Getting where you are going...
If you are like me, you prefer to land at your destination not completely over travelling before your holiday starts.
Travelling with a 12 and a 10 year old, this was particularly important to me, cranky kids does not happy travels make... (I am sure Confucius or maybe Yoda would agree with me on that one!)
So deciding where we were going in Japan was almost as important as how we arrived there to begin with.
We decided (for a host of reasons that suited us) that for the little bit extra per airfare, it was going to be the best idea to fly to Singapore, stay the night, then fly out the next morning to Tokyo.
Primary reason:
Landing in Tokyo via the airline we chose had the option of two landing times. One at 8am and another at 5:30pm.
Hotels (in many cases) do not allow you to book in until after lunch. The ones we stayed in had check in times that were closer to 3pm. The idea of landing, getting to the hotel and not being able to check in, take a nap, have a shower etc, was very unappealing to me. Narita is roughly 60 minutes away from Shinjuku by car so landing at the later time (hours after checking in is allowed) ensured that when we arrived we could check straight in.
Walking through the foyer of our hotels around lunch time and seeing people waiting, with all their luggage, looking tired and miserable really cemented my opinion on this matter. (Who knows if they were coming or going?)
To be honest, I am not sure that I would have been able to drop off our luggage and wander around for a few hours after 12+ hours of flights and almost 24 hours of travelling (waiting in transit included).
Secondary reason:
The flight landing at 8am left Singapore just before Midnight and while some may argue that losing a whole day travelling seems unwise I will personally argue for day travelling every time because I simply can not sleep on a plane. (As I found out on the way back which is a whole other blog post.) Starting a holiday at the point of exhaustion was not how I had imagined getting to our destination would be, so the later flight times worked out to be a better fit for us (as a family).
Tertiary reason:
The shuttle fare from Changi to our accommodation and back to the airport via taxi was not unreasonable (the taxi was actually cheaper), and due to a package deal with our airline the accommodation was a mere $100 ($25pp) for a nights stay. Totally worth it to sleep in a real bed and arrive rested and happy to our destination.
Stick around for my next post which I could label as '18 hours in Singapore... or why I hate Humidity' but I think that pretty much sums it up, next post will be about the airports in Tokyo.
Lenny
Travelling with a 12 and a 10 year old, this was particularly important to me, cranky kids does not happy travels make... (I am sure Confucius or maybe Yoda would agree with me on that one!)
So deciding where we were going in Japan was almost as important as how we arrived there to begin with.
We decided (for a host of reasons that suited us) that for the little bit extra per airfare, it was going to be the best idea to fly to Singapore, stay the night, then fly out the next morning to Tokyo.
Primary reason:
Landing in Tokyo via the airline we chose had the option of two landing times. One at 8am and another at 5:30pm.
Hotels (in many cases) do not allow you to book in until after lunch. The ones we stayed in had check in times that were closer to 3pm. The idea of landing, getting to the hotel and not being able to check in, take a nap, have a shower etc, was very unappealing to me. Narita is roughly 60 minutes away from Shinjuku by car so landing at the later time (hours after checking in is allowed) ensured that when we arrived we could check straight in.
Walking through the foyer of our hotels around lunch time and seeing people waiting, with all their luggage, looking tired and miserable really cemented my opinion on this matter. (Who knows if they were coming or going?)
To be honest, I am not sure that I would have been able to drop off our luggage and wander around for a few hours after 12+ hours of flights and almost 24 hours of travelling (waiting in transit included).
Secondary reason:
The flight landing at 8am left Singapore just before Midnight and while some may argue that losing a whole day travelling seems unwise I will personally argue for day travelling every time because I simply can not sleep on a plane. (As I found out on the way back which is a whole other blog post.) Starting a holiday at the point of exhaustion was not how I had imagined getting to our destination would be, so the later flight times worked out to be a better fit for us (as a family).
Tertiary reason:
The shuttle fare from Changi to our accommodation and back to the airport via taxi was not unreasonable (the taxi was actually cheaper), and due to a package deal with our airline the accommodation was a mere $100 ($25pp) for a nights stay. Totally worth it to sleep in a real bed and arrive rested and happy to our destination.
Stick around for my next post which I could label as '18 hours in Singapore... or why I hate Humidity' but I think that pretty much sums it up, next post will be about the airports in Tokyo.
Lenny
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