Non-NonRev

I worked in the Larkspur Landing office complex (1100 Larkspur Landing Road, next to the Courtyard) from 1988 to 1991. Easy walk from the hotel to the ferry terminal across Sir Francis Drake Boulevard.

The mix of restaurants in the shopping plaza changed over time but there were always a few good places, and the big market had Whole Foods style prepared food before Whole Foods existed.

The Courtyard courtesy vav could also run you to very close-by bigger shopping malls like the Corte Madera Town Center (Il Fornaio), Villages at Corte Madera and also in Greenbrae.

dhuey

Alright, one more thing about this Larkspur Courtyard possibility: it would be ideal for someone who will be spending time in both San Francisco and either/both of Marin County and the East Bay (e.g., Oakland, Berkeley). You could use a rental car for your Marin/EB destinations, and the ferry for when you go to S.F.

Zorak

Also the Marin Airporter goes from SFO <-> Larkspur. Although, I haven't lived in Marin in 6+ years and I see the Larkspur terminal itself is no more and it's now just a bus stop pick up/drop off:

http://www.marinairporter.com/index.php/larkspur

Non-NonRev

One of our corporate trainers who was on the road 100% of the time had a bumper sticker made for his car:

MY OTHER CAR IS THE MARIN AIRPORTER

returnoftheyeti

There is a Marriott and a Courtyard right on top of the 12st Oakland BART station, but in the really big conventions they are sold as convention hotels as well.

I used to work in Chinatown/Downtown Oakland Jack London Area. Here is the deal in super short list

JLS : fantastic food. Very safe. Has a ferry ride to SF, but the schedules are weird. The walk to BART is safe, but it might be long to some people clocking in at about a mile.
Chinatown is awesome, super authentic, dirty as hell and graffitied, safe and next to BART.
Oldtown Oakland has the Marriotts. Weird people out, doing drugs and sleeping at the bus stop, but they don't bother you. Also very Safe. Oldtown also has some fantastic restruants and a Smart and Final grocery store.

The Walnut Creek Marriott is walkable to BART, its about 15 minutes if you take the side streets in an office park type setting.

rjque

This made me chuckle a bit. When I lived in SF it took longer to take muni from the Sunset to Embarcadero than it took me to commute from SF to Palo Alto. I suspect the Palo Alto commute is longer these days, but I don't have much faith that Muni has gotten any better.

HSaxa

Not to go off topic as I'm sure there is a Muni thread somewhere IMO, Muni has got better... they've started to consolidate stops, optimize lines, etc. Still not awesome, and there's still a ton to be done, but it still manages to move tons of people across the city in a somewhat efficient manner.

If the goal of the OP is to stay in SF proper, there are plenty of options that would allow them to do so if they're willing to learn how Muni/Lyft/Uber work. And as someone who lives in SF, I always tell visitors to stay somewhere besides Union Sq/FiDi/SoMa/Fisherman's Wharf (SF's version of Midtown). There are so many more interesting neighborhoods.

dhuey

One year I ran Bay to Breakers in less time than it took me to ride the N Judah from Ocean Beach back to the start area. I'm not sure if SF Muni is the worst metro transit agency in the nation, but it must be among the worst.

ucdtim17

Waterfront Hotel is quite nice if you want something better than Inn at JLS https://www.tripadvisor.com/Hotel_Re...alifornia.html