Bonnie

We will be staying in the San Francisco area in May and have reservations at the Lighthouse Hotel in Pacifica? Is this a good alternative to San Francisco hotels. Has anyone stayed there? Thanks for your help!

Rain

Bonnie, what are you planning on doing with your days? There are so many hotels in SF that I'd choose to stay in the city if I was planning on spending my days there. Pacifica is okay, not familiar with the Lighthouse Hotel, but you will not enjoy the traffic getting into and out of the city every day from there. And for some reason my sister thinks the feng shui is all wrong in Pacifica! Something about the town facing the ocean the wrong way?!

A better alternative if you want to stay out of the city might be Sausalito or Tibouron, where you could take the ferry into SF.

kam

Do not stay in Pacifica! You'll be miserable with the traffic. There are lots of hotels at all price ranges in SF--go to sfgate.com The ones in Sausalito are great but quite pricey.

kal

Bonnie, If all of the things you want to do are in The City, I agree with Rain and Kam. Pacifica, while nice is a bit too far to travel every day.
Time better spent on a cable car vs. stuck in traffic.
Kal

Faina

Bonnie, keep in mind - incoming traffic to SF in the morning and outgoing in the evening is a pain doesn't matter which direction you're coming from. It will pay off to stay in the city. Or you can stay maybe cheaper along BART lines, like Walnut Creek or Hayward/Fremont.

Nina

Pacifica??? Why? It is too far from the City to make it worth any savings that you might incur by staying there. You will will more than make up the difference in travel time and gas. Depending on traffic conditions, and where you are going in the City, I'd figure _over_ an hour a day to and from.

Pacifica is a bedroom community, with few decent restauaunts, lots of fog, a bowling alley and not much to interest a visitor.

Stay in San Francisco. Check with AAA or on line for motels on Lombard Street. Free parking, excellent location near the Bay and the Golden Gate Bridge and lots of excellent restaurants and good shopping.

Enjoy your stay here, May is usually one of our best weather months.

lodgingidea

I'm not an SF native, and tell you this only from our one family trip to SF. We stayed at the Seal Rock Inn. They have a good web site. It's less expensive than a lot of other hotels in SF and is an experience in itself. It's on the nw side of the city, a short drive from most of the attractions, which are to the east, though it's almost right on the Pacific, with a nice park nearby. There's a little pool and ping pong table (or was, don't know about now), so it was great for our two kids. We had a huge room. It has a unique character - classic, perhaps even funky, but was a clean, fun, relatively inexpensive place to stay.

x

http://bayarea.citysearch.com/profile/911508/

Legato7963

I must protest! I lived in Pacifica for four years and it's delightful if you want to combine a "small town" atmosphere with a visit to San Francisco. Excellent access to the rest of the Penninsula. I stay at Nick's Sea Breeze Inn right on the ocean for just $89 a night. The Daly City BART station is 15 minutes by car (the caveat - you do need a car if you stay in Pacifica). If you want a place to rest and restore after a fabulous day in San Francisco, Pacifica could be just the spot.

Cal

I also agree with Legato. Pacifica has excellent coastal scenery combined with a relaxed atmosphere. If you leave Pacifica after 9 AM, traffic into SF should be no problem. Hotels in SF will be quite expensive. In addiiton, much of SF has become kind of run down in recent years, so getting a hotel in a halfway decent area will be quite costly. I would rather save my money and spend it on other things, ie: some meals at a nice restaurant, etc.

Betsy

Getting a great hotel in SF is definitely not costly if you know how to do it. While Pacifica is gorgeous, I can't imagine why you'd want to stay there if the focus of your trip is SF. Go to www.biddingfortravel.com and learn how to bid on Priceline. There are fantastic deals on 4-star hotels in SF in great areas. Take a day trip to Pacifica if you want to see the coast.

By the way, I'm not connected in any way to Bidding for Travel or Priceline.

jeff

The original poster supposedly went on this trip in May 2002.

viola

Stay in the City. Use Priceline. Get a nice hotel from $40-70 a night depending on what area of the city you want to be in. (Fisherman's Wharf is cheaper than Union Square area.)