Family of 4 (Parents & 2 teens) - 10 nights in Tokyo. Did the research and as expected, rates at Ryokans and hotels were numbingly expensive. Ryokans averaged maybe 7000y -20,000y per person per night
(converting to avg Au$70 - AU$200 per person per night), and hotels were quite restrictive in # persons per room (max 2 or 3 with rollaway). With Ryokans, we would most likely be in the suburbs (so allow extra for transport), sharing bathroom facilities, living in a spartan environment - difficult with 2 restless teens. Took a punt and emailed Intercontinental TB after reading reviews, and got a great rate for Tokyo of 17,500y+tax per night hoping that the room would accommodate 4 persons. Err I may have not mentioned that we were a party of 4.
Let's see the positives:
- Great view of Tokyo Bay: - 17th floor: a huge plus after a long day of sightseeing (being in a country where we can't communicate makes touring doubly exhausting)
- Luxe bathroom amenites (and not just one each of the little bottles, but 4 of each item!)/ comp chocolates/ comp plate of fruit on arrival, and again during our stay.
- kettle and fridge space (we asked for the minibar to be cleared out - no problem)
- Adaptor provided for our stay, extra blankets/ pillows (my son ended up sleeping on the floor as the beds are only double size - but he would have slept on the floor in a ryokan), bathrobes, night kimonos, and standard fare of iron/ board, hair-dryer, daily English newspaper
- TV with 3 English channels - you wouldn't believe how appreciative we were of this facility (not available at a Ryokan) after battling with the Japanese language all day
- little touches that made the stay that bit special eg fresh flowers
in a vase, ice bucket filled daily
- Large supermarket (Food Express) about 12 minutes walk (at base of Siodome buildings) on the way to Shimashi Station (more later) 3 Convenience stores within 2 - mins walk: these convenience stores sell products & food at very reasonable prices eg hot dogs at 100y, pasta dishes 360y. Over ½ dozen good restaurants in next building (Ferry Bldg) & nearby. There was an exit door to the next building and onto the overpass to the monorail on the 2nd (I think) floor - which we used to avoid the gauntlet of well-wishing staff in the lobby. Also, I was a bit mindful of having 'snuck' 4 of us in the room.
Monorail - 3 mins, Toei Metro line (Daimon Stn) 7 mins, JR rail line
(Hamamatsucho Stn) 6 minutes, Tokyo Metro line (Shimbashi Stn) 15 mins walk. I mention these different stations because they are all separate train lines that you need to pay separately to take, which go to different areas of Tokyo- stations sometimes intersecting. We made the mistake of buying Tokyo- Metro passes covering our entire stay, to find that they only covered certain stations. I would next time buy single tickets (on whichever line that took us to the destination) and stick to one or 2 areas a day for touring, as we ended up having to buy extra tickets on top of the TM passes, to get us to places that weren't covered. At then at the end of the day walking 15 minutes from Shimbashi to the hotel, rather than pay to go
on the monorail (approx 180y ea for 2 stops). Kids over 11 are full price on pub transport. However, Tokyo is super-safe, so there wasn't
really a problem walking back to the hotel late at night - apart from
failing legs.
It would be arrogant to expect English spoken everywhere, but I was surprised at how little was spoken by staff (both in the hotel and in Tokyo as a whole). However, the best person to contact is the person on the phone that dealt with Guest Services: his English was excellent.
All up, this is an astonishingly great choice if you are travelling with a small family and want not only comfort and convenience, but good value in Tokyo.










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