Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
maintenance and cleanliness, and the desk staff is young and bushy-tailed. Rooms are
tiny and don't have phones or TV (though there's a little lounge for that)—well,
except for one: The sublime penthouse unit ($175 weekdays, $10 more on week-
ends) is a self-contained, private rooftop unit with its own outdoor terraces, a bath-
room and TV, and some fabulous views of North Beach. Don't pack heavy, because
there are stairs everywhere and no porters. There's no Internet access, but the front
desk will give you a prepared leaflet directing you to several nearby cafes where you're
welcome to linger and surf as long as you want. The seductive hotel, excellently
located for North Beach cafe-going and dining, sometimes offers deals on its website
(3rd-night rates of $40, for example), so check there. The terminus of the lesser-used
Mason cable-car line is a block away, which connects the hotel nicely with Union
Square, but remember that the fare is $5 a ride unless you've got a CityPass, in which
case unlimited rides are free. Fisherman's Wharf is a 7-minute stroll north.
$$
Clean, basic, affordable, and with a defiantly 1950s exterior,
Royal Pacific
Motor Inn
5
(661 Broadway, at Grant;
%
800/545-5574 or 415/781-6661; www.
royalpacificmotorinn.com; AE, MC, V)
is special not for its rooms, which are pre-
dictable motel-style affairs, but for its location: balanced a few feet from
Columbus Avenue between Chinatown and North Beach, and within walking
distance of many of the great sights. The situation will make finding cheap din-
ing easier than perhaps with any other hotel in town. Best of all, though, is the
free parking, which is mostly unheard of in this part of town. An outdated but
clean double room goes for $106. It won't change what you think about motels,
but there's really not a thing to complain about.
$$$
You'll pay a tad more than you have to pay to stay at
Hotel Bohème
(444
Columbus Ave., at Vallejo;
%
415/433-9111; www.hotelboheme.com; AE, DC,
DISC, MV, V),
but there are precious few spots to stay in North Beach that don't
ask you to pay even more. Its “cozy rooms,” the smallest and often the darkest, go
for $164, and larger rooms go for as much as $194 for a quad. The hotel, a low-
slung post-earthquake building along busy and happening Columbus Avenue,
right across from the famous City Lights bookstore, opened in 1995 but has dec-
orated itself with antiques that give a sense of something older. You'll have to bus
it or hoof it to get anywhere else in town, but there's no other neighborhood I'd
rather immerse myself in than North Beach, with its cafes, restaurants, and parks
for sitting back and observing the collection of eccentric locals.
FISHERMAN'S WHARF
Prices are higher here because many first-time visitors think, wrongly, that it's the
best place to stay. Many of those who bunk here are on package tours, particularly
ones purchased abroad. In fact, Fisherman's Wharf is closest mostly to Fisherman's
Wharf, and to the bayward end of North Beach, but most of the city isn't all that
easy to reach from it. The cable car heads to Union Square, but remember that's
$5 a fare. There is the F line on the streetcar, which scoots down the waterfront
from here and then up and down Market Street, but that method's hardly speedy.
$ The Columbus Motor Inn
55
(1075 Columbus Ave., at Francisco;
%
415/
885-1492; www.columbusmotorinn.com; AE, MC, V)
is a drive-in motel that looks
like it was taken from, say, outer Cleveland and plopped in among the homes at the