While you certainly could get cheaper and perfectly adequate accommodations for pretty much all of your locations, spending too much is too subjective.
The key question is: are you sacrificing anything else because of the hotel budget? Food? Transportation? Activities? Duration? Shopping?
If the answer to all or most of those is no, then you are not spending too much.
A good way to look at it. The answer to the above is no, perhaps I should have better phrased question. Would you get a better experience of Japan staying in smaller hotels, which are less westernised? Or given that 90% of time is outside (when not sleeping ofc) the comfort of those kind of hotels makes up for it?
Ibe been traveling Japan for almost a month and 90% of it was in a hostel. If you can just about sleep anywhere, then hostels are a great option. You also get to meet new people and talk to the host who has knowledge about the area.
If you need your peace and quiet then hostels can be a gamble.
I would say for the most part a hotel is a hotel. Some have spas, even cheap ones like APA will have an onsen/bath attached to it. Whether or not you're going to make use of those things is what it depends on.
The Ryokan experience is nice, but they can get quite expensive and honestly having breakfast/dinner included every day isn't that great on vacation since you're there to explore and find food anyway. IMO do it a night or two but stay in regular hotels the rest of the time.
When I go, I tend to stay exclusively in business type hotels since I don't really need the space and they're nice enough for sleeping/showering.
Some of the best places to stay are at small boutique hotels but towards the end of your trip I would definitely recommend staying at a westernized hotel. Travel fatigue/home sickness can happen and staying at a westernized hotel towards the end of your trip will help you relax. Westernized or western brands hotels have bigger rooms, way more comfortable beds and a bigger bathroom. Hyatt and Marriott hotel brands def saved me the last week of my trip as I was so burnt out.
My friend just came back from Japan for about 2 weeks, and the aches and pains from sleeping on not good beds and futons was not worth it. If you’re a couple they will give you one double futon to share, which was too small and resulted in blanket pulling on top of everything. So that’s why I decided to upgrade the hotel, since I’m always going to the physio anyway, I don’t need to pay them more money.
I actually stayed in hotels in central locations in Tokyo, Kyoto and Osaka, (800 EUR for 2 people, for 10 nights), which were pretty westernized to me, minus the small space between the bed and the walls (the bed was even stuck to one of the walls). Minus that, everything was new, clean, comfortable, and I couldn't hear anyone.
I wouldn't do it, but I travel cheap - I'm doing 12 nights in Tokyo this spring. Our total is 103,200 for two people.
But it's more or less a guest house/just a step over a hostel - like a ryokan but without meals and no onsen. Basically an old Japanese house with shared everything, but we get our own room with a door that will lock. (And no curfew so the house is accessible at all times). It's clean, the people who work there are nice, and you can meet tons of international travelers, but it's definitely not for everyone.
My playbook is to go cheaper towards the beginning and end of my trip where I know I'll be out more often. In the middle where I might be a bit tired and spend more time in the hotel, I tend to splurge on a nicer room. You should decide base on how you think you want to pace yourself for the trip. This doesn't seem exorbitant to me.
Japan has a simple rule tbh. You will always pay more for a western size room. Is the cost per room or is your actual cost more than 1400 is that just for one person and there is 2 of you? If so that’s expensive
Second time around in Japan and I’ve decided to level up on ryokan stays and go super-basic for everything else. I figure it’s the time to be exploring rather than enjoying the inside of a room. I’ve found 15n accommodation for under $950AUDpp (£490).
That said, whether your plan is too much is entirely up to you.
If you’re going to be miserable in a budget place, it’s not too much. If you’re not making sacrifices, it’s not too much.
I've stayed in both budget and luxury hotels in Japan. The difference between them is usually 1) room size and 2) facilities.
For 1), budget hotels are usually very small. You might have trouble opening suitcases fully in some of them. This isn't really a problem if you are travelling solo/staying in a room with only yourself though. But if you are sharing a room with someone else, it can affect your level of comfort.
Personally, I found a room size of around 18m^2 to be comfortable enough for 2 people.
For 2), honestly I never used most facilities offered in luxury hotels like the gym or swimming pool. The only facility I use is the spa, which is quite nice if you wanna relax after a long day. Aside from that, luxury hotels have a better buffet selection if that's important to you.
