Hotels

Your choices in San Francisco hotels are overwhelming. The prices can be too. So during our staff visit to the City by the Bay, we looked for reasonably priced hotels that had charm, location or both. We came back with 14 ideas on places to bed down. It's not a complete list, but it is eclectic, like the city itself. Mystic Hotel. This property, which opened in April, stands on a tunnel-adjacent block of Stockton Street that you'll never see on a picture postcard, yet it has style, as do the Burritt Tavern bar and restaurant downstairs.

They say something in our salty blood draws us to the sea. As such, Ventura will always be one of our easiest, breeziest, saltiest options. You know you've left L.A. proper when the boot shops start popping up along the 101. You know you've arrived in Ventura when the wind begins to whip and the gulls begin to circle. The tab: $289 for two nights right on the beach, $120 for meals and $98 for three tickets to the whale-watching experience of a lifetime. The bed We set up at the Inn on the Beach (1175 S. Seaward Ave.; [805]

With more than 4 million people visiting Yosemite National Park last year ? and that number expected to increase this year ? it's no wonder lodging inside the park is snatched up quickly. "We typically sell out during the summer season," Delaware North Cos. spokeswoman Lisa Cesaro said of its Yosemite accommodations (Ahwahnee Hotel, Yosemite Lodge at the Falls, Curry Village and the housekeeping camp on the Merced River; the Wawona Hotel, and in the back country, Tuolumne Meadows Lodge, White Wolf Lodge and the High Sierra camps)

Rosemary McClure's May 5 article on Avalon turning 100 was outstanding ["Still Shining"]. Another way for visitors to experience Avalon's golden days is to have breakfast or lunch at the Inn on Mt. Ada, [William] Wrigley's home, completed in 1921. By calling (800) 608-7669 up to one month in advance, you can book a breakfast for $25 or lunch for $33, both plus tax and tip. Guests are served their meals in the family dining room. All first-floor rooms are open to view. Upstairs is available only to overnight guests of the inn. The food is excellent, views spectacular, and for a short time you can live like a Wrigley.

Santa Barbara -- what's not to love? Except maybe the prices, which means a weekend getaway can cost a pretty penny. The challenge to the Travel staff: Find nice hotels, good restaurants and enjoyable activities without breaking the budget. So we ate, we slept, we played, all in the name of research. Here's what we turned up. 223 Castillo St.; (800) 468-1988 or (805) 966-2219; www.brisasdelmarinn.com BRISAS DEL MAR, INN AT THE BEACH This hotel has probably never looked better.

OK, quickly name America's top tourist destination. Orlando, Fla.? Las Vegas? The Grand Canyon? Try New York. By New Year's Eve, New York expected to have made history by snaring more than 50 million tourists in one year, considerably surpassing a deadline that Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg set early in his administration for 2015 and then moved up to the end of 2012. When it became clear that the city would come in a year ahead of schedule, Bloomberg staged a media event just before Christmas in Times Square with balloons and billboards and a couple of smiling Brits.

The most powerful labor organization in Los Angeles refused Friday to back away from a campaign mailer in which it urges voters to support Wendy Greuel for mayor because she "will raise the minimum wage to $15 an hour. " Even though Greuel has said she supports the higher "living wage" only for workers at large hotels, Los Angeles County Federation of Labor chief Maria Elena Durazo accused the media of "nitpicking" when she was questioned about the accuracy of the mailer, which went to Latino voters.

The owner of a Hollywood hotel that burned in a deadly arson fire six years ago was acquitted of murder charges Friday. Juan Ortiz, 50, wiped tears from his eyes as a court clerk read the not guilty verdicts of a downtown Los Angeles jury. Ortiz's six-month trial was the fourth attempt by Los Angeles County prosecutors to convict Ortiz of murder, conspiracy, arson and insurance fraud charges stemming from the fire Aug. 16, 2001, at the Palomar Hotel, in which two people died.

Leona and Harry Helmsley emerged from a silver stretch limousine under slate-gray skies a little more than a week ago to be fingerprinted, photographed, booked and arraigned among drug dealers and thieves in the Manhattan criminal courthouse. Clad in a fire-truck-red coat-dress with blue velvet lapels, Leona Helmsley held her head high, linked arms with her husband and smiled at the mass of reporters outside the courthouse. Asked for comment, they replied only, "Good morning."

When soccer enthusiasts check into their motel rooms for the World Cup games that begin next week, many will find beds with round mattresses and wall art that runs to the risque. The Honeymoon Park Inn, Eros Motel, Love-In Park and Valentine Motel are among the suggestively named lodgings being used during the games, which will be jointly hosted by South Korea and Japan from May 31 to June 30. The explanation lies in simple arithmetic.

