Okinawa Without a Car: Monorail, Buses, Taxis and Day Tours

What works without a car

Here's our honest answer, area by area. It's our own summary of the official information in this guide.

If you can't drive, sleep in Naha. It's the only part of the island on the monorail, and most buses start there. Our where to stay guide compares Naha with Chatan, Onna and Motobu.

Yui Rail: the monorail through Naha

Yui Rail is an elevated monorail through Naha and into Urasoe. It runs 19 stations, from Naha Airport to Tedako-Uranishi in Urasoe, in 37 minutes. Adult fares run from ¥250 to ¥390 (all as of October 2026, official site).

Five stations matter most for visitors:

• Asahibashi: next to Naha Bus Terminal, where many route buses start
• Prefectural Office: one end of Kokusai-dori
• Makishi: near the other end of Kokusai-dori
• Shuri: for Shuri Castle, 27 minutes and ¥360 from the airport
• Tedako-Uranishi: the end of the line (all as of October 2026, official site)

about 11 minin all

¥290fare

Notransfers

1. StartNaha Airport Station
2. MonorailYui Railabout 11 min¥290
3. Get offAsahibashi Station

For reference only. Travel times depend on traffic, and routes and fares change. Check the operator's official site before you go (as of October 2026, official sites).

How to pay. You have four ways:

• Tap a contactless card. Visa, Mastercard, JCB, American Express, Diners Club, Discover and UnionPay work at the gates. Use the same card or phone to enter and exit. Children 6 to 11 pay the adult fare this way (as of October 2026, official site).
• Tap an IC card. Yui Rail takes OKICA, Okinawa's own transit card, and has taken Suica and the other nationwide IC cards since March 2020.
• Buy a QR ticket at the station machines.
• Buy a 1-day or 2-day QR ticket: ¥1,000 or ¥1,800 for adults, ¥500 or ¥900 for children. They last 24 or 48 hours from purchase, not until midnight (all as of October 2026, official site).

Add up your rides before you buy a pass: three trips at ¥290 come to less than the 1-day ticket (fares as of October 2026, official site).

First and last trains. On weekdays, the first train leaves Naha Airport at 6:00 and the last at 23:30. Every Friday, a special late-night train also runs from Naha Airport to Makishi (as of October 2026, official timetable). Weekend times and other stations differ, so check Yui Rail's timetable for your day and station.

Route buses: slower, but they reach the coast

Beyond Naha, route buses do the work. Bus Navi Okinawa, the route-search site Okinawa Bus points riders to, links to four bus companies: Ryukyu Bus, Naha Bus, Okinawa Bus and Toyo Bus (as of October 2026, official site). Many of the routes in this guide pass through Naha Bus Terminal, next to Asahibashi Station, and some start at the airport.

Find your bus on Bus Navi Okinawa. Okinawa Bus sends riders to Bus Navi Okinawa for fares and times. It has a route search and live bus-approach information, with an English menu. Its smartphone app ended on October 31, 2025, but the website still works (all as of October 2026, official site). We don't print timetables here, because they change.

How to use it:

1. Open Bus Navi Okinawa and switch the language to English.
2. Use the route search with your start and end stops.
3. On the day, check the bus approach page to see where your bus is.

Each company also posts its own timetables and fare tables. Okinawa Bus has a route list with timetable PDFs.

The routes you're most likely to use

These come from our route ledger, checked against the operators' timetables and fare tables.

Airport to Naha Bus Terminal, for buses onward:

about 10 minin all

¥280fare

Notransfers

1. StartDomestic Passenger Terminal stop

   stop 5, 1st floor: go out of the domestic arrivals lobby; the stop is on the curb in front of it, toward the international terminal side

2. Bus 120Okinawa Bus / Ryukyu Bus Kotsu (joint)about 10 min¥280
   More about this ride

   Route 120 continues north to Nago, so get off at the bus terminal. Routes 113, 123 and 125 also go to Naha Bus Terminal, but they leave from a different airport stop (stop 3, toward central Okinawa). That they stop at the terminal is based on information we looked up; their fares and times are not confirmed here.

3. Get offNaha Bus Terminal (Asahibashi)

For reference only. Travel times depend on traffic, and routes and fares change. Check the operator's official site before you go (as of October 2026, official sites).

