San Francisco Hotels

http://www.thepowellhotel.com/

http://www.themosser.com/

http://www.grantplaza.com/

What's up with Elements SF? It's like the most gentrified-looking thing on Mission St. I've always steered away from it since it looks so rediculously out of place.

dont do this

If you're rich, try one of those Nob Hill hotels.

Otherwise, if you're not feeling spendy go to the Cathedral Hill on Van Ness - http://www.cathedralhillhotel.com/

Any updates? Looking for good deals for a single traveller in January - basic, clean and in an area good to walk to/from for general sightseeing purposes. B&Bs fine. Hostels fine if they do private rooms.

Still stand by Cathedral Hill (link upthread). I was there last year and it's still my go-to place.

The website says it closed in October!

Oh no!

That's a bummer, I really liked that place.

In February I stayed at the Hotel Carlton - about a mile west of Union Square, kind of on the edge of the Tenderloin. I liked it, not too many amenities but cheap and clean, walkable to transport and Union Square, a couple of good dive bars in the area. Walk south a couple of blocks and the area gets pretty crappy late at night.

In june I stayed at the Hotel Abri, which had just opened from a remodel. Very nice, great staff, nice rooms (but tiny, maybe 2/3 the room at the Carlton). I got a good deal through Priceline.. It's right in the middle of Union Square, so a nicer surrounding area than the Carlton, but it wasn't as good for transportation (the nearest lines were the streetcars that were packed the entire weekend), and I liked the bars and cheap pizza near the Carlton (said pizza place is where a dude got stabbed to death this week, FWIW).

I'm going to stay at the Hotel Vertigo next time, I think. It's the actual hotel from Vertigo!

I paid $80-90 a night for the above two.

It's not really walkable to the sights, but the Hotel Kabuki (in Japantown) looked like a good option as well.

San Francisco is tiny and the Muni is good, so every hotel has good access to the sights, really.

Thanks Milo - all those look great, though could only see a good rate on Vertigo - will fish around more though for the other two, I'm sure it's possible in January.

Mithila looking like a good deal as well at around 55 a night.

I'd prob not stay in japantown if I weren't coming w/ a car

If it matters at all, the free wi-fi at the Carlton was terrible, at the Abri it was good (and there are two computers in the lobby + a printer).

Priceline has the Carlton at ~$83/night.

yeah just found that! And the Vertigo at around 64, though I think that's the 'original' rooms...

Thanks iatee re Japantown. No car, and I don't know SF at all.

Any thoughts on the Good Hotel? Some reviewers think SOMA is sketchy. Some don't.

I guess it depends on what you consider sketchy. there will def be plenty of homeless people on the streets around the area of your hotel.

I mean I guess esp at night there's no denying that the area is gonna feel pretty sketchy to a tourist.

re SOMA:

6th Street between Market and Mission is skid row. Any hotel within a 1-2 block radius I'd define as "sketchy" if you're not familiar with street cretin/urchin-ry.

Got it. If I knew the city it would be ok, but maybe not the best idea for intro to SF as a single female.

haha yeah probably not

stayed at the grant plaza a few weeks ago. great service, great location. had some in-laws in tow who didn't fully appreciate the uh rustic charms but def. recommend to average ilxor (they're renovating as we speak, to hear them tell it)

looking at tripadvisor maps, Grosvenor Suites and Mosser Hotel appear to be the better locations of the top 10.

NB: I've never been to or heard of these hotels!

Yeah Mosser and Grant both seem good options - also good deal on Andrew's, mentioned upthread, if it has availability (its website says it does, tripadvisor says it doesn't)

yeah the grant plaza is a pretty ideal tourist location

but really, anything north of market street that isn't the tenderloin is gonna be safe and really walkable, so I wouldn't overpay for a good location.

I'm actually heading there from a conference in San Diego (planning 1 day/night in SD after the conf). I have a week free. Should I (using buses):

a) stop in LA on the way up for one night (NB no car but hear public transport not as impossible as it seems)
b) spend all 5 nights in SF
c) spend 1 or more nights away from SF but nearby (NB lone traveller and get bored easily if things are too bucolic)
d) stay longer in SD

I know, I've gone off-topic.

iatee, great location advice summary - thanks.

b maybe c

one day in LA w/ no car and not knowing what you're doing isn't gonna be so great.

if c there's lots of options. berkeley/oakland day maybe.

marin is awesome but better with a car. napa or sonoma'd be fun if you're into wine. south bay sucks avoid it.

I'd really only consider 6th to be sketchy. I mean I guess there are surrounding areas (mainly market past 6th) would be kind of sketchy but on the whole SOMA is less sketchy than the tenderloin.

aforementioned hotel is 7th and mission, I think that's plenty sketch at night

Only thing about taking one night elsewhere is how much time you're going to lose checking into/out of hotels and travelling.

There's plenty to do and see in SF to fill up five days if you take things easy, IMO.

^^^^ why an east bay day is probably the best option for a car-less tourist, cause you can just keep your sf hotel and take BART across the bay for a day. but still, def more than enough to do in sf.

(the tonga room is rad, you should def go and enjoy yr white privilege)

don't inflict deems on some poor defenceless hipster

xpost

i never saw the owners!

i did enjoy perusing the large collection of terrifying-looking folding knives i found in their kitchen tho

i always hear it's impossible to visit sf without a car, which puts me off.

― Bein' Sean Bean (LocalGarda), Wednesday, 26 July 2017 10:14 PM (twenty-five minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

That is crazy talk. It would be madness to visit SF with a car. Transit is OK and Uber fills in the gaps.

"i always hear it's impossible to visit sf without a car, which puts me off."

yeah, this is wrong; there's no parking anyway. it's not necessarily worse than NYC but it's almost on par. although if you want to go to marin or napa or something, then yes.

ah cool, i dunno if people are conflating it with other american cities - nyc is fine without a car, tho i'd say nyc is a particularly good city for walking.