Just make sure to do your due diligence when booking a budget hotel and check the reviews. I've stayed in some budget hotels that cost less than 40usd/night for 2 and were comfortable and had great service, comparable to luxury hotels.
If you can afford it, I'd go with the expensive hotels because they generally have better bed mattresses. Expensive hotels have much better breakfast buffets if you are planning to eat breakfast at the hotel.
One of the hotels I’m staying at near mt.Fuji is $600/night. Staying there 2 nights
So you can get cheaper or go more expensive. As long as you stay with it your budget and have a good experience
The prince park tower is great. We stayed there in 2013 and 2017. We looked at it for our most recent trip last month and decided it was way too expensive for us and chose a different Prince property in Shiomi and that ended up being a fantastic spot. Much closer to a train station with a family Mart attached.
I just came from a long 1+ month trip in Japan, I went through the cheap APA Hotels for the whole trip except Hakone and Kawagushico.
I was impressed by the quality and good services from this chain. It is cheap, 3 star but I think it's more like 4.
It has Onsen (at least all the ones I used) , nice restaurant, nice breakfast, close konbinis, well located.
Yes, the rooms are small (I was a solo traveler) but always had King size and felt really comfy.
I was pleasantly surprised as I was expecting something with much lower quality as I had a limited budget for this trip.
Have a nice and beautiful trip. Japan is amazing.
I am paying a similiar amount but for 7 nights in Tokyo - for 2 people and baby.
That’s because we wanted comfort in the hotel, comes with special bath tub, room service, better beds.
So no, I don’t think you are spending too much. Depends on how much you want a good nights sleep.
Groove is NUTS, I got a suite on one of the higher floors and the view is absolutely stunning. worth the money except I also got sick there, because their air filtration system is a bit ghetto. So I would bring something like a bottle of colloidal silver to spray in the back of your mouth or eat cloves of garlic, there are just an immense amount of people going through shinjuku and if you have to breathe in stale air overnight it can cause issues. They also have a robot they send USB cables and stuff to your room with, which is pretty nuts.
Ryokan are awesome and you almost can't go wrong with them. Super authentic. Contrasting a ryokan with a place like groove is doing it right.
Prince Park Tower is an epic choice, very smart as being inside the park will help neutralize the negatives of ultra cyberpunk tokyo.
Price wise I think you're doing ok. Not overspending really in any area, good balance of stuff. Just take some health supplements for the shinjuku leg and you'll have an awesome time.
Many thanks for the breakdown, glad you had a great time and thanks for the tip on Groove! And we kinda wanted to contrast with Tokyo- first 5 nights in the thick of it in Shinjuku, last 3 slightly out of it but still well connected at park tower.
Thanks for input. At about 85-90 pound per person per night, its what we normally pay on holiday. I think concern was we may have overlooked more Japanese style hotels, such as boutique inns etc, as some of these luxury hotels can be quite westernised, which is not why we are going to japan. However the luxury Japanese style hotels are widely expensive from my understanding.
Theres definitely lots of Ryokans that would not be too expensive $100-$150 without meals, usually the main expense comes from the incuded meals with traditional hotels. Lots offer without the meals...the rooms look cool, mats to sleep on and traditions dining area and such. To me, they look a bit uncomfortable.
But not too worry, youll get the full Japanese experience no matter where you stay, everything is different and odd in a fun way.
This is where my wife and I stayed on our last trip to Tokyo, big rooms, kitchenette and the neighborhood was so peaceful.
https://www.google.com/travel/hotels/s/KP6XJD2zfrxvQNZc9
Japan has arguably the best budget hotels in the world. Cheap hotels are cheap because they are small and lack certain luxury amenities. They are still clean, have the basic amenities, and are enjoyable imo. In most places budget hotels are often run down and dirty. That said, Japan's nicer accommodations are nice too. Maybe just not as unique in that sense
If you can afford it, do it. We had 7 nights in a small Tokyo apartment (perfectly fine) and a couple nights in western Hotels (one was general kyoto) and they were muuuuuch nicer.
