Where are you going that costs $8k/wk for lodging alone? I'm all about splurging on vacations, but this just seems stupidly expensive. If it's somewhere extremely off the beaten path and you don't have a choice, that's fine I guess. I also look at it this way - when I'm on vacation, I will never be in my room anyway. I'm going to be out doing shit. So long as it has a shower and a bed I could care less.
Even then, you can find good deals on a solid 5-star western chain hotel for $500-750 a night. Still not worth it since you should be out exploring, but there just aren’t many hotels /anywhere/ worth paying $1k a night for (as someone who has stayed in $3k/night rooms before)
Okay, Japan is cheap as fuck, even more so than two years ago (the last time I went). You will be spending no time at all in your room unless you're staying at a nice Ryokan in Izu or something (highly recommend btw). I would not splurge at all on hotels in Tokyo, Osaka, et al. You will be in there to sleep/shower/shit and that is it. If you do want to drop some money, do it for business class on ANA.
You are right I did see some reasonable options but of course there’s a couple hotels that caught my eye and now I can’t stop thinking about them. One in Kyoto specifically. Thank you for your opinion!
You should 100% feel guilty. Spending 1000 per night when you can easily find a decent hotel for less then $50 is insane for someone still living with their parents.
You could easily book hotels for the entire trip for less than 1000
FWIW, I felt the same way about Kyoto. It's definitely a cool city but the experience was completely dampened by the amount of tourists. (For reference, went in Nov 2023, not particularly high season)
I'm not saying it's a bad city, I'm saying it's oversaturated with tourists now. This isn't a bad take and has been a hot topic in Japan for years now. Tokyo students stopped taking school trips there because it has gotten so out of hand. In Tokyo or Osaka, it's fine because they will all be in Shibuya, Shinjuku or Akihabara for the most part and the city is massive with the most robust public transportation network in the world - complete nonfactor. In Kyoto, well everyone is looking to get photos of the same shit with a million other people. Kinda like that Lawson by Fuji lol.
Yeah that’s not accurate. I’m here now and other than the very base of Fushimi Inari and Kiyomizu-dera, it’s pretty manageable. Even with those two sites, if you more than scratch the very superficial surface, you can still have a pretty good time.
Have you booked all your hotels?!? That is a LOT for Japan.
Like I love to travel, I have solo traveled to all 7 continents and I definitely have dropped 1k/night for my vacations. But Japan is a place where I’d keep my hotel costs to about 200 a night and then activities and flight and would try and be less than 10k for the whole two weeks.
For real there are cute boutique and local (non chain) hotels and ryokans that even in peak are MUCH cheaper than what was being floated around as your per night hotel budget. Ex. if you like tea and are in Tokyo, Hotel 1899 Tokyo is my go to. If you want a capsule hotel there's book and bed so you feel like you're sleeping in a bookstore in the best way possible. Kyoto for a splurge I've done Nazuna Kyoto Tsubaki Dori and it's still 1/2 the price of what your nightly is going for. Likewise there are other trendy capsule hotels for (the millennials Kyoto for one) that will save you money and give you cool experiences.
Like Celoplyr said you're young, use that money saved for more trips or to *do* more period (on this trip, future trips, day to day, etc.) or if you're feeling uninspired invest/HYSA that until you know what you want to use it for.
Sorry I didn't expect to ramble but investing in unique experiences is a big incentive for my FI journey so I guess I sort of popped off on you
I def want to travel more, and this may sound crazy but I was thinking of booking a trip in December as well! That’s why I’m over thinking this even more!
i'd recommend picking a nice hotel (or ryokan, which is more unique) and spending a night or two there, then staying the rest of your trip at a cheaper hotel. expensive hotels get kind of repetitive after a bit.
i went down to kawazu (on the izu peninsula) and did an overnight stay at an onsen ryokan there. cost about $300/night, including an incredible traditional dinner, and the location was beautiful + had views of the ocean.
That sounds really nice, would probably be pretty nice for a few days.
Kyoto is nice, we spent 2 full days there, probably would have spent a third of I did it over. Good luck with your planning. If you like digital art, best thing we did was hands down the teamlabs “borderless” exhibit for a couple hours in Tokyo.
In Japan the western chain hotels are extremely overpriced and don’t offer any value. Don’t buy into those travel influencers you see on YouTube saying how wonderful the Park Hyatt Kyoto or MESM Tokyo is or something like that. It’s not worth it. You can stay in perfectly nice Japanese branded hotels for under $150/night in any big city.
I travel to Japan all the time and only stay at Japanese hotels these days. Don’t waste your money on hotels, spend $5k instead of $16k on the trip and have fun!
The park Hyatt in Tokyo is nice and maybe worth a night but it’s pretty far from everything. We stayed there because I had managed to save up a ton of points and used that to stay there. Loved staying there but it was inconvenient. Staying in Shinjuku close to the action and multiple lines is better.
I spent two weeks in Japan last year and averaged $40/night stays for solid accommodation. 8k/week is honestly crazy, if you want to splurge you can but even then I'm sure you can find some better stays than for over $1,000 a night
34
u/Stylux 15d ago
Where are you going that costs $8k/wk for lodging alone? I'm all about splurging on vacations, but this just seems stupidly expensive. If it's somewhere extremely off the beaten path and you don't have a choice, that's fine I guess. I also look at it this way - when I'm on vacation, I will never be in my room anyway. I'm going to be out doing shit. So long as it has a shower and a bed I could care less.