Argonaut Hotel, San Francisco
Expert reviews
“The Argonaut’s spacious guest rooms have exposed-brick walls, wood-beam ceilings, and best of all, windows that open to the sea air and the sounds of the waterfront; many rooms enjoy Alcatraz and Golden Gate Bridge views.”
Featured as Fodor’s Choice in San Francisco.
“Fisherman’s Wharf’s top hotel was built as a cannery in 1908 and has century-old wooden beams and exposed-brick walls. Rooms sport an over-the-top nautical theme, with porthole-shaped mirrors and plush, deep-blue carpets.”
“If you want to stay in a beautiful, historic building and walk right out your door into the heart Fisherman’s Wharf action—and are willing to pay for the privilege—this nautical-themed hotel is perfect for you.”
Featured as Frommer’s Exceptional Choice in San Francisco.
“In a prime waterfront location, Argonaut offers stylish, spacious accommodations with bay views inside a century-old historic building near Fisherman’s Wharf. Convenient to cable cars, streetcars and ferries, the hotel affords easy access to popular attractions, especially for families and fitness-minded guests.”
What guests liked
- Nice rooms
- Boutique style
- Friendly staff
- Excellent Wifi
- Great location
- Comfortable beds
All you need to know
This fine establishment is rated four-star as a result of the quality hospitality services being rendered in the facility. The hostel is situated at 495 Jefferson Street, Fisherman’s Wharf where it provides guests with the best in amenities and modern hospitality facilities.
The hotel features stylish in-room spa services while guests can easily enjoy the traditional seafood cuisines offered in the hotel’s on-site restaurant. The Argonaut Hotel is eco-friendly and provides a stunning view of the beautiful San Francisco Bay.
The hotel offers stylish room options such as Deluxe King Room, King Room, Queen Room, Deluxe Queen Room with Two Queen Beds and King Room with Bay View. These rooms are well furnished and adorned with modern décor and fitted with fine classy furniture. The colors used in the rooms is warm and elegant while the overall aesthetic feel of the hotel is pleasing.
The hotel is located close to some major places of tourist attractions such as the USS Pampanito Submarine which is just an 8-minute walk away from the hotel and the Exploratorium which is about 4 km away from the hotel.
The popular Lombard Street is about 650 m away from the hotel while Musee Mecanique is 450 m away from the hotel.
Guests can easily reach Ghirardelli Square which is about 150 m away from the hotel.
Other services, facilities, and amenities such as concierge services, luggage storage, 24-hour front desk, and daily maid service are provided by the hotel.
Lowest price guarantee
We partner with Booking.com and Agoda. Both booking websites offer the lowest price guarantee so you can be certain you will always get the best deal for this hotel. If you have seen a better price elsewhere, all you need to do is contact the booking website and they will refund you the difference immediately. You can price match right up until the day before check-in.
Location
Recent guest reviews
23 May 2025
Wonderfully staffed hotel with great decor, views and location
Wonderful staff, our view of the bay was amazing, loved the decor and the location was fantastic!!
We would have loved to have a way to make tea in the room and the mini-fridge was a bit loud running off and on all night.
21 May 2025
Great stay
In a great location
Restaurant was a little dark in atmosphere
21 May 2025
Very good staying!
Location Staff attention Sound protection
Lack of window blackouts allowing to much external light into the room during the night.
19 May 2025
Great location, great hotel, we are coming back
Beautiful room with a great view to the Bay
19 May 2025
Nice stay at San Francisco
Room was spacious, bathrooms was ok, staff was helpful and nice to interact with. Helped with airport taxi in Uber blackout period (half marathon)
Bar could be better. Rooms will enjoy a refresh and bit more lightning
19 May 2025
Very good
Breakfast was not included . The $15 credit was not enough.
The room was too far from the elevator.
16 May 2025
Location, location, location
Most hotels in San Francisco are around Union Square but the Argonaut being in Fisherman's Wharf was, for us, a much better area and an ideal location for seeing and doing everything in the city. There were many excellent cafes and restaurants and plenty of good shops both within a short walk. Alcatraz cruises, the Red and White Fleet Bay Cruise, the Sausalito ferry and the Big Bus hop-on-hop off and day tours were all within a few minutes' walk along one road. For this alone, I would highly recommend this hotel. It was a large hotel but never felt busy, it was spotless, and the staff were all lovely. We booked a king room with bay view and were on floor 3 overlooking Alcatraz for our 6 nights. It was a good size room with massive bed, sofa, coffee table, coffee machine, large TV, mini bar, set of drawers and a wardrobe with plenty of hanging space and a good size safe. There were plenty of charging points for plugs or USB and a specific mobile phone charger that you just lay your phone on. The bathroom was quite small but had a bath with shower and a good size sink with large mirror. Overall, this hotel more than met our expectations and the location just blows it out of the park.