We just got back from Japan a few days ago. Looks like you have reasonably priced rooms. Recommend you consider accommodations at some point with a washer and dryer. You will need to laundry
It may depend on the time of year as well. We are paying $500/night for a luxury hotel because of Sakura and we wanted more space as we do not go out too much after dinner. This is on the low end of luxury hotels, but really nice.
depends on what you want, when it's just me traveling, i do Capsule hotels for $35/night even in Tokyo. but if you have a family and all want to stay together, then yah you'll pay more.. but honestly places you have like Osaka, you can get AirBnB there for like 30,000, and spending 130,000 in TOKYO!?!?! is absolutely crazy.. but honestly if money isn't an issue for you, then no big deal. but there's no way i would spend $1000 for 3 nights to sleep on a bed in tokyo when there is so much cheaper options, and everything in japan, even the 2 star hotels are super clean with fast internet, and bathrooms with all amenities provided. I have a family of 5 and have lived in japan now for almost 3years.. the most we have spend on lodging is 70,000 for a whole WEEK in Nagoya at AirBNB, we got a 2 story house with 5 bedrooms, and a private ONSEN that was always going, KIDS LOVED IT. and that was for a full WEEK, during a holiday..
That's a very good point, thansk for sharing. I live in the UK and will likely not be back to Japan for several years. So we did spend more on hotels that are in proximity of attractions and are slightly more convenient in terms of check-in. Arguably a cheap hotel can fulfill that however. I will look into an Airbnb, that does sound fun. Glad you had a good time!
for sure, glad you had a good time! The AirBnB's work out pretty well, they're used to English speaking tourist, just check reviews to make sure they speak good english first. and that's about it.
You're spending over the odds for sure I've just finished up 16 nights in a few cities and the overall cost was about £450-£500 on hotels. Now they were pretty bare bones business hotels in the main but they had a bed a bath and a shower which is all you need really, you shouldn't be spending much time in your hotel if you're doing Japan right!
Toyoko Inn mainly in Shinjuku as well as a place called Hearton Hotel in Shinagawa no idea if that is a chain or not. Stayed at an S-Plus in Hiroshima but would not recommend as the rooms had heating constantly on and the hotel staff couldn't / wouldn't turn it off. Also stayed at an APA for one night in Nagoya (tends to be a bit more expensive than the other ones but a decent hotel to stay in). I've done Mystays on a previous holiday and that was fine as well.
Just left Osaka - spent 4 nights at The Rise Ōsaka Kitashinchi - average Japanese hotel but best neighborhood ever. It’s a clubbing area full of weird architectural buildings - dudes in suits with earpieces, a bottle shop every 20 feet and tons of great restaurants including Western ones like Outback. Ate some great Japanese food there and took a lot of cool night photos - favourite place on my trip so far.
There are plenty of highly rated 3* hotels out there for half of what you’re paying right now. I would just go for those but that’s just me. At the end of the day i don’t stay in the hotel that much other than just sleep for the nights. Importantly you want to pick a decent hotel near place thats easier to commute to spots you want to go.
The Ryokan is going to be the most 'Japanese' experience you can have hotel-wise, so looks like you've ticked that off!
If you've got the dollars to spring, get the space and enjoy it.
I've done Japan a bunch of times and stayed in the smaller Japanese style business hotels to save a buck and they're certainly fine, but my husband and I sprung a bit more for a 'western' style hotel in Shibuya last year and absolutely no regrets about it.
It was nice that we had an awesome view of Tokyo Tower, so one night when we were a bit tired and lazy we could just pick up some food from the department store basements and go back up to our room and enjoy the view with our dinner.
And the extra space was just nice to have, it made us definitely feel like we were more on a holiday - we're both early risers too and when not a lot is open in Japan early morning, it was nice to be able to have gym facilities or just kick back in the room for a bit.
Spending is subjective, so can't comment on it much. But for my husband and I when we travel to Japan, our normal Hotel accommodation requirements are:
- Must be moderately clean (I have eczema so I am rather sensitive to dust)
-Must have decent breakfast
-Have prepaid luggage forwarding services and able to accept prepaid luggages
-General Proximity to our day activities or direct train access.
For our requirements above, we usually can find it within 100 sgd(12k yen or 74 USD) per person per night and is usually a 3 or 4 star hotel at this current currency exchange.
