Sheraton San Jose or 4 Points San Jose Downtown? Which hotel is nicer? Is there anything to walk to from either one? We have Starwood points and can book either one.

I live around here and so haven't stayed in either hotel, but will comment in general.

It all depends on what your purposes are for this trip, business or pleasure. More importantly, will you have a car?

The Sheraton "San Jose" is actually in Milpitas, which is a quite a bit of distance from downtown San Jose where the Four Points is located.

The Sheraton is located near several malls which straddle Interstate 880 and you could do some walking around the malls. You will need a car to get to any of these malls. The "malls" on the West side of 880 are mostly Asian stores and mostly restaurants. (Go straight up north on Barber Lane to its end and you'll see the malls on the right hand side.) On the Eastside of 880, it's mostly standard American with the largest being the Great Mall and then there's a bunch of shopping centers like the Serra Center clustered together ont eh east side.

The Four Points is in downtown San Jose and at night you can walk around some parts of downtown, but not all. It's not exactly a great tourist destination although there are some good restaurants.

If you're on business and need to be close to some offices, then the Four Points is more centrally located.

If you're on vacation, then the Sheraton "San Jose" would be a better choice (unless you need to get to offices in Milpitas).

Hope this helps a bit.

Thanks, that is exactly the information I was looking for.
It doesn't sound like either one would be so great for us. Trying to find someplace south of SF that I can use points for and use as a base for doing Monterey/Carmel/Santa Cruz area. Any suggestions? North we plan to try Palo Alto -- either Sheraton or Westin.

Hi, redrover: I went into the Sheraton site and there doesn't seem to be any of their hotels in Monterey/Santa Cruz, so the best suggestion would be the Sheraton in Sunnyvale Ca.

This is a very safe area, but not much for walking. Really, the Greater San Jose area is not much for walking, you will definitely need a car.

You could be on Highway 85 within minutes and then head south for Santa Cruz and Monterey.

If you don't need to use your points, there are any number of relatively inexpensive places you could stay in right in Monterey/Carmel. I wouldn't suggest staying in Santa Cruz as their lodgings are mostly not ideal.

SJ doesn't really make a good base for exploring SC and Monterey because in between are the Santa Cruz mountains. Going back and forth will be a hassel. I'd stay in Monterey and use the points for another trip, if possible.

Otherwise the Sunnyvale option would be my choice.

As for "north", will you use that as a base for exploring San Francisco? If so, I'd recommend staying IN San Francisco where there are any number of Starwood hotels. Palo Alto is a really nice town, though, so if you're going there for some specific reason, then I would pick the Westin over the Sheraton because the Westin is walking distance to both the Stanford campus and downtown Palo Alto (University Avenue).

San Jose really isn't a very good base for north OR south. Is using points the only way you can afford the trip? IMO you'd be much better off staying in Monerey/Carmel even in a basic motel than commuting from SJ.

Free is good. Free but really inconvenient --- not so much.