Must-see hotels in Tokyo

  • Hoshinoya Tokyo

    Tokyo

    In creating this contemporary ryokan in the heart of Tokyo, Hoshinoya has barely put a foot wrong, overcoming a location boxed in by office towers…

  • Aman Tokyo

    Tokyo

    Overlooking the Imperial Palace from atop Ōtemachi Tower, this outstanding hotel incorporates natural materials – including dark stone walls, blonde wood…

  • Andon Ryokan

    Asakusa & Sumida River

    About 2km north of Asakusa, the contemporary Andon Ryokan is fabulously designed in form and function. It has 20 tiny but immaculate tatami rooms,…

  • Hanare

    Ueno & Yanesen

    A project of Tokyo University of the Arts, Hanare offers five immaculate tatami rooms in an old dormitory house, which has been tastefully upgraded to…

  • Park Hyatt Tokyo

    Shinjuku & Northwest Tokyo

    This eyrie atop a Tange Kenzō–designed skyscraper in west Shinjuku looks no less tasteful and elegant than when it opened more than 20 years ago, and it…

  • Sawanoya Ryokan

    Ueno & Yanesen

    Sawanoya is a gem in quiet Yanaka, run by a very friendly family and with all the traditional hospitality you would expect of a ryokan. The shared cypress…

  • Apartment Hotel Mimaru Akasaka

    Roppongi, Akasaka & Around

    Opened in 2018, Mimaru has beautifully designed rooms with fully equipped kitchens and proper bathrooms (no pokey unit baths!). Its apartment studios,…

  • Citan

    Tokyo

    The Bakurochō area has exploded with flashpacker hostels in the last few years – this is one of the biggest and the best. The trendy young staff are very…

  • Mustard Hotel

    Shibuya & Shimo-Kitazawa

    Mustard is the most exciting of Shibuya's new crop of hotels. The glossy white interior is the work of design firm Tripstar, and there are a variety of…

  • BnA STUDIO Akihabara

    Kōrakuen & Akihabara

    Five different artists and artist groups have brought their creative visions to the studio apartments here. Designs are influenced by colourful street art…

  • Nohga Hotel

    Ueno & Yanesen

    Opened in November 2018, this super-stylish hotel ups the ante on midrange digs around Ueno. Fronted by attractive greenery and with a very pleasant…

  • Prime Pod Ginza Tokyo

    Ginza & Tsukiji

    One of the cheapest places to sleep in chic Ginza is this capsule hotel, which is suitably contemporary in its stylings. For a bit more headroom than in…

  • The Okura Tokyo

    Roppongi, Akasaka & Around

    While the beloved original 1962 hotel has been demolished to make way for a new building (set to open in September 2019), the Ōkura's elegant South Wing…

  • Park Hotel Tokyo

    Ginza & Tsukiji

    Kudos to the Park Hotel for commissioning 31 artists to decorate 31 of its 31st-floor rooms. The results are very impressive with all-Japanese themes…

  • Unplan Kagurazaka

    Kōrakuen & Akihabara

    A standout among Tokyo's new breed of flashpacker digs, Unplan offers comfy dorms in Scandinavian wood tones. The private rooms are very pleasant, and a…

  • Hotel S

    Roppongi, Akasaka & Around

    The various styles of room at this boutique property capture the arty design spirit of Roppongi. Some of the more expensive duplex-type rooms have…

  • Kaisu

    Roppongi, Akasaka & Around

    Occupying a former ryōtei (geisha house), Kaisu is a flashpacker hostel with mid-century-modern and surfer-chic stylings. Dorms offer wooden bunks with…

  • Andaz Tokyo Toranomon Hills

    Roppongi, Akasaka & Around

    Occupying the top six floors of Toranomon Hills, this sophisticated hotel exudes class and offers panoramic views all around. The best of Japanese…

  • Wise Owl Hostels Tokyo

    Tokyo

    This industrial-looking hostel ticks all the boxes, with a super-convenient location above the subway and a relatively short walk or taxi ride from…

  • Hatago

    Asakusa & Sumida River

    The rooms at this well-run hotel with English-speaking staff are typically small but come with tatami floors (even though you sleep on beds) and other…

  • Nui

    Asakusa & Sumida River

    In a former warehouse, this stylish hostel has rooms with high ceilings, translating to bunks you can comfortably sit up in. There's also an enormous…

  • Palace Hotel Tokyo

    Tokyo

    With its prestigious address, the gorgeous Palace Hotel offers the refinement and elegance that its name suggests. Sniff the botanically perfumed air as…

