (Tozan Bus): touch the boarding reader, then the payment reader by the fare box. Visa, Mastercard, JCB, American Express, Diners Club, Discover and UnionPay work, including phones and watches. You don't need a numbered ticket. Izuhakone Bus lists IC cards on its payment page but not credit cards, so we wouldn't count on a card there.
  4. Cash: take a numbered ticket (seiriken) when you get on, even at the first stop. The screen at the front shows the fare for your number. Put the ticket and the exact fare in the box. No change is given. The change machine is next to the fare box; Tozan Bus says it takes coins and every note, but the Hakone Tourist Association's general bus page warns that ¥2,000, ¥5,000 and ¥10,000 notes can't be changed. Carry coins and ¥1,000 notes and you won't have to find out.

Press the stop button when your stop shows on the screen. Change money or top up only when the bus is standing still.

Already riding Izuhakone a lot? The Hakone Bus Free

Izuhakone sells its own unlimited pass for its buses in the Odawara, Hakone and Atami area:

Pass Adult Elementary school
1-Day Hakone Bus Free ¥3,500 ¥1,300
2-Day Hakone Bus Free ¥4,000 ¥1,600

It covers the Odawara ↔ Kojiri / Hakone-en line, the Odawara ↔ Moto-Hakone / Hakone Sekisho line and the Atami ↔ Moto-Hakone line (including runs on the Hakone Shindo bypass). Buy it at Izuhakone's counters at Odawara Station, Atami Station, Moto-Hakone or Hakone-en.

We wouldn't buy it on a normal day trip. The Freepass already covers the trains, cable car, ropeway, pirate ship and the Tozan buses on the same roads. The Bus Free makes sense only if your plan is built around the Izuhakone side of the lake: Hakone-en and the Komagatake Ropeway, or a day that starts or ends in Atami.

The Ashinoko Liner: a seat you can book

On weekends and holidays only, Tozan Bus runs the Ashinoko Liner, a reserved-seat express between Odawara / Hakone-Yumoto and Lake Ashi (Hakone-machi-ko, Moto-Hakone-ko, Hakone Shrine and the Odakyu Yama no Hotel). With a Freepass, a seat costs ¥500 per ride. It uses the Hakone Shindo bypass.

The timetable on Hakone Navi has only a few runs: up from Odawara at 10:15 and from Hakone-Yumoto at 14:25, and back from Moto-Hakone-ko at 12:15 (to Yumoto) and 16:15 (to Odawara). Book on Hakone Navi or in the EMot app. Leftover seats go on sale 20 minutes before departure at the Odawara and Yumoto bus counters. If you don't want to risk standing for 40 minutes after a long day, that ¥500 seat is the fix.

Luggage, last buses and traffic

Passes and tours PR

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Sources

Checked 2026-10-12. Fares and timetables change; the operator's page wins if it differs from ours.

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