San Francisco Hotels

The Palace is both a nice hotel and has personality, my parents like to stay there. It is also very centrally located depending on your itinerary. There are basically no hotels in Berkeley. If you want something cheap and vaguely convenient, stay in Emeryville or downtown Oakland. Or Air BnB in SF, you will definitely get more bang for your buck.

Berkeley also has:
http://berkeleycityclub.com/hotel/

HotelTonight (mentioned above) has good options usually.

Hotel Nikko if it's not to pricey: Japanese experience all around.

The bar at the Loews (formerly Mandarin Oritental).

I was at a conference in SF in 2006 or 2007 and my coworker stayed at the Nikko and it was really nice from what I saw, I'm guessing they kept to about the same level of service. I stayed at the Metropolis on that trip (again, a decade ago so idk what it's like now) and somehow ended up on the top floor. I didn't realize it was the top floor and thought it was weird it had a balcony door, but it was the rooftop! First time in SF and it was a pretty great view down Market Street, and on the corner of the neighborhood bordering the Tenderloin. Looks like that corner's firmly into gentrified zone now, though. It was the only trip where I failed to check out what seemed like a decent lobby restaurant/bar and I regret it.

A few years ago I was at the Clift and it was pretty decent, the rooms had been remodeled but not luxe, really nice lobby bar that seemed a little too classy and full of douches

All close to or bordering union square, if that's where you really want to end up. idk, it's ok

at this point the only things that SF excels at over Berkeley/Oakland/Alameda are women's clothing, art museums, and surfing

sarahell, what else do I want in life? really

I stayed a the clift back in the heyday of priceline bidding - awesome at $95/night. (I'm guessing it was 2009 so I expect things have changed)

I can't remember when it turned into Schrager (sp?) hotel but maybe around that time. It got all aspirational and shit, with a $14 manhattan lobby bar

2000-2001 the Clift got the remodel. I worked there periodically prior to the remodel.

but tonga

― kurt schwitterz, Tuesday, July 25, 2017 4:16 PM (yesterday)

someone wrote an article for the SFMoMA blog recently (I think) about the Tonga Room is racist/colonialist and white ppl should not participate in this by going to Tonga Room and other tiki bars. The writer is moving to NYC soon so ... idk?

Think I'll go there on principle so

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

dmac i stayed in an awesome airbnb in the mission district a couple of years ago, why not take advantage of ~the sharing economy~

(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