Lodging in SF and vicinity

[frankie big face]

Hey locals,

I'm looking at some hotels in downtown San Fran and the surrounding areas. I actually found on in Berkeley that looks awesome and is cheap and there's a BART station right out front. Is this a good idea or am I going to end up frustrated and/or looking for rides because the BART stops running late at night or it's dangerous or whatever? I don't know anything about Berkeley, but I know some of you live there. I've been to San Fran a couple of times and plan to do some touristy things in the city, but exploring the surrounding areas could be fun too. Any advice?

Frankie Big Face

P.S. I am considering a roommate to help defray costs if there's interest from someone who is not planning to get drunk every night and throw up on everything within vomiting distance. I'll be staying from Wednesday, July 14 to Tuesday, July 20.

[Lunkhead]

BART stops running around 12:30AM, so you'll have to plan accordingly if you're going to stay in Berkeley. Also, BART really only runs along the East side of the city through the "downtown" area on Market street, then down through the Mission and to points far South. Getting to the ocean or other points on the West side of the city involves also taking an SF MUNI bus or train. SoCha looks walkable from BART but Mojitos is definitely not. You'd have to catch a cab or a bus or get a ride to BART or back to Berkeley. Getting a cab should be doable as both North Beach (where Mojitos is) and Market Street get decent cab traffic. As far as accessing touristy stuff from BART goes, that shouldn't be too hard. Some of it is near BART and some you can get to via a train or cable car near or co-located with BART. If you have specific tourist sites in mind let us know. Another consideration with BART is that the ride in/out takes 30-45 minutes depending on where you get on/off. Also it's not as cheap as people might expect (it can be $4-5 a ride each way). As far as safety goes, you probably won't have to worry about that. It shouldn't be sketchy near any of the BART stations you'd be using at the times you'd be using them.

Several of us locals do live over here in Berkeley, and some of us are really close to downtown. The practice space that the Berkeley Social Scene uses is nearby in Oakland. Your hotel may be considerably cheaper here than similar quality stuff in San Francisco. If the hotel you're looking at is the Hotel Shattuck, it was just completely remodeled and is supposed to be very swanky. As far as touristy stuff in the East Bay goes, the few things that come to mind are the Oakland Museum of California, the Chabot Space and Science Center, the UC Berkeley campus, and lots of nice parks and cool little neighborhoods. Some stuff would be reachable by BART, but mostly you'd either be on long bus rides or you'd need to have a car or a local tour guide to explore the East Bay, unfortunately. Things are a little more spread out over here than in the city.

[fluffy]

I would check for deals on hotwire.com. I had great luck with them for the recent Long Beach show.

There's some nice hotels downtown. I'd stay close to Market if possible. Good Hotel (on 7th and Mission) seems interesting and is an okay area and is still really close to BART.

And as Lunkhead said, BART stops at 12:30. SF local buses run 24 hours, so if you plan on being out late, staying in SF proper is probably a good idea.

(And SoCha is totally walkable from BART - I make that walk every day as part of my commute. I wouldn't want to make that walk carrying instruments and gear, though.)

[frankie big face]

Thanks guys. The hotel I booked (I figured I'd jump on it and cancel later if necessary) is the Hotel Shattuck. I think I actually will plan to stay in Berkeley and just deal with the transportation situation as necessary. I don't think I'll be bringing any instruments (I'm assuming someone will have a guitar I can use), so walking several blocks shouldn't be an issue and I'm not exactly a night owl, so the BART hours should work for me.

[fluffy]

Cool. I've been working under the assumption that most people will end up using my acoustic at SoCha anyway.

[JonPorobil]

I hear tell that normally a good chunk of the participants stay in the same hotel. Last year most of us stayed at the Rodeway Inn, but that was mainly because Spokane doesn't have a whole lot of hotels to choose from.

Anyways... Anyone want to split a hotel room with me? I'd offer to bunk with Frank, but given my performance last year, I'm not sure I fit the qualifications to be his roommate*.

I'm not picky about where I'm going to stay, but I'd rather err on the side of economy than luxury.


*Friday night of last year's show, I had a little too much to drink. Woke up in the middle of the night (3 or 4ish?), crawled out of bed and to the bathroom, where I took a cold shower and performed a couple of bodily functions best left unwritten. To be fair, I apparently did all this without waking fluffy, who shared the room with me. Woke up again a few hours later with a hangover, but was able to perform my set that evening, as well as those of every musician who recruited me as assistance.

[ken]

Thanks guys. The hotel I booked (I figured I'd jump on it and cancel later if necessary) is the Hotel Shattuck. I think I actually will plan to stay in Berkeley and just deal with the transportation situation as necessary. I don't think I'll be bringing any instruments (I'm assuming someone will have a guitar I can use), so walking several blocks shouldn't be an issue and I'm not exactly a night owl, so the BART hours should work for me.

