2013 TripAdvisor Travelers’ Choice Awards Indicate Japan Accomodations Still Have a Way To Go

TripAdvisor’s 2013 Travelers’ Choice Awards are starting to come out, with hotels and accommodation the first category to be revealed.

Although tourism in Japan is said to be recovering after being decimated by the Tohoku earthquake, tsunami and Fukushima nuclear crisis of almost 2 years ago, and local authorities in and around Hiroshima are putting more resources into tourism PR and infrastructure, when it comes to places to rest one’s head, it is apparent that Japan and Hiroshima still have a way to go.

Not one Japan hotel made it into the Worldwide Top 25, nor into the lists of the best Bargain Hotels or B&Bs and Inns.

As for Hiroshima, none of its hotels even made the Japan list which was topped by “Lost In Translation hotel”, the Park Hyatt in Tokyo’s Shinjuku. It isn’t all bad news, however, as the Hotel Active made the Japan Bargain Hotel Top 25. Miyajima also did well with two ryokan’s on Miyajima, the Watanabe Inn and Ryoso Kawaguchi, included in the Japan’s top 25 B&Bs and Inns list.

When I was writing for Bangkok Air’s inflight magazine (remember when we had direct flights between Hiroshima and Bangkok?), I was always being asked if there were any boutique hotels in Hiroshima worth featuring. Our best offering then was the Hotel Flex, which has some pretty cool suite-type rooms on its upper floors, but even that failed to impress the editors.

What are the best hotels you have stayed in Japan? Are there any you would particularly recommend in Hiroshima?