I would appreciate any recommendations for a San Francisco hotel for a weekend to celebrate our 18th wedding anniversary. Thank you!

Trish,

While I would hardly classify myself as an "expert", I have stayed at a few hotels in San Francisco--both "boutique" and "regular." My personal favorite "boutique" hotel is the Hotel Monaco near Union Square.

The HM is a wonderfully intimate hotel with French-influenced rooms and whimsical decorations throughout. The Corner Bar (the actual name of the bar attached to the hotel) is a great place for drinks and hors d'oeurves and the hotel itself offers complimentary wine and cheese in the afternoons. The hotel is within easy walking distance of theatre, restaurants, shopping districts and the cable car line. Their rooms are very nicely appointed and their upper level suites are marvelous.

One of my other favorites is not a boutique hotel and is called "The Mark" (Mark Hopkins Hotel)located on Nob Hill. Very classy, good service, good central location and some great views of the city and bay from rooms above the 8th(?) floor. If you stay at The Mark, however, be prepared to do a lot of uphill walking back to your hotel. The cable cars run close by but the wait is often formidable.

BTW, I have managed to get great deals on the romms at both of these hotels by calling them directly.

Hope this helps,

Davidcs

My favorite is The Andrews on Post Street.. Funky rooms, a glass of wine in the Fino Restaurant (food is great in there) downstairs, in the a.m. a buffet continental breakfast on each floor. It's two blocks west of Union Square,close the theatre area. www.andrewshotel.com By coinicidence somebody else asking about hotels in S.F. was recommended this hotel and the one next door and received a fantatic rate.. I think it was the Fitzgerald...

The travel channel featured the Delano Hotel, the newest boutique hotel in SF. Art Deco and very chic and not very expensive.

What about the Sherman House, a very private and elegant little place, home to stars and the like who want to "escape". It's near Union Street and Filmore, more of a trendy area rather than the Union Square area.

Try the Hotel Rex, Maxwell or the Bijou and nice boutique style hotels in SF (although none have good views unless you are on a very high floor). The Bijou has nice theme rooms, but is next door to a strip club. All are a couple blocks from Union Sq. and cable cars.

The Mark Hopkins is very nice too. Also the Orchid and the Argent (on Market St.).

ps. here's a good website: http://www.sftrips.com/hotels/sanfrancisco.html

Look into the Sherman House. The Archbishops's Mansion is also lovely but the neighborhood can get dicey after dark(or even by the light of day).
If you provide some more info re: your wants of the area and of the hotel I might be able to be more helpful.

Hotel Triton is a popular boutique hotel. It near Union Square, you can get a room designed by a famous person, every evening the have cocktails, snacks, and tarot card readings. I stayed in the King Triton suite and they have a very nice jacuzzi tub.

Don't know if they woyuld qualify as the perfect "18th anniv. hotel" but
we've liked the Tuscan Inn, Harbor Court and The Orchard.

We've stayed at The Powell and since it was still undergoing some renovation, it was nice.
We liked the locations of the other 3 hotels "mo bettah".

The Harbor Court was going for around $80/night on Hotwire. For a few $$$ more at check-in, they will upgrade you to a Bay View if available. Good people.
Kal

Thank you everyone for all your recommendations. I will look into all of them. We like informal rather than formal hotels and enjoy the smaller ones. We would rather not spend a fortune on our hotel instead enjoy some of the wonderful restaurants, etc. Enjoy the Union Square and Nob Hill areas. Again, many thanks!!!

Trish, not to be rude, but wouldn't it have made a lot more sense to list those preferences in your original post? The answers could have been so much more meaningful. Since you have such definite preferences, it just makes sense to list those in your question. Please keep that it mind next time.

No, it is a common thing here. Make a vague question and see how many people will take the time to answer, then give the reasons why none of those meet your criteria. A lot of posters just like to let the others guess what they have in mind.
One poster asked about places in California and after dozens of detailed answers, returned to say, she was specifically interested in San Diego.

Hi,
This is just the info I was looking for in another post!
me

I second Hotel Triton. Check it out online to learn more about it, but as I remember, it was pretty reasonably priced and definitely a great location - directly across the street from the gates into Chinatown.

I really would avise against the Hotel Triton due to it's Union Square location. The hotel itself is not bad but it is in a really dirty area of SF. Chinatown is also not much better than Union Square.