Both major Tokyo airports are serviced by Airport Limousine buses that offer a very convenient and comfortable way to travel to your hotel. Many major hotels are serviced, as well as other central travel hubs.

View other posts in this series:

• Trip Introduction: Springing for Sakura
• Review: oneworld Qantas Business Lounge LAX
• Review: Starlux A350-900 Business Class LAX-TPE
• Review: Starlux Galactic Lounge TPE Terminal 1
• Review: Starlux A330neo Business Class TPE-NRT
• The Airport Limousine Bus is Indeed Friendly (this post)
• Quite a Grand Stay: The Tokyo Disneyland Hotel
• Thoughts on Tokyo Disneyland
• Thoughts on Tokyo DisneySea
• Japan Pro Tip: Luggage Delivery Services
• Review: Park Hyatt Tokyo
• teamLab Planets: I Don’t Understand The Hype
• Cuteness Overload: A Review of the Pokémon Cafe Tokyo
• You Fished Your Wish: Zauo Fishing Restaurant
• Tokyo with Kids: Perhaps The Largest Playground on Earth
• Japan Pro Tip: IKEA Has Cheap Eats
• Review: Starlux A350-900 Premium Economy NRT-TPE
• Review: EVA The Infinity & The Star Lounges
• Review: EVA Air 777-300ER Royal Laurel TPE-LAX

About the Airport Limousine Bus

When exiting Tokyo Narita or Haneda airports, you have different options for getting to your hotel, including:

• Take a taxi or Uber
• Take local trains
  • If coming from Narita, you can take the Narita Express train
• Take local buses
• Take the Airport Limousine Bus
• Get a rental car

A few considerations

• Taxis are expensive in Japan. My understanding is that when you request an Uber, you end up getting a taxi. While you can get to your destination without too much effort on your end, you’ll have to pay for it. Also, if you have young children, car seats are not required in taxis, but it’s up to you on how comfortable you feel with that.
• You might be tempted to get a JR rail pass because you’re coming to Japan and it’s only available to tourists. But I’ve never found it worthwhile, even if you expect to do a roundtrip between Tokyo and Kyoto, unless you’re going all throughout Japan in a short period of time. Trains out of Narita, including the Narita Express, would be covered by the pass.
• If you do take trains, note that lately there has been an aversion to bringing your luggage onboard unless you reserve a seat that specifically gives access to luggage storage. Even if you take the train, expect to have to connect between trains or lines. If you are bringing your luggage along with you, are you comfortable carrying everything yourself through those connections? It can also be difficult to handle with younger children, especially if they fall asleep on the trains.
• You can send your luggage ahead of you to your destination. I’ll talk more about this option in a separate post.
• Local buses, while the cheapest option, could require connections and more focus on your part to make sure you don’t miss your stop.

The Airport Limousine Bus resolves most of the difficulty identified above. I found it cost-effective, convenient, and with plenty of storage for our luggage. It also meant that it would be easier to handle if the kids fell asleep on the way.

Booking the Airport Limousine

There are two main ways to reserve your ticket. You can either purchase your ticket online in advance via their website or you can purchase it in person. Personally, I’ve found it easier to just purchase a ticket on arrival to the airport after clearing customs and immigration. This is because you don’t know if you will encounter a delay on arrival (which happened to us on this trip). Of course, it can be intimidating not knowing for sure you will have a seat until you get to the counter, but generally you’ll be fine.

If you purchase your ticket at the airport, staff working the counter speak English fairly well. You don’t need to figure out the route, just tell them your destination and they will know the best bus to take and where to wait for it.

On the way back to the airport, if you are staying at a hotel where the bus stops directly outside it, you can likely purchase your ticket from your hotel. I ended up purchasing my ticket online. For this one, you generally should purchase your ticket well in advance of the date you’re traveling. Your flight isn’t going to wait for you if you don’t get to the airport in time.

