Tokyo is stupidly cheap

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP, any recommendations on hotels? The hotels/ryokans we usually stay at in Japan have doubled in price since pre-pandemic (e.g. Peninsula Tokyo used to be my mainstay and $550/night or $350 with my corporate discount, now it is $1000+, similar with Amans in Tokyo and Kyoto).

following. whole thread might be a scam if OP can't name the hotel(s).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP, any recommendations on hotels? The hotels/ryokans we usually stay at in Japan have doubled in price since pre-pandemic (e.g. Peninsula Tokyo used to be my mainstay and $550/night or $350 with my corporate discount, now it is $1000+, similar with Amans in Tokyo and Kyoto).

We stayed at Sunroute Shinjuku. Good price, but tiny room. My Japanese relatives suggested the Sunroute hotels as good but lower priced.
In Kyoto, we stayed at Ryokan MOTONAGO. I have no idea what the prices are now. But it was a great ryokan in a good location. At it allowed DH and I to bathe at the same time. (many ryokan only have single sex baths) Don't be alarmed by the shared bathroom rooms. They toilets are single and the sinks are in a hallway.

[Anonymous]

Economy nonstop flights to Tokyo from Dulles using United reward miles is currently cheaper than Europe or Hawaii. Don't think I've ever seen that before.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is the travel forum, so I’ll thank the op for flagging how cheap it is as compared to US cities and European destinations where everything is overpriced.

Brace yourself for $20+ burgers at the local DE/MD beaches.

When we were in Miami last year we met a family from the UK (London!) who complained about the cost at restaurants in Miami (where a burger is $25+ and a nice salad with protein is nearly $30).

If you can eat a nice lunch in Japan for $15, that is reasonable.

But what about flights? Hotels?

Flights are the most expensive part, everything, and I mean everything about Tokyo is stupidly cheap with enough planning. We stayed at a very nice boutique hotel right in downtown for about $80 per night. What kind of terrible trash roach motel would you get n West Virginia fir $80 per night in comparison, let alone NYC….

Also, all of these wonderful prices come with ZERO expectations for tipping because Japan doesn’t have terrible tipping culture like the US, so the $15 lunch in a fancy area like Ginza really is $15. Service in Asia also tends to be way better than Europe, on average.

I'm planning to bring my kids to see Tokyo next spring. Can you share which hotel you were at?
Also any recs with kids (if you went with them)?
Thx!

We stayed at 1899 in Shimbashi. We priced watched like a hawk and landed it for about $80 per night when a room freed up at the last minute. It may be hard to get that kind of rate at 1899, but you can find rooms for about $150/night, which is absurdly cheap still compared to a city like New York where you get a crappy days inn or whatever for $300. There are plenty of hotels in Tokyo for $150 and below per night …. Just search on a site like agoda, I can see them right now.


Plenty of good ryokans everywhere where you can get a room for $300-400, but you need to factor in the fact that you are getting a 5-10 course meal for two that is often excellent quality with that and you don’t need to pay tips for anything. It’s so cheap when a similar course meal alone here in the US would probably run upwards of $500+. Of course they’ll try to gouge tourists more in hotspots like Kyoto and Hakone, etc. but if you’re willing to go to less traveled spots, you can get much better deals.

We didn’t travel with kids, sorry. We did go to Kamikochi, which is a stunningly beautiful national park. Also checked out Hida Furukawa, Takayama, Narai juku, etc. So beautiful. The kids might like the outdoor hiking, seeing all the monkeys, and the Edo period towns that look like Samurai towns….? Driving is so easy.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Economy nonstop flights to Tokyo from Dulles using United reward miles is currently cheaper than Europe or Hawaii. Don't think I've ever seen that before.

I just snagged a round trip to SE Asia with a 12 hour layover in Tokyo (enough to have a fun night out) and a 10 hour layover in Seoul on the way back (already have a government-sponsored tour lined up, which I have done before in other Asian airports — they are very fun and just cost whatever food you buy and a tip, plus I am sure it will get me back for my afternoon flight.). 88k miles and $50!

Last year I got a round trip to Asia for 44k miles, but that was when things were just opening up and no one was traveling. I miss the COVID discounts, I went to so many awesome places for next to nothing when it was allowed but people were still irrationally scared. I made an effort to double-tip as I know those places dependent on tourism suffered a lot during the closures.

[Anonymous]

Thanks for sharing -- Japan is on my way home and I'd always shied away from a layover as I'd been worried about price.

Since I'm not planning to buy real estate or have a baby there, I think I'm good on those other things!