The Holiday Inn Shin Osaka Studio Suite provides a very comfortable stay for the family if you are in Osaka. Let me share with you why.
Table of Contents
Night time…
Holiday Inn & Suite Shin Osaka : Location
For this trip to Osaka, I have chosen to stay right close to Shin-Ōsaka Station. This station has both the Shinkansen line as well as the JR Kyoto Line and the local Osaka Municipal Subway Midōsuji Line (or the RED line).
The Shinkansen line allows me to go to Hiroshima (where I had a nice one night stay at the Nest Hotel Hiroshima after sight seeing) and Kobe easily. The JR Kyoto line allows me to go to Nara and Kyoto easily. And the Red Line allows me to go to Osaka Castle, to go to Yasaka Namba Shrine, to go to Umeda, Shinsaibashi and of course, Namba. And it is pretty easy to get to Kyoto early in the morning to enjoy sights such as Fushimi Inari Shrine, Kinkaku-ji and Arashiyama Bamboo Grove.
And oh yes, from the Shin-Osaka train station to the KIX airport on the Haruka Express Hello Kitty Train too.
So I find it pretty useful for this trip as it fits into my schedule and plan. At Shin-Ōsaka Station area, I stayed for 3 nights at Holiday Inn & Suite Shin Osaka (this link to the hotel is a better one than the IHG version) and then 8 nights at Courtyard by Marriott Shin-Osaka Station. In between, I went to Hiroshima for 1 night and Kobe for 1 night.
Pretty convenient for my plans. YMMV.
How to get from Shin-Ōsaka Station to Holiday Inn Shin Osaka
The web site of the Holiday Inn Shin Osaka showed a very detailed way to the hotel. Very easy. About 10 mins walk.
For the hotel TO the train station, it is just the reverse… It is basically a straight road from the hotel and into an office building, up an escalator and then through the walkway into the train station.
This photo was taken from the executive lounge of the Courtyard by Marriott Shin-Osaka Station showed the way from the hotel to the train station (through the Nissei Shin-Osaka Building).
This is how the road to and from the hotel to the train station looks.
View of Courtyard by Marriott Shin Osaka as you walk to Nissei Shin-Osaka Building. Yes the Courtyard is very very near to the Shin Osaka station and I was very glad to stay there (after a long day out in Osaka or Kyoto or Nara etc).
Holiday Inn Shin Osaka Surroundings
The most important to me (and the family) is the Lawson just opposite the hotel. There are also Family Mart, Starbucks and several local food stores on the way from the train station to the hotel. Fantastic. You can get anything and everything at a 7-Eleven, a Lawson or a Family Mart.
Holiday Inn Shin Osaka Lobby
A very simple lobby awaits you when you reached the hotel. This is also where breakfast is served (but I chose not to have breakfast as a welcome gift for Elite Diamond but I took the Elite points instead. No way I am eating breakfast in Japanese hotels when there are so much nice cafes everywhere).
Holiday Inn Shin Osaka Studio Suite
As usual, I booked a lead-in room (2 rooms actually). I was quite lucky (for this trip) as I got upgraded in all the hotels I stayed in. For Holiday Inn Shin Osaka, as I am a Diamond Elite member, I was very lucky to be upgraded from a room to a suite.
I was upgrade to a Twin Bed Studio Suite upon arrival for one of the room. My poor children has to stay in the standard lead-in room. But it was just next door to our Suite. Very nice.
Of the 185 rooms in Holiday Inn Shin Osaka, 126 are suites. The spacious apartment-like rooms are fully equipped with a living space, a full kitchen with cooking utensils and dishes, a washer/dryer (this is a god send…not joking), and a separate bathroom with a large bathtub.
The suites can sleep 3-4 people and hence making it a great stay for family.
I had two queen sized beds. Very clean and comfortable.
Soft and Firm Pillows… Japanese attention to details are legendary.
Two USB charging points between the beds…. and an analog alarm clock !!!
And there is a sofa bed… which open up…
Studio Suite Bathroom and Washroom
The “toilet” is separated into 3 sections. There is the WC room of its own, a bathroom and the washroom.
The WC room comes with bidet and of course, Japanese controls.
Then there is the washroom which is the sink with a very interesting mirror that you can touch to switch off the lights etc.
But the bathroom (with its own door) is super. First it comes with a clean and nice bath tub. Then it also comes with a Japanese washing area. You know, like in Onsen. Where you can sit and take a proper shower before jumping into the bath tub.. FANTASTIC. All Japanese hotels should come this way 🙂
I think I want to get a bowl like this and a stool like this. To use in my own Singapore toilet.
Studio Suite Kitchen
The Studio Suite comes with a kitchen. Which means you can really enjoy your stuff you buy from Lawson :). It comes with kitchen-ware too.
Nepresso is a must with kettle and tea set too. 2 bottles of water. And yes, a cooker.
A fridge and a microwave oven
A washing machine with dryer. So that you don’t have to go out and find a laundry shop. Nice.
Kitchen utensils are provided. I checked. They are very clean.
And frying pans and pots… wow.
Plates and Bowls and Cups..
And recycling bins in the drawer…
And finally, an air purifier too….
Holiday Inn Shin Osaka Conclusion
A very nice hotel. Clean and comfortable. And if you get a suite, you can really find a home away from home. It is really useful and nice to have that kitchen and washer/dryer to help you have a nice evening or a nice morning to start your day.
Having said that, the walking distance from the train station to the hotel is about 10 mins. It is okay in the morning when you walk from the hotel to train station… but when at night, after a long day out, it gets a little tiring to walk from the Shin-Osaka train station to the Holiday Inn hotel. I found that when I stayed at the Courtyard by Marriott Shin-Ōsaka Station, I can go back to the hotel more regularly during the day time (as in you go out and then when you feel like it, it is pretty easy to go back to the hotel for a rest).
But as a whole, I highly recommend the Holiday Inn Shin-Osaka if you do get a suite for your family.
