Tokyo Hotel
 

We will be in Tokyo end of March 2009 for three nights on our return to Australia from a Rhine River Cruise. We speak no Japanese and all the different districts are a bit confusing. Can anyone suggest a comfortable, reasonably priced 4 or 5 star hotel which is central to shops and attractions, suitable for 2 fairly active Seniors? SJF

4 or 5 star well located hotels may not be reasonably priced..depends what is reasonable to you.

The Peninsula hotel has the best location I can think of in terms of subway, train, shopping and restaurants. The Four Seasons Marunouchi is right at Tokyo Station with plenty of shops and restaurants as well. The Ritz Carlton is in a shopping/restaurant/apartment complex that many like.

A small step down in quality is the Conrad. The Conrad is well located as well, though we found it a bit cold in the service department. Rooms are nice and size is good, and garden/bay view rooms have a great view of Tokyo Bay and Hamarikyu.

Another step down in terms of luxury, but still well located, are the Marunouchi Hotel, at Tokyo Station and the Park Hotel just across from the Conrad. In Shinjuku, there is the Keio Plaza, a Hyatt, a Hilton, and Century Southern Tower, that are all pretty good.

If these are still above your budget, then perhaps look at the Villa Fontaine Shiodome, located just behind the Conrad.

As you get less expensive, room size gets smaller and smaller. For two people, I would not go smaller than 30m2, 25m2 at the minimum, if you want to have any space at all to move.

You may find that some hotels that are not international hotels do not have rates loaded into their systems until a few months before...that is not uncommon.

I appreciate your reply and will investigate these hotels. Price is not really an object but we don't wish to outlay more than AU$300 per night. Cheers SJF

skf:

Just came across this thread...I suggest The Park as listed in one of the posts above. We throughly enjoyed it in the spring of '07 at a rate of about $170. It is a very unique establishment...starts on the 25th floor where the beautiful lobby is located. It is central to the Ginza, Tsukiji Fish Market area..and easy access to the subway system...it is in a much quieter area than some of the downtown hotels which we had visited...and the very pretty Hamrikyu Park is directly behind the hotel...where you can board a 40-minute scenic boat ride to Asakusa.

The hotel offers a very substantial buffet breakfst which when we were there and the yen was 118-1 was a bit more expensive than today's rate of 110-1. If you're not big eaters at breakfast, there is a delightful little coffee/pastry shop in the building's lobby...and also several restaurants on the basement floor and a 7-11 type store.

We liked it very much.

Stu T.

Tower, did you book directly with the hotel or some other way. I only see rates of $250 and up for The Park. It sounds nice! But, $250 is more than our budget.

Sorry, OP, for butting in! Hope you don't mind.

If price is no object $300 AUS is only about $205 US and the yen is currently very strong at about 90 yen per US dollar. You will not get a 5 star hotel in Tokyo at that rate and probably will have difficulty getting a 4 star. I think the going rates for 4 and 5 star hotels in Tokyo are reasonable in comparison to similar hotels in most developed countries but currency rates are not now in your favour.

I should add that I think you can find quite decent hotels in Tokyo in March for $200 to $300 US in the 3 to 4 star range.

LMG

We had booked it online through Hotel ...March 2007. We phoned them direct and had a nice chat with the reservations manager.

stu