Kanazawa is pretty great when it comes to transportation and sightseeing discount passes. The passes are designed for visitors to hit up some of the city’s many (many) museums—with options for both major attractions and the more obscure ones, helping out those on short or extended stays.
Not content with showcasing Kanazawa alone, Ishikawa Prefecture also has some brilliant passes for exploring nearby towns, which make day trips all the more tempting.
Jump ahead to:
1. Kenrokuen +1
The simplest but probably the most popular pass, the Kenrokuen +1 Pass offers entry to Kanazawa’s famous landscape garden plus one other ‘top’ location. This is perfect whether you’re in town for a day or a week as these locations aren’t included on any other pass.
Not into the museum options listed below? We recommend visiting the castle as your “plus one” for its city views and an insight into the fascinating restoration process for historical buildings—more interesting than it might sound!
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2. Kanazawa City Cultural Facilities Passport
Great for museum lovers or those on a longer stay, the Kanazawa City Cultural Facilities Passport is an extensive pass with fantastic value. Offering entry into 15 locations in the city and two in the lovely nearby village of Yuwaku, it makes for a packed itinerary and a very healthy budget. As an added bonus, if you visit enough of the museums, you can collect stamps and exchange them for small gifts—there are a few nicely designed folders in it for the dedicated visitors!
The passport is available for one day, three days or as an annual pass, so you can certainly fit in all the museum offerings depending on your schedule. Since there are quite a few to choose from, our top picks are the Yasue Gold Museum, the Noh Museum, Mr. Kurando Terashima’s House and the unusual D.T Suzuki museum—but the others listed below have plenty to draw you in too! You’ll be given a map and leaflet in English to help you find them all, but be sure to keep hold of your paper ticket—it’s difficult to replace lost ones.
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Additional discounts
At the following locations, the pass grants you a discount equivalent to entering at the group discount price: the Kaga Honda Museum, the Ishikawa Prefectural Museum of History, the Permanent Exhibition at the Ishikawa Prefectural Museum of Art, the Ishikawa Prefectural Museum of Traditional Arts and Crafts, and the Fourth High School Memorial Museum of Cultural Exchange, Ishikawa.
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3. One Day City Bus Pass
Ideal if you don’t fancy the city bike scheme to get around, this is a flat-rate day pass and gets you traveliung to all of the city’s sights on two sightseeing options as well as local Hokutetsu lines. The most useful option is the Kanazawa Loop Bus, which loops in both “left” and “right” directions and runs between the station and sights every 15 minutes. The Kenrokuen Shuttle Bus goes from the station to the gardens as well as a few other spots including the 21st Century Art Museum, Oyama Jinja Shrine and Omicho Market. You’re unlikely to need local buses, but if you do, they’re included too!
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4. Wajima Onsenkyo Pass
Wajima is a fantastic town up in the Noto Peninsula, famous for its morning markets and beautiful rice fields. Making a pleasant day trip destination from Kanazawa, it’s only accessible by bus. This pass offers access to the main sights as well as a bus pass and a tea service for visitors. Even if you’re only planning on visiting the main museums (the Kiriko Lantern Museum and the Wajima Museum of Urushi Art), you’ll save a few hundred yen on entry.
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5. The CAN Bus Blue Passport
A ridiculously good value pass, the CAN Blue Passport combines the hop-on/hop-off bus routes along with free entry passes to sights along the way. You can find helpful guides along all three bus routes (Mountain, Sea and Komatsu Airport)—they help you organize your itinerary, have multi-lingual leaflets and are generally really friendly.
The area is formed of four onsen towns (Awazu Onsen, Yamashiro Onsen, Yamanaka Onsen and Katayamazu Onsen) as well as the famous Natadera Temple.
While you can purchase the CAN Bus Pass alone, we recommend the combined option called the Blue Passport, as this includes entry to three facilities along with bus use. You can use your vouchers at three of 23 different attractions, including the famous hot spring of each town, the Kutanayaki Art Museum, the Kaga City Art Museum and the Hanicraft Village Yunokuni no Mori.
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6. Kaga City Museum Passport
A three-day or annual passport offering entry to the best of the city’s museums, Kaga City Museum Passport is perfect if you’re looking at a rained-out schedule (or you just really like museums). If you’re not traveling on the CAN Bus Pass, keep this in mind as it combines the most popular sites of Kaga city proper (and some in its satellite onsen towns).
