My wife and I are trying to put together the finishing touches on
our S.F. trip, but I still have a few questions,
mostly concerning the location of a couple of hotel
possibilities and what to do about a day trip to the
wine country...

First: hotel.
After doing much online comparison shopping, I think
I've narrowed the choices down to two, both which have
some excellent package deals on Expedia.com. One is the Hotel Nikko near Union Square, where a
"petite queen" room can be had for about $100 a night
when you break everything down in the package. Looks
nice; has received mostly excellent reviews; has a lot of nice amenities; has an Enterprise
Car Rental place on or near the premises (handy for
day trips); and only a block from a cable
car stop and other means of public transportation.
I'm mainly not sure about the area, though. Is it
decent and safe? I chose it not so much because it's close to Union Square--we could shop a lot of the same stores in nearby Atlanta--but because of the online deal semmingly giving you more hotel bang for your buck, and for its amenities.

The other hotel is a Comfort Inn By the Bay, near Fisherman's
Wharf. Its package can be had for
about $200 less for a week's stay than the Nikko
package; on the other hand the Comfort Inn is a
two-star hotel. (Of course, I'm well aware that one doesn't go to a place
like San Francisco to stay in a hotel room the whole time.) The Fisherman's Wharf area sounds like fun, but I've read mixed
things about the area, mostly that
it's very touristy and crowded...a nice place to
visit, but you wouldn't want to necessarily stay
there.

The next question is day trippin'. There's of course an
embarassment of riches around San Francisco for that, (and again, the Nikko
would come in handy for ease of car rental). Napa
Valley and the whole Muir Woods/Stinson Beach/Port
Reyes vicinity particularly stand out for us. Would the best way to go be: (a) base ourselves in
S.F. the whole seven days we're going to be there, and
just rent a car for whichever day or days we want to devote to
each location, or (b) stay, say, five nights in S.F.
at the beginning or end of that week, and devote a
couple of nights in, say, Napa or Sonoma, and check
out Muir/Stinson/Reyes on the way up? The main
downside of the latter idea is picking up and taking
back a rental car; i.e. say if we picked it up at the
Enterprise place at the Hotel Nikko and dropped it
back at the Enterprise location at the S.F. airport
before departing, we'd have to pay a one-way charge for picking the car up in one place and bringing
it back to another. For one-day-only rentals, it would be around $26-30 a day.

So, between those two hotels and the two daytrip scenarios, which way would you go?

#1 Unless your'e counting every penny, go for the Hotel Nikko. #2 Consider getting only a one-day car rental and just going to Muir woods (early!) with the rest of the day exploring Point Reyes area. Return the car that night near your hotel.

Budget is somewhat of a concern, but since there's only about $150 difference between the Nikko package and the Comfort Inn package, I'm inclined to go for the Hotel Nikko, especially since I'd be basically getting a four-star hotel for a two-star price.

Budget concerns would play more into a two-day getaway to Napa, since we'd be getting lodgings up there (probably a B&B, which aren't cheap); plus the rental car thing I mentioned in my first post.

Other comments?

Definitely the Hotel Nikko.

The Comfort Inn by the Bay is not near the Bay at all. It is at the corner of Lombard and Van Ness, two of the busiest streets in San Francisco.

The Hotel Nikko is, in comparison, in a quieter neighborhood, even tho it's downtown, and downtown SF is a busy place. I would plan on spending the weekend of your seven days in SF at the Hotel Nikko.

The two nights in Sonoma: I recently did my first bid on Priceline and got the Doubletree Hotel In Rohnert Park for $57, for a total of $70 including tax. I would encourage you to bid on Priceline for the same property. You'll very much enjoy your stay in Sonoma.

Click on my name above and check out my recent posting "Sonoma Barrel Tasting Trip Report". Then, I wouldn't have to repeat everything here.

If you need more information on bidding on Priceline, come back here and just ask. BTW, as an experience, you might want to make a bid which is severely under (like $20), you will not get the hotel, but it's good practice. It'll give you confidence to proceed ahead.

Who knows? If you are successful in bidding for the Sonoma property, it may encourage you to bid for one in SF as well!

Just be warned that once you have bid successfully on a property, it's stuck in cement. You can't cancel. Your credit card will be debited for the amount. So, be very sure of when and what you want!

Enjoy California! It's beautiful here today, weather in the 80's and almost cloudless in a sparkling blue sky!

Weather in the 80's in San Francisco? This time of year?? That's considered something of a heat wave, isn't it?

I've always been leery of Priceline for the very reason you mentioned: if you win something, it is indeed "stuck in cement". I used it once a few years ago and won an airline ticket for a friend, and it worked out fine for him. But I'd rather have the choice up front about when and what time I'd be travelling (I'm talking more about airline tickets here, not so much hotels). Maybe I need to loosen up a little. I probably will after a jaunt to Sonoma.

As for the hotel, I think the Nikko wins. It really does seem like we'd be getting a much nicer hotel for the money; the entire seven-night package for both of us, with tax, cancellation waivers, airport shuttles to and from the hotel,etc., for $1,400 and change. And I think we'll base ourselves there for the seven nights, and grab a rental car for whichever days we feel like heading north to Napa/Sonoma or Muir/Stinson.

Thanks for all of your help in deciding!

It's considered a heat wave in SF any time it hit's the 80's-- in March, it's incredible but I'm not complaining just enjoying it.

I would spend a couple nights in SF, then pick up a rental car and explore some other areas. Don't waste time driving back and forth. There are so many options, north, south or east. As you mentioned wine country, Carmel, Monterrey, Big Sur, or even Yosemite. Hey, you could easily have three-four completely different vacations in one week.

I alredy purchased the seven-night package on Expedia for the Hotel Nikko. I figured with our base there, where there's an Enterprise Rental place on-site, whichever day we'd want to get out and explore the wine country or Carmel or wherever, we'd just walk to Enterprise early in the morning, grab a car, and go. Maybe even find an inexpensive place to stay overnight, even though we'd still be paying for the Nikko room. Or if we're totally smitten with San Francisco itself and all the things there are to do there, we'd stay put. I just wanted to have more options at our disposal, and be able to play things more by ear. During our trip last year to NYC, I kind of overplanned and overscheduled everything for that week. We still had a great time, but it drove my wife crazy.