Jul 14, 2008
You may want to know about an under-visited section of San Francisco which remains cheap
Let's deal today with a highly practical problem -- finding an affordable room in a city to which all of us eventually go. In the wildly-popular town of San Francisco, a large number of business travelers and convention attendees support a market where a hotel night costs at least $200 or $250 -- and often goes for more.
But that's only if you demand to stay around the Union Square or Financial districts. There's another area ignored by the mainstream, where nearly a dozen decent lodgings charge $80 to $100 a night for plain-but-comfortable motel-style rooms and amenities.
The neighborhood is Cow Hollow, a mostly residential district just south of the Marina district, a few blocks south of San Francisco Bay and east of the beautiful parkland of The Presidio. From Cow Hollow's stretch of '50s-style motels along Lombard Street, you can walk to Fisherman's Wharf in about 25 minutes, or you can take one of many city buses that deliver you anywhere else in town. The Bay, and a view of the Golden Gate Bridge, is about 10 minutes' walk north through the Marina district, and trendy avenues for restaurants and boutiques are located just a few blocks away to both the north and the south.
But the best feature of these properties, beside their low price, is the fact that nearly every property has its own parking lot with free space for guests. In downtown San Francisco, more expensive hotels may charge $20 to $30 a day for a place to park your car, and everywhere in town, street parking is difficult to come by. For the many visitors to the city who also plan to drive out of town to the wine country of Sonoma and Napa counties, having a free place to stash their car is a gift that's difficult to pass up.
Among the excellent prospects in the Cow Hollow area are La Luna Inn (2599 Lombard St.; tel. 415/346-4664; www.lalunainn.com), Chelsea Motor Inn (2095 Lombard St.; tel. 415/563-5600; www.chelseamotorinn.com); Coventry Motor Inn (1901 Lombard St; tel. 415/567-1200; www.coventrymotorinn.com); Lombard Motor Inn (1475 Lombard St; tel. 415/441-6000; www.lombardmotorinn.com); Buena Vista Motor Inn (1599 Lombard St.; tel. 800/835-4980; www.buenavistamotorinn.com); and Town House Motel (1650 Lombard St.; tel. 800/255-1516; www.sftownhousemotel.com).
The Hotel del Sol (3100 Webster St.; tel. 415/921-5520; www.thehoteldelsol.com) is slightly more expensive than the others but benefits from a more bohemian attitude and a location off busy Lombard Street.
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Labels: accommodations, san francisco
Fifty years ago, 
Arthur Frommer is generally acknowledged to be the nation's foremost travel authority. He is the founder of the
