Lodging

It's possible to visit San Francisco on a family-friendly budget.

San Francisco is a great family travel destination, but to be totally honest – it’s a pretty spendy city. Here are a few ideas to stretch your vacation budget while still getting the most out of the City by the Bay.

• Look for hotel rooms or suites with a kitchenette. This enables you to eat breakfast in the room, pack snacks for the rest of the day or have a light dinner “at home” some nights. If you can’t get a kitchenette, try for a room with a refrigerator and microwave. Call ahead, some places will furnish them even if they don’t come standard.
• Buy a MUNI passport. San Francisco is served by a network of public transportation referred to as Muni. This includes buses, underground trains, streetcars, and the legendary cable cars. Visit www.sfmuni.com for routes and schedules or check out this handy website http://transit.511.org. Mastering MUNI for your stay will save cash and show give you a glimpse of real San Francisco. And we all know littel kids love streetcars and trains…
• Don’t rent a car unless you are going out of the city. Parking is notoriously hellish in SF and can be expensive and/or inconvenient. Some meters downtown and near some of the popular toursist destinations need to be fed every twenty minutes. That’s a hassle. And if there is one branch of Frisco government that is rabidly efficient, it is the Department of Parking and Traffic. Don’t risk it. you will get a ticket.
• Golden Gate Park. Even if you don’t avail yourself of the world-class museums in GG Park (the DeYoung and the California Academy of Sciences), this vast 1,000 acre playground is great for families. The Koret Children’s Quarter is a spanking new playground with various types of equipment for multiple ages, including a concrete slide built into the hillside for sliding fast on cardboar. The vintage carousel delights little ones. The Strybing Arboretum nearby is a fascinating botanical garden. Then there is Stow Lake where you can rent a paddle boat or climb to the top of Strawberry Hill. Lots of open space provides space to throw around a baseball or kick a soccer ball. And don’t forget to visit the herd of buffalo — yep, that’s right buffalo –  that live in the northwestern corner of the park.

Burritos are filling and cheap.

Burritos. They are fresh, delicious, ubiquitous, made to order, travel well in their foil wraps, oh, so filling and cheap. San Francisco has tons of taquerias, with the biggest concentration being in the Mission district. But you can find burritos all over town these days.

Photos by Lisa Dion

The Stanyan Park Hotel, SF.

The Stanyan Park Hotel was my first introduction to San Francisco. No wonder why I never left.

My girlfriend and I drove across country after college and landed at this elegant, centrally-located hotel.

We stayed first in one of the cupola rooms overlooking the Park with a four-poster bed, desk, and armoire, and eventually moved to one of the six well-equipped suites. I can remember settling in at that desk and thinking, I could live here.

The suites are like adorable little apartments complete with built-in cabinetry, sitting rooms and kitchen with everything you need to feel at home. Some have pull out coaches and second bedrooms with twin beds making them ideal for families and extended stays. Rooms range from $139 to $225; suites are $275 to $350.

Pale yellows and cream, sagey green and peach tones contribute to the relaxing ambiance. It’s not surprising that the hotel is a favorite for visiting surgeons working up the hill at UCSF medical center or professors from USF on the other side of the Panhandle. The governor of Washington also stays here when he come to San Francisco.

The location on the east end of Golden Gate Park is close to the De Young Museum, the Japanese Tea Gardens, and the newly-opened California Academy of Sciences.

Haight Street with its panoply of restaurants (every type of cuisine from Ethiopian to Caribbean to Middle Eastern to New York-style pizza), bars, boutiques, thrift stores, head shops, and the city’s best music store, Ameoba, is a block north.

There are also two yoga studios on the block, a sports bar, bicycle rental shops, a nail/tanning salon, and Lava Java, a cute little cafe that serves delicious sandwiches, coffee and Chai.

A generous Continental breakfast is served in the cafe.

The hotel offers a generous Continental breakfast and afternoon tea in the street level cafe. Stanyan Park is both sophisticated and laid back with lace curtains, bright open spaces, free WiFi, and computers, and printers available to guests.

I eventually had to leave this lovely spot, but I never left San Francisco.

The Great Highway Inn, SF

The brochure promises “fax service and a friendly, courteous staff.” Yeah, right. Maybe the fax service.

I entered the office with my very active toddler — no don’t touch, no, come back honey, no stop, please — but was straight-up ignored by the older woman behind the counter, arguing with someone on the phone. It wasn’t until several minutes later, another employee entered the room, and I solicited his help (he didn’t ask). Woman behind the counter never looked up from her conversation even to make eye contact.

The Great Highway Inn is a pretty soulless place. One long beige cinder block of 54 rooms, with a big parking lot. It has lonesome strip mall feel, strange for the city.

What this place does have going for it, is a sweet location. This is the closest lodging you’ll come the windswept beaches and waves of the Pacific Ocean in San Francisco. And, it’s one block from the less-traveled area of Golden Gate Park, pristine and dreamy.

The rooms that range from $139 to $159 per night have been recently renovated, smell fresh but not antiseptic and the queen/queen we had was more than adequate. It was large and had a little sitting area, new bathroom, refrigerator and microwave (available on request).

Ladda’s Thai Cuisine (Seaview Restaurant), serving Thai and American food, occupies the space near the office and is open for breakfast, lunch and dinner — good option for families. I “yelped” them and the result was above average on the Thai part, less so on the American.

Java Beach Cafe near Ocean Beach in San Francisco.

But, Java Beach, one of my favorite cafes, in a city full of greats, is just two blocks from the hotel. A haven for locals, surfers, beach bums and writers, Java Beach is a great place to sip a pint outside on a sunny afternoon or hole up inside with a latte and a bowl of homemade soup in foggy weather.

