Cost per day · Japan
Tokyo on $35, $120 or $400 a day
How much does Tokyo cost per day? Budget travellers get by on about $35 a day, mid-range trips run around $120, and luxury starts near $400 — accommodation, food, transport and activities included.
That makes Tokyo the 41st cheapest of 82 cities for a mid-range trip — see all 82 ranked.
Tokyo is the world's greatest city for food — from a ¥600 standing ramen bar to a ¥60,000 kaiseki dinner, the quality is extraordinary at every level. Layer in the cleanest subway system on earth, convenience stores that would be destination restaurants in most countries, and a depth of culture that takes a lifetime to explore.
Tokyo is one of Asia's best cities for budget travel — cheap, safe, and with extraordinary free experiences. The convenience store food alone would keep most travellers happy for weeks. A JR Pass or Suica card unlocks the world's best public transport.
✈️ How to Get There
🗺️ What to Do
The world's tallest tower — 634 metres over the endless city, Fuji on a clear morning, and the glass floor for the brave.
Read guide → Get tickets on Tiqets →Shogun tombs in a cedar forest two hours north — Toshogu's gilded excess, the Kegon waterfall, and the mountain air Tokyo forgets it needs.
Read guide → Get tickets on Tiqets →Barefoot through knee-deep water among the koi made of light — Tokyo's immersive art phenomenon, and the ticket that sells out first.
Read guide → Get tickets on Tiqets →🏨 Where to Stay
A modern hotel built into the Miyashita Park complex in Shibuya, with a rooftop bar and late check-out built into the concept. For the price it is remarkably well located — Shibuya station and the crossing are a few minutes away, and the surrounding blocks are among the best in Tokyo for eating late. Rooms are compact in the Tokyo manner and the lower categories have no view to speak of, but the building and position carry it.
Check prices on Klook →Hostel accommodation with dorm beds and, usually, a few private rooms.
Check prices on Klook →Hostel accommodation with dorm beds and, usually, a few private rooms.
Check prices on Klook →Sample 3-Day Itinerary
Day 1: Asakusa & East Tokyo ~$38
Day 2: Shinjuku & Harajuku ~$40
Day 3: Free Views & Cheap Eats ~$35
Get a Suica card at any JR station (¥500 deposit, reload as needed). 7-Eleven and Lawson serve genuinely excellent food for under ¥500. Visit Tsukiji Outer Market at 7am for the freshest sushi breakfast you'll ever have.
Mid-range Tokyo means traditional ryokan inns, izakaya with serious sake lists, and the kind of attentive service that would be considered exceptional anywhere else. The city's Michelin guide has more stars than any city on earth — and many of them are accessible at lunch.
✈️ How to Get There
🗺️ What to Do
Shogun tombs in a cedar forest two hours north — Toshogu's gilded excess, the Kegon waterfall, and the mountain air Tokyo forgets it needs.
Read guide → Get tickets on Tiqets →Barefoot through knee-deep water among the koi made of light — Tokyo's immersive art phenomenon, and the ticket that sells out first.
Read guide → Get tickets on Tiqets →The world's tallest tower — 634 metres over the endless city, Fuji on a clear morning, and the glass floor for the brave.
Read guide → Get tickets on Tiqets →🏨 Where to Stay
Set in Shiba Park directly beneath Tokyo Tower, with more greenery around it than almost any other hotel in the city and rooms angled at the tower itself. There is a pool, a spa and a bowling alley in the basement. The park setting is genuinely restful. The trade-off is transit: the nearest stations are a walk away and the surrounding area is quiet residential-institutional Tokyo rather than anywhere you would go out.
Check prices on Klook →A very large Shinjuku landmark from 1971, with multiple restaurants, an outdoor pool in summer and rooms that see the Tokyo skyline from height. Its scale is the appeal: this is a full-service hotel at a mid-range rate, minutes from the world's busiest station. Scale is also the cost — it is a busy, sometimes impersonal building running at high occupancy, and the older room categories show their age.
Check prices on Klook →A quiet, conventional four-star near the Imperial Palace grounds, aimed squarely at travellers who want a comfortable room and a good night's sleep rather than a scene. Rooms are a decent size for central Tokyo and the Hanzomon position is calm and well connected. It is genuinely unexciting — no notable restaurant, no bar worth crossing the city for — and the immediate area empties out after office hours.
Check prices on Klook →Sample 3-Day Itinerary
Day 1: East Tokyo & the River ~$120
Day 2: Shibuya & Modern Tokyo ~$110
Day 3: Kyoto Day Trip ~$135
Many 2-3 Michelin star restaurants offer lunch for 30% of the dinner price. Book tickets to TeamLab Planets well in advance. Try a traditional ryokan for at least one night — the full experience (tatami, kaiseki, onsen) is worth it.