Route 120 to Chatan and the Onna coast. An ordinary local bus that runs up the west coast to Nago. No booking needed.

about 70 minin all

¥900fare

Notransfers

1. StartDomestic Passenger Terminal stop

   stop 5, 1st floor: go out of the domestic arrivals lobby; the stop is on the curb in front of it, toward the international terminal side

2. Bus 120Okinawa Bus / Ryukyu Bus Kotsu (joint)about 70 min¥900
   More about this ride

   About 55 to 80 minutes by the timetable, depending on the time of day and the route through Naha. The walk from the stop to the shops is not confirmed here.

3. Get offMihama American Village Iriguchi

For reference only. Travel times depend on traffic, and routes and fares change. Check the operator's official site before you go (as of October 2026, official sites).

about 120 minin all

¥1,710fare

Notransfers

1. StartDomestic Passenger Terminal stop

   stop 5, 1st floor: go out of the domestic arrivals lobby; the stop is on the curb in front of it, toward the international terminal side

2. Bus 120Okinawa Bus / Ryukyu Bus Kotsu (joint)about 120 min¥1,710
   More about this ride

   About 1 hour 50 minutes to 2 hours 20 minutes by the timetable. Route 120 also stops along the Onna coast at Renaissance Hotel-mae, Moon Beach-mae and Onna Village Office (Onna-son Yakuba-mae), so check the stop nearest your hotel.

3. Get offManza Beach-mae

For reference only. Travel times depend on traffic, and routes and fares change. Check the operator's official site before you go (as of October 2026, official sites).

Airport limousine buses go straight to major resort hotels in the middle and north of the island. You buy a ticket before you board. Times and stops are in our Naha Airport to your hotel guide.

Cards on buses. In March 2024, three bus companies announced contactless card payment on some routes, mostly to and from Naha Airport, including routes 111, 117 and 120. Ryukyu Bus Kotsu and Naha Bus say today that credit cards work on some routes, only on buses with the touch-payment sticker, and not on every trip. You tap the reader by the door when you board and the one by the fare box when you get off (as of October 2026, official site). We couldn't find a current list of routes (unconfirmed).

Suica on buses. Ryukyu Bus Kotsu and Naha Bus list cash, OKICA, contactless cards on some routes, and their own tickets. Suica and the other nationwide IC cards aren't on that list (as of October 2026, official site), so don't count on them on buses, even though they work on Yui Rail. Our money guide covers OKICA, Okinawa's own transit card, on buses. Carry yen coins and ¥1,000 bills either way.

Taxis and ride apps

Taxis fill the gaps the trains and buses leave, especially in Naha and the south. You don't tip in Japan.

Naha Airport publishes estimated fares from the airport, made with a fare-calculator site. Its table is dated July 1, 2025, before the government began revising main-island taxi fares, and it was still the one on the airport's site when we checked (as of October 2026, Naha Airport official site):

These are rough figures, not a quote. The airport says fares change with traffic, the route and late-night rates.

Fares went up on August 24, 2026. The Okinawa General Bureau, the national government's office that oversees taxi fares, set new main-island fares from that day. For a standard taxi, the meter now starts at up to ¥650 for the first 1.65 km, then adds ¥100 every 350 m. Before, it was ¥600 for the first 1.75 km, then ¥100 every 400 m (as of October 2026, Okinawa General Bureau). So expect to pay more than the airport's 2025 table, and ask the driver or your hotel for a current estimate.

Ride apps. We list only the apps whose own sites show Okinawa:

• Uber. Its Naha taxi page says every ride is a licensed taxi, in Naha and nearby towns, including rides to and from the airport. You can pay by card in the app, or in cash (as of October 2026, Uber official site).
• GO, a Japanese taxi app. Its service-area page lists the main island of Okinawa, with some areas excluded (as of October 2026, GO official site).

Whether a car comes, and how fast, depends on the time and place. In quieter areas, ask your hotel to call a taxi.

Day tours: the honest answer for the north

The north is where a car-free trip gets hard. The Okinawa Churaumi Aquarium, on the Motobu Peninsula, is about two hours from Naha Airport by car, via the expressway, according to its own access page (as of October 2026, official site). Kouri Island and the other northern stops are spread out beyond it. By bus, the trip is longer.

Bus 117 runs from the airport straight to the aquarium:

about 140 minin all

¥2,880fare

Notransfers

1. StartDomestic Passenger Terminal stop

   stop 2 (central and northern expressway buses), 1st floor; check the airport's bus stop map for its place

2. Bus 117 (expressway bus)Ryukyu Bus Kotsu / Okinawa Bus / Naha Bus / Toyo Bus (joint)about 140 min¥2,880
   More about this ride

   About 2 hours 10 minutes to 2 hours 30 minutes by the timetable. Only some route 117 buses start at the airport, and none leave it in the late afternoon or evening, so check the operator's timetable before you plan on it. The bus continues to the Orion Hotel Motobu Resort & Spa stop.

