Gianni

I'll stay 4 or 5 nights in Tokyo next August sharing an hotel room with my wife and my daughter.

I am looking for the best hotel choice (location, services ...) in the price range 18 - 20.000 yen per night tax included.

Any suggestion?

Grazie, ciao.

Gianni (Milan, Italy)

KimJapan

How old is your daughter and does she need her own bed or does she sleep with one or both of you? It makes a difference, as children of elementary school who do not require an extra bed do not pay. Older children need to pay, and an extra bed is never free regardless of the age of the child.

What kind of place are you looking for...what is your ideal?

Also, triple rooms are few and far between, so usually a phone call to the hotel is required to reserve as online they don't show up...3 people is over the maximum occupancy.

You might start by browsing through expedia.com or asiahotels.com
Do be aware though that for Japanese hotels, the best deals are most often found on their Japanese language websites and in Japanese only. If you find a place you're interested in, I'd be happy to check prices and availability in Japanese for you if you want.

Gianni

Grazie.
My daughter is 18 years old, we need an etra bed.

Up to now I have found the Metropolitan Crowne Plaza at an average price of 21.500 yen per night, the Century Southern Tower at 24.000 yen and the Keio Plaza at 25.500 (4 nights stay from 29/8 to 2/9).

Thanks regards.
Gianni

ps
Can you help me in finding the e-mail address of the reservation desk of the Hotel Century Southern Tower?

KimJapan

Your daughter at 18 will be counted as a third adult...except maybe the Metro Cr Plaza...they say children under 19 stay free at most locations.

I don't see the Century Southern Tower e-mail address. Sending a fax might be a better option, then follow up with a phone call about 10 minutes later. I do see that they have a summer promotion rate that is ¥20,800/night plus tax and service...total inclusive is ¥96,096 for your period of stay. This is in the smallest room, and I selected 3 adults, but it does not indicate extra bed...that charge may be in addition to the total, it's not clear to me.

Keio Plaza gives me 106,000 yen total for superior triple, and ¥130,000 total for deluxe triple. The deluxe room is a lot bigger and looks nicer.

Metropolitan Crowne Plaza has a rate of ¥17,610 for their lowest level room, and an extra bed charge of ¥3,500 BUT advance purchase is required and there is no refund should you need to change.

If you wanted to go down in price and are willing to sacrifice even more in room size and services, you could try a business hotel. You could get two rooms instead of one.

BigJerry

Just got back. We had a triple room at the New Otani Hotel in the tower & it ranged from 20-25,000 per night. Something about the supply & demand on pricing. It does include free buffet breakfast if you join the New Otani Club in advance (free)use the internet, but you may have to call for the triple room. We traveled with our 14 year old granddaughter & found that

BigJerry

kEYBOARD DIED IN LAST MESSAGE. Holiday Inn Hyatt & Sheraton all (plus others) consider under 19 free with adults. We booked 2 double beds in Bangkok, Hong Kong & used a day bed in Bali for the 2 adult rates. They are hard to find on the internet but they are there.

Gianni

Thanks.

KimJapan, I have a question for you. Can you help me in trying to find cheap accomodation (e.g. b.& b.) on the Naoshima island? The Benesse Hotel is too expensive and I have read in the internet that there are cheap solutions but not in english site.

Thanks, grazie.

Ciao.
Gianni P.

KimJapan

Gianni...I just spent a good chunk of time searching for someplace for you on Naoshima, and came up empty. Although I saw that there are a few, very few, other options to Benesse, they have eluded me so far, in English and in Japanese.

You could stay off of Naoshima and take the boats...lots and lots of people do day trips there. Or you could ask a travel agent to help you once you are in Japan...they might have listings that are not available online.

I'm going to look more, but I'm out of time for now, so if you can wait a day or two I'll get back to you even if I come up empty handed.