Luxury Tokyo is rarefied air. The city has more Michelin stars than Paris and New York combined. Hotels like the Park Hyatt and Aman offer Japanese hospitality at its most refined — which is to say, the best hospitality on earth. Private experiences here (dawn shrine visits, sumo practice) are truly unique.
✈️ How to Get There
🗺️ What to Do
Shogun tombs in a cedar forest two hours north — Toshogu's gilded excess, the Kegon waterfall, and the mountain air Tokyo forgets it needs.
Read guide → Get tickets on Tiqets →Barefoot through knee-deep water among the koi made of light — Tokyo's immersive art phenomenon, and the ticket that sells out first.
Read guide → Get tickets on Tiqets →The world's tallest tower — 634 metres over the endless city, Fuji on a clear morning, and the glass floor for the brave.
Read guide → Get tickets on Tiqets →🏨 Where to Stay
The top six floors of the Otemachi Tower, built around a thirty-metre atrium in washi paper and stone that is the most striking hotel space in the city. Rooms are vast, with deep soaking tubs set against floor-to-ceiling windows over the palace gardens. The spa is the best in Tokyo. It is also the most expensive hotel in the country by some margin, and Otemachi is a financial district that is dead in the evenings.
Check prices on Klook →Occupying the top fourteen floors of a Shinjuku tower, with the New York Bar and Grill on the 52nd and a glass-roofed pool above the city. The rooms are enormous by Tokyo standards and the views on a clear day reach Fuji. Its fame from Lost in Translation cuts both ways — the bar is often full of visitors rather than guests — and Shinjuku at street level is a long way, in feel, from the calm upstairs.
Check prices on Klook →Facing the Imperial Palace gardens across from Hibiya, with some of the largest standard rooms in Tokyo and a top-floor bar looking over the palace grounds. Service is the Peninsula's usual standard and the location is excellent for both Ginza and the palace. Of the three it is the most conventional luxury hotel — superbly executed, but without the singular quality that Aman and the Park Hyatt each have.
Check prices on Klook →Sample 3-Day Itinerary
Day 1: Tsukiji & Ginza ~$700
Day 2: Art & Ceremony ~$800
Day 3: Nikko or Private Kyoto ~$750
Book Sukiyabashi Jiro or Ryugin 2-3 months ahead. The Park Hyatt's New York Bar at night is obligatory. Request an east-facing room at the Aman for Fuji views on clear mornings.
About Tokyo
Humid subtropical climate with four distinct seasons. March–April is sakura season — the most beautiful time but also the most crowded and expensive. October–November brings spectacular koyo (autumn foliage) with fewer crowds. June–July is rainy season (tsuyu). July–August is hot and humid (35°C+). January–February is cold but clear, and the city is at its least crowded.
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Tokyo has one of the world's most comprehensive transit systems: Tokyo Metro (9 lines), Toei Subway (4 lines), JR lines including the Yamanote Loop, and dozens of private lines. A Suica or Pasmo IC card handles all of them — load it at any station. Single rides cost ¥170–320. IC cards also pay at convenience stores and many vending machines. Taxis are metered but expensive (¥730 base + ¥90/280m). Walking between stations within a district is usually practical.
A forest shrine, the teenage shopping street, the architecture boulevard and the world's busiest crossing.
The oldest temple in the city, the river park, the tallest tower in Japan, then Ueno's museums and market lanes.
A travel eSIM gets you online the moment you land in Japan — data plans start at $4 — no roaming bill, no queue for a local SIM, and nothing to swap in and out of your phone. Install it before you fly.
Tokyo at maximum intensity: a skyscraper district by day, a neon labyrinth by night. The east side has Kabukicho (the largest entertainment district in Asia), Golden Gai (a maze of 200 tiny bars), and Omoide Yokocho (Memory Lane — grilled chicken skewers under a curtain of smoke). The west side has the free Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building observation deck, the best view in the city.
Best for midrangeThe neighborhood that survived everything — earthquakes, firebombs, and development — and retained the feel of Edo-period Tokyo. Senso-ji temple (free, open 24h) is the city's most visited site; arrive before 8am to see it in relative peace. Nakamise shopping street sells traditional snacks and crafts. The Sumida River runs alongside — walk north toward the Kappabashi kitchen supply district.
