My Wife and I are travelling to San Francisco in early March for 6 days. After much browsing on the net we have struggled to come up with the best area/accomodation to stay in. We are both 29 and are on a middle of the road budget. Can anyone advise on the best area to stay in? We have looked at Pacific Heights/Cow Hollow/Haight/Noe Valley. It would be good to go to an area with good links to downtown, decent nightlife and restaurants. One hotel we have looked at is the Cow Hollow Motel can anyone pass comment?
Other issues we would appreciate help with is how long would it take to drive to Yosemite? What is the Weather like in early March? Is it possible to get tickets to a sporting event (whichever sport is on in March) and how much would that be.
Any Help greatly appreciated!!!

Cow Hollow is my favorite, especially for just the things you've mentioned. We've stayed several times at the Cow Hollow Suites, which is the apartment section of Cow Hollow Motor Inn. It's a great place, surrounded by good, semi-trendy but affordable restaurants and shops (think Gap, Pottery Barn, Victoria's Secret, etc. as well as boutiques). There is a stop one block away where about every ten minutes you can get the bus that runs by Fisherman's Wharf, North Beach, Chinatown, and ends up going past Union Square to Market. If you have a car, it even has free indoor parking!

The Cow Hollow Motor Inn is on Lombard, which has a lot of traffic. I'd suggest you request an off-street room. Rooms are large and nothing grand, but very comfortable, clean, and generic "motel-like".

Yosemite is about a 4 hour drive from SF. Early march, the weather in Yosemite could be anything really - snow, rain, sun. It's a transitional season. I can just about guarantee that it wont be warm up there at that time though.

In SF you may get rain or shine (or both). Temperatures more than likely in the 60s.

If you are interested in the Union Square area(great food & shopping)look into the Hotel Juliana. My husband stayed on a business trip and it gets good reviews on tripadvisor.com. Have fun, SF is my favorite city in the U.S.

We stayed in Cow Hollow and like the location. Our hotel was nice but I can't think of the name of it. It too was on Lombard--I'll have to look it up.

i think you'll be happy in that area- also check chestnut street for a gazillion places to eat on a reasonable budget- also if the weather is nice you can hit the walking path from the marina to the golden gate bridge which is basically main street for sf residents in your age group- bring your sneakers/trainers.

tickets in march to sporting events- wow i suppose if the sharks do well the playoffs would be on then...check for local news/entertainment info at sfgate.com, it's the web page of our newspaper and there's a special section called entertainment and subsections that allow you to look stuff up.

with six nights i hope you are renting a car and considering a day trip to either the wine country or at least over the bridge to the redwoods- just had a friend in from nyc who declared she had "no interest" in the woods and when we came upon some really young redwoods (still amazingly tall) she was like "what are those" and i'm like sigh you didn't want to see the redwoods. anyway they are right over the bridge in muir woods and well worth a fraction of your 6 day time.

as for yosemite- the weather could be snoqy and you need to book your lodging pronto.

Hello gavandjoey,
Early March would be approaching the last part of our rainy season. It could still be wet, but gentler in terms of rainstorms. The huge, high-velocity rain and windstorms (which can be very scary) tend to happen December through February. Temperatures in the 50's and possibly low 60's. If you're from Scotland you will know to bring a sweater or two along!
Haight Street is fine for looking at beautiful Victorian architecture, particularly in the upper Haight (for instance, uphill on Masonic walking away from Haight). Haight Street itself I find rather depressing for the high number of young street punks and drifters it tends to attract. Adjacent to the Haight area is Cole Valley - a good area for a variety of restaurants and nice ambiance. I recommend the Eos winebar and the Grandeho sushi restaurant.
Noe Valley and the Castro are fun areas to stroll in and full of affordable places to have dinner or lunch. Contrary to rumour, the Castro is not "exclusively" gay or exclusively anything - it's diverse, as is most of S.F.
Welcome and have fun!

Sounds like you are more interested in staying in cool, real neighborhoods, rather than the tourist/business areas like F. Wharf or Downtown/SOMA?

I'd recommend the Hotel Del Sol in the Marina. I've never stayed there, but had a friend that basically lived there while working in SF. Great safe location in the Marina - which is a clean and very boutique-y area. If you want something more hip/urban/gritty - the Phoenix - but it's a much, much more grungy scene. Cool tho, if you are into that. Rockstars seem to like it.

I also like the Cole Valley recommendations. I live in Noe and love it (24th street!), but can't think of places to stay other than b&bs. Have fun!

