The Top 5 Tokyo City Hotels in 2018

In a city as vast and as vibrant as Tokyo, there are endless options for eating, drinking, shopping, and sightseeing. The same can be said of the city’s hotel scene, which runs the gamut from soaring high-rises and traditional ryokans to capsule hotels and outposts of international brands.

So choosing a hotel isn’t easy. But when we asked readers to vote on their favorite city stays, they were quick to call out properties that seamlessly fuse modern-meets-traditional design and service.

Every year for the World’s Best Awards survey, T+L asks readers to weigh in on travel experiences around the globe — to share their opinions on the top hotels, resorts, cities, islands, cruise ships, spas, airlines, and more. Hotels were rated on their facilities, location, service, food, and overall value. Properties were classified as city or resort based on their locations and amenities.

Related: The 2018 World's Best Awards

One hotel that successfully blends the old and the new is this year’s runner-up, Palace Hotel Tokyo, an elegant property with views of the Imperial Palace and gardens. The hotel has a collection of more than 1,000 works by Japan’s most up-and-coming artists in addition to seven restaurants (including a tiny tempura bar) and opulent floral arrangements at every turn.

Readers raved about the amenities at the Mandarin Oriental Tokyo — a mecca for art, shopping, design, and Michelin-starred restaurants. Meanwhile, guests at the Four Seasons Hotel Tokyo at Marunouchi loved the sense of calm that pervaded the luxury hotel, which is set in one of the most frenetic parts of the city (picture crowds of commuters darting en masse amid futuristic, neon-lit skyscrapers).

No. 3 on the list is the Ritz-Carlton, which takes high-rise hotels to a whole new level— literally, as it occupies the top nine floors of the city’s second-tallest skyscraper, the Midtown Tower. As you’d expect, the views from all 245 rooms are some of the best you’ll get in Tokyo (many take in Mount Fuji). And while most of the hotel is hyper-modern, the restaurant contains a reconstructed 200-year-old teahouse.

So which Tokyo hotel earned the coveted No. 1 spot? It just so happens to be a repeat winner from 2017. Read on to find out.