San Francisco Travel Forum

Hi there,
my partner & I will be flying into San Francisco for 3 nights before we plan to drive to Vegas.
I've read a few pages on the 'travel guides' section & have noticed there are many areas we should avoid (such as Tenderloin, Hunters Point, Mission area etc).

I'd love some help on clean/safe areas to stay, for around $100 US a night?

Also, any suggestions on tours/places to eat/visit would be great!!

Thanks in advance.

I wrote a tip myself about being careful to make sure you know where your hotel is. A number of 'union square' adjacent hotels are actually in the tenderloin.

I'd recommend some of the Joie de Vivre hotels which will get you in that range and are a good combination of value and location with refurbished design. $100 doesn't buy you much in SF, but these are good options.

There are tons of things to do in SF, but one favorite is to check out the artisanal food mecca that is the Ferry Building...yes touristy, but also fun to check out the food stalls and then pop onto the sausalito ferry for a nice jaunt across

Some examples:

http://www.virtualtourist.com/hotels/North_America/United_States_of_America/California/San_Francisco-755471/Hotels_and_Accommodations-San_Francisco-Best_Western_Americania-BR-1.html

http://www.virtualtourist.com/hotels/North_America/United_States_of_America/California/San_Francisco-755471/Hotels_and_Accommodations-San_Francisco-Hotel_Del_Sol-BR-1.html

more on jdvhotels.com

Wow, thankyou for your quick reply!
I'll do some research :)

As G says, SF room rates tend to be high. You can often find good deals on hotels.com.

I found a good deal on hotels.com for the Chancellor Hotel on Union Square, but it doesn't have air con apparently. What is Summer like in San Francisco? We'll be there in July, so i'm a little worried..

San Francisco, the city by the Bay, has in July an average of 71F (21.6C) for the high and 54F (12C)for the low, so A/C should not be a big worry. If you get warm just down a cold Boag to cool off. I like the Lombard Street Motel Row for good prices and easy access to the Golden Gate Bridge and Fisherman's Wharf. The bus runs on Lombard and day passes help. The cable car has a turnaround point at Fisherman's Wharf and goes up the hills and down to Chinatown and downtown Union Square. As for food, it's hard to find a bad meal in San Francisco. I like the North Beach, Little Italy area for many Italian restaurants with Figaro Ristorante my favorite for Gnocchi. A full meal here is about $45 per person. Many of the finer Union Square restaurants are located in Hotels. Pure gourmet at a Prix Fixe of $100 per person and a meal memory is Michael Mina at the Westin St. Francis hotel. Over at Fisherman's Wharf you can get a crab cocktail for $5 or a great meal for around $40 at Fisherman's Grotto #9. There are many seafood restaurants to choose from even good clam chowder bowls at Boudin's bakery at the Wharf. Chinatown has many restaurants with dim sum being a draw. I find that the best price and a good selection of dim sum is at You's on Stockton Street, Chinatown. Three nights doesn't give you much time to enjoy San Francisco, so no need to talk about Muir Woods, Sausalito, or the Napa Valley wine country. In close, a few things to do would be a cable car ride, a walk trough Chinatown visiting the Golden Gate fortune cookie company in Ross Alley, a boat out to Alcatraz Island and the Golden Gate Bridge, a ride in a car or taxi down the famous crookedest street in San Francisco, Lombard Street (may not be the most crookedest, but most famous), a ride to the top of Coit Tower, a walk around the Palace of Fine Arts, or a night time view of San Francisco from the Golden Gate Bridge. Enjoy your short stay.

Thanks for all the info!!
I'm a Vegetarian & my partner doesn't really eat seafood,so that aspect doesn't really worry us!!

I'd love to do a tour to wine country & have read another thread on the forum about it.

Summer in San Francisco. Mark Twain famously stated (roughly, and it's repeated ad nauseum):

The coldest winter I ever spent was the summer in San Francisco

It's often foggy and damp. Could be hot and sunny on the off day. Bring some warm clothes and bring some clothes for sunshine. It can be 50 degree or it can be 95, depending on where you are in the city or beyond the Golden Gate bridge.

Be very careful on the "Union Square" hotels. They are often sort of mislabeled. Check a map and stay away from tenderloin areas.

Have fun and on the wine tour thing...keep in mind that Napa is quite crowded and expensive on the weekends. Consider the Alexander Valley or Sonoma.

Hey there, I ended up booking the Chancellor Hotel at 433 Powell Street in Union Square. It has very good reviews on tripadvisor, so I'm hoping the location is safe too!

I'm going to look up Wine tours next :)

Great. Don't forget to come back on VT and upload your photos and share your tips, so you can tell us how it all was ;)

I just went on priceline and was able to get the Holiday Inn Civic Center for $40 a night with fee/taxes it was about $54. The BART from the airport also stops 1/2 block away.

I have never been to SF, but am going with some mates in 4 weeks and 1 day (but hey, who's counting? :p)

We've booked 3 nights in the Cathedral Hill Hotel (www.cathedralhillhotel.com) which you might want to check out, it's costing £20/night each.

As far as I can tell it's located pretty well, perhaps a local could comment on it though. Cheers.