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the lobby every late afternoon. The building is shaped like a ring, with a court-
yard in the middle; central rooms, the even-numbered ones, are slightly darker
and less private than noisier street-facing rooms. Rates start around $179 for a
weekend and bump as much as $50 when it's busy, although Priceline.com often
brings things down to about $170, and Hotels.com has been known to slash
down to $150.
$$$$
It's corporate through and through, of course, but there's no denying that
the building housing the
Hyatt Regency San Francisco
(5 Embarcadero Center, at
Market;
%
415/788-1234; http://sanfranciscoregency.hyatt.com; AE, DISC, MC,
V)
is a modern city landmark. This 802-room concrete behemoth at the foot of
Market Street comes with a massive, zigzagging 17-story open atrium, designed
by architect John Portman (also famous for Times Square's Marriott Marquis) in
1973, when atrium lobbies were a sign of the future. It's still impressive, and the
Embarcadero of today is a much more appealing place than it was during the
Nixon Administration, when an elevated highway (now gone) scarred the water-
front. The premises have a prime position right next to the Ferry Building and
connected by heaps of ideal transit options, including Muni, BART, the
California Street cable-car line (the terminus is right outside the hotel doors), and
the F-line streetcar. Rooms are larger than the average, and many also have fur-
nished balconies with views of the bay. On the downside, besides price ($159 is a
starting point), is its size; walking back to your room from the elevator can take
more than 2 minutes. It's overly popular with conventioneers, and it's the sort of
hotel that considers it acceptable to charge guests for every little twitch. Because
of its architectural importance to the city, and because some readers will want to
know about at least one tried-and-true corporate hotel worth trying, I include it
here, but not because it's the most affordable option for you. It also makes for a
romantic splurge.
CHINATOWN & NORTH BEACH
Strangely, although these are two of the city's calling cards, tourism-wise, there
aren't many newly built or large hotels here. Just about everything is small-scale.
That's a big plus in my book (I guess that'd be the one you're holding), because I
love a small hotel. Staying here, among the wooden houses and green parks, puts
you close to plenty of entrenched and affordable cafes and bistros, within a 10-
minute walk of Fisherman's Wharf, and gives you a sense for what it's like to be a
resident of this city.
$
I adore the old-world charm of the
San Remo Hotel
555
(2237 Mason St.;
%
800/352-7366 or 415/776-8688; www.sanremohotel.com; AE, DC, MC, V),
a
wood-frame warren of cozy rooms that was built in the months after the great
earthquake and has changed little since then. This is boardinghouse-style stuff,
very San Francisco, most with in-room sinks and shared bathrooms (bring slip-
pers) outfitted with claw-foot tubs, brass fittings, and pull-chain tank toilets. The
cheapest rooms ($65/night for 1 or 2 people, no in-room sink) might have win-
dows facing the corridor and not the outside world—somehow, this setup isn't
oppressive. Just because it all seems old doesn't mean it's decrepit; everything's in
top repair because the owners, brothers Tom and Robert Field, are obsessed about