Here's a review of the Del Sol.

http://sanfrancisco.citysearch.com/p...=cs_boc_ew_3_5

Try the Argonaut at Fisherman's Wharf. Its in the SF Maritime National Historic Park at Hyde Street Pier. It just opened in August and it is awesome. We've just returned from a visit and enjoyed the hotel immensely. It's not in the touristy part of Fisherman's Wharf. It's beautiful. Have fun!

My daughter and I will be in SF in mid September. She thinks we should stay at Fisherman's Wharf, even though most people who post on Fodor's say it is to touristy. She says we are tourists and should fit in (she is 25). If we stay there I plan to bid on a room through Priceline. Considering the price we will have to pay for parking ( we will have a car as SF is at the end of our trip), I hope to find a reasonable rate if I decide to stay in FW area. I am also considering the Columbus Motor Inn or Cow Hollow Motor Inn as both have free parking and are close to public transportation. If we decide to stay at either of these locations, should we buy a MUNI pass? We will be in the city for 2 days. My daughter thinks FW is nearer to the tourist attractions than either of these places and we could walk to where we want to go rather than having to deal with public transportation. We are planning to take the tour of Alcatraz, but haven't decided on anything else yet.
I have also considered Union Square as it seems to be a close to many tourist attractions, but my daughter is turned off by those who say there are too many panhandlers in the area. She thinks we might feel unsafe is this area.
We would appreciate any suggestions anyone may have.

Personally, I always stay in the Union Square area. I have stayed in the FW area. It's touristy all right. I found myself taking cabs back/forth to Union Square, downtown and the Market Street area. Panhandlers, yes. Don't worry about it. I'm actually surprised a 25 yr old is worried about that!

Dan,

I must admit both my daughter and I have been a little frightened by some of the panhandlers we have encountered in our travels to large cities. We live in a small midwestern town and aren't accustomed to people begging for money. I know that most of these people are harmless, but some are quite aggressive and won't take know for an answer. I know we take that chance when traveling to any large city, but we like to stay in an area where we feel safe walking after dark.

Topping for information on Argonaut at Fisherman's Wharf.

Any major city has some problem with panhandlers or homeless. San Francisco is no exception. To avoid Union Square because of this is just plain stupid! It's the center of the city and a perfect area.

I think you will be fine in SF. A firm "no thanks" works every time.

OK, there seems to be different opinions about SF...but here's mine.

We lived in the bay area for two years before moving down to OC. FW area is definitely full of tourists, but so what? it's fun to wander around at night. We still love SF and whenever we go back for a visit we would still walk around FW, downtown Union sq (take the cable car from FW, it's a must do!), eat lunch and browse the unique shops around the Haight, drive to the top of Twin Peak? Noe Valley? for the gorgeous view of the city, have dim sum in Richmond, dinner at our favourite Italian restaurant Cafe Sport in North Beach, walk across the Golden gate bridge, drive to Muir Woods, Tiburon, etc...

SF is a huge city, and I'm sure that you'll cover a lot of it. But I don't think that there's any one location that you can walk to all sights and place of interests. Mostly, because there's a lot of steep hills and it's a big city, so try to find a place that you can walk around at night (lots of restaurants, people watching, street performances, etc..that place is FW). Union Sq is great for day time only. What ever you do, stay away from hotels near the Civic center and south of Market street. Although there are lots of night clubs around there, if that's what you want to do. We also love North Beach (next to Chinatown for Italian food).

Hope this helps. BTW I'm in my early 30s.

Cow Hollow and Pacific Heights are great areas to stay in. I also would look into the Marina as well. The Cow Hollow Motor Inn is nice, and has free parking. I am not familiar with the Cow Hollow Motel.

Please, please, do not stay in downtown, especially Union Square despite what some may say here. I Have lived in SF for several years and can tell you from first hand experience that downtown is not where you want to be. It may be the center of town, but it is overcome with street people and well as other bad elements. It's okay during the day as long as you are aware of your surroundings. SF is a actually a pretty small city, so going a couple of blocks in the wron direction can be get you into trouble.

Why does Abi keep pushing the Cow Hollow, Pacific Heights, and Marina districts and is trying discourage visitors from staying in Union Square? I can understand a person favoring these neighborhoods over Union Square but Abi makes it sound as though all the downtown areas are terrible and that's not true.
Does he own the Cow Hollow Motor Inn?

By the way Abi, I notice that this is at least the second time within the month you've said the same thing to someone asking about where to stay in SF!