Better to stay in Shinjuku or Gotanda?

Hi,
I'm traveling to Japan in June and still confused about whether it's better to stay in Shinjuku or Gotanda area. In terms of access, which station is better? And also I'm going with my family and will be carrying quite a lot of luggage, maybe around 3-4 large suitcases. Which station do you think will be better?

In Shinjuku I'm going to stay either in WPU hotel or Hotel Mystays Nishi Shinjuku, while in Gotanda in Tokyu stay Gotanda.

Thank you

From JR shinjuku to gotanda is 180 yen, 7 km
Both located in Tokyo.I think,either one is Ok

Actually, Shinjuku and Gotanda are two very different neighborhoods as far as tourism is concerned.

Shinjuku is surrounded by tourism. You can walk to department stores where you can buy anything, and a lot of establishments in walking distance would be ready for foreign tourists. Shinjuku is also known as the "sleepless quarter".

Meanwhile, Gotanda is designed much more for locals. You can see local life from luxurious to down-to-earth all in your hotel's neighborhood. You may find less bilingual guidance there, but it's not that the area is unfriendly.

I wonder why you chose these two neighborhoods over lots of other places. Someone may be able to give you a better answer depending on your reasons.

The OP selected Nishi-Shinjuku which is not close to the main Shinjuku station and between the two, while the neighbourhoods are very different, actually Gotanda would be the better pick if travelling with several large cases.
I have stayed at the Tokyu Stay Gotanda recently - very close to the train station and some good spots locally for restaurants and not far from the rest of central Tokyo. I would pick that over Nishi-Shinjuku.

I would have said Shinjuku right away for the general location (Shinjuku is generally preferred by tourists, and better connection for certain destinations), but looking at the individual hotels, each has their own characters. Just highlights from local user feedback.

- Hotel My Stays Nishi-SHinjuku:
Located next to a graveyard, so itfs rather quiet but not the best of all views. Breakfast seems to be not so good. About 15-minute walk from the station.

- WPU:
About 10 minutes walk from the station. Breakfast gets good reviews. Noisy if you get the room facing the street corner. Good staff (English-speakers too).

To get to either one of them, prepare yourself for the chaos as you leave the station (Shinjuku station is huge; you need to leave from the right exit.)


- Gotanda is not really a place that would have come to mind first, but come to think of it, it is close to Shinagawa. And this hotel seems to be close to the station, convenient in terms of immediate access to a convenience store and a gfamily restaurant.h

Please check the map and see what feels best for you.

I stayed at that MyStays years ago when it was called Nishi Shinjuku Hotel, and I stayed at that Tokyu Stay in Gotanda a few years ago. I would pick the Gotanda hotel for sure (I donft know anything about the other Shinjuku Hotel you named). Besides considering the station and neighborhood itself, you should look at the hotel room sizes and layouts. I remember the Nishi Shinjuku twin room as being very small. The Tokyu Stay was much more comfortable in terms of room size (it might have had the same square footage, I canft remember, but the layout was better) and there was a microwave and washing machine in the room. And it was very close to the train station, whereas the Shinjuku hotel was not.

I think that many Japan tourists would find Gotanda too gtameh compared to Shinjuku, but for a family it might be a better choice. You can get to Shinjuku and many other places quite quickly by commuter train. Of course, there are times of day when you probably donft want to get on a commuter train. So if you want to spend a lot of time in Shinjuku for some reason, itfs probably a better place to stay. Just watch the room sizesc

I enjoyed staying in Shinjuku in my younger days. It wasnft as expensive then, and I also didnft mind smaller hotel rooms then (I have gotten a bit spoiled over the years and now I like to at least have enough room to open my suitcase without putting it on the bed). I would recommend it for young people (or young-at-heart people, I guess) who donft care about getting good value for their accommodations spending, especially if they like to stay up late at night and go out drinking. (There are plenty of places to do that in Gotanda, but a lot more exist in Shinjuku, and Gotanda simply lacks the gelectricityh of Shinjuku.)

Not that I strongly support Nishi-Shinjuku, but graveyard views aren't bad at all. Sure enough, a lot of Japanese people tend to avoid them when looking for housing, but that's because they believe that the smell of incense would be annoying or simply find the idea spooky.

In fact, I have a (Japanese) friend whose home overlooks a graveyard, and it's the best view from any housing I've ever been to. Lots of greenery, and no incense. June is not a big-time grave-visiting season, anyway, so I don't think you have to avoid it just because of the graves. Here is the gallery from the official website of the graveyard in issue:
https://joenji.jp/grave/

But Shinjuku is a really vast entertainment hustle-and-bustle area, so while it's walking distance from everywhere, the walk would always be long.

Meanwhile, speaking of views, across the station from Tokyu Stay Gotanda is the river of Meguro-gawa where you can enjoy a nice quiet walk along sophisticated cafes.

I wouldnft count on getting a ggraveyard-viewh room at the MyStays in Nishi Shinjuku, although that is quite a concept. (Maybe they could advertise, and charge more for those rooms...) The larger frontage of the hotel faces a city park. At the time I stayed there, it was partially occupied by a homeless encampment. But that was years ago. I have to say, it was a very clean and orderly homeless encampment and I wouldnft worry about staying in a hotel next to it. But I expect it probably isnft there anymore.

I donft remember there being enough space even on the floor to readily accommodate four suitcases at Nishi Shinjuku Hotel. I think it was one of those hotels that had a fairly spacious bathroom, but at the expense of space in the sleeping area. Total square meters of a room is not the only factor in how much space you have, since they include the bathroom in the dimensions. In recent years the trend in hotel room design is to put the toilet in a separate compartment, and to have a separate wash-up area next to the tub. If you incorporate those elements plus a separate sink area into a small room design, there is very little space left for a bed, let alone a table and a chair or two. I have noticed that a lot of rooms lately donft even have a chairc Where are you supposed to put your pants at night?

Fortunately if you do enough research you can usually get pictures and/or floor diagrams of hotel rooms these days, along with bed size and room size. When I book a room with one bed (e.g., a queen) for double occupancy I always make sure they havenft jammed the bed against the wall, which is an annoyingly common room arrangement.

I would say Shinjuku right away too.
It is one of the biggest entertainment hubs in Tokyo, and this will not disappoint you.

Have a good time in Tokyo.