3. Get offKinen-Koen-mae (Okinawa Churaumi Aquarium)

For reference only. Travel times depend on traffic, and routes and fares change. Check the operator's official site before you go (as of October 2026, official sites).

It works for the aquarium on its own. Seeing the other northern stops in the same day by bus is much harder. We haven't confirmed bus routes to Kouri Island or Nakijin Castle Ruins yet (unconfirmed).

A day tour is the simplest way to see several northern stops in one day without driving. It's one option, not the only one. Before you book, check what's included (admission, lunch), where it picks you up, and what happens if a typhoon cancels it. Our guide to choosing a tour has a checklist, and our Churaumi and Motobu guide has the aquarium's hours and admission. We don't list tour companies or prices here.

The south is closer. A taxi from Naha works for one or two stops, as the table above shows, and day tours go there too. By bus, the Peace Memorial Park in Itoman takes two buses:

¥1,210fare

1transfer

1. StartNaha Bus Terminal

   stop 3 at Naha Bus Terminal (the route's first stop)

2. Bus 89Okinawa Bus / Ryukyu Bus Kotsu (joint)about 60 min¥670
   More about this ride

   Ride to the end of the line. Route 89 has a few variants with different stops on the way (one detours through Nishizaki), but all of them end at Itoman Bus Terminal. The ride takes about an hour, and longer in rush-hour traffic (as of October 2026, official timetable).

3. Bus 82Ryukyu Bus Kotsutime unconfirmed¥540
   More about this ride

   Route 82 runs about once an hour, so check the next departure before you leave Naha. The fare is the one the Okinawa Prefectural Peace Memorial Museum lists (as of January 2026, official site; this may have changed since, so check the official site before you book or go). The bus company's own fare table and timetable could not be checked.

4. Get offHeiwa Kinendo Iriguchi (Peace Memorial Hall entrance)
5. 
   Change hereHeiwa Kinendo Iriguchi bus stop
6. Walkabout 5 min
   More about this ride

   About a 5-minute walk, according to the Peace Memorial Museum.

7. Get offOkinawa Peace Memorial Park

For reference only. Travel times depend on traffic, and routes and fares change. Check the operator's official site before you go (as of October 2026, official sites).

We haven't confirmed a bus route to Sefa Utaki yet (unconfirmed).

The outer islands are reached by ferry or plane, not car.

Best bases for car-free travel

• Naha, near a monorail station. The best base. Prefectural Office, Makishi and Asahibashi put you on the monorail and close to Naha Bus Terminal.
• Chatan. Works if you're happy to ride bus 120 or take taxis. It's about 70 minutes from the airport by bus.
• Onna. Fine for a resort stay, if you mostly stay put. Get there by limousine bus or bus 120.
• Motobu. Hard without a car. Bus 117 has no airport departures in the late afternoon or evening (as of October 2026, official timetable).

See Where to Stay in Okinawa for each area.

A sample car-free trip

This is our own suggested plan for five days, built from the official times above. Swap the days around for the weather.

When to go

Weather matters more when you're waiting at bus stops and walking between them.

• Heat: Japan's weather agency puts Naha's average high at about 31.9°C (89°F) in July and 31.8°C (89°F) in August. Plan short walks and carry water.
• Cooler months: about 25°C (77°F) in November and 19.8°C (68°F) in January, good for walking.
• Rainy season: usually from around May 10 to around June 21.
• Typhoons: about 7.7 come near Okinawa in an average year, most often in August and September. Buses and the monorail can stop when one approaches. Follow each operator's official site and the Japan Meteorological Agency, not forecasts from other sources.

Official info

• Yui Rail: yui-rail.co.jp (fares, passes, timetables)
• Bus Navi Okinawa: busnavi-okinawa.com (route search and bus approach)
• Okinawa Bus: route list (timetables and fare tables)
• Naha Airport: bus guide and taxi

Dollar figures on this page use ¥157.81 per $1 (as of October 2, 2026, Federal Reserve). Treat them as rough.

Next:

• Just landing? See Naha Airport to your hotel.
• Planning the north? Read how to choose a tour.
• Changed your mind about driving? Our driving guide explains the permit.