We will be traveling with our nine month old in August, and will spend three nights in and around S.F. at the end of our trip. We aren?t planning on doing much in the city and will probably take day trips to places like Muir Woods, Sintson Beach, Salsalito, Natural Bridges, the Santa Cruz Boardwalk, etc. On the last day, we will be flying out of SFO.

Since all of these day trips will require driving, I think it would be easier to stay outside of the city, but my wife thinks staying at an airport hotel for those days would be ?depressing.?

My first though would be to stay in Santa Cruz, but that?s a bit more driving to SFO than I want to do on get-away-day. Any baby friendly (no B&B's!) suggestions?

Since your destinations are split north and south of SF, I'd stay in two places. Maybe stay in Santa Cruz one night and north of SF the other two. I've used the Embassy Suites in San Rafael. It's great when you have a kid (although yours is pretty small) and it's not depressing but a good spot from which to go to your Muir Woods, Stinson Beach and Sausalito destinations.

I agree with staying in Santa Cruz for part of the time and north of SF for the rest of the time. Otherwise, you will be spending a lot of time back and forth in the car.

Since you will be in Santa Cruz and want to see some redwoods, I would recommend Henry Cowell State Park in Felton or Big Basin State Park outside of Boulder Creek over Muir Woods. These parks are less crowded than Muir Woods and Felton is only a 10-15 minute drive from Santa Cruz. Boulder Creek is about a 30 minute drive.

Whatever you choose, you can't go wrong though. Have a great trip!

I agree that staying at the SF airport is not very nice and Santa Cruz is a long drive to SF airport. San Jose is pretty much mid way between your north and south destinations. If you go to priceline.com you can get some good deals on downton San Jose hotels such as the Ramada, Arena Hotel, or the Crowne Plaza. For only a 3 night d=stay it would probably be inconvenient to have to stay in 2 different places, especially with a 9 month old.

I second J Correa's recommendation for Big Basin or Felton in Henry Cowell Park to see the coastal redwoods. Big Basin or Henry Cowell have nicer redwoods than Muir Woods.

http://sanjose.org/visitorsresidents...downtownsj.asp

Matty, if you don't want your wife to get depressed, AVOID SAN JOSE.

Faina - you crack me up San Jose isn't THAT bad. It's a pretty good place to live, unless you are trying to buy a house, then it can be a bit depressing It's not a place I'd recommend for tourists though. There is just so much more to see in this area.

Matty,

San Jose has plenty to see and do for tourists. Just ignore the San Jose naysayers. There's has to be a reason why close to 6 million tourists visit San Jose every year, and it's not just business travel as some might say.

I've stayed at the SFO Westin a couple of times and it was nice. Not depressing at all. I like watching planes, though, and the Westin has superior views of the SFO runways. (Soundproof glass in the windows, though!)

One of the great hotels, not only in the Bay Area, but in North America, and 20 mins (with favorable traffic) from downtown SF is the Claremont in Berkeley.

Hey Hann,

Where did you get that 6 million tourists statistic?

There may be a lot to see in San Jose (I grew up there), but it's nothing compared with the Santa Cruz, San Francisco, and Marin County areas.

One place you might consider staying is in Los Gatos, a very nice small town on the way to Santa Cruz. We like the Garden Inn, all of whose rooms have well equipped kitchenettes. There's a pretty small garden, and good restaurants are within easy walking distance.

Hi J! Those types of stats can be found on a given city's "convention and visitor's bureau" website. That stat is found on the SJCVB site.

An interesting tidbit: Pittsburgh, PA claims 10 millions visitors annually on its own website. I'm not a huge fan of SJ as a tourist destination, but come on: Where would you rather spend your vacation?!

Ask a simple question, start a debate!

Anyway, thanks for the suggestions everyone!

One of my very favorite hotels is the Sofitel:

SOFITEL SAN FRANCISCO BAY
223 TWIN DOLPHIN DR
REDWOOD CITY CA 94065 1514
650-598-9000

Free parking, shuttle to the a/p and just beautiful. In a quiet corporate area, you can walk around the pond out back or dine in the great restaurant.
I stay there when visiting the Bay area because it is right on the 101 and is convenient to just get to any destination.
In addition, you can drop off you car the night before your flight and take the shuttle to SFO (if applicable)

I agree the Sofitel is nice, I use to live in redwood city. Also consider Halfmoon bay its on the coast half way between Santa Cruz & San Francisco and about a 35 min car ride to airport. If you have the money the Ritz Carlton in Half moon bay looks great but there are also other nice places. San jose wouldn't make sense to me however it is a nice city.

I stayed at the Sofitel about 5 years ago and was very pleasantly surprised. I went for a meeting and was sad that they'd booked an "airport hotel" rather than something in the city, but it was actually extremely pleasant and didn't seem like an airport hotel. It's not right at the airport, but it'd be very convenient for the getaway day and as a travel base. (I'm assuming from the recommendations that it hasn't changed much since I was there.)

There is a very good Holiday Inn Express
in Mill Valley located right on
Richardson Bay with easy access to your North Bay activities. The location is outstanding with views of Mt.Tamalpais
and easy access to walk/bike trails.
Sausalito is just one exit before it, but you could use the bike trails to get there. Sausalito is terribly
touristy-I think Tiburon might be more fun.
R5

R5er,
Any suggies for Stinson Beach?
I found one but I recall it being a bit of a hole????


rjw_,
Pittsburgh!!!!
So'side Sheraton...get a cuppa coffee and a crossaint from Station Square bakery early morning and sit on the old train station platform and watch the river flow on by. Ahhhhhh..
Plus, I'm from The Pitt!

Kal-RE:To stay overnight in ?
Have seen some cottages, but we always lived so close-there are a couple of good restaurants. The beach gets pretty crowded so you have to walk toward the Lagoon to get away. Perhaps a google search?
R5

Kal, I grew up there! And left so quickly after college ("Pitt. It rhymes with sh*t and it's no coincidence!" -- those are my brother's words, not mine) I left skidmarks. But come on now, given SJ's proximity to The City and Wine Country, wouldn't you rather be there than in the ol' 'Burgh, just about anytime?

Pittsburgh's a nice city to be from, that's true....