Family friendly hotel in Tokyo that doesn't cost the earth? Any airline advice welcome too as travelling with 11 month old.

[LDNmummy]

Anyone have any recommendations?

Would love some general travel tips and ideas on activities. My DD will be 11 months by the time we visit and I am nervous about travelling for the first time with her long haul.

What time of year are you going there?. I ask as it can be very hot there indeed in August.

Boat trip on the Sumida river is fun as is visiting Ginza (v busy though) and the Nakamise shopping street. Also the Tokyo Sky Tree opens later this year but only if you like heights.

Do visit the food halls located in the basement of any Japanese department store. Tokyo Zoo is worth a visit.

Read some decent guidebooks before you leave the UK; Lonely Planet or Rough Guide are both good guides.

Hilton Tokyo in Shinjuku was nice and is directly connected to the Metro system.

Have a look at www.tripadvisor.com for reviews; Tokyo as a city is vast but the subway system there is okay for westerners to use; the lines are all colour coded and stations are worded in English. You will hear English spoken announcements on the train. Many Japanese people do not speak much English but are exceedingly polite and very welcoming of Westerners.

We used BA to fly into Narita although they now I think run a service into Hamida airport which is a lot closer to Tokyo. Flights usually leaves Heathrow early afternoon arriving into Tokyo around 9.30 am the next morning.

Friend just back from Tokyo was regaling me with tales of how awful Air France were, flew via Paris.

Thanks for the info

I am going to be there from mid July for two to four weeks (haven't decided yet but definitely two weeks minimum).

I know it is the hottest time of the year but it is the only time we can go as DH teaches.

iseen I was actually looking into flying with Air France as fares were very reasonable but will look into more opinions now as don't want to be stuck on a bad airline with a LO.

Atilla thanks for the detailed advice, will look into the Hilton.

Flew Air France to Tokyo two years ago, they were fab. Of course that could be because we didn't have children and they are generous with the food and drinks.

That also meant that we could go from a small local airport and change at Paris, avoiding Heathrow!

Don't use AF, you ideally should take a direct flight as the flight duration is around 11 hours. BA flies direct without any changes.

Taxis in Tokyo are hideously expensive to use so avoid. We used a coach transfer from Narita into Tokyo.

Price of food, let alone fruit and veg in dept stores can also be astronomical compared to what you see here. Gifts of peaches in boxes and melons on sale for £100 are not uncommon. Lots and lots of chocolate and french patisserie for sale too in stores basement. Fruit jelly on sale is wonderful to eat. More western style restuarants like TGI Fridays (menu is in English but again staff do not speak much English) and McDs are in Ueno. McDs are popular in Tokyo and service is very quick. Menu is also in English. Hard Rock Cafe and Tony Romas are located in Roppongi which is generally a more westernised area of Tokyo.

Japanese service is wonderful and cashier will bow when you make a purchase. It will be wrapped as well after you buy an item, no just chucking it into a plastic bag!. Japanese made rice bowls and chopsticks are a good buy, clothes there are generally not made to fit Western figures. Everything clothes wise is teeny tiny!.

English is widely spoken in hotels generally speaking.

July may well be hot and humid especially on sunny days. Use a fan and wear smart casual clothes. Some Japanese put a towel around their neck to soak up any sweat. Jeans and t-shirt combo does not quite cut it in Tokyo; its a very style conscious smart city and you can sweat like buckets when the humidity is high.

Toilets in hotel rooms have push buttons on them; the most unusual one I used played a tune (this is to disguise the noise of the flush!).

You will see the ubiquitous drink vending machines in stations and in the streets and none are damaged.

At present Tokyo metro does not run air con everywhere on its metro network and walking between stations underground can take some considerable time particularly if you use Tokyo station. Ensure you have a map detailing the number of each metro exit; using the wrong exit at a station can easily put you half a mile out of your way!. Also avoid using the Metro system in the morning rush hours (after 10.00am you should be okay); it makes the London Underground tube here look sedate by comparison!.

Japan is a very seismically active country but they are truly the most prepared in terms of earthquakes.

Would I go back - oh yes most definately.

Def direct flight with children.

ANA & JAL are better as they leave Heathrow 7PM and 9PM(I think) so my children slept most of the time. BA & Virgin flights are in the morning, though BA fly to Haneda which is much better than Narita(at least 1 hour to central Tokyo), but they arrive at 5:30AM and flight comes back to Heathrow was around 6AM.

