Will be in Tokyo in 2 weeks for a total of 10 days. The first 5 days, we will be staying at The New Sano in Hiroo (on the Hibiya Line) We can only stay at the New Sano while working and need to move to a different hotel for the second five days.
We are trying to decide if staying at the Park Hyatt Tokyo is with the splurge or would another hotel be a better value for the experience?
We’re not set on staying in Shinjuku for the second day five days, so another area works. Also, we don’t usually stay at luxury hotels, just thinking it could be fun.
We have both Marriott And Hilton Gold level, if that makes any difference.
We = two well traveled adults in our 40’s who enjoy great food, museums, and shopping. This is my first visit to Japan.
Thanks so much for sharing your thoughts!!
Update 5/25/22:
After staying at the New Sanno for 4 nights, we stayed at the Andaz for 6 nights and had an excellent experience. The hotel location, room, and service were great. Our room had an amazing view of the Tokyo tower and the breakfast buffet was fabulous. The food at the rooftop bar was so uneventful we didn’t dine at the hotel beyond breakfast each day and one visit to the rooftop bar. We did end up having dinner at the Park Hyatt and experiencing Kobe beef for the first time, which was amazing.
Thanks for all your suggestions!!
35 comments
Honestly park Hyatt isn’t in the most convenient location. It is in shibuya, which is more of a bustling nightlife, very young crowd type of neighborhood, but the immediate local is quiet and it’s immediate train station isn’t as convenient in my opinion. (Ive lived just a few blocks away). Definitely worth a reservation for dinner/drinks, but the stay.. I’m not sure. There’s some excellent spots in ginza for a neighborhood that’s more walkable with great restaurants and high-medium end shopping and close to the imperial palace/garden
Also consider some airbnbs! Some really nice places available for cheap atm due to low tourism
You need to factor a few things:
1. Will you be spending significant time outside the hotel? If yes, the extra money might not be worth it since Park Hyatt is pretty much similar to many modern, luxury hotels in major cities around the world.
2. If money is no object, then give it a shot. Park Hyatt has some of the largest rooms in tight-spaced Tokyo albeit rooms are a bit plain and aging for a top international luxury hotel chain. People are in fact more drawn to the New York Bar and Restaurant than the actual hotel itself.
3. If you want to stay within Shinjuku at a prime location, I would heartily recommend Hotel Century Southern Tower. Rooms are large enough for Tokyo standards at a fraction of the cost of Park Hyatt.
4. You mentioned that you could stay at other places in Tokyo’s central locations. The newer properties like Aman, Peninsula, Shangri-la (they’re in Central Tokyo around Tokyo Station) or even oldtimer (and cheaper) Japanese hotels like the Okura and New Otani (the latter is cheaper) reflect more of the unique Japanese service than the international chains.
yessssss! and technically you can go for semi-free. Get one of the chase hyatt cards (bonus spend= points) staying at the park hyatt is around 30-35k points. (for example, the card says if you spend 3k on it you get 30k points and the fee is like 95 to have the card for the year so I see it as one night for 95 bucks (and you can combine hotel points and go for two nights if your partner gets the card and does the same thing)
Always think that a decent hotel is good enough if you’re going to be out and about the majority of the time. As long as its clean and rooms big enough you should be fine, you can pocket the money you’ve ‘saved’ and add to your spending money. Many of the high end hotels have rooftop bars you can visit even if you arent a guest, so you wont miss out on that. Most business hotels are good enough.
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FWIW we did travel down to Hakone and stayed at a Ryokan with an Onsen for two night during our trip few years back. Definitely worth considering and can be a good base for a Mt Fuji tour.
Wife and I stayed there in Fall 2019 in one of the Artist rooms. Honestly, I felt like it was mostly living on hype. We can’t wait to return to Tokyo, but I wouldn’t recommend the hotel.
EDIT: Thanks /u/xanderp31 I’m thinking of the wrong hotel – The Park Hotel.
I can’t speak for the Park but I splurged 2 days on the Andaz Tokyo and it was absolutely worth it for me. Me and my partner enjoy high end hotels for what it’s worth but next time we go to Tokyo we plan on splurging again.
Booked a single night there as a treat during our last Japan trip in 2016. Expensive, but worth it; we (gf and I) had a wonderful experience.
Our package included use of the sauna / pool, and we also had drinks and dinner at the New York Bar & Grill at the top of the hotel. All fantastic.
Design & style of the hotel is timeless and elegant, the service was top notch too. You only live once!
I love Andaz Tokyo more, personally, but even still we always carve out 2-3 nights at PHT. It’s so classic (I like to joke that she’s a classy old lady vs Andaz being the young hot type) and I love ordering room service.
