Hotels By City: Cheap Hotels, Hotel Guides & Hotel Blogs

In the spirit of full disclosure, I have a thing for hotel bars.

It started when I was five. My dad took me into the Hyatt Regency at One Embarcadero and bought me a virgin strawberry daiquiri and we tossed pennies into the big glassy fountain and I jumped on the plush couches and danced around by myself to the music being played by the nice man on the grand ...

North Beach is a changed neighborhood. Once the haven of punks and poets and other delightful local misfits, it's been overrun by thugish tweens with fake IDs and bad manners. It's hard to find an establishment in North Beach that isn't crawling with vacuous stares, bad grammar and worse fashion sense. But such places can still be found in this truly wonderful, historic neighborhood.

Which is why it is a superb ...

Top 10 Tips For Visiting San Francisco

1. Use public transportation or take taxis. San Francisco is very small (49 square miles) and full of one-way streets that aren't well marked (if marked at all). It's difficult enough to get around if you live there. It's likely to be a frustrating and potentially trip-ruining experience if you are visiting. In addition, parking is limited and expensive. Your best bet is taking ...

The Tunnel Top bar on Bush street, atop the Stockton tunnel (hence the dark mystery of the bar's name is shockingly solved) is one of the finest watering holes in San Francisco. It is a funky, cozy space with a small, downstairs and a mezzanine and a narrow balcony that overlooks the ruckus below, offering a fine people-watching vantage.

The barstools are primitive wood affairs, but more comfy than you ...

I am in love with Magnolia. Which is lucky for my brewmeister BF who can't get enough of a good brew pub, and Mag's (as we affectionately call it) gets better every time we go. For weekend brunch the brisket hash and the creole crabcake benedict call me with a siren song, and my butt grows ever larger with every empty plate. The burgers are divine, the pizza's fabulous and ...

Since my days of as a kid with nothing to do on the Mississippi River, through my time as a icy adventure woman on Lake Superior, to camping on the beaches of Venezuela, I feel a little more sound and at ease with myself near water. I prefer islands, mostly for romantic reasons: their solitude, their desperation, and the kind of vertigo you get when there’s nothing but blue blue ...

I have heard people say that they dislike fries. That fried potatoes are not their thing.

BUT to break them of their non-fried carb restriction, I take them to Fritjz. Hands down one of the best and most unique places to eat fries in SF.

With some clever and elegant dipping sauces (who knew wasabi or roasted red pepper mayo could be SO good??) and hearty portions (enough to share with a ...

The Lumiere Theater at 1576 California Street (at Polk) is one of San Francisco’s best places to see foreign films and this weekend’s US premeire of The Cop, The Criminal, and The Clownwill not disappoint.

Located one block east of Van Ness, bordering San Francisco's Russian Hill District, the Lumiere Theatre features some of the city's most adventurous independent film, foreign language cinema ...

49 Geary is my favorite kind of candy store. It's full of galleries and antique book dealers and is a great way to spend an afternoon. It's got a pretty cool history too.

49 Geary was built 2 years after the 1906 San Francisco earthquake and was designed to house one of Western Union's headquarters. For decades, including throughout WWI and WWII, 49 Geary was a major communications hub for the United States, second only to New ...

Nightlife at 24th and Mission in San Francisco

I hear it time and time again from people visiting the Bay Area: “How do we get to The Mission, and what is there to do there?”

The Mission District of San Francisco, that was at once the home of crack heads and gangs, then computer techies of the dot com boom, is now the home to activists young and old, hipsters, and families ...