Travel To Japan On A Budget As Family Of Four (2024-2025)

One of the most commonly asked question is how much should one have to be able to travel to Japan for X amount of days whether it is as an individual, couples or even as a family four.

This time we will focus on family of four and the currency that we will use is USD (United States Dollar) unless stated otherwise. If you’re traveling solo or with a partner then you will have more options available to you such as staying at capsule hotel, love hotel, manga cafe or a male / female only accommodation place, which is not normally possible or very inconvenient for a family with children.

We’re going to break down the budget into several categories below:

• Flight

• Accommodation

• Transportation

• Meal

• Others

Flight

This will probably take the most chunk out of your budget if you’re traveling normally, however thankfully there are ways to help reduce the cost of flight. It is usually much better if you have flexibility on the date of travel but as a family especially with children that are not home schooled you have to find a time when they have a break and this will limit your option on when you can fly.

Here are some ways that you can save on the flight cost:

• Using Point / Miles from your credit card

  Unless you know or married to someone that works in the airlines that can give you discount, using points / miles are your best best to save a ton on your flight (assuming that you have enough, if not then you can still get a discount however it won’t be as good)

  Make sure you to check whether your credit card gives you points and it can be transferred to a partner airlines. For us the top 2 are AMEX Platinum and Chase Sapphire Reserve, especially when you are opening for the first time and they offers a huge bonus points. We will discuss on how to do it properly on another blog in the future

• Fly using budget airlines

  While this can make people think twice and would rather pay extra for a regular airlines, however not all budget airlines are bad plus if you’re on a budget you might want to think about flying with budget airlines. Of course do select ones that are well known to be safe and reputable.

  Here are some budget airlines that you should look into:

  1. Zipair

     This is probably our favorite one out of all the we have flown with and we do recommend if you’re destination is Tokyo and do not mind landing in Narita. If you never heard of Zipair before, ZIPAIR is the low-cost arm of Japanese carrier Japan Airlines and as of this writing they have flights to and from below:

     • Bangkok

     • Manila

     • Seoul

     • Singapore

     • Vancouver

     • Houston

     • Los Angeles

     • San Francisco

     • San Jose

     When they have promotion their prices are unbeatable going from the United States, from San Francisco we’ve seen it as low as $260 give or take a few one way and below is taken from their site showing from Los Angeles to Tokyo for a family of four, as you can see that it is very very cheap. They also give free 1 free carry on and 1 free personal bag that you can put under the seat as long as the combine weight is less than 7 kg (Please double check on their site since this can change at any given time). You can also watch our video on our previous article here

     If you have JAL miles you can redeem it on Zipair and vice versa

The only thing we do not like is that they do not issue a flight refund so it can be scary when you purchase the ticket way in advance

• Peach Aviation

  This is also a great option if you’re flying out from below airport:

  • Bangkok (Suvarnabhumi)

  • Hong Kong

  • Taiwan (Both Kaohsiung and Taoyuan)

  • Seoun (Incheon)

  • Shanghai (Pudong)

  • Singapore

  The only downside is that they are mostly flying to Osaka (Kansai) but just like Zipair you get 1 free carry on and personal bag that you can put under the seat as long as the combine weight is less than 7 kg (Please double check on their site since this can change at any given time).

• Jetstar Japan

  This is probably the ones that has the most destination selection and if you are in Australia or New Zealand, you’re in a good place to use Jetstar as they have plenty of flight from multiple cities and they have over 15 airports in Japan that you can go to. They also have flights from Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore and many others, you can check the full list on their site here. Unfortunately the only place that in the US that has Jetstar is only in Honolulu, Hawaii.

  They also have promotion from time to time where you get to return for free which means you only have to purchase one way and this is a big game changer in reducing your budget. Below is the promotion during their Black Friday deal and the price shown is in Australian Dollar

The downside is that you have to buy them way ahead of time and circumstances can change during those time but it is one heck of savings! 😎

• Air Japan

  Air Japan is a budget airline under All Nippon Airways (ANA), since they are just launched early this year and as of this writing currently they only have services from below:

  • Bangkok (Suvarnabhumi)

  • Seoul (Incheon)

  • Singapore

  They will most likely to expand in the near future.

