beachfan

Any recommendations at the next tier down from Conrad or St. Regis, but not as remote as the Hyatt?

RichardInSF

Please instead start a thread in the Japan forum instead as it is beyond the remit of this forum. When you do, I'll delete these posts.

Thanks,
RichardInSF, moderator luxury hotels and travel

Koen dc

Which one would have the best conciërge service ? Choosing between Conrad, Ritz and St Regis we will only spend a night in the hotel but are counting on the hotel conciërge to make our day at Universal studio’s as smooth as possible.

MarkP24

Any recent stays in Osaka? I'm looking at the Intercontinental vs. the Conrad with the Conrad being roughly $200/ night more.

Aventine

This is a review of my recent stay at the IC Osaka. Personally, I would not pay 200 USD per night more to stay at Conrad. That money could go into a nice Omakase or Michelin star meal outside of the hotel.
LF- IC Osaka 1 bedroom city view suite review

MarkP24

Thanks! The IC looks solid/ good enough to me. I'm planing on using Osaka as my base to visit Kyoto and Hiroshima. In your experience, is it conveniently located enough?

Aventine

Probably one of the best locations in the city. Being right by Osaka and Umeda stations.

MarkP24

Excellent! Thank you!!

demue

Absolutely a big fat +1 for IC over Conrad (and saving $200) plus the location of the IC is very good with an easy walk to Osaka station through Grand Front.

RichardInSF

No, You'll waste an hour a day on the round trip to Kyoto. And it's two hours to and from Nara. And that just gets you to the main station, not the sites you are likely to want to visit.

Aventine

This.

Staying in Kyoto is a lot better than commuting each day.

MarkP24

I want to see 3 cities (at least I think unless everyone feels Osaka's not worth a visit): Osaka, Kyoto, and Nara. As Osaka hotels seem to be much cheaper, and I believe I've read that at night Osaka is more lively than Kyoto, wouldn't this be simply 6 of one half a dozen of the other? And if Osaka is cheaper, I would lean in that direction.

norcalfiend

Osaka is the bigger financial hub and city, but for tourists the attractions are just the Castle (looks more impressive outside than inside and if you see Himeji Castle then it's skippable), Dotonburi (the nightlife street), the Aquarium, and the Universal theme park - the latter 2 may or may not be of interest. You can cover in a day unless you want to go to Universal, and if you're also visiting Tokyo the Dotonburi is a nice experience but not groundbreaking.

Nara is well-worth a visit but you can easily do the deer park and shrines in a day (more likely half-day b/c you'll get shrined out).

Kyoto, on the other hand, is worth a minimum of 2 but should be ~3-4 days (can stretch even more if you want to go at a slow pace / relax). Due to WW2 you won't find the historic center and quality of shrines of Kyoto in many other Japanese cities, so you'll be spending far more time here. It's far more relevant for sightseers hence there are way more luxury properties here than in Osaka (which is debatable if it has a property that meets this forums guidelines).

So if you decide to spend ~5 days in the region, basing yourself in Osaka would mean ~2+ hours of train commutes 4 out of the 5 days which sounds tedious. If budget is a concern I would just look at more reasonably priced properties (up-scale but not relevant to this forum) in Kyoto - there are lots of decent but not luxury chains or even ryokans in Kyoto.

MarkP24

This is so incredibly helpful. Thank you!!

Phillbsb1979

Roku Kyoto or the Hyatt Regency are solid options...