Making the best of business travel

February 26, 2009 4:50 AM

How can I make the best out of my free time during frequent, short business trips to San Francisco?

I'm in the UK, and my employer would like me to spend a regular, significant amount of time in working at the San Francisco office (somewhere between 2 and 3 times / quarter, for the best part of a week at a time).

I'll mostly be traveling out to arrive on Saturday (cheap flights), arriving early evening SF time. This leaves the unappetising prospect of a whole Sunday and 5 working evenings per month parked in a soulless city center hotel with a thoroughly messed up body clock. I'm very tall, have a young family and like my sleep, so I'm likely to find the situation a bit of a chore, rather than a huge treat.

I'm interested to know if anyone has any experience of this type of work situation, and any input as to how it could be turned into something less of a drag. Specific things I'm thinking:
- How to make the accommodation less depressing. I'm not a seasoned business traveller, but it strikes me that this shouldn't be too unusual a situation, and there might be some sort of arrangement that works better than succession of big city hotels for frequent, regular travelers
- I'm open to the idea of commuting (within reason) to downtown SF for work. Any thoughts on nice places to stay that are still within easy reach?
- I'm going to have worn out the obvious 'things to do on your own' in SF pretty fast, and prefer not to spend all my evenings aggressively networking, or being a constant gooseberry on collegues' social lives. Any good ideas for off-the-beaten track stuff to do in or around SF (without a car) very welcome here too
- I can always trawl previous SF threads for hints on places to eat; drink coffee; hang out alone etc, but - hey - if you've got any good input, chuck it here too - thanks!

posted by bifter to travel & transportation (12 comments total)

This:...parked in a soulless city center hotel...
and This: I'm open to the idea of commuting (within reason) to downtown SF for work. Any thoughts on nice places to stay that are still within easy reach?

..strike me as odd statements. San Francisco downtown is a nice place to stay with tons of things within an easy walk, bus or BART ride.

Not sure if you're aware of this but SF is a tiny, tiny city. The population is something like 800 thousand. This isn't like London where having to stay in, say, Canary Wharf, puts you far away from all the interesting things.

Also, there's no reason your hotel has to be soulless.
posted by vacapinta at 5:12 AM on February 26

"I'm interested to know if anyone has any experience of this type of work situation, and any input as to how it could be turned into something less of a drag."

My strategies is to completely avoid chain hotels, going for odd/unusual places with more personality - Bed and Breakfasts, small independent hotels, etc. I find these more fun and relaxing than megacorp hotels.

If I can't do that, I go for a chain hotel that's set up for extended stays, where each room has a mini-kitchen and living area. Much more comfy than a hotel room where I can't easily make my own meals or relax.

If you're making lots of trips like this, I'd see if you can give yourself an extra day in San Francisco just to explore. You say you have a family, and I assume you don't want to be away from them more than you have to, but if you enjoy travel, an extra day now and then could really turn an otherwise dreary stay into a mini-vacation.

San Francisco has good public transit (BART and Muni trains - but Muni buses are subpar), so you do not have to stay downtown. And downtown is walkable from much of the city. You could for instance stay in North Beach or even Japantown and walk downtown.
posted by zippy at 5:23 AM on February 26

I can't help with your other questions, but on things to do towards making this experience less depressing: if your trips are regular enough (like, in the same week each month, or close enough), what about joining a Meetup.com group there in an area you're interested in -- one whose meetups look like they could happen on the weeks that you're there? Meetup groups meet once a month generally (though I've come across some eager-beaver ones that do so more often, too) and don't require much else from you, so showing up to even the occasional one could give you something to do and could be a cool way to make friends there without much obligation. In my experience they're as amenable to semi-regular members as regular ones.

Perhaps a weekly hobby group that's similarly open to semi-regular/monthly-ish appearances could be worth looking into too. Knitting springs to mind as something *I'd* look into; there's gotta be *something* for you in a city that size.

It sounds from here like you're going to be wandering around feeling uprooted and anxious to get back to Real Life for a week each trip; I wonder if having some friends in town could mean meaningful catch-ups and enjoying your evenings rather than just feeling like a tourist all the time.
posted by springbound at 6:12 AM on February 26

You really, really don't want to stay outside of San Francisco and commute in - unless you're looking for a soulless hotel experience and wither not much to do in the evenings or a greater transport effort to do them. San Francisco is tiny. What can be defined as its downtown (the Financial District) is pretty quiet on weekends, but depending on where you're staying, you can be at a livelier area within a few minutes' walk or short Muni/BART ride. Where will your work actually happen? If it's a situation where you go to meetings at various other peoples' places, then there's no reason for you to have to stay "downtown."

The city has lots of things to do in the evenings - do you like music? Comedy? Sports? If you've never been to an American baseball game, do yourself a favor and get a ticket to a Giants game - they play at AT&T Park from April through October (god willing), right here in the city. Some (many? most?) of the museums have evening hours at least once in a while. Lots of bars have quiz nights. And, of course, we locals love our meetups.

Oh! And don't forget the Ferry Building, which has a lot of excellent food - eat there, or take out.

