From Ryokans to Really Cheap: The Honest Ratings of 6 Japanese Hotels
I recently returned from a 14-day trip to Japan with my husband. We visited 5 different cities and stayed in 6 different hotels. Each city had a different priority regarding the hotel, so here is a breakdown of how we would rate each hotel and If we would rebook. We lucked out, most of the hotels we stayed at were amazing but there were a couple that left something to be desired so let's go through it.
We started the trip in Tokyo and then traveled to Hiroshima, Kyoto, Osaka, Hakone, and back to Tokyo in that order. If you want to see our full itinerary I’ll link the article at the bottom of this post! Let's start with our favorites.
Hakone
This was where we decided to splurge and spend the money and I have to say, highly recommended. Hakone is an amazing location, going from Big City to Onsen Village was an amazing switch. Hakone is more of a traditional onsen village, meaning that if you have tattoos you won't be able to go into most onsens. That's why we decided to find a room that had an attached onsen or open-air bath.
I will recommend this hotel to anyone and everyone who asks. The staff was amazing, the location was amazing, the food was amazing, but the real show-stopper was the room. The photo above is an example of what the bath looked like in our room. This was our relaxing way to end the trip, and after staying in so many small hotel rooms this felt like the most luxurious thing in the world.
We booked the SUISAI- Japanese-Western room (33sqm) from booking.com and this room came with breakfast and dinner included. That being said this hotel was affordable compared to a lot of the other hotels in the same area with the same package. Hakone is a small town, and this hotel is tucked away in the mountains, so breakfast and dinner are great additions to this room. Truthfully if you are booking a hotel room like this, you want to spend time enjoying the actual room. The food was buffet style, and when you checked into the hotel, you were given a choice of time slots for breakfast and dinner. The dinner options were mainly Japanese, they had a hotpot, sushi, and tempura stations along with a variety of other food. Breakfast was a mix of American and traditional Japanese.
Hakone is a small town, you rely heavily on the busses to get around here. They have helpful tips on their website on how to get to their hotel, make sure to take their advice. We asked someone when we were at the bus stop in Hakone and they recommended another bus that took longer and we still had to walk down a crazy hill to get to the hotel. You’ll want to board bus A, it's 100 yen per person/trip. Well worth it in my opinion.
Overall Hakone is an amazing town and Hotel Okada was the best hotel.
Osaka
This location blew me out of the water. Considering how cheap the hotel room was and its proximity to everything, this one was almost #1 on this list.
Joytel Hotel Shinsekai Sakaisujidori
I mean….. The Shinsekai sign is right in front of the entrance to the hotel. Just use Google Maps to walk around this area and you'll see what I mean about the location. It is a block away from a JR train station, there is a Mega Don on the corner by the train station and a Daily Yamazaki across the street. It was fun to be able to explore Shinsekai whenever we wanted at almost any time. Late-night snack or dinner? Tons of Izakayas and even Kura Sushi (we loved that place haha). The hotel itself was extremely nice and modern.
No vending machines in the hotel, but there was the Daily Yamazaki across the street and vending machines down the street. They had a great laundry room, you even put your number on your machine so people know who it is. They offered breakfast and they will hold your luggage for you but we didn’t take advantage of these amenities. Overall amazing location, staff, and hotel!
Kyoto
This is one place I’d stay again in a heartbeat. The location is amazing, it’s so close to the station and there is a Cocos curry house right across the street. There is a Don Quijote and Lawsons just down the street as well.
The hotel itself was super nice, very clean and modern. Very easy check-in and check-out process. They also hold your luggage for you but felt weird leaving it because it’s just in their lobby. When you came to grab it we didn’t have to present anything to them, we just grabbed it and left. There are vending machines downstairs along with a laundry room. The dryer took a while to dry but if you are doing one or two small loads that's perfect. We relied on hotels that had this amenity because we packed light for our trip.
The location was amazing. If you have a JR pass, it's super easy to hop on the JR lines from the south exit. Kyoto station is big, and we were nervous about getting around it, but our exit was always easy to get to thankfully. Granted you aren't on the prettiest side of Kyoto station but it's less hectic on this side. The Cocos curry house across the street is highly recommended, they were extremely nice. There is a Lawsons just a block away, perfect for quick bites going to and coming from the hotel. There are also a handful of almost hole-in-the-wall izakayas that looked tourist-friendly and had a great atmosphere.
Tokyo
We stayed here two separate times and in two different places. When we first got to Tokyo the goal was a hotel close to the station and also kind of close to Tokyo Station so it would be easy to get anywhere we needed to go. We also had JR passes so I wanted the stop to be on the JR line. We booked a room at the:
Overall this hotel was super accommodating, we had issues with our flights and ended up getting to our hotel at 2 AM. The front desk was still open, and they checked us in with no problem thankfully. There is a 711 downstairs and around the corner so the proximity to that was amazing. Across the street, there were a ton of izakayas, pachinko places, and even some host/hostess bars. It's a pretty good area if you want some small nightlife, the izakayas looked great! The JR part of the train station was super easy to navigate and the hotel was a quick walk to the station.
The room was small but that's to be expected since it was an extremely affordable hotel. All and all we probably wouldn't stay there again. Not because it was bad, but more that there are other amazing places to stay and this one was just good, not great. But if you’re looking for a simple place that's not in a crazy area it's great!
When we stayed in Tokyo for the last bit of the trip, this hotel was more immersive. We wanted to stay in the heart of Shinjuku or Shibuya but Shinjuku was cheaper. At first, we were thinking of staying in a capsule hotel but we just had too much stuff by the end of the trip that we needed just a regular hotel room. I found a hotel perfectly in Kabukicho Square, right next to the Godzilla Hotel and I’ll say it was an experience.
The location? We were located right in front of Kabukicho Square, and at night this became a mecca of drunk people. On the flip side, almost every restaurant around it is open 24/7. If you’ve been looking into hotels you probably already know APA’s reputation, they are extremely small rooms, but also quite cheap. I’ll just say you get what you paid for. Everywhere we stayed I felt comfortable walking around at night, this location was the first time I felt slightly uncomfortable and on guard. There are a lot of people out at night, and some look more questionable than others. We went out to get food at 1 am and it was packed with people. Again, it's an experience but no way would we stay here.
Hiroshima
Now this was us just looking for the cheapest hotel we could find that was close to the station. Check-in and check-out were easy, they held our luggage for us, and if you wanted they even had breakfast for an additional charge. The location was good but there was a ton of construction when we went, and because of that the hotel was hard to get to.
The room itself? Hilariously small. There could only be one person walking around the room at a time because there was just not enough room for two people. Even the bathroom was too small for its good. Granted this hotel chain is known for its affordable but tiny rooms. I do appreciate how Japanese bathrooms are set up, but this one was just really trying to cram the most in the least amount of space. You practically had to stand on the toilet or in the shower to get the door closed. Would we stay here again? Probably not, but it was the perfect price for what we were looking for and the beds were comfortable enough.
Japan is an amazing place to travel. We wanted to keep most of the rooms low-cost since we weren’t going to spend a lot of time in them. That being said some were amazing and some were just a good story. I hope this helps in your Japan trip planning! Check out the breakdown of our trip in the link below!
Happy travels!
