How Much Does a Trip to Japan Cost?

For a lot of people in the United States, taking a trip to Japan is a bucket list item. Something they aspire to do one day, but put off because they think it's too expensive before they've even looked into it. While the flights may be long, the trip doesn't have to be unobtainable when it comes to the price tag. Recently, we had a client come to us with the hopes of taking their family of four (two parents and two teens) to Tokyo for ten nights. The budget? $10,000 USD for flights, hotel, and a must-see tour of Mt. Fuji. The tour was the number one thing they wanted to do on this vacation. Not only did we add a second exciting day trip, but we still came in almost two thousand dollars under the budget.

Let's talk about what we planned for this family so you can start dreaming up your own bucket list adventure.

Hotel

Hotel accommodations can easily make or break your vacation. If the hotel doesn't have exactly what you need, then your whole day can be thrown off. For our family of four, their biggest requirements were free wifi and enough beds to sleep everyone. Their nice-to-have was breakfast available at the hotel.

One thing you'll want to keep in mind while planning your own trip to Japan is that booking far in advance will save you some headaches. Many of the hotels we researched only had a few rooms left that could sleep four people. (Or they were so massive they slept six!) However, we know where to look and found a fabulous room with four beds. The wifi was, of course, free and breakfast wasn't only available on-site, but English breakfast was already included in the price of the room. So, no need to worry about that cost while on vacation! (We love paying for as many things as possible before a trip - this alleviates stress during the vacation.)

We also ensured that this hotel is known for having a multilingual staff since only one of the family members has any knowledge of the Japanese language, and they admitted it was fairly limited.

Okay, we won't gatekeep. Hotel Suidobashi Tokyo, at the time we booked for our client, was averaging $176 per night, taking up just $1,962 of the budget.

Flights

Flights are what will really eat into your budget, especially long-distance international ones. We booked economy seats for everyone, but we were able to get nonstop flights. Layovers, while sometimes necessary to get where you're going or to stay within budget, are a hassle and extra stress we like to avoid.

Flying four people round trip from the US to Tokyo was by far the largest chunk of the budget.

How much? The total came in at $5,548 for all four roundtrip tickets.

Now, depending on where you live, you may actually prefer to have a layover somewhere just to get the chance to stretch your legs partway through the journey. A layover can also make the tickets a little bit cheaper, so it's worth considering depending on your circumstances. For these clients, they didn't mind one way or the other, and we were lucky to find nonstop flights to prevent some potential confusion & stress.

Activities

The big request this family had was a day trip to Mt. Fuji. However, since we had some wiggle room left in the budget, we recommended the family also spend a day at Disneyland Tokyo. Disney being one of the most family-oriented places in the world, it seemed like the perfect add-on and everyone was excited by the prospect.

The cost for the day tour was about $66 USD per person. This included the chance to view Mt. Fuji from multiple different places, as well as travel halfway up the iconic mountain itself. On top of that, they'll get to spend some time at Kawaguchiko Lake and the Gotemba Outlets. It's a long full day, but it will also be a memorable one.

Disneyland Tokyo is cheaper than its California counterpart, and cost about $352 for all four family members for a whole day in the park.

How Much Does a Trip to Japan Cost - Breakdown

How much does a trip to Japan cost? Well, that depends on what you want to make of it. If you want to go on a luxury vacation with onsens, spas, and high-end dinners, then you won't be staying there for ten nights on a $10k budget. For this trip, we ended up coming in under budget, at around $8,128 USD. That means our family of four has some extra spending money for food, other activities, and souvenirs when they take their vacation. And we all know Japan has plenty of amazing food to try and fun souvenirs to buy.

While we could have booked a few more activities or day trips for this family, they were keen to do some exploring on their own for the first couple days of their trip. After that they'll book some more activities once they get the feel for what interests them. While this can be an excellent way to travel, we do recommend keeping in mind that a hot trip destination like Tokyo does tend to see its tourist excursions fill up quite far in advance. So, be prepared to come up with a backup plan if you want to travel this way. Luckily, the most important excursion for this client was already booked by us.

Taking a trip to Japan doesn't have to cost a fortune or break the bank. Pick a budget you can work with and you might be surprised to see what's possible.

Want to get your own trip to Japan booked? Send us a message and we can help you book the perfect trip for you.