Tokyo Hotel help!

[FairestOfThemAll37]

So I originally started this thread to get ideas on where to take a solo trip, but a turn of events has lead to me to planning a trip to Tokyo!

Now I need help with hotel! Any help is appreciated!



Original post below:
Hello Budget boarders! My New Year's resolution is to get out of the country this year! It's been almost 7 years (eeek) since I've travelled outside of the U.S. (Except the Caribbean, which for some reason I don't really count) and I'm antsy to get my travel on.

I'm planning to go by myself as I'd rather not be tied to anybody else's schedule and quite enjoy my alone time. My only problem is I don't know where to go! I would like to go somewhere on the more exotic side. My budget is in the neighborhood of $3k ish.

Any suggestions? Amazing trips you've taken? I need ideas!!! Great countries, sites, hotel etc. suggestions welcome!!!

 

[SplashMo]

I really want to go to New Zealand during the Northern Lights and photograph them. They have a once a year deal that is not too bad. Of course someplace warm sounds good as well..

 

[stsomewhere]

I did a solo transaltantic cruise. It was amazing! 2 nights at WDW before had followed by 14 night cruise. End trip with 2 nights in Barcelona.

I love cruising! You can be a s social as you want or enjoy alone time.

I joined a cruise meet and met some wonderful people. We arranged to do some private tours in ports together. I met a lot of solo travelers.

 

[OrangeBirdGirl]

I second cruising. If I were to travel solo, that's probably what I would do. Just because you could take the ship excursions and have a group to tour with. Norwegian has some solo cabins. Depending on where you would fly out from you could possible get airfare to Europe for under a grand. A solo stateroom for under a grand and do a week long cruise of the Mediterranean and leave you a grand for spending money.

However, on the other hand you mention that you don't want to be on anyone's schedule and you are with a cruise ship.

If you want exotic, I'd head to Tokyo for a week. If you found a decent air/hotel package I think you could do for one person at under $3K for a week. There's Tokyo Disney and Disney Seas so that's a plus. There's a bunch to do right in Tokyo. I always find Asia more exotic then Europe. Hong Kong may be another good option, a little more "Americanized" then Tokyo.

 

[jedijill]

Airfare is so high now that it really cuts into the budget. I did do an amazing 11 night med cruise 4 years ago for $2500 (flight plus cruise). You would have to add extra money for any pre or post hotel plus any excursions or souvenirs but it was a great price to see all the places where we went.

I'm planning a solo trip to Australia next year and I'm budgeting closer to $5K for that one. Airfare is at least $1500 by itself.

Jill in CO

 

[msmama]

I think flights will be your deciding factor on how far you can go. Do you like to rough it, or be pampered more? That could be a determining factor.

Groupon and Living Social have what look like crazy deals sometimes, though I've never read the fine print.

I'd start as flights for a starting point though!

Good luck! Sounds fun!

 

[FairestOfThemAll37]

OP here, so as you can see I've changed the name of the thread! I got a serendipitous email from an old roommate of mine that she is getting married in late May, so it seems as though my trip will be to Tokyo!

I will be attending the wedding and what not but likely spend the rest of the time flying solo.

I looked at airfare today and that was $3200 yikes! So a bit over budget already but ce la vie!

I am very familiar with Tokyo but have never stayed in a hotel there. If anybody has been to Tokyo and has hotel recommendations that would be great!

 

[OrangeBirdGirl]

DH and I stayed at the "Hotel Sunroute Plaza Shinjuku". We chose that hotel because it was relatively close to Shinjuku station. It was maybe 3 blocks away. Able to take the train from Narita right to Shinjuku station. Not only are the commuter trains out of there (so you could head to Disney or out to the Countryside) but the subway also goes out of Shinjuku station.

The hotel staff spoke English. They had a decent restaurant onsite. 7-11 was across the street. We used that to hit the ATM for cash.

 

[TipsyTraveler]

May is a great time of year to visit Japan especially if you're travelling just after the end of Golden Week (everyone's just returned from vacation so crowds won't be so bad).

Not sure if you want info on Tokyo specifically or Japan in general. Here's what we did:

4 days in Tokyo staying at Shinjuku Hilton. Great hotel, great location.

5 days at Tokyo Bay Hilton for Disneyland/Disney Sea. Also a nice hotel, short monorail ride to the parks, and much more reasonably priced compared to the Disney hotels.

5 days in Kyoto staying at Hearton Hotel. Eh, I probably wouldn't stay at this one again. There was nothing wrong with it per se, and we knew it wasn't going to be as nice as the other hotels going in, but it still fell a bit short for me. While in Kyoto we did a day trip to Nara (loved it) and another one to Hiroshima and Miyajima Island (also loved it).

