To go to SADO Island, you need to take a boat from Niigata.
There are 2 types of boats:
One is slow boat car ferry and the other is speed boat called Jetfoil.
It takes 2hours 20minutes on ferry, and you can put your car or bike on the boat if you want by paying extra charge.
It has some rooms ranked by quality, some look like hotel rooms.
On the other hand, it takes only 65minutes on Jetfoil, and it’s a reserved-seat boat.
All passengers are required to fasten seat belt on it.
Usually, I use a room with free space on car ferry because it’s cheap, and jetfoil when I want to arrive at the destination quickly.
However, I was with 3 months old baby boy this time, and want to avoid crowd of people because many people have influenza that time.
Also, I breastfeed him, so I try to find a way that I can do that without caring about other people.
First, I thought about using speed boat Jetfoil, but I gave up on it because I wouldn’t be able to stand up and move when my little one gets fussy.
I want both of him and I to spend time relaxing on boat without stress and burden, so I tried seeing other option.
Then, I check SADOKISEN, boat company, official website, I found “Special room” on ferry.
On Japanese web page, it says..
Special room(private room) on the 5th floor
with 2 beds, TV, sofas
*Phone reservation required
Mmm.. sounds nice!
On the website, it says that we can only see the availability and make a reservation by calling them, so I did.
Luckly, the room was available on the day when I want to use, so I booked it.
They asked me if they can put my name at the front door of the room, so I said “Ok”.
On the travel day, I went to the port, went to the ticket counter and told my name. And they issued these tickets.
When we went to the port, I had my room/space for sure, so we didn’t need to wait in line with other people.
So, we just on the bench at the port and enjoyed chatting having some snack by last minutes.
After entering the boat, we asked the crews how to get up to the room.
It’s at the 5th floor, so we took a elevator to go up there.
Our name was put on the door and we entered into the room.
It looks like comfortable hotel room.
You can enjoy private ocean view in front of the window over a cup of coffee.
Our kids loved the time here.
- Ferry & Jetfoil from Niigata to Sado Island
- Car ferry timetable & schedule
- Jetfoil timetable & schedule
- Bus schedule from Niigata St. to Niigata Port(Japanese Only)
- Bus schedule/timetable & routes in Sado Island
*If you use JR East or West Pass, you can get a special discounted ticket including ferry & bus services. For more information, please check here.
