My sister lives in Mill Valley. I have been to CA exactly once in my life. DH has never been. She's been begging us to come visit her. We have a week of vacation to use and we thought we would go see her this summer - and that it would be a *cheap* vacation.

Except she lives in a tiny apartment and we have to stay in a motel plus rent a car because she won't be able to take the entire week off while we are there.

The airfare is reasonable, ditto the car rental. But the motel bill is running the cost of this trip up so high, we could take a cruise for that price.

Any *cheap* motel or lodging suggestions in the San Fran/Sausalito/Tiberon/Mill Valley area?

By Tayjar on Thursday, April 13, 2006 - 10:01 am:

Have you checked into www.vrbo.com

You might be able to find a neat condo in the area for a reasonable amount. I always use this site to rent lodging. We rarely stay in hotels anymore.

By Conni on Thursday, April 13, 2006 - 10:27 am:

Is there anyway you could cram in her apt for a couple of days and not rent a hotel for the entire visit? That would cut some cost. I also would only rent a car for the days she is working. Unless it is a better deal to rent it for the week.

I am not much help. I have never been to California. We were suppose to go to San Francisco or San Diego ?? for a wedding last weekend but dh was still in England until Saturday. No way we could go.

Have fun!!! Take lots of pic's!

By Andi on Thursday, April 13, 2006 - 10:29 am:

Not to be a downer but...Good luck finding a cheap place in San Francisco in the summer.

I would just start looking online and use your AAA card if you have one.

Good luck! That should be a really fun trip. Try to go to Monterey for a couple days if you can. The aquarium is AMAZING!

By Tink on Thursday, April 13, 2006 - 10:45 am:

Melanie is probably going to be your best bet for this info but I'm not sure you can find a reasonably priced hotel anywhere in the Bay Area. It's just such an expensive area. What's your idea of reasonable? Anything under $100/night is probably going to be a good deal in that area, Karen. If you can find somewhere farther inland and make the drive, that may cut down on your hotel cost, although it will raise your gas costs. I'd love to meet up for lunch or coffee,if you have the time, while you're out here. And ditto Andi's suggestion, although San Francisco's aquarium is mind-blowingly good, too.

By Jewlz on Thursday, April 13, 2006 - 11:07 am:

This is a problem for me also. I just booked a hotel in san fransico to stay for three days 25 of april thru the 28th and it cost me 250 dollars and its not a name brand up scale one. One thing my friend and I thought about doing was driving 50 miles to the hotel 9 staying on the outskirts like san jose or so and then seeing the sights ... she said this was ok then I decided the time it would take to drive in the traffic there would be a royal pain so we opted for this room ... its really bad and the taxes they have on hotel rooms is awful.

By Eve on Thursday, April 13, 2006 - 11:20 am:

Maybe try cyber rentals and see if there is a rental for a good price! Good luck!

By Truestori on Thursday, April 13, 2006 - 04:25 pm:

How close do you need to be to her? Can you stay across the bridge, because it would cut cost dramatically...I know Berkeley is fun and has alot of cheaper hotels. Mill Valley is an expensive area in general so I would try a little ways out from there!

By Claire on Thursday, April 13, 2006 - 04:57 pm:

Karen I don't think you are going to find anything cheap I am sorry I hated the cost of living in the Bay Area.

By Karen~moderator on Thursday, April 13, 2006 - 07:32 pm:

I don't think she has anywhere at all we can sleep at her place. We don't want to stay *too* far inland either.

Well, under $200 a night would be nice. DH want's to stay in the city. I know what the cost of things are in Mill Valley - outrageous. My sister threw out a few names of places, but they are high.

Claire Bear! How are you??

By Karen~moderator on Friday, April 14, 2006 - 08:47 am:

Well - problem solved! My nephew is going to be away at camp when we are there, so my sister is going to let us have her room, and she's going to sleep in his room. Gosh, I hate doing that to her though!

We will probably stay with her a few nights, and DH *really* wants to stay in the city a few nights, in the Union Square area.

Dora, he actually looked around online last night for a condo to rent, but everything that looked good or was priced right was booked. Thanks for the suggestion!