Rental Car and Hotel Help

In early June, I will be traveling from LA, up the Central Coast to NAPA and, finally, back down to San Francisco. We will arrive in San Francisco early on a Thursday (leaving from NAPA in morning), spend Thursday and Friday touring and leave out of San Jose early Saturday (need to be at airport around 4:30 am!).

So, I can%26#39;t decide what to do...I was considering using Priceline for a two night stay in Union Square and just paying the extra money for parking. I%26#39;m not sure if the hotel would let us park early in the day however (we will definitely be in town before check-in time). If not, where could we park?

Or maybe we could just stay in Union Square one night, drive to San Jose the next night and stay near the airport. Same parking situation however for the first night. And this would leave us with having to check out on our last touring day and finding a place to park in the city until we are ready to drive to San Jose.

What to do? Any help is appreciated!!

Rental Car and Hotel Help

We have season theatre tickets to ACT in San Francisco and when we have a play we stay overnight, since we live around 80 miles away. These are matinee tickets, performances start at 2:00 pm. Most of the hotels state that ';check-in time'; is around 3:00 pm on. We usually arrive at our hotel around 10:30 or 11 and have never been turned away for parking. The attendant usually asks us if we are checking in. If a room is ready for us we then take our luggage upstairs. If not, we have the front desk store it and we go off for lunch.

When you find out where you are staying, you might check this out with the hotel, but I am virtually certain that they will be glad to take your car. Good luck. Also, you might check hotelres.com. This is not a bidding-for-travel, but is a consolidator which gives discounts. The SF hotels use them to make sure they are as full as possible. In addition, they do not charge your credit card, you pay the hotel when you check out and adhere to the hotel%26#39;s cancellation policy., not the no-cancellation policy of Priceline, for example. You can ask for a hotel in the Union Square area and they will give you a page of hotels with rooms for your dates, that you can choose from. There are pictures and full information about the hotels, to include parking fees, amenities, etc. If this works for you, then you could call the hotel and ask about the parking.

Rental Car and Hotel Help

I think your hotel would have no problem in allowing you to use the parking if you are a paying guest for the day, regardless of what the check-in time is. Once you know what the hotel is, you can call and ask.

There are plenty of places you can park around Union Square if the hotel would not allow you to do so. Frankly, I%26#39;d be floored if they did not; Even if they are full, they can stack cars if they have the guests%26#39; keys.

Some possibilities for temporary parking while waiting for your hotel:

- Yerba Buena Garage (5th and Mission streets). This is a city-owned garage and has very reasonable fees for short term (1-3 hours) and then goes up to a high of about $25 for 24 hours.

- Ellis/O%26#39;Farrell Garage. This is not city-owned, but if you%26#39;re parking for just a few hours, it%26#39;s not too expensive.

Some possibilities for all-day / overnight parking if you just don%26#39;t want to bother and prefer check into your hotel and dump the car so you can get started on your vacation:

- Lot next to the Bijou Hotel on Mason Street near Eddy. The neighborhood can scare people, but it%26#39;s secure and is watched 24 hours. $20 at last check. Personally, if it were close to my hotel, i%26#39;d park here.

- Lot on Geary Street between Jones and Leavenworth charges about $17 with in and out privileges. Once again, if it were close to my hotel -- within a couple of blocks -- I%26#39;d park here.

Thanks for the information! I%26#39;ve look at some things on hotelres.com and the prices, unfortunately, aren%26#39;t much lower than the prices posted on the hotel websites.

I%26#39;ve been reading more about parking garages in the city. It seems like it may be much cheaper to park in one of these garages. I found this site which lists city-owned garages: www.sfgov.org/site/dpt_index.asp?id=13451

The two that you listed aren%26#39;t on this list. Is there a more comprehensive list located somewhere? Or are these privately-owned garages that I may just have to find when I get there? Are these 24-hour garages? We will be leaving early in the morning.

And, one more question: How long does it take to get from San Francisco to San Jose? Per mapquest, it seems to be ~ 45 miles. Our plane leaves at 6:30 am so I doubt there will be any traffic so early in the morning.

Do you have a lot of luggage? And a map of the city? If you find a less expensive parking lot, and it isn%26#39;t within walking distance of the hotel you could drop off your luggage, go to the parking lot and take public transportation back.

I forgot to say.....on hotelres.com there is a place at the top of the screen which says ';packages';. Look for a package which includes parking....a ';parking package';. This has worked well for us, at the King George and the Chancellor, especially. If you take their ';extra special value rates';, then you can%26#39;t cancel if you need to.

Allow an hour to go from San Francisco (Union Square area, slightly more for Fisherman%26#39;s Wharf) to San Jose. There won%26#39;t be a lot of traffic at 4 a.m., but it%26#39;s still at least 50 miles.

Regarding parking lots.

Take a look at the previous discussion about parking.

http://tinyurl.com/qz9ml

It started out with someone trying to figure out how to park on the street for free and evolved into a discussion that included information about lots around the Union Square area. The caveat I%26#39;d make is that the long list of lots posted is three years old and some changes have taken place. The lot inside the old Holiday Inn Financial District, for example, is no longer offering that deal anymore because the hotel has completed its renovation.

You can Google parking garages and San Francisco and somewhere in the hits you will find a Citysearch.com page that lists garages, private and city-owned. It will even calculate how far they are from your hotel.

Here%26#39;s some individual information about the Yerba Buena Garage, aka Fifth and Mission garage.

http://www.fifthandmission.com/about.htm

Ok thanks! I won the Marriott Downtown last night for $85/night. I am excited!! I%26#39;ve been reading and the Fifth and Mission lot is right across the street. It is $22 for overnight parking (which is 1/2 what the hotel charges). I%26#39;ll probably go with this. Seems easy enough. Who could complain about a nice hotel near Union Square for $85 + $22 parking? Thanks for all the information. I really appreciate it!

excel