So I went to San Francisco and I’m back. Gosh, I learned so many lessons on that trip, leading up to that trip even, I could write a thousand posts about it. Okay, of course I’m exaggerating, but you get the point.
Let’s start with before the trip. As you may recall, I was facing a big dilemma regarding where I would stay in San Francisco as a female solo traveler. I wanted to stay somewhere nice, and in the center of the action. I wanted my room to be a good size, like around 300sq ft. I also wanted my hotel to have a restaurant and a bar. Most importantly, I wanted it to be as cheap as I could possibly find it.
I quickly found out, however, that in San Francisco nothing comes cheap. Weeks before I booked it, I noticed that Hotel Nikko was like $127 a night. Since I didn’t act then, when I actually booked it the price swelled to a whopping…Okay I don’t remember the exact price per night, but after taxes and fees, including valet parking for my car, I got the “special rate” of $570 and change for two nights. That’s like $285 a night. I know the way I was talking about this trip, you probably thought I was going to be there for like a week or something, but nope, just two nights.
Anyway, that astronomical price was mind-blowing to me – I didn’t want to do it. But as I continued to search and could find nothing up to my standards that was better, I had to bite the bullet. I wanted to be sure and lock in that “deal” before it went up again.
But I wasn’t satisfied, so in the meantime I kept searching. And not only searching, but researching. With my initial quick Google search on the best places to stay in San Francisco for a female solo traveler, the results turned up Union Square. It was said to be safe, have a lot of shops and restaurants, and a place that was safe to walk at night, because a lot of people were out at night in Union Square.
Yet upon further investigation, Union Square was discovered to be a homeless hub, where pick-pocketers were aplenty and human feces could be found on the streets. One traveler compared it to downtown LA. After that I was like say less. That was all I needed to hear to book elsewhere.
In comes the Stanford Court Hotel. Nestled in SF’s reportedly (‘cause I don’t know) well-to-do neighborhood of Nob Hill, this hotel seemed like a great alternative. I went up and down the surrounding streets on Google maps and everything just looked so clean and pristine, like no Downtown LA vibes at all. Plus at $560 and some change, two nights here was $10 cheaper than Hotel Nikko so I booked it.
Mind you, I had yet to cancel my reservation at Hotel Nikko, because I can be indecisive as fuck and I like to keep my options open. One can never be too sure, which is why even with these two hotels reserved, I kept on searching. That’s when I came upon Hotel Zelos.
Going up and down the streets surrounding the Stanford Court Hotel got me to thinking…while I liked the neat and clean-looking surrounding streets of that hotel, the area was also giving tre boring. The thing I liked about Union Square before I got wind of its homeless problem is all the shops and restaurants that were in the area. But as I was going up and down those Union Square streets on Google Maps, most of the shops were high-end like, Prada, Yves Saint Laurant – you know really expensive shit like that that I currently can’t afford. I mean the only way I would spend $5000 on a bag is if I secure the bag with an annual salary of at least $500,000…maybe $5 million. Then and only then, would I feel okay about dropping that kinda cash on a bag. And by the way I’m pretty sure $5000 would be one of the cheaper, smaller bags at one of those stores.
Anyway, who was I kidding? There was no way I was about to set foot in one of those stores. Hotel Zelos, on the other hand, had a Trader Joe’s next door, a Marshall’s across the street and a Ross just down the way, all for $100 or so less than the Stanford Court Hotel. Now you’re speaking my language — that’s right, I booked it.
It seemed perfect –great location, cheap (well, cheaper) and yeah, just what I needed. Still this other hotel kept running across my mind. I’d seen it, even liked it while doing my search, but some of the TripAdvisor reviews made me question whether or not this hotel would be the right one for me.
The hotel is called The Clancy, an Autograph Hotel which is a part of Marriot Bonvoy. I’m not exactly sure why I was drawn to this hotel, but I was. There’s nothing particularly fancy about it. It has a cool looking lobby, and I liked what the reviews said about its location. It was in a quiet area, a tech area, a short walk from places like Union Square, and so, yeap, you guessed it – I booked it.
At $638 and some change for two nights, including taxes, fees and valet parking, this hotel was a pretty penny more than the others. Now with four hotels waiting in the balance, and well, you know, life be life-in’, I began to wonder if I should even head up north at all…
To be Continued…
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