I hear the Hotel Shattuck is really nice, so I think you will enjoy that. You are also walking distance from Telegraph Ave., which has two major record stores on it. Lots of good stuff right there on Shattuck Ave. as well.

[frankie big face]

Thanks for the info Ken. Having been to SanFran a few times already, I think it's time I explored the East Bay, so I am definitely going to stay in Berkeley at the Shattuck.

[glennny]

Friday July 16th at the Starry Plough

Scubacat is playing.

You may know the drummer of ScubaCat as "The Prisoner" on Song Fight. He's our drummer for Zipline, and much of the 2007 West Coast live tour.

They are a great band!

Starry plough is only a little over a mile South of Hotel Shattuck, and is actually on Shattuck ave. They have good beer.

But if you're at the hotel Shattuck and you like beer you MUST walk across the street to Jupiter for a fantastic beer selection!

glennny

[Spud]

Isn't that currently one of our show nights?

[fluffy]

I really need to get in real-time contact with Aaron at SoCha and get all this sorted out. Ugh.

Or maybe one of the other locals would like to take a shot at getting a timely response from him?

[glennny]

Sorry, I thought the show nights were Saturday acoustic and Sunday Electric.

If there's a Friday night show, DONT SEE SCUBACAT!

GO TO THE SONG FIGHT SHOW!

[Jefff]

someone who is not planning to get drunk every night and throw up on everything within vomiting distance.

In light of this, I think it's funny that you PMd me about it.

My plans are up in the air until I know the size of my entourage.

[fluffy]

Sorry, I thought the show nights were Saturday acoustic and Sunday Electric.

If there's a Friday night show, DONT SEE SCUBACAT!

GO TO THE SONG FIGHT SHOW!

Yeah, right now the dates are a little screwy, because of how things got screwed up because of our previous venue crisis which led to me responding to an email without reading it fully. I think at the time I was hoping we could do a three-night show (Friday/Saturday/Sunday) and as a result we ended up getting Friday and Sunday covered but no Saturday. I'm still working on trying to either get SoCha moved to Saturday, or find out if we need to find another venue for Saturday (which might be my roof!) or what.

It's a mess right now but I'm confident we'll work something out.

[frankie big face]

someone who is not planning to get drunk every night and throw up on everything within vomiting distance.

In light of this, I think it's funny that you PMd me about it.

Yeah, having had no takers, I decided to go with a "devil you know" approach.

[inevitableguy]

I got a room at The Mosser...price wasn't too bad for being in the heart of downtown. Less than a block from BART, only about a mile from Mojito's, so I'll be able to ride/walk/stumble to and from the gigs.

(There goes my budget for the summer...)

[frankie big face]

I've still got an empty bed available if anyone is looking to split the cost of a room. It's in Berkeley at the Hotel Shattuck (http://www.hotelshattuckplaza.com). Again, I'm there from Wednesday to Tuesday and, even though it looks swanky, it's pretty inexpensive. PM me if you're interested.
--Frank

[fluffy]

I got a room at The Mosser...price wasn't too bad for being in the heart of downtown. Less than a block from BART, only about a mile from Mojito's, so I'll be able to ride/walk/stumble to and from the gigs.

Note that the Saturday gig is now at Abbey Tavern, which is nowhere near BART or Muni rail (but the #38 bus goes pretty much directly between the Mosser and the Abbey). Or I (or another local) can pick you up, car space permitting.

[Lunkhead]

Your best bet for public transit to the Abbey is definitely a MUNI bus. You may also be able to hail a passing cab out there after the show, but I'm not entirely sure of that. You could probably at least call a cab, if you're staying in San Francisco. If you're staying in Berkeley or Oakland you'll want to have a car, otherwise you'll need to get a cab or bus to downtown San Francisco in time to catch the BART back by 12:30am. BART stops running at 12:30am, unfortunately. Mojito is in a very busy touristy part of town. It's also a block from a very big major street, so you should have plenty of bus and cab options there. The same BART cutoff time (12:30am) applies, though, for folks returning to Berkeley/Oakland via public transit

[frankie big face]

If you're staying in Berkeley or Oakland you'll want to have a car....

Hmmm....does this mean we'll be reprising the famous night ride through Boston? Please?

[Lunkhead]

If you're staying in Berkeley or Oakland you'll want to have a car....

Hmmm....does this mean we'll be reprising the famous night ride through Boston? Please?

This time there won't be a Big Dig, and I'll know my way around the city, and the city's streets won't have been designed by complete nutcases. Otherwise, though, yeah. We'll probably want to stay and hang out for a bit after the shows are done, though, fyi, and I may have to shuttle gear some place for overnight storage Saturday night and Sunday night I'll have a bunch of gear to take back to Berkeley. Plus obviously we're planning to get there an hour or so early to set everything up.

[fluffy]

and the city's streets won't have been designed by complete nutcases.

...