Photo: © Palace Hotel Tokyo
Palace Hotel Tokyo: where Imperial gardens meet a contemporary cityscape
Gazing across the shimmering moats of the Imperial Palace, the Palace Hotel Tokyo stands as a rare witness to the capital’s ongoing transformation. Rebuilt on a storied site, it has chosen to keep fragments of its past life — shigaraki tiles, the original bar counter, emblematic artworks — and set them within a resolutely modern design. Balconies open onto water and pines, evian SPA TOKYO reimagines urban wellbeing, and the hotel’s ten dining venues sketch a sophisticated, inward-looking portrait of Tokyo as much as they define a place to stay.
Facing the Imperial Palace: a witness to Tokyo’s modernisation
At the strategic address 1-1-1 Marunouchi, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo 100-0005, Palace Hotel Tokyo occupies a site that traces, in miniature, the story of Japan’s capital. On this plot beside the Ōtemon Gate of the Imperial Palace, three successive buildings have stood: the Forestry Office, completed in 1937, then Hotel Teito, opened after the Second World War. Each structure was demolished to make way for the next, mirroring the pace at which the Marunouchi business district was transformed.
In 1959, the concession for Hotel Teito’s land and buildings was sold to the private sector. From that shift emerged Palace Hotel Co. Ltd., a privately held consortium of shareholders formed in 1961 under the guidance of its founder and first president, Masatomo Yoshihara. On 1 October 1961, the first Palace Hotel opened, reflecting a clear ambition: to give Marunouchi a high-calibre hotel addressing both the business world and a discerning local clientele.
Almost half a century later, in 2009, the property closed for three years to be completely demolished and rebuilt. This radical decision did not erase its memory. The new building preserves the shigaraki tiles that once adorned the former hotel’s façade, the ink painting from the Chiyoda suite and the original Royal Bar counter, carefully restored. Today’s Palace Hotel Tokyo combines a contemporary building and luxury services with a deliberate connection to Tokyo’s history. In the city’s upper-tier hotel landscape, alongside addresses such as Aman Tokyo, perched at the summit of the Otemachi tower, it stands apart for its ground-level relationship to the Imperial Palace and Marunouchi, focused on gardens and water rather than a vantage point above the skyline.
Photo: © Palace Hotel Tokyo
Photo: © Palace Hotel Tokyo
Photo: © Palace Hotel Tokyo
Photo: © Palace Hotel Tokyo
Photo: © Palace Hotel Tokyo
Photo: © Palace Hotel Tokyo
Photo: © Palace Hotel Tokyo
Photo: © Palace Hotel Tokyo
Marunouchi and the Imperial Palace: an urban setting shaped by water and gardens
Located in the business district of Marunouchi, in the heart of Chiyoda ward, Palace Hotel Tokyo benefits from an urban setting structured by the Imperial Palace’s moats and gardens. The hotel faces the Ōtemon Gate directly, with the broad vistas of Kokyo Gaien National Garden unfolding in front of it. This particular configuration offers a rare sense of openness in central Tokyo while placing the property in one of the city’s most strategic hubs.
Less than 100 metres away, the Imperial Palace makes its presence felt, with stretches of water, sculpted pines and gravel paths that pace the days of many Tokyo residents. The hotel’s proximity to Ginza and Tokyo Station, highlighted among nearby points of interest, places it within a practical triangle: business, shopping and a major rail hub, including high-speed lines. This position makes Palace Hotel Tokyo especially suitable for travellers who want to combine business appointments, urban exploration and moments of quiet observation.
Here, the relationship is defined by a direct dialogue with gardens and water, unlike other Tokyo luxury hotels anchored in districts with a different character. The hotel naturally appeals to those who are drawn to broad, landscaped perspectives, in a way that echoes, on a Tokyo scale, the role nature plays in certain destination properties in Japan, such as The Ritz-Carlton Nikko, a hotel with the first Ritz-Carlton hot spring. In Marunouchi, this connection to water and greenery is experienced without leaving the city centre, with a horizon line defined by the restrained silhouettes of government buildings and surrounding office towers.
Contemporary rooms and balconies opening onto the Palace moats
With 290 rooms, Palace Hotel Tokyo offers a consciously measured inventory that preserves a hushed atmosphere despite its central location. The rooms are described as “simple while balancing tranquillity and functionality”, a stance that favours contemporary lines and understated ergonomics over any showy display. The result works equally well for business travellers who return regularly to Marunouchi and for design-minded guests who appreciate soft materials and clear, legible layouts.
More than half of the rooms come with a balcony, an especially rare feature in the city centre. It largely defines the experience: the opening to the outside is not just visual but physical, extending the room towards the water or the gardens. Some rooms also offer sitting areas, while the suites stand out for more generous layouts, with genuine living spaces. All are anchored in contemporary comfort, with Wi‑Fi, flat-screen televisions, minibars and kettles/tea makers.
This configuration makes it possible to fully engage with both the Imperial legacy and the business city. Guests can work, unwind or take tea on their balconies while watching the light shift over the moats and tree-lined avenues. From these private outdoor spaces, the contrast between the vertical lines of Marunouchi and the horizontal planes of water becomes tangible. Palace Hotel Tokyo thus completes the city’s high-end hotel landscape, alongside small-scale properties with a strong architectural identity such as The Shinmonzen, a sanctuary conceived by Tadao Ando, but with a clear focus on urban views and daily engagement with the city.
Photo: © Palace Hotel Tokyo
evian SPA TOKYO, indoor pool and club lounge: the art of unwinding in the city centre
On the fifth floor, evian SPA TOKYO is one of the defining features of Palace Hotel Tokyo’s identity. Inspired by the Evian Resort and built around the theme of “health through water”, this spa was the first of the brand to open within a hotel in Japan. That exclusivity gives the property a distinctive appeal for wellness-focused guests keen to combine spa experiences and urban immersion without compromising on location.
