I am attending a meeting in the shining northern capital of California and had asked a business colleague who has experience with the location to recommend a hotel. His answer:
[the meeting is] inside of WeWork Civic Center on Mission between 7th and 8th wedged between a homeless encampment and emergency heroin detox center. I would recommend picking a hotel in another part of town. … Due to the layout and direction of the one way streets and traffic I’ve found cabs/Uber to work fairly poorly and often take longer than BART. I stopped using cars when junkies started trying to open my door at stop lights.
I think the level of understatement here is comparable to that in The Jean-Paul Sartre Cookbook:
Today I made a Black Forest cake out of five pounds of cherries and a live beaver, challenging the very definition of the word “cake.” I was very pleased. Malraux said he admired it greatly, but could not stay for dessert.
The good news is that a Hampton Inn at Mission between 5th and 6th is only $469/night.
Whoa. Try the hotels in Marina District. Basic for $200/night but gave your sister and brother-in-law daily passes to Crunch Gym nearby (hotel lacked gym). You are probably Ubering, but for your readers who have cars, ample free parking in Marina District. 30 mn walk to sea lions on wharf
Next time try staying in Sausalito or Tiburon and use the ferry. No better way to commute…
Love the recipe! I laughed out loud.
This is too late for this trip, but for those interested in reasonable accommodations in a safe and pleasant environment, and don’t need to stay in SF proper.
If you are coming to the San Francisco South of Market area, stay in Walnut Creek or Lafayette, which are nice suburbs in the East Bay, and use BART plus Uber to get to your meeting. Roughly a half hour BART ride, barring any delays.
If you fly into Oakland (or even SFO), you can even BART to Walnut Creek or Lafayette.
Millenial yuppies always stay in upscale airbnb’s, Fairmont, or Grand Hyatt. The city isn’t very fun if you can’t get around by paw. If you have to stay on Mission St, it’s not worth being semi retired.
+1 for Sausalito (imagine a small, clean SF with only rich people), -10 for East Bay via BART (no comment).
Is SF really that bad? My only experience in SF was in September 2013, when we spent a week there. We stayed at the Holiday Inn SF Airport (I don’t like downtown hotels, especially if I have to pay twice the price for them), and then just drove to SF everyday. There was a bit of traffic, but nothing really out of the ordinary for someone who is used to German cities. Parking was really easy, there were lots of parking garages that could easily accommodate our Chevy Traverse which would be impossible to park anywhere is Germany.
Did SF deteriorate in the last years, or is it just too much like a European city (with some extra homeless)?
Tim – Yes it has deteriorated significantly in the past few years.
Tim; Life at the Fairmont is tolerable so far. The tents and guys sleeping in the rain don’t start until about 7 blocks down the hill. If you’re passionate about health care, you’ll be pleased to know that marijuana deliveries are available (also dramatic state-mandated warnings about the risk of death from lingering on the sidewalk where tobacco smokers congregate).