I'll check out air BnB but I'd be looking for full-place only and wasn't sure if a two night stay would be worth it

Driving on from there to Seattle, months away yet, may ilx thread if ppl feel like not arguing with me in person

my sf airbnb was for three nights and we had the run of the whole three-bedroom place, with decent-sized back garden, and we never saw the owners - all for less than a dece sf hotel, just sayin'

I think the car necessity thing is not for SF itself but the fact there are a lot of touristy things to do up the coast and a lot of people make it a combined trip. I've been a couple times, never needed a car.

Will digest the suggestions for locale upthread where I can separate them from local rivalry postings, which I enjoyed anyways

sf is a good walking city because it's quite small, you can conceivably walk from any point a to point b and the weather is weird but never unbearable. if you're with someone who doesn't like walking as much as you do, sf is not always the best walking city. the hills are no joke.

lyft/uber really changed things for sf, since it's a place where people don't want to rely on cars but the public transit system was never really capable of picking up the slack. I was just in town a month ago for the first time in years and it seemed like half the cars on the street were ride-service. guiding a group of tourist friends around the city felt so easy compared to how things were 10 years ago.

I was just in town a month ago for the first time in years and it seemed like half the cars on the street were ride-service

hate this fucking shit so much

you don't need a car for this city, the only reason I have one is cuz kids/grocery shopping

also tonga room is rad everyone should go there

yeah you don't need or want a car in SF
The only time I stayed in a hotel in SF it was a cheapy one right near Union Sq - wouldn't particularly recommend but it's a convenient location. My friend stayed right out in Sunset and it was such a pita to get anywhere she moved so don't do that.
Don't stay in Emeryville if you can help it (lived there for a while). If you're downtown you can get to Mission etc really easily.

(Downtown SF I mean)

there is literally no reason to stay in the Sunset, anywhere past like 19th st is just rows of houses

the sunset and the richmond districts should be bombed and rebuilt, they are such a tragic use of space

eh there's cool stuff in the Richmond imo I like those weird old Russian delis and shit

they can reopen their deli at the bottom of a 10 story building

there's that iatee content I log on for

Iatee yet to be proven not otm iirc

oh if you mean it's a waste from an infrastructure/building sort of POV yeah no question

I didn't actually want to kill all the people there

important distinction

we should probably check out who's living there before we make a decision in either direction

there is literally no reason to stay in the Sunset, anywhere past like 19th st is just rows of houses

― Οὖτις, Wednesday, July 26, 2017 9:20 AM (two hours ago)

unless you want to ... go to the beach? see the ocean? It's very pretty.

Driving and parking in SF isn't that bad, I do it on the regular. Cars are awesome!

I was just in town a month ago for the first time in years and it seemed like half the cars on the street were ride-service

hate this fucking shit so much

you don't need a car for this city, the only reason I have one is cuz kids/grocery shopping

Man this is like the ultimate SF sentiment encapsulated.

hahahah! I think all the ubers and lyfts make the traffic worse, and it was better before -- like if you wanted to go somewhere by car, you had to think about whether it was really worth dealing with the parking and traffic. Now, that's someone else's problem, and it's double parked ubers for miles.

^^^

unless you want to ... go to the beach? see the ocean? It's very pretty.

I like Ocean Beach and go there all the time (was just at Land's End last weekend), but that doesn't mean I would recommend living or staying there for a visit

it's like staying in the suburbs, but you don't have to pay bridge toll to get into town! It's kinda pleasant.

also the sun never shines

not true at all

I remember it being one of the hottest days of the year, sun completely blazing in all directions, heading down to the beach and getting off the Muni to freezing damp fog

I really miss SF though

I like the outer sunset and richmond. If i were to ever move to SF (I never will) I wouldn't mind living out there, I like the ocean, the fog, the lack of sunlight, the relative lack of crowdedness. but living in west berkeley near Oakland I'm honestly probably closer to downtown SF than if I lived out there. it takes me 25 minutes to get to work.

yes to what sarah said. it is like living in the suburbs! also the houses are quaint. those are some of the only places in SF that still feel like the SF of 30 years ago.

you except for the fact that the houses still cost 2.5 million dollars.

xp, always best to take a sweater or fleece when traveling around SF. I do think the weather here is great, though, sun or fog. You can walk for hours around the city and not feel uncomfortable. I was in NY last week and it was so hot and humid it was unbearable to be out in the sun for any significant length of time

You can walk for hours around the city and not feel uncomfortable.

except when it's pouring pissing rain

but it never rains in the Bay Area!
They told me the day I arrived in a hurricane

yes, it's 100% why I like the 6 months from mid April to mid October so much more than the other 6 months!

it is DAN

Fun to see in the Westin St. Francis lobby - there are hotel photos Ansel Adams took for hire for the hotel's architects in the 1930s.

that's an incredible hotel

I didn't actually want to kill all the people there

Given that my sis lives in the Inner Sunset, I appreciate the clarification.

Westin St Francis is where that Fatty Arbuckle party with the dead hooker went down. The rooms are small af unless you're $$$$.

Presumably he was

St. Francis also traditionally where GOP presidents stay when in SF (Democrats stay at the Fairmont)

also your police department is better at avoiding get caught having sex with underage women

― sarahell, Tuesday, July 25, 2017 2:18 PM (yesterday)

on the other hand ...
http://www.sfgate.com/news/article/SF-Police-officer-arrested-on-child-pornography-11438413.php

On my visits I've stayed at the Stanyan Park (in the Haight but not necessarily of it - oriented more toward GG Park). And, as a splurge, the Sir Francis Drake (fun bar in the sky).