A group of us will be in San Fransisco for a conference at the Mascone Center and will be staying at the Intercontinental on Howard St.. We have an early departing flight and wondered if we should spend our last night at an airport hotel? We would like a hotel with complimentary shuttle service, restaurants within walking distance, and possibly some shopping. Is this even possible or should we just spend our last night downtown and get up very early to catch a shuttle to SFO?

I say stay downtown and catch an early shuttle to the airport. The IC hotel can arrange a shared ride shuttle van for you at just about any hour.

if an EARLY flight always prefer

to save at airport hotel with free shuttle

www.betterbidding.com

best deals usually awesome savings bidding Priceline

usually for me from $40 or so.

That might be true at other airports, QV, but japw82 is also looking for shopping and restaurants within walking distance. Nearly all SFO area hotels are in basic, good for nothing but sleeping commercial areas.

With priceline it's a crapshoot what hotel you get.

Can you recommend a specific SFO area hotel that meets japw82's criteria? Yes, there may be a hotel or 2 in central Millbrae, close to BART station. In my frequent experience staying in SF near Moscone center, and just as frequent experience staying in SFO area hotels, the logic of relocating a group just to be closer to SFO is nonsense.

Thanks J62. I'll pass this info along to the others in my party. It's probably just as easy not to move hotels. Do we need to be picked up 3 hours before our flight? Is that a reasonable amount of time to get to SFO and get through security? We are on a domestic flight.

If you are departing the Intercontinental on a Sat or Sun - it is only about 15 mins to SFO (I live 2 freeway exits past SFO). I would add another 5-10 mins for work-week traffic if you leave the intercontinental after around 7:00. Assuming you already have boarding passes & no checked luggage - getting through security & to your gate is a breeze - at least it has been that way for my last 4-5 flights out of SFO (2 flights per year).

Stay in The City.

Stu Dudley

We stay at the Hilton Garden Inn before early flights. There's a shuttle service, and the hotel has its own restaurant. There are a few other restaurants in the area.