I will be in San Francisco in early September and can use some points for a hotel there. I can choose from these Starwood hotels - Palace, Westin St. Francis or W San Francisco. Can anyone help wih a recommendation? Which has the best location for a base to explore the city?

All three are more or less in the downtown area, as opposed to Fisherman's Wharf or some other popular hotel area.

The differences are that the St Francis and the Palace are both quite old. They belong to the elegant era with old-fashioned plushness. The St Francis survived the 1906 earthquake.

The W San Francisco, on the other hand, is much newer and very modern. It is next door to the SF Museum of Modern Art. Right across the street and across the garden area, is the Metreon, which can be quite lively, otherwise, this is not really a nightlife area. The hotel is for the young and trendy.

Of the three, the St Francis is in the best location, giving out onto Union Square.

I enjoy the Palace Hotel's common areas, but find the rooms less attractive.

I'd suggest checking into the reviews on tripadvisor.com before making a decision.

Hi lunabug, I sure agree with everything easytraveler advised.

If you chose the St. Francis make sure sure you get a room in the new tower section, not in one of the older original rooms of the St. Francis.

Thanks. Is Union Square close to other attractions such as the cable car and fisherman's wharf? What is at Union Square? Is it a shopping district?

Three weeks ago I stayed at the Palace for a few nights. It truly is an old-world, opulent hotel (reminded me of a Plaza (New York)/Fairmont (New Orleans) combination). My room was beautiful. If you like chandeliers and grandiose elegance, the Palace is for you.

(Factoid: At one point, the Palace was the USA's largest hotel.

Forgot to say, Union Square is a shopping area (over-rated in my opinion, but I live in New York). The Palace is a short walk to Union Square.

Depending on the shopping options in your hometown, you may or may not care to be close to Union Square.

The Cable Car connection is just outside the St Francis as it a BART station. You are super close to shopping and just down the hill from Nob Hill. If you make it to the top of Powell and California you can walk down to Grant and into ChinaTown and you can take the Cable Car all the way to Fisherman's Warf. Just heard that the Cable Car rates are going uppppppp.

Hi Suze, yep, it sounds like the ever clever city fathers are going to increase the cable car fares to $5.00 per ticket.

That, with the high price of crossing the golden gate, it's getting really expensive to do standard tourist things in SF.

Do you know when the cabe car rate increase will be effective? We will be there in a couple weeks and the kids want to ride on them again. The last time, we were in a major accident and so the ride was only 2 blocks. Need to make good on it for this trip, lol!

mms, I think you will still have the $3.00 cablecar price if you are coming here to SF in two weeks. Hurry, get here quick before the price goes up, LOL.

Seriously though, a lot of people think that this $2.00 hike is excessive (I do) as SF is so expensive for the average traveler anyway and the cablecars are something most people that visit SF want to experience.

Have a great time in SF!

Thank you LoveItaly. The grandparents are in the east bay, so will spend most of our time out there. Will just come into the city for a day this time. Of course Grandma is full of energy, so I am sure we will hit a lot of the highlights. I haven't been back in a couple years, so it will be nice to visit again. As long as a taxi does not run a red light and crash into us again, lol!

Ditto the comment on the rooms in the original section of St Francis. Got stuck in one of the rooms once and - honestly - I could hear the man next door turning the pages of his newspaper !! Hear his shower, shave, etc. It was terrible. Unfortunately they had no rooms in the tower so I couldn't move (or so they said). I have stayed in their tower rooms and they are nice and can provide great views ! Very convenient location - BART and cable cars are close. There are also two very good although small places to eat also - one is a Thair Noodle Shop and the Mexican place is a few doors down. Not gourmet or high class dining but great food !

Oh fibronc, I am so sorry! Good grief. But the original rooms do,shall we say, leave a lot to be desired.

And mms, do not get involved in another accident! I hope you nor anyone you were with were hurt. Good grief!

You are from Portland, right? One of my favorite cities. I have family there. A very special place.

lunabug, September is a beautiful time to visit SF. If you can get in writing a guaranteed room in the tower that would be my first choice.

I have never stayed at the Sheraton Palace, but the location IMHO is second
best. And then the W.

Union Square is where I prefer to stay. It seems that it is easy to get to everywhere else from there.

But you cannot go wrong with any of the hotels locations really.
Have fun planning your trip!

LoveItaly--Yes, we are in the Portland area. We were lucky and were not hurt, but many people were. We were sitting on the bench on the outside, and it was a minivan that hit us. Since they sit up higher, the van hit all the people that were standing holding on. I can still picture it all...not pretty. I was alone with our two children, but other people helped me shelter them from the scene. My dh was deployed at the time. Isn't that how it always goes? lol! Our trip to the city was cut short and we went back to the east bay. I know it was a freak accident, but it still makes me nervous.

Oh mms, you were on a cable car? How horrifying. I am so sorry. Thank goodness none of you were hurt, but what a terrible experience. I hope your DH is home with you now and will be going to SF with the family

Traffic in SF is horrible. And BTW everyone, pedistrians are often hit by cars/busses etc.

Please, do not jaywalk (I use to but no more). Please pay attention when crossing streets, even when you have the green light. Cars come screeching around corners without any regard to traffic. Pay attention at all times.

Wishes for a safe, happy and relaxing visit for all of you coming to SF.

We stayed at the St. Francis in December. The hotel is old, but was very comfortable, and we loved the location for shopping and for proximity to transportation. Michael Mina's restaurant is in the hotel too!

LoveItaly--DH is retired now So he will be joining us. I am so used to going places without him though, lol!

A fantastic restaurant right there at Union Square is Scala's, right next to the Sir Francis Drake Hotel.

Do make reservatiions though, or you will probably not get a table.