Since I've gathered a lot of info off of these Fodor Forums, I thought that I would contribute a brief trip report. My wife and I returned on Saturday from our trip.

The weather was great; a sweater or sweatshirt in the mornings and evenings, while it was warm enoung for a golf (or polo) shirt on the some afternoons.

We had made the San Francisco hotel reservations for both ends of the trip in advance, but didn't make the Carmel and Healdsburg reservations until the day that we were arriving at those places. I would not recommend doing this during the busy season, but it worked out fine for the time that we were traveling.

We decided to use public transportation and cabs while we were in San Francisco, due largely to the fact that our hotel charged $39/day for parking.

Days 1-3
Flew into San Francisco International Airport, arriving around 9:30 pm on the first day. Stayed at the Hotel Argonaut in Fishermans Wharf. We had found an internet special for a king bay view room for $244/night. The view was nice. Things we did in San Francisco included the Duck Tour, Walking along the waterfront, the Japanese Tea Gardens, the Palace of the Legion of Honor; and Mission Delores.

Days 4-7
Drove to Carmel, where we stayed at the Carmel Fireplace Inn ($145/night). While this inn is basically a remodeled 60's style motel, it has a friendly staff, a good location (3 blocks off of Ocean Ave) and a fireplace in each room. We drove the 17-mile loop and also drove down to Big Sur. We also took the Docent Tour at the Mission, which was very informative.

Days 8-9
Drove from Carmel to Healdsburg, which took about 4 hours. We chose Healdsburg, based on the recommendations of many posters to this forum. This turned out to be a very good choice. We stayed at the Grape Leaf Inn, also based on recommendations from this forum. We found a "March Madness" special of $225 on their website. We enjoyed this Inn, which also has a friendly staff and a great location. We took in several wineries. Most wineries charge $5 to sample 4 wines, but we got free coupons for several wineries from the Grape Leaf Inn.

Day 9
Drove through Napa and Sonoma and spent the night at the Comfort Inn & Suites near the San Francisco A/P.

Day 10
Took a 7 am flight back home.

Glad you had a good trip. How was the Argonaut? I love their lobby with the nautical motif and wine happy hour looked nice as well. How were the rooms?

The king bay view room that we had was quite nice, fairly large and had the same nautical motif as the lobby. The view of the bay was really good, but the windows are fairly normal sized windows, so you don't have the same full view that you would get with sliding doors. Even with that, we were quite happy with the view, the room and the hotel in general. The rooms have a mini-bar, which we always fine to be very convenient.

We took advantage of the complementary wine hour both nights we were there at that time. They are very generous with the wine, even coming around sometimes to refill your glass. It is interesting that with many nearby wine producing areas, they serve Chilean wine. A nice thing about the wine hour is that that make no attempt to sell you bottles of the wine. Since the wine hour is held in their lobby, there are plenty of seats, so you can enjoy your wine sittting down. We had interesting conversations with fellow travellers on both nights.

Although some on this forum recommend against staying near Fishermans Wharf, we found the Argonaut's location in the Cannery, near Fishermans Wharf, to be quite convenient for restaurants, the Duck tour and even to the Hertz location where we rented our car for the rest of the trip.

Thanks for the review of the Argonaut as I'm also considering this place for my mom's bday. Could you share how you found such a great rate? Did you have to use Priceline? If so, I think I'm out of luck, as we need quite a few rooms for her special bday gathering. Did you try its restaurant? Find noise too much at night, or...?
Thanks again.

I think that we just lucked out on the rate due to being there in the off-season (March). The rate just appeared on the Argonaut's website when I was checking availability. I called the hotel's reservation number and the person, I talked to, quoted me much higher rates, even when I asked about specials, AAA or AARP rates. When I told her about this rate, it took here several minutes to find it; she then said that it was an Internet special.

Their restaurant is the Blue Mermaid Chowder House. We only ate breakfast there twice, but I didn't feel that they put enough cheese in a omlette that I had. There are plenty of other restaurants right around the Argonaut's location.

By noise, I assume that you mean street noise. No, We didn't heard any noise inside the hotel.

Thanks for your review. One thing you can do is sign up with the kimpton hotel group for e-mails of any specials. I have stayed at the Sir Francis Drake for only $99/ngt and the Argonaut was $179. Both great rates, but these are rare. I am happy enough to get SFD for under $179 (my threshold) and Argonaut is always about 70$ more.

We looked at a room on the street side and found the traffic a bit noisy as cars accelerate up the hill. We preferred the bay view room. Definitely get a view room of some kind. The inside room we peeked at looked bleak.

While I'm not a fan of Fisherman's Wharf, we did like the location of the Argonaut with the ships across the street, cable car turnaround just around the corner (love that ride up the hill!), and Ghirardelli's not too far of a walk away. Argonaut's restaurant didn't impress us. At Ghirardelli Square we liked Lori's Diner for casual dining.

April...when you mention
an 'inside room' are they fully interior with NO view?

Or more facing the Cannery's courtyard, I wonder?

Some supposedly have views of the City too...will try to peek at several types.

Did you have a King? And if so,
did it have a seating area? I'm trying to decide if that's sufficient for my mom or not. The suites are SOOO expensive! :-{
3x the cost of a normal room. I might have considered double for such an occasion but three times seems awfully steep. (but I guess the suites can be corner rooms offering better views) Thanks again!

Great trip!

The Buena Vista Cafe is a very short walk away from The Argonaut.
Good breakfasts and Irish Coffees.
Not a bad view if you get a table.

Daydreamer,
My recollection of the inside rooms was that they faced a walled-in central area overlooking a roof or vents, maybe open to the sky. It was some time ago and we only had a brief look so take what I say with a grain of salt but I remember it reminding me of some dreary, grey, lifeless institution. Perhaps they have fixed it up since we were there.

The Cannery courtyard side would have a view at least, although I don't know how quiet it would be.

We had a queen bay view room with two queen-sized beds. The room was rather narrow and, as mentioned, the windows not large. I believe the King rooms might have a sofa. We had a glance at a suite down the hall and it looked very nice and spacious. We were there when the hotel just opened so prices were better. There are hotels just in behind the Argonaut that might be worth checking out.

Thanks, April! Truly appreciate the extra info.
Will try to see if we can swing this. A suite will be cool but is oh-so expensive, unfortunately.

I might mention that the highlight of staying at Argonaut wasn't the hotel itself (although we did enjoy our visit there) but to be able to have a view of the ships out the window! My husband loves ships and water views. So if that isn't high on your mother's list, for those prices I might look somewhere else.