The Roavi Blog
Stories from people who live there.
Travel tips, city guides, and local insights from the Roavi team.
1173 articles
Travel Guides · Tokyo
Suica Card for Tourists: Mobile Suica on iPhone, the Android Problem, Welcome Suica and Pasmo, How to Top Up and Where It Works
Suica is the tap card that runs Tokyo: trains, buses, convenience stores, vending machines, lockers. How to get one as a visitor (Mobile Suica in Apple Wallet is the easy route, Android is the complication), the Welcome Suica and Pasmo Passport physical cards, how to top up with a foreign card, what it does and doesn't cover, and what to do with the balance when you leave.
Oscar Garcia··2 min read
Travel Guides · Tokyo
Is the JR Pass Worth It in 2026? The Honest Maths, the Trips Where It Pays, the Nozomi Rule and the Cheaper Alternatives
The Japan Rail Pass used to be an automatic buy; since its big price rise it pays off only on specific itineraries. How to do the maths in two minutes, the routes where it still wins (Tokyo–Kyoto–Hiroshima and back, Tohoku, Hokkaido), the ones where it loses (Tokyo only, Tokyo–Kyoto–Osaka), the Nozomi supplement, and the regional passes and point-to-point tickets that beat it.
Oscar Garcia··2 min read
Travel Guides · Tokyo
Solo Travel in Tokyo: The Best Solo City on Earth, Where to Stay, Eating Alone, Safety for Solo Women, Meetups and How to Meet People
Tokyo is the best city in the world to travel alone: safe at 2am, built for solo diners, full of counters and single seats, and completely indifferent to a person by themselves. Where to stay solo, how eating alone works (and is celebrated), solo female safety honestly, a solo itinerary, the meetups and bars where people talk, and how to meet Tokyoites, which is the one hard part.
Oscar Garcia··2 min read
Travel Guides · Tokyo
Tokyo Neighbourhoods Explained: What Each One Is Known For, Which to Stay In, Which to Explore, and the NYC Comparison
Tokyo is a hundred villages joined by trains, and the guidebook names (Shinjuku, Shibuya, Asakusa) are the five percent tourists see. Every district that matters, in one line each: what it's known for, who goes, whether to stay there or just visit, and the New York comparison that helps. Then the ones nobody sends you to: Yanaka, Kichijoji, Shimokitazawa, Koenji, Kagurazaka, Kuramae, Daikanyama, Nakameguro.
Oscar Garcia··3 min read
Travel Guides · Tokyo
How to Hire a Local Guide in Tokyo: Licensed Guides, Private Guides by Car, What They Cost, and When a Local Friend Is the Better Answer
Hiring a guide in Tokyo means one of three things: a National Government Licensed Guide Interpreter for history and language, a private guide with a car for a day built around you (Fuji, Nikko, a family), or a Tokyoite who isn't a guide at all, paid by the hour to spend time with you in their city. What each is, how each is priced, the licence situation since the rules relaxed, and which your trip actually needs.
Oscar Garcia··3 min read
Travel Guides · Tokyo
Onsen and Sento with Tattoos in Tokyo: The Rules, Why They Exist, Private Baths, Cover Stickers and How to Find a Tattoo-Friendly Bath
Most Japanese onsen and many sento still refuse visible tattoos, for reasons that have nothing to do with you. What the rules actually are, where they're relaxing, the four ways around them (cover stickers, private kashikiri baths, tattoo-friendly sento, hotel baths), how to find a bath in Tokyo that welcomes you, Hakone options, and bath etiquette once you're in.
Oscar Garcia··2 min read
Travel Guides · Tokyo
Cash or Card in Tokyo: Where Cards Work Now, Where You Still Need Yen, ATMs That Take Foreign Cards and How Much Cash to Carry
Tokyo went from cash-only to mostly cashless in a few years, and the guides haven't caught up. Where cards and phone payments work now (almost everywhere big), where you still need yen (small restaurants, shrines, markets, some bars, taxis sometimes), which ATMs take foreign cards, how a Suica covers the gap, and how much cash to carry a day.
Oscar Garcia··2 min read
Travel Guides · Tokyo
First Time in Tokyo: Where to Stay, How Many Days, the Must-Sees and Must-Dos, What to Set Up Before You Land and the Mistakes Everyone Makes
Your first Tokyo trip, answered in the order people ask: where to stay (and which line matters more than which district), how many days, what to see and what to skip, the five things to set up before you land, the etiquette that actually matters, the mistakes every first-timer makes, and how to meet one person who lives here.
Oscar Garcia··2 min read
Travel Guides · Tokyo
Things to Do in Tokyo for Young Adults: Fun, Unique and Cheap, Day and Night, With Friends or Alone, and How to Meet People Your Age
Tokyo in your twenties: the fun, unique and cheap things that aren't a temple at 9am. Go-karting through Shibuya, a baseball game with beer girls, Golden Gai, karaoke until the first train, teamLab, vintage in Shimokitazawa, a sumo morning, a Mario Kart arcade, a sento, a live house in Koenji, Harajuku's crepes, and how to meet travellers and young Tokyoites.
Oscar Garcia··2 min read
Travel Guides · Punta Cana
Punta Cana in January: Weather, Sea, Seaweed, Prices and What's Happening
January is Punta Cana at its best and busiest: dry, breezy, high twenties, clear water and almost no seaweed. What the weather is really like by week, the price drop after New Year, the Altagracia pilgrimage on the 21st, the start of whale season in Samaná, and how to spend one evening off the resort.
Oscar Garcia··2 min read
Travel Guides · Punta Cana
Punta Cana in February: Weather, Sea, Seaweed, Carnival Weekends and Prices
February is the driest month in Punta Cana and one of the two best: sunny, breezy, high twenties, clear water, no seaweed to speak of. It's also Carnival month across the Dominican Republic, with Independence Day on the 27th. Weather by week, prices, Presidents' Day and Valentine's crowds, what's on and what to pack.
Oscar Garcia··2 min read
Travel Guides · Punta Cana
Punta Cana in March: Weather, Spring Break Weeks, Seaweed, Prices and What to Do
March in Punta Cana is dry, sunny and a degree warmer than February, with the clearest water of the year still holding. It's also spring break, which changes some resorts completely for three or four weeks. Weather, the spring break calendar and how to avoid or join it, seaweed, the end of whale season, Semana Santa when it falls in March, and prices.
Oscar Garcia··2 min read