  If you use ANA miles you can redeem it on Air Japan and they also have flat fares that are available for children from 2 years old to 6 years old (picture below taken from Air Japan site)

The downside is that the destination is only to Narita, Tokyo but please keep in mind that they operated in less than a year so this may change in the future.

On average we spend around $500 to $700 per person during low season for a return flight ticket to Narita, Tokyo from San Francisco and between $1000 to $1500 on high season. Make sure to compare prices on sites like Skyscanner, Google Flights and Momondo, you can also try searching for tickets using incognito mode.

Our recommendation when you finally found the right one is to purchase the ticket directly from the airline, while this can cost a little more you will get better support if there is any issue. If you purchase from a third party the airline will most likely not assist you and will refer you to contact said third party to resolve any issue and this can turn dream vacation into nightmare really quick. This is just our recommendation, you can always purchase it from whichever site that you think is best for you.

Accommodation

Did you know that having the right place to stay the night can have quite an impact on your overall vacation? Many people that I spoke with have the same thinking that it’s just a place to sleep so it doesn’t really matter where you stay. While it is true in a sense, it plays a much more significant role not just for you but for your entire party.

Think about it this way, when you travel you are most likely to be going places to explore unless you are there just to relax in the hotel or place of stay.

Due to the limited amount of time we have during our vacation, we always go into this mode of wanting to maximize every seconds that we have and more often than not you will be exhausted at the end of the day especially in Japan where you will most likely be putting a lot of steps. Resting is very important so that you can be fully recharge for your next day activities whatever it may be, not having a good rest can make you feel tired quicker and at times can get you sick which is one thing that all of travelers want to avoid at all times.

Location is also another thing to consider when you’re booking a place to stay in Japan, the rule of thumb is you want to stay in a place that is not far from the train station (if you’re traveling to the big cities like Tokyo) or whatever the main public transportation of your destination.

Walking for 10 or 15 minutes in Japan are nothing and considered not far, so as for our recommendation you want to find a place within 15 minutes walk to the station. So make sure to exercise and put in extra steps before you head there 😊, trust me it will help you a lot!

For family of four our recommendation is to find a place that cost under $200 / night which average $50 per person / night, most of the time we were able to get to stay in a good hotel in a good area between $100 to $135 / night for 4 people and this average just under $34 per person per night.

One other thing that you want to consider when booking a hotel or place of stay is whether or not they have washing machine if you’re planning to stay at the same place for more than a week, if they don’t then you might want to consider finding one that offered that.

Transportation

The main transportation that you will likely use is the train and one of the most misunderstood by many travelers is that when they are in Japan they have to get JR Pass. If you don’t know what JR Pass is, it is a discounted travel pass offered by Japan Railways that gives you an unlimited train rides all over Japan that includes Shinkansen (Japan’s Bullet Train) that you can purchase even before you fly to Japan (minus a few restriction that are non JR trains).

Taken from JR Pass site https://www.jrpass.com/

While this may sound to be very good, it is! BUT… there is a big but, it is only good if you are going places between cities like Tokyo to Osaka and back or all over Japan. If you’re only staying in Tokyo or just one city and surrounding area then this is not a good deal due to the cost of the pass which currently starts at $331 for 7 days which averaging under $48 per day per person and multiply that by 4 if everyone is older than 12 years old.

You’re much better of getting a Suica, Passmo or Icoca card or their app or another way is to get a different pass depending on where you are. Japan has so many different passes that we hope to cover in our future blogs

Strategizing and planning on where you want to go will help you reduce the cost of your transportation for instance if you want to visit Shinjuku you might want to combine it with Harajuku as well since they are close to each other and this will save you the transportation cost.

We usually spent less than $10 per day per person on transportation which is much less than $48 this is why it’s important to plan ahead. We’re hoping to release an itinerary in the future that can help you and your family save time and money.

Meal

It will be very nice to be able to eat whatever we please at what ever place and not having to worry about the price but unfortunately this is not the case for most of us and here are some tips that you can do to help with your meal expenses when you are in Japan with the family.

