What district to stay in Tokyo

[eveline]

Hi All,

We will be visiting Tokyo for 3 - 4 days in late Feb 09 and would like any suggestions regarding the best place to stay in the heart of Tokyo, meaning what district, Ginza, Roppongi, Shibuya etc...
They'II be 3 of us, 2 adults and a small child with a pram. Any suggestions are much appreciated.

Kind regards,

[The Don]

Originally Posted by eveline

Hi All,

We will be visiting Tokyo for 3 - 4 days in late Feb 09 and would like any suggestions regarding the best place to stay in the heart of Tokyo, meaning what district, Ginza, Roppongi, Shibuya etc...
They'II be 3 of us, 2 adults and a small child with a pram. Any suggestions are much appreciated.

Kind regards,

Hey Im interested in moving there to tokyo as well I would like to know this information as well. Please reply thanks

[larabell]

I would guess that the reason nobody has answered yet is because there is no easy answer to such an open-ended question. If you gave a hint as to what kinds of things you're planning on doing for 3-4 days, that might help. Otherwise, if your plan is to see as much of the city as you can, where you stay hardly matters because you'll be elsewhere much of the time.

There are lots of hotels in Shinjuku, which is not far from where I live. Some of them are major chains (like Hilton and Hyatt) and probably somewhat on the expensive side. But there are also business hotels (like Hotel New City) that offer a somewhat small room for a lot less than the major chains. But the same could probably be said for almost every major station on the Yamanote line. If you don't speak any Japanese, you're probably stuck with the major chains, though. But you could run across some good deals if you check around -- the string yen seems to be discouraging travel to Japan these days and the hotels may be hurting.

When I was coming over to visit once a year, I used to book at a business hotel right across from Tokyo station. They had a couple tatami rooms that were probably hard to rent out to salesmen traveling on business but I really liked those rooms. I found that place through JNTO. You should write them and see if they still offer their guide to inexpensive hotels -- most of the places, at that time, were in the $50-$100 range which was cheap for Tokyo even then.

Other than that, I'm not sure what to suggest. Every district has it's plus points. If you're here visiting, you'll be on the trains a lot so finding a place near a station could be a big help. Most of the major stations have escalators and/or elevators these days so the pram shouldn't be a huge issue (by "major" I'm talking Shinjuku, Ikebukoro, Tokyo, Shinagawa, etc). Smaller, out of the way, stations, especially on the subway, may not have pram-friendly facilities but there's no way to list every station you might choose to stay near. Someone might have done that already -- have you tried Googling?

If you post your main interests (what you want to do/see, how much you're willing to travel around town, etc), someone might have a better suggestion.

[MisplacedAussie]

I'd recommend thinking about ditching the pram and getting yourself a baby carrier. A pram will really limit getting around.

Have you seen these?
Baby Carriers | ERGO Baby Carrier, Inc

You can wear baby on your back, front or side. They're brilliant. With baby on your baby, you can carry baby for hours without it hurting you.

There is no real 'heart' to Tokyo - just lots of districts. Ginza is the wealthy shopping district, Roppongi the nightclub district. Shibuya and Shinjuku are major shopping areas - can't go wrong with either of them. Plan on using the train/subway a lot. It's pretty easy to get around by train or subway in the Tokyo area, especially if you don't have a pram. I don't even think you can take a pram on board during peak hours.

[eveline]

Hi and thanks alot for your response. We have decided to stay in Ginza, as good a place as any and the Limo bus from the airport will take us straight to the hotel which was a consideration in choosing this hotel in the first place. We do have a baby carry, they are excellent.