Air France or Lufthansa fly to Haneda, too.

Staying in hotel in Tokyo for 2-4 weeks cost you a fortune, so I would stay in weekly mansion(self catering-short let).

Good luck!

The BA flight taken to Narita last summer arrived there at 9.05 the next day after leaving LHR at 1.30pm (prompt). BA also fly to Heneda which is more centrally located. The Happy Limousine Bus transfer also picks up pax to take them into central Tokyo. IIRC the flight back into LHR from Narita arrived just after 9am.

Short term lets are not easy to find.

Would fly direct if finances allow.

I stayed at Shinagawa Prince Hotel with my family which was nice as it was convenient and had a good aquarium at the top. But I agree hotels will be expensive (especially given current unfavourable exchange rate for £). Self catering apartments are called "weekly mansions" - you might want to search for them. For example this one:

www.tripadvisor.co.uk/Hotel_Review-g1066451-d1082887-Reviews-Weekly_Mansion_Tokyo_Akasaka-Minato_Tokyo_Tokyo_Prefecture_Kanto.html

(not stayed there though)

or maybe even look at a house swap? again no personal experience though.

Do you have to stay in Tokyo for the whole time? there are plenty of other towns/cities in Japan that are less crowded and more characterful than Tokyo. eg I stayed in Atami for a few days, it has a nice beach, lots of hot water springs and mountains behind it and it's easy to get to as the bullet train stops there. And then further away, there's Kyoto and Nara which are more historical and prettier than Tokyo.

My kids loved the zoo which was very cheap (about £3 then) and had a cute little monorail train inside.

One thing I struggled with was my kids' food allergy - food labelling isn't as good as in the UK there and there are some things we had to be really careful with (sesame, buckwheat).

Forgot to say - I couldn't find any Calpol (or any kind of OTC children's painkiller) there either so you might want to take some.

We flew AF to Tokyo a couple of years ago with 13 month old DD. We're in Scotland, so it was good we didn't have to go via LHR - just 1 change in Paris. They were absolutely fine. Not amazing, but good enough. I'd use them again, and we fly long haul a lot.

In Tokyo, we used the train service from Narita, and then subway to Asakusa, where we stayed for the first few days. Was easy, and people were very helpful. We stayed in Hotel Sunroute, which was perfectly fine too. Very reasonable price, and walking distance to Asakusa temples and Ueno Park, which had lots of activities.

Some of our favourite places in Japan were Takayama, Himeji, Nagasaki & Mijajima. We spent 3 weeks travelling by train (Japan Rail Pass) and then a week with friends north of Tokyo. Was v easy to get around, and a tiny bit of Japanese went a long way. People generally loved the fact we had DD with us, and we'd definitely return. Enjoy!!

We flew From London to Melbourne via Tokyo on JAL when DD was 5mo old and they were fantastic. The flight crew couldn't do enough to help us and we felt quite pampered by them.

At the airport they have express lines for families with children and were just so helpful. We only had a stopover there so I cannot offer any more advice.

Also JAL upgraded us to business class on the return flight from Tokyo - London, it was amazing!!

We have been to Toyko twice when our children were 20m&4 (second time they were 2&5). Both times we stayed in serviced apartments so that we could have breakfast in and so that the kids could have their own bedroom. We also had a couple of nights in the Park Hotel - no complaints there but meals could work out quite expensive.

The first time we were supposed to fly with KLM but the outbound was fog bound so we were transfered to Air France from a different airport. Nightmare logistics and as the flight was fully booked we were split up. I sat with DS (we had paid for a seat because of the long journey) and DH and DD were given entirely seperate seats but thankfully managed to switch on board. I mean what kind of airline would expect to 4 year old girl to sit apart from both of her parents!!! Anyway KLM flight back was ok but there were no seat back screens, just a tv overhead. This all came on top of being bumped off our original flight and having to shorten our holiday.

Second time around we flew with Emirates (paid with by compensation from KLM). Lovely relaxed flight, great with the kids, short connection and i can't recommend them enough. It made for a totally wonderful start to the holiday. We flew into Kyoto & back out of Toyko so that we could see a bit more of the country and take a trip on a bullet train.

Zoo was great, so was Tokyo Tower and the gallery up the tall building which is great at sunset (you can see Mount Fuji from here) whose name has escaped me completely!