There is a Courtyard in San Ramon and one in Fremont. Plus several on the peninsula between San Jose and SF. What are your plans after this night? That could make a big difference which location(s) make sense.

We are headed into San Francisco for two, possibly three days. Thinking of staying at the Argonaut. It has been a few years since we have been there and the two things we need to check off the list is Alcatraz and a some kind of day trip to wine country.

If you stay at the Courtyard Marriott in San Ramon, you could also visit the Livermore area in the morning for vinyards. The hotel probably has lots of information on visiting wineries in the area. see
http://www.lvwine.org/wineries.php
The smaller wineries will be open Friday through Sunday, the larger ones are open more days.
Plus you will be on Highway 580, which will be a straight shot
out of the central valley into the City. If you leave in the midday, you can avoid any west bound commute traffic on 580, which is intense.

We stayed at a nice Courtyard in Emeryville on our last trip...convenient location close to the freeway and restaurants.

Check out the Hotel Cornell.
http://www.cornellhotel.com/

One of the less expensive downtown hotels. Nice French oriented restaurant.

This way you won't have to schlep back and forth to the City.

I understood your plan is to stay just the one night outside the city, after driving over late from Yosemite. You wouldn't be basing there for touring SF - right?

If so, I'd stay in San Ramon or maybe at the southern end of the Peninsula. Not in Emeryville for example - it is directly across the Bay from the Ferry Bldg, so if you were there, I'd just cross the bridge to the City and be done w/ it.

Hi Maggie.

If you can get a good deal at The Claremont in Berkeley, do it! Rooms are beautiful, as are the grounds, but overnight parking is steep (about $27/night!). However, there is so much to do in Berkeley, and the drive into the city during non-rush hours is very easy. That's the only place I've ever stayed in SF..and friends' homes - but I highly recommend it!

Enjoy your stay!

If you are arriving late in the day - you probably won't have to deal with a lot of traffic driving into the City, which is the main attraction - so as suggested - you might consider the Cornell - and wake up to a nice breakfast in SF, without worrying about how getting into the City.

If you feel like treating yourself - the Cornell has a package deal for breakfast, parking and dinner for 2 at their nice looking restaurant - and while I have never dined there, it has some good reviews, plus it's centrally located. http://www.restaurantjeannedarc.com/reviews.html

http://www.restaurantjeannedarc.com/lerestaurant.html

There are also some other reasonably priced places to stay in SF - and you check the prior posts under California for more info on them.

Thank you Fodor Friends! I am going to check out ALL of your suggestions today!

Depending on how far you want to stay out of SF, you could stay in Sacramento. DW and I like the HI Hostel at the corner of 10 & H.
The hostel is across the street from City Hall and is 8 blocks from the State Capitol. The Capitol grounds are beautiful. This is my favorite hostel. It is the second oldest Victorian mansion in the city.

Is there some reason why you have to be in San Francisco?

You want to visit wine country - assuming that you mean Napa or Sonoma (there's plenty of other "wine country" between Yosemite and SF, wineries like those in Livermore) - then why not head directly to Napa/Sonoma from Yosemite? spend a day in Wine country, stay overnight, and then drive into SF for the rest of your trip.

In other words, why not spend the night that you were planning on outside of SF, why not spend that night in wine country, visit wine country, and then head into SF?

If Emeryville would work for you, the Hilton Garden Inn is good there, too. It is so close to Berkeley, it's easy to go there for dinner, etc.