KimJapan

OK...I just found
http://www.naoshima.net/stay/minsyuku_okada/index.html
doesn't look very good though....it's cheap.

http://map-city.com/tabi-d/kagawa/naosima.html
is a list of places. As you can see they are not many. They are all telephone contact only from this page.

http://www.naoshima.net/stay/ryokan_shioya/index.html also not so nice, but cheap.

http://www.naoshima.net/stay/minatoy...#12288;another not so nice yet cheap option.

http://www.town.naoshima.kagawa.jp/syukuhaku.htm　a list with active links in it provided by the town. The camping cottages might be nice is you can get one.

That's it...that's all I can find. It's all in Japanese...sorry about that, no English pages to be found. Looks like if you want any of those places it'll need to be a phone booking.

emd

I also looked for a long time for less expensive lodging on Naoshima. Found one minshuku that looked ok, but the lady only spoke Japanese when I called her.

here is her site:

http://www.naoshima.net/stay/minatoya/

You can stay in Takamatsu on Shikoku island and take the ferry over to Naoshima. That is what I will do next time. Takamatsu is a very nice destination, reachable by JR lines. And it has the Isamu Noguchi sculpture garden museum, if you are into art in an outdoor, as well as indoor, environment.

http://www.isamunoguchi.or.jp/

Gianni

Grazie to both of you, KimJapan and Emd.
My I ask you another question: I am finalizing the planning of my trip and up to now It looks as follows:
1st day arrivial in Narita and immediate departure to Kyoto.
5 nights in Kyoto (town and day trips)
4 nights in Okayama (in this period I could go 1 day to Naoshima with ferry from Uno)
before staying 5 nights in Tokyo I still have 2 or 3 days for another place: CAN YOU GIVE ME YOUR SUGGESTIONS WHERE TO GO?

I'll use a 14 days JR Pass.

Any input is more than welcome!!!

Grazie again, arrivederci.

Gianni P.

emd

May I ask, why are you staying 4 nights in Okayama? Something specific to do there? Even three days (considering you are doing a day in Naoshima from there) is a lot for Okayama I think. You could do a day trip to Hiroshima (and add in Miyajima too) easily from Okayama.

With the extra days before heading to Tokyo from Okayama, I'd go to the island of Shikoku. You can get there easily from Okayama w/the JR pass. I went to Takamatsu and really liked it. You could also go to Matsuyama with the number of days you have, or the Kochi area of Shikoku, etc. Getting over to Shikoku would be nice- you'll get to go over the Seto Ohashi bridge (amazing) and have the the sea breezes on the island (at least in cities and rural areas on the coast of the inland sea), plus life is slower and a bit more old style over there, esp. when you get into places like Kochi. There is a famous festival in Kochi in August, described in this good article:

http://www.jetsetliving.com/article/...chi_japan.html

I have not been to Kochi but I want to go. My daughter and I really liked Takamatsu, even though we only had a short time there. We stayed at the ANA Clemont hotel, right across from the JR train station.

Here is a good info on Shikoku from JNTO:

http://www.jnto.go.jp/eng/location/s...a/kagawa1.html

http://www.jnto.go.jp/eng/location/r...chi/index.html

Go to this site below, and scroll down on the right side, and look at the pdf document on Shikoku. That is the very best guide to all of Shikoku that I have seen anywhere:

http://www.jnto.go.jp/eng/location/r...awa/index.html

Gianni

Hi Emd,
from Okayama I think that we can do daytrips to Kurashiki, Hiroshima, Naoshima on top of visiting the town itself. I booked the Granvia hotel that is close to the JR station to have better access to the trains...
Grazie, ciao.
Gianni P.

emd

oh, ok, I didn't realize you already had several day trips planned using Okayama as a base. That works.

Gianni

Last question:
is it worth to stay one day (last day in Japan) downtown Narita and then move to the airport from there?
Is a place to visit?

Grazie again to all of you!
Ciao.
Gianni P.

KimJapan

If Narita interests you then stay there. There are many hotels near the airport. In Narita town there is a nice temple...Narita san...and there is Boso no Mura, which is an Edo village type place that you can walk around and see Edo style buildings as well as try some traditional crafts and cooking for a small fee. My daughter and I spent a day there last summer and it was a real highlight...completely unexpected find in Narita.

If that doesn't interest you, then I can't see any reason to stay in Narita unless your flight departs early in the morning.