[ARCHIVE to 2014] Hilton San Francisco Union Square {US-CA}
Apr 17, 2002, 8:41 am
How long is it from the airport to the downtown Hilton?
Apr 17, 2002, 8:48 am
JP
Apr 17, 2002, 9:01 am
now I will cross my fingers for nice weather on the weekend... smile...and a great room in the hotel.
Have HH Gold, so hoping for an upgrade when we arrive... one with a nice view would be a real plus..
Apr 17, 2002, 12:01 pm
I took the SFO arporter to the SF Hilton at the end of February and it was the second stop ( mind you there was only three passengers on the coach)
Regards
TBS
Apr 17, 2002, 12:39 pm
Friday will have a high temp of 63F and mostly sunny. Saturday will be partly cloudy with a high of 64F. And, Sunday will be sunny with a high of 62F. (Sorry, I would do the conversions to Celsius, but I can't rememebr the formulae.)
I've decided on a cab. I will only be in town for 48 hours, and don't want to waste anytime stuck on a shuttlebus.
Apr 17, 2002, 12:44 pm
Apr 23, 2002, 4:29 pm
Hilton San Francisco Union Square
Hilton San Francisco Union Square
333 O'Farrell St. San Francisco, CA US 94102
SF Hilton &Towers 4/19-4/21/2002 (0 Photo)
Hilton San Francisco Union Square
Left the hotel feeling pretty good. It's in a good location near Union Square or the Powell Place MUNI/Trolley stop. The Hilton Gold Status very much impressed the wife who never has had status when staying at a hotel. For a more complete report of the entire weekend, you can catch my post in Trip Reports. Or, you can email me if you have any questions
Check In
Arrived about 1:45pm, new Gold Card in hand, and hopped into the Hhonors line. (The 10 people in the other line gave me odd looks.) This was a priceline stay for $65/night. (I feel lucky that we got the Hilton; we were feeling adventurous when we booked via priceline.) So, I pre-emptively asked for a room with a view in the Towers. The CSR at check-in was helpful, saying that they only had a room with two double beds available, but if we were wlling to wait we could get a room with a King in 90 minutes. (This was my wife's first trip to SF, and our first trip alone together in over two years.) So, we opted to wait, checked our luggage and went out to lunch. Coming back a few hours later, we were given room 3577 (35th floor, Tower I).
Room
The bellman who brought up our luggage, in conversation, said that we were in one of the newly renovated rooms, although of standard size. The room was nice, although a bit on the small side; though this being San Francisco, I wasn't expecting a large room. The view in 3577 is spectacular though! We could see from Twin Peaks to the Golden Gate Bridge, and the sunset that evening was very nice; got a little hot with the sun beaming in late afternoon though.The bed was non-descript. I don't have any complaints about it other than the pillows were very flimsy.
Dining
We stopped by the Concierge Lounge (17th Floor, Tower 2) Friday evening and had some very good appetizers (Pot Stickers and Chicken kabobs) and soda. Late Saturday night we went up to Cityscapes on the 46th floor. They were not serving any food at 11pm (we had wanted dessert, and went back down and ordered room service). However, there was a live band, and dancing. For non-hotel guests, there was a $10 cover charge to get in. Cityscapes has an amazing view of the city! We sat down for a little while on the Bay Bridge side, and enjoyed the night time view of the city. Service was slow though, and we left after the waiter didn't show up with our sodas after about 20 minutes. The Creme Brulee I got from room service was excellent. Both mornings we went to the Concierge Lounge for juice. They also had the regular fare of cereal, muffins and fruit. The Lounge is open on weekend for breakfast from 6:30am to 10am. It proved extremely crowded in the mornings.
Check-out
One warning though...I mentioned that we were in a newly renovated room. They were still doing renovations on our floor or the floor above us; because we heard loud hammering when we first got into the room. The Bellman assured us taht it would stop by 5pm (which it did) and we didn't hear it the rest of the weekend. However, if I had been in my room trying to work during the day, it would have been unbearable. Opted for Video Checkout; the only charge to my credit card was $17 for the room service Saturday night. I sure hope I get those 10 HHonorsPoints!http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/wink.gif
Apr 30, 2002, 1:10 pm
As a Gold, my experiences had been great.
I was always upgraded to the Tower floors.
The best part of hotel is its concierge staffs. They could always find me hard to get tickets or VIP passes to nightclubs.
Apr 30, 2002, 3:34 pm
I had a recent stay there...I posted about it last week. Good Hotel, I would stay there again.
May 1, 2002, 6:58 am
Also -- what are some good restaurants around that area? I'm assuming there is some good seafood....
Thanks -- Tim
May 1, 2002, 7:42 am
I stay at this hotel a lot, and indeed have just spent the weekend there. I rather like it.
That said, I have never eaten there, and the 17th floor club is always cramped, noisy and hot. Still, it is a great base for work in SF or Berkeley (just short hop on the BART).
Let me suggest "Johnny Foley's" 243 O'Farrel, two blocks from the hotel, http://www.johnnyfoleys.com (try the curry)
and "the Irish Bank" 10 Mark Lane (off Bush St.), as excellent places to recover from jet lag
[This message has been edited by Dub (edited 05-01-2002).]
May 1, 2002, 9:16 am
However, for the wonderful price I got my room at ($107) with lounge very near by, I really can't complain too much.
The lounge is quite small and always packed with people, limitting seating of course. I wondered if perhaps people who were not entitled to use the executive lounge were using it, since it was so crowded. There was no checking of room numbers to see if you actually were entitled to use this lounge.
The area around this property is not really very nice for a female walking alone at night.
May 1, 2002, 11:57 am
you should get a room on the top floor (3rd floor above the lobby( Lobby and floors 1,2,3 on the lift).Make sure you get the vouchers for breakfast at check in as you have a complimentary continental breakfast in the lounge/bar area if you give your voucher to the waiter.
No swimming pool at the Hilton FW.
Have a great trip.
Jun 19, 2002, 1:11 pm
Jun 30, 2002, 9:42 pm
Anyway, HH Gold here. Checkin a breeze, "concierge" level room, which consists now apparently many floors in Tower 1 (the Sardine Can). Room pretty basic but decent with a spectacular view. The new lounge (on the "V" floor, which is 45?) was just beautiful and a great improvement from the previous lounge, open 7 days a week with a nice "happy hour" spread of evening snackies as well as a pretty standard continental breakfast. Views from the lounge are spectacular. Hotel security is also markedly improved from a few years back. There were always security guards by the elevators. (This will hopefully prevent a similar experience like my elevator ride with the toothless hooker of a few years ago.) All in all, other than the neighborhood on the west (which really is better than 15 years ago when I lived not far from there), a very good stay.