i'd like to use my HHonors points to stay in Japan. The Tokyo Hilton is 40k a night, but the Narita Hilton is only 10k a night. Is it practical to stay at the Narita Hilton and go into Tokyo each day for, say, 5 days of touring the city and area? I plan to buy a three week Japan Rail Pass. I'll be in Japan from the 29th of June for three weeks.
i'd like to use my HHonors points to stay in Japan. The Tokyo Hilton is 40k a night, but the Narita Hilton is only 10k a night. Is it practical to stay at the Narita Hilton and go into Tokyo each day for, say, 5 days of touring the city and area? I plan to buy a three week Japan Rail Pass. I'll be in Japan from the 29th of June for three weeks.
It's an hour one way from Narita to central Tokyo (no Shinkansen shortcuts either), so no, it's not very practical.
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How about the Odawara Hilton Resort & Spa? While I don't know how many HHonors points they charge, travel time to central Tokyo should not be much more than from Narita, if at all. Odawara has a Shinkansen station.
How about the Odawara Hilton Resort & Spa? While I don't know how many HHonors points they charge, travel time to central Tokyo should not be much more than from Narita, if at all. Odawara has a Shinkansen station.
Narita Hilton is Category 1 (10,000points) and its easy to redeem a free night;
Odawara Hilton is Category 5 (35,000points) and its not so easy to redeem a free night.
Welcome to Flyertalk Sterlingguy. I redeemed points to stay at the Narita Hilton. We used it as our home base when touring Tokyo. The information others have stated is accurate, it is far and not altogether practical. Narita is a great deal and yes, you can use it as a base to tour Tokyo. However, just be prepared to have a long ride there and a long ride back. When you factor in the ride on the hotel shuttle to the airport, then getting through the terminal to the Narita Express, and the train ride into Tokyo, it's about a good hour and a half each way. If you're planning on having late nights in downtown Tokyo, check to see what's the latest time the last Nartia Express, and also the last shuttle to the hotel depart. I could be wrong, but I seem to recall that service didn't run too late, something like 10pm or 10:30. Wasn't a problem for me because with jet lag, by early evening I was pretty tired and ready to call it a day. If I had to do it over again, I probably stay in Narita again for a few nights (heck, I like to stretch my points), but I'd also spend at least two nights in Odawara. I enjoyed that hotel so much. If you have the points to burn, it is much easier touring Tokyo if you stay in the city. I stayed one night at the Hyatt in the Rappongi Hills section of Tokyo and it was very convenient. If you have any Hyatt points to burn, the Hyatts in Tokyo are VERY nice.
Because I had enough points to do my trip for free staying in Narita, but not in Tokyo, I chose to do it this way. It just made for some long days. Narita isn't a bad hotel. The rooms are a little worn, but not bad. Breakfast is quite good. The hotel has a nice gym and even an onsen spa in the health club. It was nice to use the onsen before flying home. They allowed a very late checkout for free as diamond.
As far as Odawara goes, it costs more points, but it is a spectacular hotel. I believe the ride from Tokyo to Odawara Station on the Shinkansen bullet train is only about 35 minutes. However, the shuttle to the hotel will take you another 20 minutes, factor in about 40 minutes when you consider getting from the train to the shuttle and waiting for the shuttle to arrive. That said, again, just be aware that the last shuttle from the train station to the hotel is at 8:30 pm. I was told a cab ride from Odawara station to the hotel costs about the equivalent of $30. If you have enough points, and can break up your trip, try to spend a day in Odawara, although when you see the hotel and their awesome spa, you'll probably not want to venture out of the hotel. If you stay at this hotel, do yourself a favor and budget some time in your trip to enjoy the hotel spa. The breakfast at this hotel was outstanding. Odawara made for a great base for touring the Hakone region with a Hakone pass. The day we toured Hakone was one of the highlights of our trip to Japan. Just a thought. Hope you have a great trip.
Consider paying more to stay in Tokyo. Then arrange your trip so you can get by with a 2 week JR pass (since you don't really need it when you are in Tokyo) and save a bit there. You're on vacation, do you really want to spend 3 hours a day going there and back? Also, the last Narita express leaves Tokyo station at 8pm, after that you will have to take much slower trains to Narita town and even then, the last train leaves at 10:12pm.