Best for budgetHome to the world's busiest pedestrian crossing — the Shibuya Scramble, where 3,000 people cross from five directions simultaneously. The surrounding area is Tokyo's youth fashion heartland: Shibuya 109, the Tokyu department stores, Harajuku and Takeshita-dori just north. The Shibuya Sky observation deck (¥2,000) is the best place to photograph the crossing from above.
Best for midrangeThe neighborhood that didn't burn in 1945 — and it shows. Wooden machiya townhouses, a cemetery that's also a park, art galleries in converted temples, and more cats per street than anywhere else in Tokyo. Yanaka Ginza is a 1950s-style shopping street with craft workshops, tofu shops, and old men playing shogi on plastic chairs. One of the most peaceful hours you can spend in a city of 37 million.
Best for budgetThe international district: the Mori Art Museum (on the 53rd floor, ¥2,000, open until midnight), the National Art Center, and the Suntory Museum form the Roppongi Art Triangle. Below the art: high-end restaurants, rooftop bars, and the city's most international nightlife. Azabu-Juban just south is where Tokyo's wealthy actually live.
Best for luxuryTokyo's answer to the Champs-Élysées: the flagship stores of every luxury brand, plus uniquely Japanese institutions — the Itoya stationery store, Mikimoto pearls, Kabukiza Theatre. The Ginza Six mall is a designed object in itself. On Sundays, Chuo-dori closes to traffic and becomes a pedestrian promenade — Ginza at its most elegant.
Best for luxury- ✓Bow slightly when greeting, thanking, or apologising — deeper for more formal situations
- ✓Remove shoes when entering a home, traditional restaurant, or ryokan
- ✓Carry your rubbish with you — public bins are almost non-existent
- ✓Queue in single file and board trains at the lines marked on the platform
- ✓Get a Suica or Pasmo IC card on arrival — works on all trains, buses, and many shops
- ✓Speak quietly on trains — phone calls are considered rude; text instead
- ✗Eat or drink while walking — considered messy and impolite outside festivals
- ✗Tip anyone — tipping is not part of Japanese culture and can cause embarrassment
- ✗Pass food chopstick to chopstick — it mimics a funeral cremation ritual
- ✗Stick chopsticks upright in rice — it resembles incense burned at funerals
- ✗Talk loudly on the phone in trains, temples, or quiet public spaces
- ✗Rush through crossings or step off the kerb before the light changes
Travel Insurance for Tokyo
Travel insurance is strongly recommended for any trip to Tokyo. Safety is rated Extremely safe — one of the safest megacities on earth — even in safe destinations, unexpected medical emergencies or trip cancellations can be costly. Make sure your policy covers emergency medical treatment, hospitalisation, trip cancellation, and emergency evacuation.
Visa note: 90 days visa-free for most Western passports. Check your nationality — rules vary.. Some countries require proof of travel insurance as part of the visa application.
Get travel insurance for Tokyo →FAQ: Tokyo Travel Questions
Is Tokyo safe to visit? ▾
Extremely safe — one of the safest megacities on earth
When is the best time to visit Tokyo? ▾
March – April (cherry blossoms), October – November (autumn foliage) Humid subtropical climate with four distinct seasons. March–April is sakura season — the most beautiful time but also the most crowded and expensive. October–November brings spectacular koyo (autumn foliage) with fewer crowds. June–July is rainy season (tsuyu). July–August is hot and humid (35°C+). January–February is cold but clear, and the city is at its least crowded.
How much does a trip to Tokyo cost per day? ▾
- budget: $35–$60/day
- midrange: $120–$200/day
- luxury: $400–$900/day
- business: $150–$350/day
Do I need a visa to visit Japan? ▾
90 days visa-free for most Western passports. Check your nationality — rules vary.
How do I get around Tokyo? ▾
Tokyo has one of the world's most comprehensive transit systems: Tokyo Metro (9 lines), Toei Subway (4 lines), JR lines including the Yamanote Loop, and dozens of private lines. A Suica or Pasmo IC card handles all of them — load it at any station. Single rides cost ¥170–320. IC cards also pay at convenience stores and many vending machines. Taxis are metered but expensive (¥730 base + ¥90/280m). Walking between stations within a district is usually practical. Tokyo has a metro system. Taxi base fare ~$5. Day pass ~$6.
Is tipping expected in Tokyo? ▾
Never tip. Tipping is considered rude in Japan — it implies the service was unexpected. Simply say "arigatou gozaimasu" instead.
What currency is used in Japan? ▾
The local currency is JPY (¥) — cash is still king; carry yen at all times, and the official language is Japanese (English signage on metro; minimal English elsewhere).