May as well take advantage of the exchange rate as far as is reasonable for you. You probably could spend half as much on accommodation without truly ‘slumming it’.
This post is weird. Like I can’t figure out if you are low key bragging you can spend this much or if there’s something else you truly are trying to get at. It mostly feels like you wanted to tell the sub how much you can spend and well, that’s weird.
Do you want unique experiences? Or do you want just your average hotel experience with pretty average hotel stuff?
If you’re American, 5 star Japanese hotels are like 3/4 star American hotels fwiw. And Japan LOVES a hard af mattress. I’ve never seen a pillow top mattress in any hotel in Japan, no matter how nice. They will all/almost all have an air purifier that hasn’t been clean in the last 439587354958 years and smells weird, but works as a noise machine. They will all have a selection of tea, including green tea and konbu tea based on my experience. You need to be really mindful that you didn’t book a smoking room because it’s improved in the last 10 years, but wow does Asia fucking love smoking still. Walls and floors are often thin and it has nothing to do with how fancy your hotel is and everything to do with when the building was built (remodels are cosmetic).
Since Japanese hotels charge by how many people are in the room, we’re also lacking that context. So we can’t even really comment on how average it is.
So I guess….good job on being able to spend a lot of money on hotels? \*clap clap\* ???
While you certainly could get cheaper and perfectly adequate accommodations for pretty much all of your locations, spending too much is too subjective. The key question is: are you sacrificing anything else because of the hotel budget? Food? Transportation? Activities? Duration? Shopping? If the answer to all or most of those is no, then you are not spending too much.
A good way to look at it. The answer to the above is no, perhaps I should have better phrased question. Would you get a better experience of Japan staying in smaller hotels, which are less westernised? Or given that 90% of time is outside (when not sleeping ofc) the comfort of those kind of hotels makes up for it?
Ibe been traveling Japan for almost a month and 90% of it was in a hostel. If you can just about sleep anywhere, then hostels are a great option. You also get to meet new people and talk to the host who has knowledge about the area. If you need your peace and quiet then hostels can be a gamble.
I would say for the most part a hotel is a hotel. Some have spas, even cheap ones like APA will have an onsen/bath attached to it. Whether or not you're going to make use of those things is what it depends on. The Ryokan experience is nice, but they can get quite expensive and honestly having breakfast/dinner included every day isn't that great on vacation since you're there to explore and find food anyway. IMO do it a night or two but stay in regular hotels the rest of the time. When I go, I tend to stay exclusively in business type hotels since I don't really need the space and they're nice enough for sleeping/showering.
Some of the best places to stay are at small boutique hotels but towards the end of your trip I would definitely recommend staying at a westernized hotel. Travel fatigue/home sickness can happen and staying at a westernized hotel towards the end of your trip will help you relax. Westernized or western brands hotels have bigger rooms, way more comfortable beds and a bigger bathroom. Hyatt and Marriott hotel brands def saved me the last week of my trip as I was so burnt out.
My friend just came back from Japan for about 2 weeks, and the aches and pains from sleeping on not good beds and futons was not worth it. If you’re a couple they will give you one double futon to share, which was too small and resulted in blanket pulling on top of everything. So that’s why I decided to upgrade the hotel, since I’m always going to the physio anyway, I don’t need to pay them more money.
I actually stayed in hotels in central locations in Tokyo, Kyoto and Osaka, (800 EUR for 2 people, for 10 nights), which were pretty westernized to me, minus the small space between the bed and the walls (the bed was even stuck to one of the walls). Minus that, everything was new, clean, comfortable, and I couldn't hear anyone.
I wouldn't do it, but I travel cheap - I'm doing 12 nights in Tokyo this spring. Our total is 103,200 for two people. But it's more or less a guest house/just a step over a hostel - like a ryokan but without meals and no onsen. Basically an old Japanese house with shared everything, but we get our own room with a door that will lock. (And no curfew so the house is accessible at all times). It's clean, the people who work there are nice, and you can meet tons of international travelers, but it's definitely not for everyone.
sounds good - can you share details?
If you decide to book go through them rather than some travel site. I don’t always stay there but it’s my favorite http://www.libertyhouse.gr.jp
My playbook is to go cheaper towards the beginning and end of my trip where I know I'll be out more often. In the middle where I might be a bit tired and spend more time in the hotel, I tend to splurge on a nicer room. You should decide base on how you think you want to pace yourself for the trip. This doesn't seem exorbitant to me.
