One of the highlights of my Tokyo visit this year was staying at the Grand Hyatt. Service in Japan on the whole is professional and a treat as compared to the United States, but the staff at the Grand Hyatt are extraordinary — from the bell men to the concierge and housekeeping staff, everyone was so pleasant and eager to help, and the service made our stay very comfortable. The modern and minimalist décor of the hotel and rooms are quite standard of Hyatt hotels, but the design of the bathrooms is especially unique, for Japanese designers excel in maximizing limited spaces. The bathrooms have sliding pocket doors that allow the bathroom, when not in use, to be open to the rest of the space.

The Grand Hyatt Tokyo is part of Roppongi Hills, a massive urban redevelopment project opened in 2003 that includes restaurants, shops, a theater, office towers, the Mori Art Museum, residential complexes and the hotel. Suffice it to say, if you didn’t want to leave Roppongi Hills, you certainly wouldn’t have to. (But this is Tokyo we’re talking about, and there is so much to see and experience.) The hotel has 387 guest rooms and 10 restaurants and bars. For breakfast, I loved trying the different Japanese breads and pastries. During my stay, the Fiorentina Pastry Boutique was featuring a number of curry breads, experimenting with different pastries and fillings. There is also a L’Atelier de Joel Robuchon in the shopping complex connected to the hotel, and while it has a wider variety of pastries, after three days of taste tests, we decided that we enjoyed Fiorentina’s pastries better, especially the standard curry bread.

Grand Hyatt Tokyo has more than a great location; its subtle details put me at ease. And it’s one of the few hotels that I leave already looking forward to my next stay.