San Francisco’s hotels run the gamut from head-of-state luxury to modest motels and worse, but we won’t go there, and you shouldn’t, either. The City’s premier hotels are almost all in the downtown area including Nob Hill, Union Square, and the Financial District/Embarcadero. Motels along the main corridors in and out of town, and pleasant bed-and-breakfasts in attractive, residential neighborhoods also exist. As a tourist destination with limited space, San Francisco hotels can charge premium prices, and do, especially downtown and on Nob Hill.
Union Square
The Westin St. Francis, with its trademark Beefeaters out front, is not quite the premier hotel it used to be, but it’s still the best known and the most central. The nearby Pan Pacific ratchets up the cachet a notch or two. Campton Place offers understated elegance. At the Dragon Gate of Chinatown, the postmodern Triton (decorated floor-by- floor by the city’s top designers) is stylish and not unreasonably priced. Further down towards the Tenderloin, the Hilton hosts innumerable conventions, and the Nikko is a popular choice with businessmen. Guests at these hotels should travel outside the neighborhood but not in it. On Market Street, the Garden Court of the capacious Sheraton Palace is an old San Francisco tradition.
Financial District & The Embarcadero
The typewriter-shaped Hyatt Regency, with its huge atrium lobby, is conveniently located for tourists and businessmen both, where the Embarcadero meets Market Street. The Hotel Griffon is stylish, featuring two quite good restaurants, and a very cool location on the Bay at the Embarcadero. In the heart of the Financial District, the luxurious Mandarin Oriental offers impeccable service and facilities with an unostentatious Asian theme. The antiques in the lobby and meeting rooms are worth a mint.
Nob Hill
The pinnacle (literally and figuratively) of luxury. It’s all impeccable service and cushy comfort atop Nob Hill’s Olympian Heights. You will feel like a king in the Fairmont, the Mark Hopkins, the Huntington, The Renaissance Stanford Court Hotel, or the newer-but- looks-like-it’s-been-there-forever Ritz Carlton. Room rates? If you have to ask, darling…
SoMa
The Marriott is flashy, new, and huge. It’s located right around the corner from the Moscone Center, making it a perfect location for conventioneers. Otherwise, for the most part, inexpensive student and international are the name of the game here.
Chinatown
The Holiday Inn here is quite comfortable, putting you in the heart of Chinatown and a very short walk from North Beach.
North Beach & Fisherman’s Wharf
Bed and breakfasts are the way to go in crowded, urban North Beach. The cozy Washington Square Inn is one of the city’s most famous bed and breakfasts. Have a comfortably beatnik experience by staying at the fun and stylish Hotel Boheme. The light fixtures here are papered with Ginsberg poetry. Down Columbus Avenue in North Beach, you’ll find the standard array of chain hotels including the Ramada Limited, the Sheraton at Fisherman’s Wharf, and Howard Johnson’s, catering to the heavy tourist trade.
Cow Hollow & The Marina
Lombard Street is the closest thing you’ll find to a strip in the northern half of the city. Heck, it IS a strip, and consequently it’s a good place to look for motels like the Bel Aire Travelodge. Hard to go wrong here. San Francisco rents assure that you probably won’t end up in a fleabag. More motels and motel-like hotels can be found up Van Ness Avenue. You might want to consider something with several floors, though these streets have a lot of automobile traffic throughout the day. The Marina and Cow Hollow also feature some of The City’s better bed and breakfasts. Sherman House, Union Street Inn, and the slightly off-beat Art Center Bed & Breakfast (near the Fort Mason Center) are all good bets.
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