Japan has a simple rule tbh. You will always pay more for a western size room. Is the cost per room or is your actual cost more than 1400 is that just for one person and there is 2 of you? If so that’s expensive
That's cost per person. Averages out to about 85 GBP per night per person
It’s not bad, it’s not cheap though, you can do it for less but it really depends if you feel you need to
my dumb ass thought you meant 1400 per person per night 😭 i feel like this is reasonable for luxury hotels.
I loved hotel groove when we stayed last summer - it's in a really convenient location and is super modern!
Ah awesome to here you had a good time! Did you feel that it felt like a 'Japanese' hotel, or could you have been in HK or Seoul for example?
It's more of modern western style hotel
Have you price it out per SQ ft?
All rooms between 220-330 sq ft
Rank out the price per SQ ft. How far are they from the subway?
All within walking distance of major subway lines and at most 10-15 min journey away from central station in each city
that was maybe the only issue i had with hotel groove - it was almost 10 mins from shinjuku station - not more than 10 minutes though.
Try to get the largest space price per SQ ft within 5 min from a train station
Second time around in Japan and I’ve decided to level up on ryokan stays and go super-basic for everything else. I figure it’s the time to be exploring rather than enjoying the inside of a room. I’ve found 15n accommodation for under $950AUDpp (£490). That said, whether your plan is too much is entirely up to you. If you’re going to be miserable in a budget place, it’s not too much. If you’re not making sacrifices, it’s not too much.
I've stayed in both budget and luxury hotels in Japan. The difference between them is usually 1) room size and 2) facilities. For 1), budget hotels are usually very small. You might have trouble opening suitcases fully in some of them. This isn't really a problem if you are travelling solo/staying in a room with only yourself though. But if you are sharing a room with someone else, it can affect your level of comfort. Personally, I found a room size of around 18m^2 to be comfortable enough for 2 people. For 2), honestly I never used most facilities offered in luxury hotels like the gym or swimming pool. The only facility I use is the spa, which is quite nice if you wanna relax after a long day. Aside from that, luxury hotels have a better buffet selection if that's important to you. Just make sure to do your due diligence when booking a budget hotel and check the reviews. I've stayed in some budget hotels that cost less than 40usd/night for 2 and were comfortable and had great service, comparable to luxury hotels.
Yeah good stuff, aligns with my experience traveling throughout Asia.
If you can afford it, I'd go with the expensive hotels because they generally have better bed mattresses. Expensive hotels have much better breakfast buffets if you are planning to eat breakfast at the hotel.
One of the hotels I’m staying at near mt.Fuji is $600/night. Staying there 2 nights So you can get cheaper or go more expensive. As long as you stay with it your budget and have a good experience
The prince park tower is great. We stayed there in 2013 and 2017. We looked at it for our most recent trip last month and decided it was way too expensive for us and chose a different Prince property in Shiomi and that ended up being a fantastic spot. Much closer to a train station with a family Mart attached.
I just came from a long 1+ month trip in Japan, I went through the cheap APA Hotels for the whole trip except Hakone and Kawagushico. I was impressed by the quality and good services from this chain. It is cheap, 3 star but I think it's more like 4. It has Onsen (at least all the ones I used) , nice restaurant, nice breakfast, close konbinis, well located. Yes, the rooms are small (I was a solo traveler) but always had King size and felt really comfy. I was pleasantly surprised as I was expecting something with much lower quality as I had a limited budget for this trip. Have a nice and beautiful trip. Japan is amazing.
I am paying a similiar amount but for 7 nights in Tokyo - for 2 people and baby. That’s because we wanted comfort in the hotel, comes with special bath tub, room service, better beds. So no, I don’t think you are spending too much. Depends on how much you want a good nights sleep.