Before we share our tips we want to make sure you understand a few of things when you are in Japan:

1. Takeout boxes are NOT common in Japan which means that you will not be able to take your food if you cannot finish it, at few places they may wrap it up for you but this is considered a bad etiquette.

2. It is also considered rude and frowned upon when you order less than the total people in your party, so if your party has 4 people then you should order 4 dish unless of course if you’re with a child.

3. This is probably a good one that everyone in the US and other countries would like to hear, tipping is NOT mandatory! 😁It is considered unnecessary and even rude in most situation.

But you don’t have to worry much as the portion are just right for each person and it’s not like in the US where the portion are often much bigger than in Japan.

Starting with breakfast, one way to save is by including breakfast with your hotel stay. Several places that we’ve stayed at offer breakfast for an extra $3 to $5 per person per night which is a pretty good deal but you want to check what they offer as breakfast as not all hotels are created equally, some gives better selection than others for the same price.

Another way is to eat light and get food like egg sandwich or katsu sandwich or onigiri (rice balls) at places like 7-Eleven, Lawson or Family Mart, the price of the sandwich is usually around ¥238 which is about $1.51 depending on the exchange rate (as of this writing the rate is $1 = ¥157)

Lunch time, this probably one time where you can’t really control unless you already plan on where you want to go. There are many places where you can get a very good meal with good portion for a decent price, if you find restaurants like Nakau (between $3.5 to $5 for an entree) or Yoshinoya (between $5.75 to $7 for a set) you can get a very good meal for cheap (between $3.5 to $5) and normally we spent between $7 to $10 per person during lunch this includes the drink as well.

Dinner time, this is usually when we usually splurge a bit more but at times we only get some sandwiches from 7-Eleven or Lawson but even then we never really spend more than $15 per person and usually ranges between $7 to $10 just like lunch time.

Lastly snacking, this is probably can add a little bit since there are so many good foods and snacks there and there is not really much of advise that we can give except use moderation when getting them😊.

If you are traveling solo and can eat a lot, you can skip breakfast and lunch and just go straight for dinner by attempting to beat the eating challenge where you have to finish certain amount of food within a certain time for free but this is not something that a family can do.

On average for 4 people on the higher end we spent:

• Breakfast - $10

• Lunch - $25

• Dinner - $25

Totaling $60 per day for 4 people on meals, we don’t really snack but we do get drink from vending machine with the small change that we get and this is on the higher end. If you live in California like we do then you will know that it is very cheap compare to restaurant prices in California.

Other

If you want to save on attractions there are quite some selections that you can enjoy free of charge! Yes free of charge so if you don’t feel like paying for attractions or places to visit you can go this route. We will compile a list on future blog specifically about this.

Shopping can also cost a bit but many things in Japan are much cheaper than in the US, this is something that we cannot do any recommendation as everyone is different but do try to get stuff that is not available in your home country or stuff that are much more cheaper to get in Japan

However our recommendation is go to the place where you want to visit regardless of whether it’s free or not, you and your family flew so far to Japan so just enjoy it. Plus the savings from airlines and hotels should suffice to cover the attractions that your family wishes to visit. If you are going to Tokyo and loves Disney we highly recommend you to visit Tokyo Disney Sea, we have a video that we’re still working on and will post once it is completed.

Conclusion

To recap based flying out to Japan from San Francisco, California our budget is normally as below:

• Flight - $2,500 to $3000

• Accommodation - $100 to $150 / Night

• Transportation - $40 / Day

• Meal - $50-$75 / Day

Based on 10 nights the total is $5,650 and we normally set aside about $1,000 to $2,000 as pocket money and this brings the grand total of $7,650 for a family of four on the higher end with everything included, do note that our kids are now in high school so it cost a bit more on certain things. Most of the time we have about $1,000 unused from our time there since we don’t really do much shopping.

Hopefully this can give you an idea of how much you should have to go to Japan as a family of four and of course having more is better.

Thank you for reading and we will see you in our next blog!