I haven't stayed in a hotel here (I live here, after all), but I have friends who have enjoyed their stays at the W, and at the Phoenix (boutique, funky, in a neighborhood far from soulless). Let me know if you have more questions, and I'll try to find answers.
posted by rtha at 8:54 AM on February 26

SF, as mentioned above, is a fantastic walking city. I couldn't get enough of it on my last trip.

I highly recommend staying in the city--I base this on my spouse's work experience of the last year, which is very similar to your situation. He had to travel to Dallas every other week of every month for over a year, staying four days at a time, except that every other month he went to CA for a week. Yes, it did suck as much as it sounds.

I think you'll find that if you are in some, as you say, "soulless hotel" near a commercial park or business, you will just stagnate there with nothing to stimulate you. By stimulation, I'm not talking about night clubs or parties (we have a family, too, and those days are gone) but just generally lively, busy, happy people.

Out away from the city, you invariably end up working outrageously long hours to avoid having to go back to the hotel room. Then you have dinner far too late for someone who is used to keeping family hours and get heartburn and indigestion. So, it's back to the hotel again--at which point you then turn on the TV or fire up your laptop, trying to wind down, and end up staying up into the wee hours of the morning, finally falling asleep in front of a lit screen. That's really bad for your physical and emotional health.

Stay in the city, find a nice centrally located hotel (I liked the Villa Florence--free wi-fi and business center) and start exploring!
posted by misha at 9:38 AM on February 26

I don't know about just staying in SF, one could stay in Berkeley/Oakland or Marin county which are both accessible to SF by either BART or ferry (less than an hour). These places both offer places to sleep eat and get around - hike,bike etc. Break up the monotony anyway.
posted by pianomover at 10:14 AM on February 26

Make sure to note when the last train/ferry runs (some end early).

There are several good event lists like LaughingSquid's squidlist which can help you see which areas have events.
posted by kbibb at 10:49 AM on February 26

Last SF question I gave a longish answer but as it's not perfectly applicable to your situation, let me second the suggestion to stay somewhere out of the city-- the Marin Suites hotel is decent, pleasant, and clean, and in a nice area. You'd need a car if you're going to stay in Marin County, though. (I would be happy to answer questions by email, and work with lots of UK expats who might have suggestions. Or want you to bring them goodies from home.)
posted by wzcx at 11:37 AM on February 26

One other suggestion: Schedule A Meetup! (tm)
posted by wzcx at 11:38 AM on February 26

nthing that the Financial District isn't really a bad thing for your case. With a few minutes walk you are all over the place with lots of shopping, restaurants and culture. And if you are willing to take a bit of mass transit or a cab for 5 - 10 minutes you have a ton more places to go. Back when I was traveling to SF a lot I enjoyed the hell out of its quirky and compact nature. Personally I think you aren't looking forward to this because you sound understandably disappointed about leaving your young family and are tall for a trans atlantic + trans continental voyage.

You don't state what kind of relationship you have with your SF coworkers but if you like them and they are social it can't hurt to have them setup events for you in the evening (drinks, dinner, etc.). At the very least they can give you some ideas of things they like to do.
posted by mmascolino at 12:53 PM on February 26

... with a thoroughly messed up body clock.
For sure, google overcoming jet lag. You don't have to have a "thoroughly messed up body clock" - you could probably get away with an only slightly confused one. Seriously. There's enough known about jet lag and avoiding it that you should be able to hit the ground running (or sleeping - whichever is appropriate for the local time). I've used the suggestions in Charles Ehret's book (title == the search phrase) a couple of times, and very successfully, crossing 10 time zones. That program takes a couple of days of minor dietary juggling, but some more recent research claims success by fasting for as little as 16 hours prior your first destination-time-appropriate breakfast. The suggested search should give you a good head-start towards finding the various drug-free or drug-enabled (Melatonin) approaches.
N-thing "find a Bed & Breakfast". I'm not SF'an and can't help you with specifics, but I had a similar work gig years ago, got stuck in a motel-on-a-strip near the client's work place, and vowed never to do that again. One evening's work with a phone book, and another checking out a couple of places found me a nice B & B arrangement in a residence hotel on the city center park in an artsy neighborhood, and great restaurants within a few minutes walk. It was a few dollars more than the motel would have been and my employer was understanding enough to pick it up, but I'd have gladly sprung for it myself if they hadn't.
posted by TruncatedTiller at 1:43 PM on February 26

On reread, my post did read quite doom and gloom - sorry about that. :D

I have been to SF once before and very much enjoyed it as a location, including walking around town. Didn't much enjoy the hotel though (big boring skyscraper corporate hotel), or the waking up irrevocably every morning before 4:00, which was sort of what I was driving at with my question. Damn shame I can't spend some time there with my wife and kids too. :(

Some nice responses anyway - thanks. Think I will see if I can look into any type of partial self catering arrangement as Zippy suggests (didn't know such things existed), and might well try to find somewhere away from the financial district (office is at mission / 3rd) - really enjoyed walking around / exploring last time.
posted by bifter at 3:08 AM on February 27