Tsuken Island is a perfect day trip from the mainland of Okinawa, though I wouldn’t necessarily recommend this trip if you are just vacationing to Okinawa.
To get to Tsuken Island, you will need to find Heshikiya Port in Katsuren, Uruma City. Google maps will take you to the parking lot which is not very busy, even on a Saturday as this is not the most popular destination in Okinawa. We got there about 15 minutes before the scheduled time (see the schedule website here). We took the slower boat to Tsuken which took about half an hour. And on the way back, we caught the speed boat which was about 15 minutes. They can work out the cost for you at the register.
There is no need to call and reserve ahead at this port since it is not very popular. Just arrive early so you don’t miss the ferry you plan to catch since they only leave every hour or so.
From the port on Tsuken, there is an option to rent bikes, but there are not very many. If you don’t get one, the island is still very easy to walk. I would not recommend bringing your car as it is very expensive and the island is only about a mile long. If you have a bike, I would recommend calling ahead to see if you can bring your own.
We were able to walk the entire perimeter of the island plus stopped at a few sites in 3 hours and caught the last ferry back to Okinawa.
Our first stop, after realizing we weren’t getting bikes, was the carrot tower observatory. You can follow signs from the port going left. The signs will take you directly to the carrot. Though it seems short, it offers amazing views of the whole island and you can see just how tiny this farming island is.
After this, we went back out onto the “main road” and followed signs for the beach. The first beach was “Tomai-hama Beach.” Complete with white sand, crystal blue water, and water recreation sports (at least in the summer), this place is perfect for your weekend getaway. Unfortunately, we did not bring bathing suits, so we skipped this spot as there were quite a few people here. Don’t make the mistake we did, we continued walking down the path along the beach, hoping it would come out in the end, but it did not. You will need to head back out the main road and then turn left to continue down the island.
At this point, we only had about half a mile left until the end of the island. We just followed the roads on Google Maps and that lead us to “Yajiri-Beach” with a view of “Afu Rock.” Here, there is a seawall where we waded in the water, took photos, and flew our drone. If you are looking to snorkel, this seemed like the best place on the island. Afu Rock was only about 100m out and would be an easy swim in calm waters.
Once we were done at the second beach, we began our walk back to the port, this time on the other side of the island. When you leave the path coming back from Yajiri Beach, continue strait. This road is a straight road that continues the length of the island. Once we got back to the original end of the island, we put Google Maps back on to get us to the port. We made a quick pit stop to walk down a path that led to another small, rocky beach.
And that was the extent of our trip to Tsuken Island. A fun, day trip away from the hustle and bustle of Okinawa.
Thanks for reading!
-Emma
Comments