3 more days in Tokyo staying at the Dormy Inn in Shibuya. I really liked this hotel. It wasn't as plush or roomy as the Hiltons but it served our purposes well and I'd return. We day-tripped north past Nagano and hiked up to see the "snow monkeys" (a troop of Japanese Macaques, the northern most troop of monkeys in the world, who use the warm waters of an onsen to survive the winter). This was probably the highlight of the trip for me but I'm into that kind of thing.

We tried, and failed, to make it out to Mount Fuji for the pink moss festival. If the flowers are still blooming while you're there you may consider doing that as a day trip from Tokyo.

By getting a Hilton Honors card we were able to get two of our Shinjuku nights and one of our Tokyo Bay nights free. We were upgraded to executive level at the first Hilton with access to the executive lounge and free drinks in the evenings. Both Hilton's offered a free buffet breakfast. That little card saved us quite a bit of cash and we'll be using it again for free nights in Nairobi for our upcoming trip. The other money saver was Expedia, which is how we ended up booking the Dormy Inn. It was cheaper to book the flight and hotel together than was the cost of the flight alone. In other words, our last four nights were free and we got a little bit of money kicked back from the airfare. Overall, nearly half our hotel nights were free. Look for deals.

If you post on the Tokyo Board you may get more or better responses versus the Budget Board.

 

[Riles_and_Gabe]

Have you looked into AirBNB? I did a quick search using a random week in May and came up with 951 rental properties under $100. The nice thing about this is that you are usually renting an entire apartment (or studio apartment) and will have access to a kitchen and more space.

We used this site for our trip to Chile this coming March. We are staying in Santiago for about $50 a night for 3 people. Our apartment has a kitchen, loft, balcony, and an indoor pool towards the upper level of the building. It is such a great value.

Have a great time on your trip!!!

 

[FairestOfThemAll37]

May is a great time of year to visit Japan especially if you're travelling just after the end of Golden Week (everyone's just returned from vacation so crowds won't be so bad). Not sure if you want info on Tokyo specifically or Japan in general. Here's what we did: 4 days in Tokyo staying at Shinjuku Hilton. Great hotel, great location. 5 days at Tokyo Bay Hilton for Disneyland/Disney Sea. Also a nice hotel, short monorail ride to the parks, and much more reasonably priced compared to the Disney hotels. 5 days in Kyoto staying at Hearton Hotel. Eh, I probably wouldn't stay at this one again. There was nothing wrong with it per se, and we knew it wasn't going to be as nice as the other hotels going in, but it still fell a bit short for me. While in Kyoto we did a day trip to Nara (loved it) and another one to Hiroshima and Miyajima Island (also loved it). 3 more days in Tokyo staying at the Dormy Inn in Shibuya. I really liked this hotel. It wasn't as plush or roomy as the Hiltons but it served our purposes well and I'd return. We day-tripped north past Nagano and hiked up to see the "snow monkeys" (a troop of Japanese Macaques, the northern most troop of monkeys in the world, who use the warm waters of an onsen to survive the winter). This was probably the highlight of the trip for me but I'm into that kind of thing. We tried, and failed, to make it out to Mount Fuji for the pink moss festival. If the flowers are still blooming while you're there you may consider doing that as a day trip from Tokyo. By getting a Hilton Honors card we were able to get two of our Shinjuku nights and one of our Tokyo Bay nights free. We were upgraded to executive level at the first Hilton with access to the executive lounge and free drinks in the evenings. Both Hilton's offered a free buffet breakfast. That little card saved us quite a bit of cash and we'll be using it again for free nights in Nairobi for our upcoming trip. The other money saver was Expedia, which is how we ended up booking the Dormy Inn. It was cheaper to book the flight and hotel together than was the cost of the flight alone. In other words, our last four nights were free and we got a little bit of money kicked back from the airfare. Overall, nearly half our hotel nights were free. Look for deals. If you post on the Tokyo Board you may get more or better responses versus the Budget Board.

Thanks! I didn't even know there was a Tokyo board! I have a Hilton card and some points so I may go that route. Normally I would love the benefit of free breakfast but there's so much cheap food around Tokyo that's super delicious I can't imagine eating at the hotel! I will definitely check out the Hilton!

 

[chanson2]

Yes, if you search the DIS boards under "Other Lands" under "Global Neighbors", there is a Tokyo Disneyland board, that has lots of good info on Tokyo. We went last July, and stayed at the Westin in Kyoto and the Tokyo Metropolitan Marunouchi hotel. Neither hotel was cheap - think prices similar to NYC. Both were very nice, tho very different from each other. Rooms were quite small at the Tokyo Metropolitan Marunouchi, but very nicely appointed - seemed more for business travelers. Liked the fact that it was a short walk from Tokyo Station, where you could catch both trains or buses to the airport.

