Originally Posted by
tobikosan
Vague but in a week instead of 2 hour layover Im going to make it 26, Don't drink, not a shopper, love nature, temples, food. ease. I would appreciate some help as to where to stay, simple but need king bed clean room, Not against luxury but like deals and tend to dress down, Not ino big cities as I am leaving for the mess of one the next day. Very little luggae and none checked. Flying economy JAL but back a few days later in F and will spend the same 26ish hours again. Thank you
I think the potential recommendation would depend on different factors:
- What time do you arrive and depart?
- What is your order of priorities amongst need for king-size bed, hotel budget, need to avoid urban setting, food, nature, temple?
- How far away from NRT each way are you willing to go?
If food is the most important, I don't know that I'd stay in Narita town. I find the food scene there to be pretty mediocre. I think Narita town is a decent place to take in once or twice. But I just feel like there are better places to spend 26 hours.
If your 26 hours are something along the line of 5p-7p and you don't mind a bit of a train ride, it may not be totally crazy to trek all the way to Ofuna (where there's a reliable hotel chain called Hotel Mets right by the station). It's a fair bit of train ride to get there, but it's a direct train ride without transfer on the comfortable NEx train from NRT. You get to check out Kamakura, which is a historical area, and hop around on the Enoden train along the scenic Shonan coast. This plan won't work as well if your layover is more like 12p-2p, though. For that type of time frame, you're better off staying in Narita or Tokyo area.
If food is the most important thing on your agenda but you don't want to travel more than an hour away from NRT, and you could deal with being in an urban environment, I would still opt for heading into the city... Asakusa has a fair bit of different reasonably-priced hotel options and has a famous temple surrounded by lots of interesting food.
In Narita city, I just think Richmond is the best option. I don't know all the hotels there firsthand, of course. But knowing how different hotel chains are and having read reviews of other Narita hotels on Rakuten, I've settled on Richmond as my go-to place if I have to stay in Narita town. Granted I'm sort of picky with hotels, but I just don't rate Comfort too highly. I've found Comfort Hotels in Jpn to be clean, but with sterile-looking rooms, mediocre breakfast and service. If Richmond has availability, I doubt they'd cost much more than Comfort. Richmond in Narita actually has a variety of room and bed types, from single-size bed up to near-king size. Their service is way beyond what you'd expect from a business hotel and their breakfast buffet is really good.