Can you get in on points?
(We’re Hyatt Globalists so partial to Hyatt hotels.)
I’d say yes. It’s a wonderful hotel, and they really do take excellent care of you. I also like the Palace, which is also amazing but can come in a bit less than the Park Hyatt.
The Aman is fancier and newer.
But
Park Hyatt is a classic (IMHO) and a time capsule and should be treated as such. The restaurants at any sitting (lunch or dinner) are lovely experiences, the main lobby is still breathtaking and the pool is a total one off.
If it’s not obvious, I love it.
They used to do a midweek special which allows early check in and late departure so you can maximise use of pool and bars and restaurants if you just want to stay one night (which is what I do) Corner rooms overlooking the park are great, some with bath tubs against the window. Magic.
Not the newest but I reckon still the coolest.
No. Andaz.
Personally no. The Park Hyatt requires you take an elevator to like 30 flights, get out, walk through a restaurant, then take another set of elevators to your room. We had a corner room with wrap around wall to wall windows. The room was humongous even by US standards. The bathroom was as big as most Japanese luxury hotels. But the access wasn’t practical for reasons mentioned above. When you’re in Tokyo you are likely out for most of the day anyways. No time to enjoy such an over the top room. You just need an easy way to get back and get to your room to rest.
The Regency is like 5 minutes away and is good enough.
A single night is enough to get the entire “lost in translation“ experience. You could also get that without actually having a room there.
It’s completely up to you and what you and your partner are planning to do. If you plan on spending time exploring and in the city, there may be better options. If you want to relax and use the amenities to pamper yourself, (and can afford the extras) Go for it!
My view on this, like all upscale hotels, is that’s they cater to keeping you there. Personally, I would rather explore the city and splurge on good food than just stay in a fancy hotel that I will only spend time sleeping in. Whatever you decide, enjoy your trip!
I recently used to live within 2 blocks of the New Sano. Lots of super good food near there. The best Indian food in Japan at Priya, about a 15 min walk. Great gyoza and ramen at Tiger Gyoza literally across the street from Priya. Super good (and relatively cheap) yakuniku at Yakinikuen 焼肉苑 in Azabu Juban (about a 20 min walk). Best pizza in Japan at PST Roppongi (30 min walk or 10min taxi ride).
Also super good curry at Huddle Curry near Tokyo tower.
As for staying in the Park Hyatt, I could never justify the expense. They have a super amazing restaurant on the top floor though with amazing steaks and hand grown ingredients though. Also the bar from Lost in Translation is attached to that restaurant and usually has live entertainment.
Given the Tokyo subway system there’s no real reason you have to stay in Shinjuku. You can get wherever you want to go pretty quickly with a short walk and a 5$ train ride.
Personally I prefer the Grand Hyatt Roppongi (in Roppongi Hills) which ought to be a bit cheaper and literally has a subway station in the basement and lots of entertainment nearby including Karaokekan, or the Imperial Hotel (since it is right across from the palace), or another hotel in Ginza (there are several decent ones).
Yes, stayed there in 2020 and loved every second of it. Normally I am very conservative with hotels so this was a hard choice at first, but the second I got in the room I knew I made the right choice. It’s basically right on top of shimbashi station which was great too, and the Ghibli clock is right next to it so it was fun to watch it go off from the window all the time.
If you are Gold with Hilton I would consider the 2 Hilton hotels in Tokyo. The breakfast that is included with your stay is fantastic and a great way to start off your morning. I have stayed in both and I prefer the Hilton in Odaiba. The views of the rainbow bridge and bay are really nice, the hotel is close to Haneda airport and the Odaiba area is pretty cool and relaxing to walk around. If you go to Disney, a taxi is a pretty affordable, quick way to avoid crowds on the train.
Not worth it. Nicer/bigger than other much cheaper hotels, but it is a just a normal western hotel room. Nothing special. Save your money for a nice Ryokan and experience something unique.
I stayed at Tokyo Station for our last night there and thought it was worth it. Stayed at cheap business hotels otherwise (apart from a 2 night at Iwaso ryokan)
No. PHT is feels dated tbh. I’d go for Andaz. Or Conrad if you’re a Hilton Gold. Same price range but far better standards.
Probably nicer hotels but restaurant and bar were a great vibe when we went on Christmas Eve a few years ago. Also love lost in translation
This is dream of mine:
Mirra costa suit which has view of mountain in the park. You can see fireworks inside your suit at night. The problem is, that suit costs around 2000 usd and it is usually fully booked through out the year.