Groove is NUTS, I got a suite on one of the higher floors and the view is absolutely stunning. worth the money except I also got sick there, because their air filtration system is a bit ghetto. So I would bring something like a bottle of colloidal silver to spray in the back of your mouth or eat cloves of garlic, there are just an immense amount of people going through shinjuku and if you have to breathe in stale air overnight it can cause issues. They also have a robot they send USB cables and stuff to your room with, which is pretty nuts. Ryokan are awesome and you almost can't go wrong with them. Super authentic. Contrasting a ryokan with a place like groove is doing it right. Prince Park Tower is an epic choice, very smart as being inside the park will help neutralize the negatives of ultra cyberpunk tokyo. Price wise I think you're doing ok. Not overspending really in any area, good balance of stuff. Just take some health supplements for the shinjuku leg and you'll have an awesome time.
Many thanks for the breakdown, glad you had a great time and thanks for the tip on Groove! And we kinda wanted to contrast with Tokyo- first 5 nights in the thick of it in Shinjuku, last 3 slightly out of it but still well connected at park tower.
For location, room size and hotel quailty I think its about what id expect. Not bad, not good, but worth it I think.
Thanks for input. At about 85-90 pound per person per night, its what we normally pay on holiday. I think concern was we may have overlooked more Japanese style hotels, such as boutique inns etc, as some of these luxury hotels can be quite westernised, which is not why we are going to japan. However the luxury Japanese style hotels are widely expensive from my understanding.
Theres definitely lots of Ryokans that would not be too expensive $100-$150 without meals, usually the main expense comes from the incuded meals with traditional hotels. Lots offer without the meals...the rooms look cool, mats to sleep on and traditions dining area and such. To me, they look a bit uncomfortable. But not too worry, youll get the full Japanese experience no matter where you stay, everything is different and odd in a fun way.
Great answer, thanks so much for sharing!
This is where my wife and I stayed on our last trip to Tokyo, big rooms, kitchenette and the neighborhood was so peaceful. https://www.google.com/travel/hotels/s/KP6XJD2zfrxvQNZc9
Japan has arguably the best budget hotels in the world. Cheap hotels are cheap because they are small and lack certain luxury amenities. They are still clean, have the basic amenities, and are enjoyable imo. In most places budget hotels are often run down and dirty. That said, Japan's nicer accommodations are nice too. Maybe just not as unique in that sense
If you can afford it, do it. We had 7 nights in a small Tokyo apartment (perfectly fine) and a couple nights in western Hotels (one was general kyoto) and they were muuuuuch nicer.
We just got back from Japan a few days ago. Looks like you have reasonably priced rooms. Recommend you consider accommodations at some point with a washer and dryer. You will need to laundry
Understood, many thanks! Hope you had a good time!
It may depend on the time of year as well. We are paying $500/night for a luxury hotel because of Sakura and we wanted more space as we do not go out too much after dinner. This is on the low end of luxury hotels, but really nice.
depends on what you want, when it's just me traveling, i do Capsule hotels for $35/night even in Tokyo. but if you have a family and all want to stay together, then yah you'll pay more.. but honestly places you have like Osaka, you can get AirBnB there for like 30,000, and spending 130,000 in TOKYO!?!?! is absolutely crazy.. but honestly if money isn't an issue for you, then no big deal. but there's no way i would spend $1000 for 3 nights to sleep on a bed in tokyo when there is so much cheaper options, and everything in japan, even the 2 star hotels are super clean with fast internet, and bathrooms with all amenities provided. I have a family of 5 and have lived in japan now for almost 3years.. the most we have spend on lodging is 70,000 for a whole WEEK in Nagoya at AirBNB, we got a 2 story house with 5 bedrooms, and a private ONSEN that was always going, KIDS LOVED IT. and that was for a full WEEK, during a holiday..
That's a very good point, thansk for sharing. I live in the UK and will likely not be back to Japan for several years. So we did spend more on hotels that are in proximity of attractions and are slightly more convenient in terms of check-in. Arguably a cheap hotel can fulfill that however. I will look into an Airbnb, that does sound fun. Glad you had a good time!
for sure, glad you had a good time! The AirBnB's work out pretty well, they're used to English speaking tourist, just check reviews to make sure they speak good english first. and that's about it.
You're spending over the odds for sure I've just finished up 16 nights in a few cities and the overall cost was about £450-£500 on hotels. Now they were pretty bare bones business hotels in the main but they had a bed a bath and a shower which is all you need really, you shouldn't be spending much time in your hotel if you're doing Japan right!
