My wife and I recently went out to the Bay Area for a weekend with our friends. We were there for a charity event in San Francisco, but took the opportunity to visit some wineries and stay up in Sonoma County for a couple of days. In the next few days, I’ll share some thoughts from our trip. Today, I’ll start with where we stayed.
The Hotels
While we were up in Wine Country, we stayed in an amazing place called the Kenwood Inn and Spa. It is a 30 year old property that looks and feels like a 200 year old complex in Tuscany. The rooms are huge, with a fireplace in every one, marble bathrooms, a private outdoor sitting area in most of them, and amazing views of the surrounding vineyards. It is located about two miles north of the little town of Glen Ellen, which is home to some great restaurants and shops. There are 30-40 wineries within a short drive of the inn.
The highlight for us was breakfast. It was included in the room, and we walked down the stairs, through the courtyard to the restaurant. There was a fireplace inside and one outside, a great selection of continental items already laid out, and a chef on site ready to cook anything on the menu, or not on the menu, as it turned out. I had a Humboldt Fog (goat cheese) and bacon omelette, with a side of really thick, perfectly cooked bacon, and it was amazing! OK, that doesn’t sound like a regular guy breakfast, but he suggested it and I went for it. Glad I did!
The service at the Kenwood Inn was great from start to finish, and I couldn’t recommend it more. January is a great time to visit California Wine Country, because the crowds are much smaller, the stress level is lower, and the people at the wineries are able to spend a lot more time with you. And it’s cheaper! We got 2 nights for the price of one at Kenwood Inn, which made it about $500 for the 2 nights, plus taxes and fees. That’s an amazing price for the quality of this hotel. And the weather in mid-January was great. It was sunny and in the low to mid 60’s during the day while we were there-very comfortable weather for walking through the vineyards.
After 2 nights up in Kenwood, we drove back down to San Francisco, where our event was. I got a hotel through the Express Deals section on Priceline, and it turned out to be the Omni San Francisco, which is ranked by TripAdvisor.com as the #2 ranked hotel in San Francisco. We got the room for $148 for the night, which was $50 less than the best rate we could find anywhere else. The Omni is a beautifully restored old hotel in the heart of the SOMA area, not too far from Fisherman’s Wharf or really, anywhere else in downtown San Francisco-very centrally located. There is a Bob’s Steak and Chop House in the lobby, which gave us a little taste of Dallas! We had appetizers there after the event. Whenever I stay at a hotel through Priceline, I ask at check-in if they have any upgraded rooms available for a fee, and often I get incredible rooms that way at a fraction of the cost. This time when I asked, they upgraded us at no charge to the top floor. The rooms were decent size, and the view was wonderful. There was nothing special about the room itself, but it was normal 4 star quality. Again, a great room for that price in downtown San Francisco, which is one of the most expensive cities to stay in. This was not quite at the level of the Kenwood Inn, but was very nice, nonetheless. The lobby is gorgeous and the service was excellent.
Ratings:
Kenwood Inn and Spa-97 points (out of 100)
Omni San Francisco-93 points
Bob’s Steak and Chop House-90 points
The Regular Wine Guy 