My husband and I have been to Tokyo a few times and have Hilton and Hyatt status. We usually stay at the Conrad and it is beautiful , but we did a few nights at the Andaz and LOVED the vibe.
Imo it’s only worth if money really isn’t an issue/you really value the huge rooms and service hotels like that give you
or
a big reason is to get hotels to book certain restaurants for you
no travel restriction for tourists?
My partner and I stayed there for our last night when we visited in 2018. It was neat, but we only splurged because Lost in Translation is his favorite movie. Will never spend that kind of money on a hotel again, lol. Also, it was SO inconveniently located!! Such a pain to get to! We much prefer Hotel Niwa Tokyo. Comfortable, quiet, close to a JR station (Suidobashi!), not too expensive, a nice blend of western and Japanese styles, tasty food. Perfect! https://www.hotelniwa.jp/en-us/
I strongly suggest making a night of it and going to the bar, having a meal, and returning back to the bar, rather than staying at the hotel. The bar has fantastic views (as does the restaurant) and sunset can be lovely with those views and a drink in-hand. The food is great at the restaurant (albeit exactly expensive as you might imagine, and nothing novel or innovative). The hotel itself is somewhat in ‘no man’s land’ as it is quite a walk to the nearest stations and doesn’t have a lot of tourist activities in the immediate vicinity. If you must splurge on a hotel, Others have made great suggestions, though my preference is to save on the hotel and splurge on food/shopping instead. Almost all hotels in Tokyo at any ‘reasonable’ price point will be clean and comfortable (albeit with smallish rooms).
I am a cheapskate and have only stayed in top end western hotels twice, ritz carlton and westin. they are very expensive, very nice and I enjoyed it a lot. I usually stay in “business” hotels. APA, JR and the like, basic and inexpensive but clean and convenient
PHT is a great experience. If you haven’t done it before, go for it. Got in the lift after two days staying there and a random pht employee I had never seen before asked me “afternoon mr gnaightster, hope you are enjoying your stay”. Awesome service. Only thing I can think of is he memorized my face from my passport I handed over at check in.
We stayed at the Park Hyatt for the last two nights of our honeymoon and absolutely loved it. That being said, we got an upgrade thanks to a friend, and they rolled out the red carpet for it being our honeymoon.
Outside of that element, we love Lost In Translation so that was a factor for us. However the bar has some beautiful panoramic views of Tokyo especially at night – the vibe of sitting with a cocktail listening to jazz there is something else. You can do that without a hotel reservation though especially if you go before they start charging a cover fee. The pool and facilities are also wonderful.
We also stayed at the Chinzanso which was cheaper and was still a fantastic, more old school luxury experience. They have a beautiful Japanese garden, different bars and restaurants, and really comfortable rooms. All the staff are so kind also, we had a great time there. My husband is always split on which he preferred.
Park Hyatt is my first choice. The service there is the best of any hotel I’ve stayed in the world. If you have Hyatt status, even better. The views are spectacular.
Wanted to reply sooner, but wanted to wait until I got to a keyboard..
Not that I have a wealth of “luxury experience”, but I consider it a luxury business hotel. So you’re kinda paying for “nice”, but also “reliable and low-key”. It’s going to be like your classy (US/European) uncle’s living room, except 40 floors above Tokyo with big window views.
It’s very euro-international and not particularly Japanese. So it really depends what you want. I feel like at the PH, you’re paying for a place that is very accommodating, but it’s the kind of place that tries to stay the background so you can focus on your work/tasks. If the hotel itself hadn’t been a destination for me, I’d have tried to pick someplace that, in and of itself, immersed me more in my trip (like a Ryokan or something), rather than isolated me out of it.
Marriott Gold is meaningless nowadays. For Marriott to care, you need to be Titanium or ambassador. It sounds like you’re an Amex Platinum card holder due to Hilton gold too.
IF you’re able to get the park Hyatt on World of Hyatt points, it tends to be a fantastic deal for points/dollar value. But the Hyatt Regency basically right next door is cheaper in terms of both points, and dollars (but the PH is a better points/dollar ratio).
I have stayed at both. The Park Hyatt was a unique experience and was a fantastic place. It set a great mood for my trip. I’ve also stayed a Andaz Toranoman Hills, and that’s a great hotel (but not the best location)
I’ve stayed on point several times, never paid as it was typically $700-1000/ni. Right now it’s going for $400-500/ni, or cheaper with the current yen price. I got the 52nd floor, a suite with a view of the Japanese skyline and Mount Fuji. I absolutely loved it, best hotel I’ve stayed at in Japan, with Grand Hyatt Fukuoka being a close second. I would say if you could get it for the $400/ni price, and especially if you have the ability to upgrade, go for it.