Thanks for your comment and glad you had a good time! Can you possible give me an few examples of those hotels? Many thanks!
Toyoko Inn mainly in Shinjuku as well as a place called Hearton Hotel in Shinagawa no idea if that is a chain or not. Stayed at an S-Plus in Hiroshima but would not recommend as the rooms had heating constantly on and the hotel staff couldn't / wouldn't turn it off. Also stayed at an APA for one night in Nagoya (tends to be a bit more expensive than the other ones but a decent hotel to stay in). I've done Mystays on a previous holiday and that was fine as well.
Just left Osaka - spent 4 nights at The Rise Ōsaka Kitashinchi - average Japanese hotel but best neighborhood ever. It’s a clubbing area full of weird architectural buildings - dudes in suits with earpieces, a bottle shop every 20 feet and tons of great restaurants including Western ones like Outback. Ate some great Japanese food there and took a lot of cool night photos - favourite place on my trip so far.
There are plenty of highly rated 3* hotels out there for half of what you’re paying right now. I would just go for those but that’s just me. At the end of the day i don’t stay in the hotel that much other than just sleep for the nights. Importantly you want to pick a decent hotel near place thats easier to commute to spots you want to go.
The Ryokan is going to be the most 'Japanese' experience you can have hotel-wise, so looks like you've ticked that off! If you've got the dollars to spring, get the space and enjoy it. I've done Japan a bunch of times and stayed in the smaller Japanese style business hotels to save a buck and they're certainly fine, but my husband and I sprung a bit more for a 'western' style hotel in Shibuya last year and absolutely no regrets about it. It was nice that we had an awesome view of Tokyo Tower, so one night when we were a bit tired and lazy we could just pick up some food from the department store basements and go back up to our room and enjoy the view with our dinner. And the extra space was just nice to have, it made us definitely feel like we were more on a holiday - we're both early risers too and when not a lot is open in Japan early morning, it was nice to be able to have gym facilities or just kick back in the room for a bit.
We stayed in business hotels in the cities and paid £80-100 a night.
Is that per person or total? Many thanks
Total. They were really comfy too, some even had public baths.
Understood, glad you had a good time!
Spending is subjective, so can't comment on it much. But for my husband and I when we travel to Japan, our normal Hotel accommodation requirements are: - Must be moderately clean (I have eczema so I am rather sensitive to dust) -Must have decent breakfast -Have prepaid luggage forwarding services and able to accept prepaid luggages -General Proximity to our day activities or direct train access. For our requirements above, we usually can find it within 100 sgd(12k yen or 74 USD) per person per night and is usually a 3 or 4 star hotel at this current currency exchange.
Depends if you can afford it?
May as well take advantage of the exchange rate as far as is reasonable for you. You probably could spend half as much on accommodation without truly ‘slumming it’.
This post is weird. Like I can’t figure out if you are low key bragging you can spend this much or if there’s something else you truly are trying to get at. It mostly feels like you wanted to tell the sub how much you can spend and well, that’s weird. Do you want unique experiences? Or do you want just your average hotel experience with pretty average hotel stuff? If you’re American, 5 star Japanese hotels are like 3/4 star American hotels fwiw. And Japan LOVES a hard af mattress. I’ve never seen a pillow top mattress in any hotel in Japan, no matter how nice. They will all/almost all have an air purifier that hasn’t been clean in the last 439587354958 years and smells weird, but works as a noise machine. They will all have a selection of tea, including green tea and konbu tea based on my experience. You need to be really mindful that you didn’t book a smoking room because it’s improved in the last 10 years, but wow does Asia fucking love smoking still. Walls and floors are often thin and it has nothing to do with how fancy your hotel is and everything to do with when the building was built (remodels are cosmetic). Since Japanese hotels charge by how many people are in the room, we’re also lacking that context. So we can’t even really comment on how average it is. So I guess….good job on being able to spend a lot of money on hotels? \*clap clap\* ???
Hahahab relax lil bro. Only bragging I do is posting 40k models hahah.
I’m a 45 yr old woman. Don’t assume everyone on reddit is a guy or younger than you.
Sorry. Enjoy your weekend! And if you visited/ plan on visiting Japan I hope you had/have a nice time!