Travel From UK to Japan

badadd · 24 Apr 2007

Hello to all this is my first post! What a great forum you have!

I Live in the U.K
Me and my friend would like to travel to Japan and spend 3-4 weeks there in June or July time (we are both pretty flexible as to when we depart the UK).

My questions/requirements are:
1) Can anyone suggest a cheaper Airline / Flight cost other than the ones I have found, the cheapest I could find was around £950 with 2 outbound stops (33 Hours outbound) using expedia.
2) We do not mind how many times the flight stops if this will help lower the cost of the flight.
3) We were aiming to just get a flight out there and find accommodation when we arrive, we do not mind where we stay - we will only be using where we stay for sleeping.
4) We would like to see a multi cultured view of Japan and would like to explore the country.
5) We would like to spend the majority of our trip in Tokyo.
6) We will both be on a budget and like to keep costs to a minimal. Any tips for this would be great.

Thanks

Zaff · 24 Apr 2007

Well your looking about £400-£700 return with 1 stop at either Amsterdam, Paris or Germany, dependant on who you fly with. You can pay a little bit extra and fly direct.

Well dependant when you go you may be better getting the hotel before you head out as I know the hotel I recently used is booked up for the next 2 months or so.

If you want to go really cheap try a ryokan (traditional Japanese inn) just make sure you know the etiquette needed. Also many ryokan have curfews so you might have to be in rather early.

4) We would like to see a multi cultured view of Japan and would like to explore the country.
5) We would like to spend the majority of our trip in Tokyo

Is it me or is that a slight contradiction?

Budgeting is rather easy I know if I had not spent silly amounts on lavish meals in hotels such as the Park Hyatt and Hilton also not spent like £5 a pint on beer quite often I could have kept the costs to about £700 for 14 days and thats still spending on alot of presents for family.

Keep to cheaper local bars and resturantes just make sure you can at least order your meal in Japanese as quite often I found they dont understand a word of english.

Buy a Japan Rail Pass, if your looking at spending most of your time in the Tokyo area try the JR East pass.

Hope this helps some.

badadd · 24 Apr 2007

Thanks a lot Zaff lots of good info there.

Well your looking about £400-£700 return with 1 stop at either Amsterdam, Paris or Germany, dependant on who you fly with. You can pay a little bit extra and fly direct.

Who do you use to get these prices?

4) We would like to see a multi cultured view of Japan and would like to explore the country.
5) We would like to spend the majority of our trip in Tokyo

Click to expand...

Is it me or is that a slight contradiction?

Sorry if that didnt sound to clear. I bascially Id be more than happy staying in Tokyo for the whole of our trip, but I would like to see the more cultured side too, that would be an extra.

Zaff · 24 Apr 2007

The prices you just need to shop about the internet, travel agents and newspapers. I mean it isnt Japan but yesterday whilst I was reading the paper I noticed a flight to Thailand for £200 return.

Finding a cheap flight is just bargain hunting untill you find the best price. Even waiting till the day before you fly and ringing up a company and asking for a place gets you money off. Last year I flew to Corfu for £50 return where some people on the exact same flight paid a lot more. I just waited and hoped I would get a spot.

badadd · 25 Apr 2007

200! thats a fantastic price! to be hounest i never even thought about looking for flighs in news papers. Do you use local newspapers or national ones?

I am luckilly in the situation where I could turn up at an airport and ask them what flights theyve got for sale on the day I want to go away, or deciding the day before but have no idea how that would work.
Thanks again.

Zaff · 25 Apr 2007

Well I have never done it with a long haul flight before but try to ring companies direct it again saves any commission fees. So ring all the common long haul airlines direct and see if they have any seats spare.

Newspapers, read the national ones.

The reason many airlines sell the seats cheaper the day before is they don't really have much chance of selling the seats at all. So instead of making nothing at all they sell it you at a discounted price and at least make something back on them. Some airlines however have policies against this and you will still be quoted the exact same.

badadd · 25 Apr 2007

Some excellent advice. I will definalty give ringing the airlines directly a try, might wait a bit nearer the time june/july. I realy am quite fortunate that I could leave at the drop of a pin (quickly).

I will start browsing the papers as of tomorrow.

Zaff · 27 Apr 2007

badadd im not sure if you will come back to check this thread but I have found a return flight including all taxes and fee's for £400, if your interested PM me.

made of stone · 27 Apr 2007

Zaff said:
badadd im not sure if you will come back to check this thread but I have found a return flight including all taxes and fee's for ﾂ≫??00, if your interested PM me.

I'm interested in that! The cheapest I found was ﾂ≫??25, and i'm not sure if taxes etc were included.

Could you please PM me that info Zaff (though I wonder why you can't post it on the thread here?), as I hope to be off to Japan in the next month or two?

Cheers!

smellmycomputer · 27 Apr 2007

hey just thought i'd take the opertunity to say that my return flight that i booked on statravel.com cost aobut £580 inc tax; that's a filght leaving early july, returning early august, with a stopover in seoul(i think it's about 17 hours total for the flight). I'm sure i could get cheaper but i wanted to get it booked so i couldn't put it off again. you're going for a simillar amount of time to me, so what i'm doing is 1.5 weeks tokyo, 2 weeks going south to see some more cities on the train. I reccon that it's a pretty good balance, have a bit of time to adjust in tokyo, then go see the sights around the south for 2 weeks, and than hang out in tokyo again, see the sights, maybe go on some trips out of the city

i've booked my first few nights in tokyo just because i like knowing where i'm going, and i reccon it will save me a few quid(it's under £9 a night if you've not had a look at what's on offer). other than that for money saving, erm try to stay in hostels with a kitchen area, that should save you a fair amount of money pretty quickly, also if your going for the 2 weeks on the train that i mentioned then the rail pass is a must

Zaff · 27 Apr 2007

The reason I didn't post it in the thread is the prices are forever being bought. Didn't want to post up the link and there be no seats left at £400 and look like a fool. (though I do that without any help )

storeyinallinanyways · 27 Apr 2007

I had visitors from home recently and their flights were the equivalent of about 480 pounds, and a friend here flew home for about 400 with a different airline a couple of weeks back. A friend coming in June had to pay 580 pounds for her flights but thats probably because it's coming into peak time.

PM me for details of the airlines...

made of stone · 28 Apr 2007

Many thanks guys for the kind offers of sharing your tips through PM!

Zaff, I like your modesty and your thoughtfulness Don't worry, i'm sure you could post that here with a quick explanation, and people would only thank you for it!

smcomputer, I used to do the Seoul route a lot with Korean Air (a good service at a very good price!) The stopover was one hour one way and almost two going in the other direction, I think, though of course these things change. Anyway, it was just enough time to stock up on Korean goodies at the airport (which is pretty new and clean/modern).

Cheers!

Travel From UK to Japan

badadd

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Zaff

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badadd

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Zaff

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badadd

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Zaff

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badadd

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Zaff

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made of stone

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smellmycomputer

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Zaff

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storeyinallinanyways

Storey for short!

made of stone

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