SF- Cow Hollow Motor Inn vs/ Columbus Motor Inn
 

Travelling in August with our 2 daughters (12 & 14 )to San Francisco. Need help deciding on those 2 hotels. Are they both nice and good located ?

These are both nice properties with a good,safe location. Columbus Motor Inn is in the Marina and Cow Hollow Motor Inn is, in well, Cow Hollow as the name suggests. The free parking is a big plus.

I think Lake is a little confused. The Columbus Motor Inn is not in the Marina but is on the edge of Little Italy, and close to Fisherman's Wharf on Columbus Ave. Cow Hollow Motor Inn is on Lombard in what is called Cow Hollow, which is adjacent to the Marina District, in fact most people include that part of Cow Hollow as being part of the "Marina".
Both places are owned by the same parent company and are very similar. Fairly spacious rooms. Nothing fancy, but nice, and as Lake says, the free indoor parking is a big bonus for both. Your decision would depend on the location you'd prefer. I personally think the Cow Hollow one is a little more of a "neighborhood", but you won't go wrong with either.

Actually the Columbus Motor Inn is on the edge of North Beach; Little Italy is in NYC. No biggie...

If you are considering the Cow Hollow Motor Inn you should also check out the Coventry Motor Inn two block away also on Lombard. I don't know if they are part of the same parent company, but they are virtually identical from the outside. If you choose to stay on Lombard St. you should make sure the room is well sound insulated. I drive on that street everyday and you need to know there are six lanes of traffic (it is really HW 101). That being said, the location is perfect to explore Chestnut, Union and Fillmore shopping/restaurant streets and you can easily walk to the recently restored Crissy Field area (the promenade between the bridge and the yacht club is spectacular). By the way, there are no steep hills in this part of the city.

You might also consider the Hotel Del Sol, which is located off Lombard on Webster Street (it's really a motel). It may be a little quieter over there and your daughters may think it's a cool place; it's definitely different.

Have fun inthe The City.

OK, forgive me. I thought that Lake was a bit confused. The same company also has the Chelsea and the Coventry Motor Inns which are both in or near the Marina, so when I looked at their web site to double check THEY say they are on "the edge of North Beach, San Francisco's Little Italy". I just used that phrase when I posted.

You can go to www.cowhollowmotorinn.com and you can click onto sister properties and check all their properties for rates at one time. They are all pretty similar, with the exception of the beautiful large apartments called Cow Hollow Suites -- quite deluxe.

You tell him BellTib,

There's no "Little Italy" in SF, I don't care what the website says.

I can't believe I didn't say North Beach which is what I always call it. Guess I got distracted by that blurb on their website.

But let's be honest here Lake, my saying it was on the edge of Little Italy, close to Fisherman's Wharf and on Columbus Avenue is a WHOLE LOT closer to fact than saying it is in the Marina!!!! Just shows we all make mistakes.

Columbus has one larger, family-size unit that might be available.

Here are the actual addresses:

Columbus Inn, 1075 Columbus Ave (between Francisco and Chestnut)

Cow Hollow Inn, 2190 Lombard Street (near Steiner)

Coventry Inn, 1901 Lombard Street
(near Buchanan)

Both Columbus and Lombard are major street. Ask for a quiet room.

Haven't stayed anywhere but Cow Hollow, which I love. Won't say anywhere else in SF. Great restaurants nearby on Chestnut St. Ask for a room in the back if you don't like street noise.

As Easytraveler says, Lombard and Columbus are both major streets, but the difference is that Lombard is on the main route of the Golden Gate Transit buses which start pouring into the city, literally by the hundreds, very early in the morning from the Marin and Sonoma suburbs. Especially when gunning their motors, or deaccelerating when they first start to hit stoplights, they make quite a din.

I know this well from living on Lombard, and just a brief walk from the Cow Hollow Motor Inn, for ten years. If you are strongly susceptible to street noise (which I wasn't, but some of my guests were,) choose Columbus instead. There is traffic and there are Muni buses, but they are travelling more slowly on that block and are less noisy. (I know something about that block too since I often used to visit a girl friend who lived right next door to the Columbus Moter Inn.)

I also think that as a youing teenager I would have found the Columbus location more interesting, due to the nearness of Ghirardelli Square, Aquatic Park with its cable car turntable, great views of the Golden Gate and Alcatraz, North Beach with its distinctive Italian shops,coffeehouses and restaurants, and Russian Hill with its views, houses both magnificent and quaint, and unusual lanes and alleyways.

However, that is not to disagree that Marina/Cow Hollow is a delightful area, particularly for young to older adults. I must think so, since by choice I lived in the neighborhood longer than I've ever lived anywhere else.