By train
The mountain is accessible primarily by the Nankai Electric Railway from Namba Station in Osaka, which connects to Gokurakubashi at the base of the mountain. Koya limited expresses take 80 minutes and cost �1610, while ordinary expresses are lower priced at �1210 and take only 10 minutes longer at 90 minutes. The final half of the trip is a slow climb up into the mountains and extremely scenic in good weather.
If you are traveling to Koyasan from Kyoto, you can use a JR pass to get to Tennoji on the Kansai Airport Express train. You will then need to change to the Osaka Loop train and get off at Shin Imamiya, where you can transfer to the Nankai (private) express train. At this point you will need to pay approx. �1230 to get from Shin Imamiya to the top of Mount Koya (includes the cable car ride). Depending on the time of day, you may need to transfer at one of the stops before ending up at Gokurakubashi, though if you time your trip right, you can take an Express train straight to the foot of the mountain at Gokurakubashi.
A cable car from Gokurakubashi then whisks visitors to the top in 5 minutes for �360. From the cable car station you'll have to take a bus to town (5-15 minutes depending on your destination). Train, cable car and bus schedules are synchronized so this works better than it may sound. Actually, at least some of them are so well synchronized that you only have a couple of minutes in between. So don't count on a toilet break on the station.
A good value way to reach Koya-san is to purchase the Koyasan World Heritage Ticket for �2,780 (express) or �3,310 (ltd express) available from the Nankai ticket counter. This ticket includes round trip train, cable car, and all-day bus pass. This ticket works for either a single day trip or for staying one night on Koyasan. Also gives coupons for small discounts to popular destinations on the mountain.
In the spring (April 1 to June 30) and autumn (October 1 -
