SW Hotel

North Beach & Chinatown


After a major overhaul, Chinatown's former Sam Wong motel now offers good-value rooms heavy on the beige and air freshener. Its main selling point is location – on the Broadway axis dividing North Beach and Chinatown, next to the buzzing China Live food hall – but some rooms are incredibly loud. Bring earplugs or use the air-con (unavailable in cheaper rooms). Parking occasionally available.


Lonely Planet's must-see attractions

Nearby North Beach & Chinatown attractions

1. City Lights Books

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No one could have predicted the cultural force City Lights would become when it first opened in 1953. Sure, it had a proletarian ethos suggested by its…

2. Jack Kerouac Alley

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'The air was soft, the stars so fine, the promise of every cobbled alley so great…' This ode by the On the Road and Dharma Bums author is embedded in his…

3. Beat Museum

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The closest you can get to the complete Beat experience without breaking a law. The 1000-plus artifacts in this museum's literary-ephemera collection…

4. Mule Gallery

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5. Good Luck Parking Garage

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6. Columbus Tower

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If these copper-clad walls could talk, they'd name-drop shamelessly. The tower's original occupant was political boss Abe Ruef, ousted in 1907 and sent to…

7. Ross Alley

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Colorful murals hint at the colorful characters who once roamed SF’s oldest alleyway – known during the Gold Rush variously as Mexico, Spanish or Manila…

8. Wentworth Place

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Dragons bring this shadowy brick byway roaring to life. The narrow entryway is illuminated with 'Dragon Boats Chasing Moonlight,' a new mosaic mural…