What to do in Okinawa traveling with young children
We traveled with a 3.5 year old and a 3 month old baby to Okinawa in October, 2016 (before we started this blog). This was my second trip to Okinawa. Okinawa is a beautiful island south of Japan and is extremely kid-friendly. Check out how we manage to travel with a toddler and a new baby and what to do in Okinawa:
Transportation
First off, rent a car regardless of whether you are traveling to Okinawa with kids or not. As I was breastfeeding my baby 100%, it's so handy to just be able to breastfeed on the go whenever he needs (and he needs every 1-2 hours...) and not have to waste time finding nursing spots and hide for half an hour there. Most kids would just enjoy a road trip adventure. Our Benji (four year old) absolutely loves it!
Staying at a family-friendly resort
Sometimes, I miss my backpacking days but honestly those days are long gone and I can't even imagine going back. Luckily, Okinawa is nothing but short of family-friendly resorts. We stayed at the Rizzan Seapark Resort Tancha Bay and really enjoyed it. Our room was clean, spacious and had a big balcony with a nice ocean view. They gave us a baby crib without extra charge.
In terms of food, the hotel has all the major cuisine you'd expect in Japan - Western, Japanese, Japanese BBQ (I'm a sucker for BBQ) and even Chinese so the hotel restaurants can satisfy most of your meal needs. This is very convenient for us traveling with kids as it can get tiring for young children to play outside for half the day and endure sitting outside at a restaurant for another 1.5 hours. Of all the meals I had in the hotel, I thought the Japanese all-you-can-eat lunch at the Blue Lagoon (western & Japanese) was a great deal. Expect to pay around 5000-6000 yen for a proper meal (i.e. not fast food) for three in Okinawa.
The hotel boasts an indoor and outdoor pool, and Benji had a lot of fun with the slide in the indoor pool. It also has a play area for toddlers (with a small fee) next to the pool, a baby play area and a free jumping castle + small play facilities for kids outside of the breakfast restaurant. In short, more than enough for your little ones to play. At night, we had an moonlight theater (I don't know if it was shown every night or if there was a schedule) showing Tom & Jerry and Benji loved it so much! It was a great past time for us because I love it too.
The hotel also has an onsen (Japanese hotspring) pool. I took Benji in with me and he initially didn't like the idea but ended up having fun so it was doable with toddlers. I did a lot of research on onsen hotels in Okinawa and I can say the Rizzan Seapark one is the best combination in terms of room quality, facility and sophistication level of the onsen baths (many five-star hotels don't even have it or have an extremely basic one). If you are not traveling with kids and love a good hotspring bath as much as I do, I'd recommend going for the Ryuku Onsen Senagajima Hotel that I stayed on my previous trip. This hotel has a number of different onsen pools and you can enjoy the awesome seaview while bathing in the hotspring. The downside to this hotel was that I got an extremely small room last time (so we deemed it unsuitable with two kids) but do look it up if you are looking for a good hotspring!
I also went snorkeling a few times in the private beach of the resort. I've to be honest though that the snorkeling is underwhelming for perhaps that stretch of the beach. In any case, the hotel also offers sea walk, banana boat, etc. so you can do those if you're traveling with older kids and without baby but for us, it's just not possible with a little baby to take care of.
Okinawa Churaumi Aquarium
Price: 1850 yen for adults and free for children under 6
I don't know how to begin writing about this aquarium except that this really is WORLD CLASS as advertised! There's a wide array of impressive sea creatures and the highlight is definitely the three humongous whale sharks. They are so gorgeous and beautiful and Benji was really fascinated. One thing we were really impressed with was the clarity of the aquarium glass - so clear, free of mist and fog, simply "Japanese quality." Check out the really clear photos we were able to take. There was also a nice dolphin show next to the aquarium and a sea turtle pool you can check out on. These are outside of the aquarium in the Ocean Expo Park and free of charge.
Ocean Expo Park
The Ocean Expo Park is basically the park where the aquarium is situated at. In addition to the aquarium, there is a HUGE rope climbing facility where the little ones can spend all their energy in. We watched Benji climb with joy after the aquarium visit and needless to say, he had so much fun and was upset to have to leave at the closing time (6pm)
Shop
Not going to sugarcoat it but with young kids, shopping has become almost impossible for us moms. Well, I still went for it. At the recommendation of many traveling sites on Google, we went to the AEON Rycom Mall. It was a big mall with many shops, but with kids, it really was a bad idea. The original idea was for my husband to find a playground with Benji so he can play while I shop. But the purported playground on the roof was actually an empty structure and a play area on the fourth floor was paid (not cheap and quite small). Between walking back and forth trying to find a playground, finding food for us and the kids, finding a nursing room for my little baby, we wasted almost four hours at the mall achieving absolutely nothing! Counting the driving time, it was basically a day lost. Not pleased.
I retried my shopping attempt though and the next day, we went to the Mega Don Quijote shop in Ginowan. Is it a shopper's paradise! Well, it's basically a Japanese discounted outlet like Walmart. But this is exactly what I needed - Japanese onsen hot bath packs, Japanese beauty items and snacks!
Other notes on Okinawa:
- If shopping is your thing, check out the Okinawa Outlet Mall ASHIBINAA. They have many major American/international brands like Tory Burch, Marc Jacobs, Gap, Gucci, Coach, Chloe, Ferragamo, etc. This mall is relatively doable if you're going with kids as they have a small play area and a couple of kids store. I went there on my first trip to Okinawa and was able to buy a couple of items at the mall.
- We went whale-watching on a high speed boat on our first trip to Okinawa (in February). We were able to see 2-3 huge humpback whales which was very impressive. From my experience, I think this is doable with young children (they allow above 3 years old, I think). Of course, a little baby on a strap or stroller makes it impossible for us this time but don't forget this option if you happen to go there during whale-watching season (January till end of March).
- STAY AWAY from the Nago Pineapple Park. We went there at the recommendation of a couple of travel sites but heed this warning - don't go there even if you are traveling with kids. The pineapple ride took us through the pineapple plantation (so it wasn't like walking through the pineapple fields) and the ride was short and the pineapples were small. There was a couple of photo spots and a BIG pineapple-themed shops (which I suppose is the point of this whole thing), and this is pretty much it. Honestly, the pineapple ice-cream was the only thing Benji enjoyed. SAVE the time and enjoy a swim at your resort.
- We didn't go to the Shuri Castle this time as we had been there plus historic things are probably too boring and not yet suitable for a toddler. We went to the Katsuren Castle ruins instead. Situated on a small mountain, it was a nice mini-hike with a really nice panoramic view of Okinawa. Good exercise for us and for your little one!
Have you ever been to Okinawa with your children or by yourselves? We'd love to hear other people's Okinawa experience or traveling with kids experience!
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