Also, children under age six are free on the bus as they’re expected to sit in your lap for the journey. Children between ages six and 12 are half price. The price we paid walking up to the counter for a one-way journey was ¥8050 (roughly 53 USD) for three adults, one half-priced child, and one lap child. Price varies depending on your destination.

Waiting for the Airport Limousine

I went over to the arrival counter (just outside customs in Tokyo Narita Terminal 2) and mentioned to the ticketing agent that we are heading over to the Tokyo Disneyland Hotel. I mentioned that we have a four-year-old and so one ticket showed that it included an Infant. We were directed to wait at bus stop 17, just outside the doors beside the counter.

One thing to note is that each bus stop is divided into three lines. Line 1 would be the first to board, followed by Line 2, and then Line 3. With many destinations listed in Japanese, it’s easiest to just figure out which line you should be in based on the time stamp. Here, our ticket said 16:45 and so we knew we would wait in Line 3. After the 16:40 bus departed, everything shifted, and we stepped over to Line 2 to finish our wait (Line 1 was note in use).

Minutes before our bus would arrive, Airport Limousine staff tagged our checked bags, separating bags based on their final destination (there are other stops on our route besides just the Tokyo Disneyland Hotel). This enables them to efficiently load the luggage when the bus arrives. You are given a claim receipt for your bags when you arrive to make sure your bags don’t get mixed up.

We were also quickly ushered aboard and our tickets were scanned.

Onboard Experience

Seats are arranged in a 2-2 format. As we had four seats, we sat in a block of four on the right side of the bus. That made it easier for me to try to keep everyone awake for the journey to the hotel to try to fight jet lag. It was difficult since the seats were pretty comfortable.

When you board, you’ll see the list of destinations in both Japanese and English at the front of the car. Don’t be afraid if you don’t see your destination initially on the list since there may be more destinations than can appear on the screen at once and they don’t seem to cycle through all destinations. However, the screen tends to stay off for most of the trip until you reach the first destination.

Each seat has its own small tray table. You can eat and drink while on this bus if you need to, but the table is not big enough for your laptop.

As you can see, the legroom rivals what you might find on an extra legroom seat on an airplane. Plenty comfortable for our needs, even with a child in our lap. Also similar to an airplane is the storage space under your seat or above it (however, that space is quite small).

Amenities

Should you need it, there is a restroom at the back of the bus. I didn’t use it so I can’t vouch for its cleanliness but it is nice to have one just in case.

On each side of each row of seats, you’ll find an outlet in case you need to plug something in. Japan uses the same outlet plug shape as in the United States but with two differences. Japanese outlets are only 100 volts while outlets in the United States tend to be 110-120 volts (the main difference travelers might notice is slower charging of devices). Additionally, there is no third prong for grounding. That can make charging things like laptops a bit more of a challenge, but I just brought a universal power adaptor anyways and that solved my issue.

Also above each seat is some lighting and individual air vents.

Important!

Japan is very focused on being punctual. That means when your ticket says it arrives at that time, it means it will both arrive and practically depart at that time. If the bus driver pulls to a stop and is expecting to pick up a passenger but does not see them, they will take off.

Do not expect the bus driver to wait for you. On our way back to the airport, there were several passengers who did not arrive on time and subsequently they were left behind. I’ve seen people online also provide similar commentary. Miss the bus even by a minute and expect to be left behind. I nearly encountered the same fate as the checkout from the hotel took longer than I thought (the Park Hyatt Tokyo wanted to be very thorough).

Recommendation: Yes

We’ve taken different forms of transportation in the past between Tokyo’s airports and hotels but by far our favorite experience is the Airport Limousine Bus. We find it to be the most convenient option of those available to us and it ended up being cheaper than the Narita Express. I enjoyed not having to worry about both luggage and children that were falling asleep from the time change. This isn’t a sponsored post–just me trying to offer up a suggestion the next time you find yourself in Tokyo and needing transportation between your hotel and the airport.

How do you get to your hotel in Tokyo when visiting?