The Great Highway Inn is also close to some of the only public (and surprisingly clean) restrooms along the beach and just two miles from the San Francisco Zoo.

The elegant Victorian buildings that make up Inn 1890 in San Francisco.

They don’t advertise. There isn’t even a sign.

I must have walked by the elegant Queen Anne Victorian on the corner of Page and Shrader streets hundreds of times on my way to the Haight.

It stood out to me only because of the gynormous geranium bush, easily the largest I’ve ever seen, that completely enveloped the steps to the side entrance.

It wasn’t until a friend who lives in the ‘hood told me that his family stays at Inn 1890 when they visit from Ireland.

Turns out the stately white building is an unassuming Bed & Breakfast inn that blends seamlessly into the residential Panhandle neighborhood of Edwardian and Victorian homes, just a block from Golden Gate Park.

Innkeeper Steve gave me a tour of some of the 17 rooms, the 24-hour kitchen and the peaceful garden. Many of the guests are short-term lodgers, relatives of patients at nearby UCSF. Others have heard of the Inn from locals and through word-of-mouth.

Inn 1890 has a homey vibe, with cheerful yellow walls and lots of windows. All but two of the unique rooms have private baths, two are suites, and almost all have refrigerators and microwaves. Many have kitchenettes. Period details abound, and some rooms have working fireplaces.

I was a little put off by a old, musty smell in a couple of the rooms, but I guess that goes with the territory in a house that was built in 1890…

A relaxing garden.

Classical music played in the sunny, well-stocked kitchen where guests are invited to make meals or tea any time of day.

The owners live in an adjacent property on Shrader St. that houses a few more rooms including the “cottage” as well as a one-bedroom apartment that rents out by the month.

Prices are exceptionally reasonable — $99 to $179 per night. Parking is an additonal $10 (and worth it).

Amenities include, free Wi-Fi, computer and printer, free in-room phone service, robes and slippers, queen-sized beds and down comforters.

Steve and the staff put out a large spread of breakfast items and goodies — fresh fruit, quiche, assorted cheeses, breads, muffins, cakes, and “always pie” — throughout the day.

It really feels like coming home. If your idea of home is a beautiful Victorian in San Francisco.

Affordable lodging near the Haight.

Alcatraz and Pier 39 aren’t for everyone.

If you’re a budget traveler who prefers to blend in and immerse yourself into the character of a city, check out the Metro Hotel for great value and a glimpse into “real” San Francisco.

This is affordable, no-frills lodging in NoPa (North Panhandle), a hip, emerging neighborhood with a paucity of tourists in white tennis shoes and matching sweatshirts.

Unlike Union Square and Fisherman’s Wharf, there are relatively few hotels in this centrally-located area, but instead you’ll find San Franciscans of all stripes hanging out in cool bars and hipster cafes, pushing strollers or riding bikes along streets lined with picturesque Victorians.

East of Golden Gate Park, the location is close to the Panhandle (a narrow expanse of green that flows into GGPark popular with runners, nannies and dog walkers), the Haight, Hayes Valley, and the Castro.

The famed “painted ladies,” a row of picture-perfect Victorians across from Alamo Square, are close by, as well as some of San Francisco’s acclaimed restaurants including Nopa, Bar Jules, Absinthe and Suppenkuche.

Within a block or two from the Metro, you’ll find cheap eats in a huge diversity of cuisines, a comic book store, yoga studio and specialty food stores.

The Independent, a nightclub down the street is one of the best places in the city to see alternative music.

A secluded garden behind the Metro Hotel.

The downside? Well, you get what you pay for. Rooms are small (the front ones are also noisy), amenities are barebones, and the floors slope in spots.

But the staff is super friendly, rooms are clean and all have private baths, and the hotel embraces their “green” philosophy tenaciously. The hotel is undergoing renovations and an update. There is also a lovely enclosed back garden, (smokers needn’t feel like criminals), and the stylish Metro Kathmandu next door serving Nepalese cuisine.

Rooms range from $76 to $130; with the largest room sleeping six in two separate sleeping areas.

Photos by Lisa Dion

The Red Victorian Bed, Breakfast and Art on Haight St.

Janis and Jerry may be long gone, but the Summer of Love is still alive at the Red Victorian Inn in the Haight-Ashbury district of San Francisco.

Eighteen affordable, thematic guest rooms with names like the Flower Child Room, the Peacock Suite and the Redwood Forest Room are vibrant, colorful and individually decorated. The Sunshine room extends the solar motif from the headboard to the walls to the sink basin. Six of the rooms have private baths and five shared bathrooms accommodate the others, though all rooms have their own sink. Here’s the best part — rates range from $75-$229.

The Peace Cafe, a gift shop and art gallery make up the ground floor level. Breakfast is included and world conversation is encouraged at this friendly, funky hotel that was build in 1904 but is associated more with 60’s-era values than those of the Victorian period.

The upper Haight neighborhood is renowned for great retail — trendy boutiques, shoe stores, vintage clothing shops and Amoeba, the legendary independent music store that occupies 24,000 square feet in a former bowling alley and sells new and used music on vinyl and CD.

Vintage shop on the Haight.

Good, inexpensive food abounds here. Besides New York-style thin crust pizza and plump, juicy burritos, the span of Haight Street from Masonic to Shrader includes a wine bar, a brew pub and a Persian cocktail lounge. Cha Cha Cha offers a lively ambiance, delicious Caribbean fare and their signature sangria. At Kan Zaman, diners sit on cushions the floor while eating Mediterranean food and watching belly dancers. Or for those craving Asian flavors, the Citrus Club noodle bar is the way to go.

Golden Gate Park is mere blocks away with miles of open spaces, hiking and biking trails, three museums, botanical gardens and a fabulous children’s playground with vintage carousel.