The pickup truck tooled around Highland Park on Saturday morning, loudspeakers in back crooning in Spanish: "Wendy, la Wendy. We're gonna vote. $15 an hour we'll make. Wendy, la Wendy, we're gonna dance. Eric Garcetti, start crying. " A political mailer prepared by the Los Angeles County Federation of Labor -- and duly posted on the city's Ethics Commission website -- offers a strikingly similar promise. "On May 21, our votes can raise the minimum wage to $15 per hour," says the brochure from the Coalition for Better Schools and Communities, the organization's "super-PAC.

In 2006, billionaire computer magnate Michael Dell, one of the world's richest men, agreed to pay $200 million for the Fairmont Miramar Hotel, a beachfront landmark in Santa Monica that long has been a retreat for Hollywood starlets and U.S. presidents. A few months later, Dell tore up the contract. He still wanted the hotel. But his attorneys had found a simple way to reshuffle the deal to avoid a legal change in ownership. The maneuver saved about $1 million a year in property taxes -- an option available only to businesses, not homeowners, under the arcane rules governing Proposition 13. The Miramar deal illustrates how businesses can easily -- and legally -- avoid property tax hikes under the California ballot initiative passed in 1978.

Fifty miles north of San Francisco, straddling U.S. Highway 101, sits Santa Rosa, former home of Charles M. Schulz and the gang from "Peanuts. " From the highway, as you boom past at 70 mph, Santa Rosa appears to be just another somewhere on the way to somewhere else. But a short detour east into downtown or west into the wine country quickly proves otherwise. The tab: We spent $163 for a night at the Hotel La Rose, dinner for two at Willi's Wine Bar was $84, including wine, and a lavish picnic from Whole Foods Market came to $43. Gas and incidentals added $100 to the tab. Wine at Bella and Iron Horse vineyards, of course, was extra.

Mahalo nui loa ("thank you very much") for the Special Hawaii Issue [April 21]. Fabulous memories of several visits to the islands in paradise were made vivid by the stories, pictures and maps of Oahu, Molokai and the cruise with stops at the Big Island, Kauai and Maui. One bit of cautionary advice: Limit each visit to Hawaii to no longer than five days. By Day 7, island fever sets in and your vacation turns into "Paradise Lost. " Aloha. Dan Anzel Los Angeles Fast passport renewal Regarding "Fast … and Safe" [On the Spot, by Catharine Hamm, April 21]

CAIRO - Hold the martini, please. With fanfare and cheers from Islamists, the first nonalcoholic hotel in Egypt's Red Sea resort of Hurghada has opened, a testament to a new political culture, which seeks at the very least a veneer of piety in a nation caught in the fury of upheaval. Egypt is mired in political and economic problems. It drifts from crisis to crisis and is headed for a dangerous summer of power outages and gas shortages. Such temporal annoyances, however, have not dissuaded conservative Islamists from trying to bring the nation in closer sync with the Koran.

Nobu Hotel, 3570 Las Vegas Blvd. S., Las Vegas; (702) 785-6677, http://www.nobucaesarspalace.com . Doubles $169 to $459 a night. Adjacent to the hotel is the dramatic 12,775-square-foot Nobu restaurant, whose Latin-infused Japanese cuisine (entrees $14 to $95) informs the hotel's in-room dining menu; hotel guests get preferential reservations. At Qua, the Caesars Palace spa, therapeutic treatments are $50 to $1,200.

MOST Americans who book an all-inclusive resort in the Caribbean turn to one of three hotel chains: Sandals, SuperClubs or Club Med, groups that account for most of the marketing and advertising of one-price-for-everything vacations. These travelers have only a dim awareness of competitive all-inclusive chains -- such as Barcelo, Iberostar, Occidental-Allegro, Sol Melia and Riu -- owned by Spanish or Dominican interests.

Hilton Earmarks $1 Billion for Acquisitions: The Beverly Hills-based company said it plans to spend that amount on hotel acquisitions in the next 12 to 18 months and will add 10,000 rooms a year. In addition, Hilton Chief Executive Stephen Bollenbach said he expects the company will meet analysts' earnings estimates for the quarter ending in June. Hilton Hotels Corp. also said its "hold percentage" at the Las Vegas Hilton is down from a year ago.

I am a graduating senior at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. I'm not your typical Alabama college student and Birmingham isn't your typical Alabama city. I wanted to say thanks for the story ["Moving Ever Forward," by Alice Short, April 14] on our very diverse urban home. We do have a controversial history, but our youth are breathing life into the heart of the city through lively art galleries, cycling groups, park events, film festivals, and much more. I encourage Short to return to the city and witness history as it happens.