travelingengineerWould any of you be so kind as to recommend an inexpensive motel/hotel/courtyard nearby to the Amtrak station in Emeryville, California? I must take an enforced overnighter there between two legs of an Amtrak trip. It would, of course, be preferable to have accommodations right next door (or so) to the station, but otherwise within a mile or so, perhaps walking distance. Thanks for your advice.
My wife and I stayed at the Holiday Inn Express hotel near the university in Berkeley after arriving on Amtrak. This is not, however, near the train station. We took a cab from the station to the hotel. When we wanted to go to San Francisco, we walked to a nearby BART station and traveled on it. IIRC, the hotel was reasonably priced, around a $100.00 per night, but that was 3 years ago.
From my experience looking out the windows of the Amtrak bus to and from San Francisco, there is no "there" in Emeryville. There are no pedestrians in sight, ever, because there is no place to walk to. It is ruled by the automobile and is about as interesting as anyplace else in the USA next to a freeway interchange.
I can't imagine a more exquisite torture than to be in an Emeryville hotel and able to see, across the Bay, the glittering, exciting city of San Francisco. Frankly, to be that close, only to be in Emeryville, would be my definition of Hell. Take the bus to San Francisco and back!
That being said, if I were an Oaklandite, I'd be a good one. But I'm not; I'm a tourist and lover of The Barbary Coast.
Sadly, the Emeryville area around the station is too new to have much in the way of inexpensive hotels. As mentioned above your best bet is to get the best price you can at what's nearby.
The closest hotel (memory refreshed by Google maps) is a Hyatt hotel (easy walking distance, you can see it from the station). There is also a Hilton Garden Hotel several blocks away. On the one hand, it is Hilton's lower cost brand but, being a Hilton property, it might have a shuttle.
Berkeley is a short cab ride. Check with hotels.com, etc for good deals. The Hotel Shattuck is right downtown Berkeley but very upscale and expensive. All of the San Francisco hotels at Fisherman's Wharf are easily accessible via the Amtrak bus. It is about a 30 minute ride and you must call Amtrak to make reservations for the bus.
- There are several good hotels in the immediate vicinity of the Emeryville station. I can't recommend a specific one. Plenty of reviews online to help you narrow it down. If you're into food, the nearby Emeryville Public Market has some great ethnic options.
- Rent a car to get to a less expensive motel/hotel or more interesting location in the East Bay. I like Enterprise R-A-C since they have more off airport locations and are usually flexible about drop off and pick up.
- Still more options are available if you get off Amtrak at Richmond and take BART someplace. You may or may not be able to find a compatible hotel close to a BART station. Look at the 511.org website, a comprehensive guide to SFBA transit.
Unless you make a lot of time for connections, I would not select a downtown/always expensive SF hotel. The Bay Bridge is a fantastic traffic bottleneck that only BART can bypass.
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Amtrak has bus connections from Emeryville to SF for the Cal. Zephyr, at least. One of them drops you near Union Sq. We stayed at http://www.jdvhotels.com/hotels/sanfrancisco/petite_auberge, which was pretty reasonable given the location.
-Don (Random stuff, mostly about trains - what else? http://blerfblog.blogspot.com/)
I don't have any recommendations for Emeryville. I always stay in San Francisco. However, if you go to Hotels.com, Travelocity.com, or a similar site, you can probably find a hotel that will meet your needs. Amongst other things these cites give you the distance from the center of the city to the hotel location.
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