Hotel Nikko San Francisco
222 Mason Street
San Francisco, CA 94102

Hotel Nikko San Francisco features a fantastic location and excellent prices on accommodations for those on vacation or doing business in San Francisco.  This amazing city where you can actually get around on public transportation is also home to great food, shopping and in the case of Hotel Nikko, Starbucks Coffee connected to the hotel. There's a Starbucks just one minute from your room and also several others in the surrounding area. 

Hotel Nikko sports Asian influences. Owned by JAL Hotels Co., Ltd., this Japan Airline Property is integrated with hundreds of the company's assets overseas to sell rooms that appeal to its Asian clients. But what we are discovering after traveling to China, the rooms are exactly what we seek. Like the four and five diamond quality rooms we enjoyed in Shanghai and Beijing, the beds are excellent quality, firm and utilize linens and sheets that often contain silk or finer fabrics. Generally in these hotels you'll see extensive business services for travelers and simple decor in color schemes that are fairly neutral for the most part. 

At Hotel Nikko, you get a nice, 4 Diamond AAA room usually offered at a reasonable price (off season), and an excellent location off Union Square and the Theater District. Great shopping surrounds you with stores such as classic Wilkes Bashford and a long time designer favorite for women, Joanie Char. The large chain department stores such as Macy's are also at your beckoning call should you need an item in a hurry or just want to shop.

On our business visit, the client booked our room for us and we were treated to an added bonus. With a free evening on the first night's arrival, we strolled outside to look for a restaurant but encountered a huge crowd (some estimate up to one million people) attending San Francisco's Chinese New Year Parade, attending the largest such parade on the West Coast and most likely in the U.S. Caught amidst the excitement of fireworks and fanfare, it was a spectacular event one never imagines they will share with a diverse mix of strangers who become your friends. Standing for over an hour and taking photographs of the colorful costumes, animated participants and live bands, it was time to weave away from the frontline barricade and head toward the hill away from the parade route for a meal.

After dining on delicious Mediterranean and making more friends while sharing a table with a Canadian massage therapist who was passing through on her way to Big Sur to learn a new massage technique, Hotel Nikko beckoned. Like in China where the beds are firm, the bed provided an excellent night's sleep. For those who like mushy, soft mattresses, we can steer you toward plenty of hotels that offer them. At those places, we often end up sleeping on the floor. Hotel Nikko gets a 4 Diamond from BeachCalifornia.com. It had the great bed, good shower head, temperature controls on the air conditioner/heater and Starbucks, yeah!

As an added bonus to your visit, the hotel is an art gallery space, featuring contemporary works such as paintings, sculptures and photography from Terrell Moore, Jung Eun Ha, Ed Martin, Keith Haring, Francesco Clemente, Mimmo Palladino, Jeremy Morgan, Jae Hahn and Wes Dahlberg. Curated by Baxter Chang Patri Fine Art, the art gallery is open from Monday-Friday 10am-6pm and weekends and evenings by appointment. Call: (415) 397-2000. www.baxterchangpatri.com

The hotel lobby offers a nice lounge area for socializing, cocktail bar and Restaurant Anzu,  recognized for the highest quality prime aged cuts of beef and fish flown in daily. The hotel also features a health club with a glass-enclosed swimming pool, spa area, and shiatsu masseuse.

So impressed were we with the price of this hotel for the location, it's going to be our first choice for a weekend getaway from Orange County to San Francisco. The taxi to the hotel was a lot less than we pay in expensive OC for taxi rides or Super Shuttle so this really will make for an affordable two-day vacation. Whether it comes to fruition is another issue but it's always nice to feel like you have an affordable place to go for relaxation and escaping from it all.

Hotel Nikko San Francisco Reservations, Prices