The spa sits alongside a fitness centre and an indoor pool whose floor-to-ceiling windows look out over the Imperial Palace Plaza. The facilities thus extend visually into the landscape of moats and gardens, continuing the water theme that underpins the hotel’s relationship with its surroundings. Wellness amenities also include a spa, sauna and massages, creating a coherent set for travellers who like to structure their days around work sessions, treatments and physical training.
For regular guests and longer stays, the hotel also offers a club lounge on the 19th floor. This space emphasises a quieter, more private dimension at the heart of Marunouchi, in a setting more discreet than the main public areas. The building’s verticality is used to create successive layers of retreat from the city: pool and spa elevated above the gardens, a lounge higher up, rooms with balconies. Palace Hotel Tokyo weaves these layers together as responses to the needs of a demanding clientele, from international business travellers and Tokyo connoisseurs to wellness enthusiasts attentive to the quality of their immediate environment.
Fine dining and characterful bars: ten venues under one roof
Palace Hotel Tokyo also stands out for the depth of its culinary offering. The property is home to ten restaurants, bars and lounges, each with its own design and atmosphere. This concentration of venues allows guests to enjoy a complete stay on site, from contemporary dining to specialist Japanese restaurants, without redundancy or a sense that one space blends into another.
Among the flagship addresses, Esterre showcases French cuisine shaped around carefully sourced ingredients and a precise reading of the seasons. Grand Kitchen serves as the all-day dining venue, with opening hours suited to the varied schedules of an international clientele. Japanese dining is represented in particular by Wadatkura for traditional cuisine, Tatsumi for tempura and Hokotsu for teppanyaki, while a Chinese restaurant, 琥珀宮, rounds out the Asian spectrum.
This internal network of venues, complemented by the hotel’s bars, echoes the spirit of comprehensive hospitality that defines major urban properties. The original Royal Bar counter, preserved and restored during the hotel’s reconstruction, embodies this continuity of character between the former and the current Palace Hotel Tokyo. Here, Marunouchi’s business community crosses paths with guests drawn by the gastronomic offering, in an atmosphere that embraces both tradition and an international outlook. The central role given to dining reinforces the hotel’s status as a destination in its own right: a place to stay not just for its location, but as a gastronomic stop on any Tokyo itinerary.
International accolades and sustainable commitment: a forward-looking take on luxury
The international recognition earned by Palace Hotel Tokyo underscores the consistency of its positioning at the intersection of Tokyo heritage and contemporary luxury. The property has featured in Travel Top 50 (Monocle) 2012–2013 and in Travel + Leisure’s book World's Greatest Hotels (2013). It also received the “Best Hotel with 100 Rooms or More” award at the 2013 Travel + Leisure Design Awards, highlighting the quality of its architecture and interiors.
The hotel has also collected a Forbes Travel Guide Five-Star Award and a strong presence in Condé Nast Traveler rankings, including a Readers’ Choice Award in 2015 and a place on the 2013 Hot List. These accolades, sustained over time, confirm the property as a key player on Tokyo’s hotel scene, aligning service standards, spatial design and a clear identity centred on its relationship with the Imperial Palace.
More recently, Palace Hotel Tokyo appeared in the Travel + Leisure World's Best Awards 2026 in the Best Hotel in Tokyo category and was awarded 3 Keys in the 2026 Michelin hotel selection. Its move towards a more responsible vision of luxury is also reflected in a sustainability certification noted by certain platforms, where the hotel is additionally ranked among Luxury Hotels in Tokyo. Combined with the exclusivity of evian SPA TOKYO and the rarity of balconies in the city centre, this approach firmly anchors Palace Hotel Tokyo in a contemporary trajectory, attuned to an international clientele that values both the intrinsic quality of the experience and the way a property engages with its urban and social environment.
Explore the surroundings
Booking Palace Hotel Tokyo: an address for Marunouchi aesthetes
Overlooking the moats and gardens of the Imperial Palace, Palace Hotel Tokyo speaks to a specific audience: business travellers wishing to work in Marunouchi in a calm setting, aesthetes attentive to how a hotel engages with a historic landscape, and wellness enthusiasts drawn to the exclusivity of evian SPA TOKYO. The 290 contemporary rooms, the unusually high number of balconies and the perspectives over the Imperial Palace Plaza form a coherent whole in which every detail reinforces the connection between Tokyo’s heritage and present-day luxury.
The ten restaurants, bars and lounges extend this positioning, making the property a place to stay and a gastronomic meeting point, whether for the French cuisine at Esterre, the all-day dining at Grand Kitchen or the different expressions of Japanese cooking. International distinctions and recognition from major travel guides confirm the validity of this approach, without distracting the hotel from its core anchor: its face-to-face position with the Ōtemon Gate and the green spaces of the Imperial Palace.
Keen to explore Tokyo from Marunouchi’s privileged vantage point, between Imperial gardens, contemporary city life and urban wellness? Palace Hotel Tokyo provides an especially suitable base for a stay oriented both towards efficiency (with Tokyo Station, Ginza and the business district close by) and towards unwinding (spa, indoor pool, club lounge). Readers of V&V will find here a well-resolved address, capable of shaping a journey around the close relationship between city, water and landscape.
Palace Hotel Tokyo
1-1-1 Marunouchi, Chiyoda-ku
Tokyo 100-0005 – Japan
Price: from €874 a night (price as of October 2026)
Book via www.palacehoteltokyo.com or through leading international booking platforms.