Happy planning!

 

[TipsyTraveler]

Thanks! I didn't even know there was a Tokyo board! I have a Hilton card and some points so I may go that route. Normally I would love the benefit of free breakfast but there's so much cheap food around Tokyo that's super delicious I can't imagine eating at the hotel! I will definitely check out the Hilton!

It's my understanding that the Japanese aren't big breakfast people so, depending on what time you want to get your day started, there may not be many establishments open that early. We weren't planning to take advantage of the buffets initially but we came to appreciate them. They offered a huge variety of Japanese food and were super convenient to get in and out quickly so we could get the day started without having to hunt down food first. We ate the rest of our meals and snacks around town. We also have dietary restrictions so the buffets, having the assistance of English-speaking staff, were our one guaranteed "safe" meal each day. Everything else we had to cross our fingers and hope we'd find something suitable. Even when we didn't eat at the buffet we found it easier to eat something in the room first just to have breakfast done and out of the way.

 

[chris31997]

I second checking into Hilton they often have deals running. Might get room and breakfast or dinner deal.

For a quick meal on the go: almost any grocery have a ready to eat section, any 7-11, Lawsons, FamilyMart, Cocco or Cocco de Bake have ready to eat or ready to heat and eat.

Another good resource for hotels:check on the Tokyo Disney page. Look for their good neighbor hotels.

 

[planningjollyholiday]

We were pleasantly surprised with the shiba park hotel. It was really cheap compared to others but the location was great. Short walk to both the toei subway line and the metro line. On the corner was a starbucks and down the street was a 7-11. Around the corner was the tokyo tower. Is was beautiful every night to see the tower as we walked back to the hotel. Lots of little restaurants around too, just ask for an english menu. In disneyland we like the hilton tokyo bay. We have taken 2 trips now in mid may and have loved that time frame. During the week the parks were low crowds (low for tokyo). Usually hilton offers a 50% off sale a few times a year which makes the hilton disneyland so much cheaper, you just have to keep looking diligently for the deal. Good luck, we have loved our japan trips!!!

 

[J0HN]

Thanks! I didn't even know there was a Tokyo board! I have a Hilton card and some points so I may go that route. Normally I would love the benefit of free breakfast but there's so much cheap food around Tokyo that's super delicious I can't imagine eating at the hotel! I will definitely check out the Hilton!

If you have Hilton points you may want to check out the Conrad Tokyo (one of the nicest hotels in Tokyo). Also, if you plan on traveling throughout Japan you may benefit from a Japan Rail pass.

I highly recommend going to a baseball game.

 

[FairestOfThemAll37]

If you have Hilton points you may want to check out the Conrad Tokyo (one of the nicest hotels in Tokyo). Also, if you plan on traveling throughout Japan you may benefit from a Japan Rail pass. I highly recommend going to a baseball game.

Thanks! I will check this hotel out!

I think as it stands now, I'm only going for about 6 days. Depending on how I feel and finance permitting, I may take a day trip down to Osaka. Other than that I won't likely travel outside Tokyo so I don't think the Rail Pass is for me!

I do plan on getting a regular metro/JR card when I get there to avoid buying single tickets all the time.

 

[lost*in*cyberspace]

My husband and I recently spent a week at the Prince Sakura Tower, Tokyo (a Marriott hotel):

http://www.marriott.com/hotels/trav...bta&scid=b661a3c4-9c47-48c8-9e13-75b66089dd79

Great hotel and fantastic location near the Shinagawa Station.

Get a Pasmo card for the metro:

http://www.tokyometro.jp/en/ticket/types/pasmo/

 

[J0HN]

Thanks! I will check this hotel out!

I think as it stands now, I'm only going for about 6 days. Depending on how I feel and finance permitting, I may take a day trip down to Osaka. Other than that I won't likely travel outside Tokyo so I don't think the Rail Pass is for me!

I do plan on getting a regular metro/JR card when I get there to avoid buying single tickets all the time.

May still want to look into the 7-day rail pass, I remember it being around the same cost as the round trip to Osaka on the Shinkansen (bullet train). Also, used pass for NRT-Hotel, etc.

 

[FairestOfThemAll37]

My husband and I recently spent a week at the Prince Sakura Tower, Tokyo (a Marriott hotel): Great hotel and fantastic location near the Shinagawa Station. Get a Pasmo card for the metro: [URL="http://www.tokyometro.jp/en/ticket/types/pasmo/"]http://www.tokyometro.jp/en/ticket/types/pasmo/

I looked at that hotel as I have Marriott points. The location looks fantastic, Shinagawa st. Is very convenient to both JR and metro. You can almost always know what to expect from Marriott, but with the autograph hotels it's a little different since they're just affiliated w/Marriott.

Glad to hear a first hand review of the hotel!