California (Bay Area, Northern) hotel recommendation in San Francisco

dingadingdang

dingadingdang

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First of all, apologies if this is the wrong place to post this message!

I'm attending a meeting in San Francisco in the last week of August and I'm planning on staying a few extra days to look around and take some photos (it's kind of my first trip to the US).

My hotel is close to the airport (Burlingame?) and I wanted to move somewhere closer to the city centre. Can anyone recommend a hotel close to the centre?

How about good places to take photographs, any particularly good places?

If anyone's around on the 31st aug - 1st sep and fancies meeting for a beer or two, or to take photos let me know!

Thanks

Craig
 
I think your budget is the most important consideration. How much do you want to spend per night?

I lived in Kunming for about 2 years and Beijing for 3 years back between 1996-2001. Now live near north Berkeley and work in downtown San Francisco (lived here before China too) with my wife from Dong Bei and 6 year old son. Would love to hook up for a beer, some chat, and maybe some walk around and shoot.
 
contact me offline for hotel rec.

Born/raised in S.F. lived in Berkeley and Monterey. I know the hood.

PS: Avoid Burlingame as much as possible - nothing there.
 
35mmdelux said:
contact me offline for hotel rec.

Born/raised in S.F. lived in Berkeley and Monterey. I know the hood.

PS: Avoid Burlingame as much as possible - nothing there.
Click to expand...

whoa! i know a lot of folks that would take exception to that!! 🙂 🙂

I'm a California native and have lived most of my life in the Bay Area, but I'm the worst person to ask about hotels (because I've never stayed in a SF hotel). But, Rich is right. It depends on your budget. The cost drops once you leave the city limits, and Burlingame is about 10 - 15 miles south of the city. Most likely, you'll step up in price to get downtown accommodations equal to or slightly less than what you're probably going to get in Burlingame, which is where most of the big chain "airport hotels" are located. I'm guessing you're in one of those (there's a "hotel row" section just south of the airport).

If you decide not to upgrade it's easy to get into the city from Bulingame, because you would be pretty close to public transportation (the last BART station and a train stop are in Millbrae, which is the next city north of Burlingame) and most of the chain hotels in Burlingame also have hotels in SF, so there's probably a shuttle between the two locations. If you stay in Burlingame, look me up. I'm close by. There are also several other RFFers on the Peninsula, too.

🙂
 
RayPA said:
whoa! i know a lot of folks that would take exception to that!! 🙂
Click to expand...

Yep.

Burlingame is not so bad because you can reach a lot of places easily,
by car or Bart. By car 20' to SF, 20' to Palo Alto, 30' to Half Moon Bay (Pacific,
at the right time of day), etc.

Otherwise like Rich said, it totally depends on your budget, how and what
you want to eat, etc.

I for one like the Nikko in SF. There are some great small hotels in Palo
Alto, too.

Roland.
 
My girlfriend and I are going to be in SF during that time. We're staying near fremont though at one of her relatives house.

Dunno what our schedule will be like but we might be up for hanging out with some fellow RFFers.

note: she is an SLR user. play nice. hehe
 
I, too, am an SF native, grew up in Bay Area, but now live in Sacramento, so I do stay in hotels in SF when on business or pleasure. I agree w/ Paul and Ray above. Here are some recommendations (all places where I have stayed recently), each of which is located in or near photogenic areas; room rates between $150 and $250/night (which is reasonable for SF):

Hotel Griffon, Steuart St, near Ferry Bldg. (tiny rooms, but great location).

Hotel California (yep), on Geary, about 3 blocks up from Union Square and almost across the street from the American Conservatory Theater. Recently renovated older hotel. Charming rooms.

Pickwick Hotel, corner of Mission & 6th, close to SF MOMA and the South of Market Area generally. Another older hotel w/ decent rooms.

And, if your tastes lean toward national chains, I can recommend the Marriott Courtyard on 2nd St. near Folsom. Nice rooms, big hotel, not much character, but v. close to ATT Park, so you might have a shot at catching a Barry Bonds home run ball. Photo ops in ATT Park during Giants games are excellent.

There have been some other threads recently about places to shoot in SF.

Have fun!
 
thanks for the tips guys I'll start taking a look at these and get something booked.

Great, sounds like I might get to meet some of you! I'll probably post back here or contact people via PM once I've got my schedule sorted out

thanks

Craig!

p.s. if anyone else has any tips / recommendations please let me know!
 
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