When we reached San Francisco late in the evening after an epic rail journey on Amtrak’s California Zephyr, we just took a taxi to our accommodation and sunk into our beds. It was only on the next day we realised that the whole lower end of Lombard Street was lined with motels, many of them built in the 1950s and 1960s. Welcome to San Francisco’s Motel Row!

The area sits on land reclaimed in preparation for the 1915 Pan Pacific Exposition. In the 1930s, the street became an access road to the Golden Gate Bridge construction site and the first motels appeared. More were built after the bridge was completed, as this part of Lombard Street was well connected to the coastal freeways and downtown San Fran. More properties were added in the 1950s and 1960s, increasingly catering to tourists, as Motel Row is also within easy reach of Fisherman’s Wharf.

Apparently, many local craftsmen invested in a motel property, which might explain why many are quite ornate. Most of the motels still seem to be family-owned, while others are part of cheap motel chains now.

Walking down lower Motel Row you can still catch glimpse of the bygone golden area of motor travel:

Photos by Claudia (the really good ones) and Tobias.

The area is still attractive to tourists as it is well connected to downtown by San Francisco’s iconic electric buses. Rates tend to be about 25 per cent cheaper than downtown and we found the area to be quite safe.

There are many great restaurants on nearby Union Street.

Motel Row transitions from chic to shabby along Lombard Street. Most places look decent enough, while others seem like the place the protagonists in a Hollywood film would hide from whoever is after them.  

We stayed at the Chelsea Inn, which is right in the middle of Motel Row – both geographically and in terms of ratings. It is themed as a Ye Olde English B&B and in line with that has a slightly musty feel to it. But our queen-size room was huge, with a large bay window (overlooking the Golden Gate Bridge).

There are bus lines to downtown and Fisherman’s Wharf right outside the motel. The guy at the front desk was friendly, printed our boarding passes for the return flight and directed us to a nice diner next door (Mel’s).

We stayed there in August 2022, but the place still gets good reviews.