  • Toco

    Ueno & Yanesen

    This is your chance to stay in a beautiful wooden building (which dates to 1920) that has been turned into one of Tokyo's most attractive hostels. Dorms…

  • Bunka Hostel Tokyo

    Asakusa & Sumida River

    This is one of the most stylish of the several Tokyo hostels that combine a cafe or a bar open to the public in the foyer with a hostel above. Bunka…

  • Kikka

    Tokyo

    Kikka offers decent, wooden-box-style dorm bunks but it's the good private rooms with their own bathrooms that are the draw here. In what is now a tried…

  • Wired Hotel Asakusa

    Asakusa & Sumida River

    This boutique-style hotel is an appealing mix of retro and contemporary design. Each room is decorated with subtly different decor, but all have decent…

  • Street entrance of Trunk hotel on backstreets of Shibuya/Harajuku area

    Trunk

    Harajuku & Aoyama

    Part of Tokyo's new wave of boutique hotels, Trunk's main selling point is its proximity to fashionable neighbourhoods Harajuku, Aoyama and Shibuya. And…

  • Tokyo, Japan - May 10, 2019: At Godzilla’s hometown of Tokyo, a giant Godzilla Head of the scaly menace is towering over the Toho Building in the Shinjuku Ward.; Shutterstock ID 1448007500; GL: Lonely Planet; netsuite: Lonely Planet Destinations Content; full: Tokyo Free Things Artile; name: Gemma Graham
1448007500
Japan-Tokyo-DerekTeo-Shutterstock-1448007500-RFE.jpg
Tokyo, Japan - May 10, 2019: At Godzilla’s hometown of Tokyo, a giant Godzilla Head of the scaly menace is towering over the Toho Building in the Shinjuku Ward.

    Hotel Gracery Shinjuku

    Shinjuku & Northwest Tokyo

    The big draw of this huge (970 rooms!) hotel is the enormous Godzilla statue atop it (you, and taxi drivers, will have no trouble finding it). It's fairly…

  • Book and Bed Shinjuku

    Shinjuku & Northwest Tokyo

    If bookstores are your happy place you'll feel right at home at this hostel where the beds are fitted into bookshelves. The capsule-style bunks have…

  • Reversible Destiny Lofts

    Tokyo

    This is a rare opportunity to sleep within one of Tokyo's most eccentric architectural landmarks. The two apartments – one has one bedroom sleeping two,…

  • Ryokan Sansuisō

    Ebisu, Meguro & Around

    In rapidly developing Gotanada, this little two-storey ryokan stands out. While the building is old, the inside was renovated in 2018, so the tatami rooms…

  • Book and Bed Ikebukuro

    Shinjuku & Northwest Tokyo

    One of Tokyo's cooler concept hostels has beds tucked inside bookshelves (most books are in Japanese, but some are in English). 'Compact' bunks have 80cm…

  • Millennials

    Shibuya & Shimo-Kitazawa

    This new Shibuya capsule hotel has cabin-style rooms: single-decker, divided on the sides by walls, but with curtains for doors; they're literally the…

  • Claska

    Ebisu, Meguro & Around

    The Claska is one of Tokyo’s most stylish hotels, though you wouldn't know it from the retro business-hotel facade. No two rooms are alike: some have…

  • Dormy Inn Express Meguro Aobadai

    Ebisu, Meguro & Around

    If you prefer to base yourself somewhere less hectic – but no less fun – try this business hotel along the canal in Naka-Meguro. This chain sets itself…

  • Anne Hostel Yokuzuna

    Asakusa & Sumida River

    Anne is an efficiently run and friendly operation. Spacious dorms (with between four and eight beds) offer broad bunks constructed from sturdy steel…

  • Ryokan Seikō

    Tokyo

    Maximise your Japan experience by shacking up at this rambling traditional lodge in an 80-year-old building. Rooms have tatami floors, sliding paper doors…

  • Tokyo Central Youth Hostel

    Kōrakuen & Akihabara

    Sitting right on top of well-connected Iidabashi Station, this clean, well-managed hostel has fantastic transport access. It also has luxury-hotel-worthy…

  • Hotel Koé Tokyo

    Shibuya & Shimo-Kitazawa

    The 10 rooms here, with walls the colour of the ocean at night and slate, glass-enclosed bathrooms (the work of Suppose Design Office), are beautiful, but…

  • Grids Akihabara

    Tokyo

    Following what is now a common hostel format in Tokyo (conversions of old office buildings with a cafe-bar on the ground floor), Grids adds to the mix by…

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