The water pressure of the shower wasn't brilliant but was usable, and the shower was only from the ceiling so there was no handheld shower which was a bit awkward for me.
14 May 2025
The stay was excellent as the facilities were clean and well maintained with excellent staff.
The location was good and the staff were excellent. Definitely I would recommend this hotel to stay in SFO. Plus there are sufficient eateries around the location including retail outlets!
only if you need to go to the city centre then I would not recommend this hotel. City centre like union square or Macy for shopping or if you have to meet friends.
8 May 2025
Great location, great atmosphere, great room, great service!
Location, room, service, staff
7 May 2025
Great hotel, great location, very friendly & accommodating staff.
Location is great, walking distance to so many restaurants, Fishermans Wharf, Ghirardelli Square etc. Attached restaurant was great, great drinks, friendly staff. The lounge was very nice and comfortable, fireplace was an added special touch. Our room was a Bay view which was nice, room was very clean, bathroom was good size and nice. We would stay here again for sure.
Was a little pricey (Bay View), but you get what you pay for, so no complaints really. $75.00 to garage vehicle with valet was pricey but to be expected, we see the same thing in NY, Hawaii, L.A. and Vegas.
7 May 2025
Great place to stay with lots of family friendly options of things to do.
Great location!
5 May 2025
Excellent stay
Location
Nothing
29 April 2025
Great location, amazing decor and helpful staff but still a few things to work on
Fantastic location with many top attractions walkable. Great decor throughout the hotel. Very charming. Rooms clean and spacious. Staff mostly helpful and friendly. Jacob from reception was great. Restaurant staff good too. I have allergies and they were very understanding. Much appreciated.
They gave me a room for disabled people. Meant the shower was at waist height and could only be operated when handheld. They were probably hoping I wouldn't notice but the rails everywhere gave it away. Pretty annoying not being able to stand under the shower given how much we paid for the room. They have a resort fee. You get freebies such as restaurant credit, coffee vouchers, discounts but they nowhere near compensate for the fee. Other stuff they claim is part of the resort fee, should just be standard in a hotel that size. Such as maintenance of the gym. Also, certain things included are harder to access than need be. For example, you can get free water, but you have to ask at reception. If you drink the water in the room, you have to pay the exorbinate minibar cost. You get free coffee but have to get vouchers from reception and it's just out of a thermos anyway. Argonaut should either dump the fee or try providing more value. We arrived at 1pm on check-in day (notified beforehand). They said they would try get our room ready early and call us. We never received a call. Ended up just returning to the hotel at regular check-in time. While I understand there are no guarantees with early check-in, they have a large check-in/checkout window (5hrs). I find it hard to believe nothing was ready even slightly earlier then 4pm. It seemed they just couldn't be bothered. Nothing was mentioned when we eventually went to check-in. To be clear we still enjoyed our stay at this hotel. This stuff didn't create a bad experience. It was just the difference between an 8 and a 10.
25 April 2025
Fabulous
Facilities and location
No free water in the room, view from room was other rooms
20 April 2025
Very good
Location was great
Clean and modern
13 April 2025
Great location, lovely staff.
The staff were great, friendly and helpful, the room was serviced daily and impeccably cleaned. Good sized room and bathroom, comfy bed.
We found the room stuffy with no opening windows, the AC was too noisy to sleep when running, it did cool the room enough for us to sleep well after we’d turned it off.
5 April 2025
Excellent location. Hospitable staff. Beautiful hotel.
The location was incredible. The hotel was beautiful. Loved the history of the building. We thoroughly enjoyed the hotel restaurant and bar “the Blue Mermaid”. The staff was super friendly and very accommodating. Our stay was lovely.
4 April 2025
Nice and clean and comfortable
This is a beautiful property! We enjoyed our time here! Rooms are clean with a nautical vibe and the staff is very friendly. Highly recommend!
27 March 2025
All great, would return back
The restaurant. The view.
Maybe some homeless people around the area
16 March 2025
Very good
The location
No view, no parking.
26 February 2025
The best to get away in San Francisco. You can walk everywhere but it’s quiet and beautiful. Great restaurant downstairs
Everything.
23 February 2025
Very good
no street noise
13 February 2025
Fantastic.
Everyone was very helpful. The building is spectacular. The room was very comfortable. Thoroughly enjoyed our stay.
13 February 2025
Great location and lovely hotel
Perfect location for exploring the city. Great restaurant and friendly staff.
5 February 2025
Great experience, will definitely come back.
Great location with nice view and classy room decor.
24 January 2025
Exceptional
Excellent location.
16 January 2025
Very Comfortable and well decorated hotel.
The room was spacious and immaculate. The Ben and Jerry’s just outside the lobby was a bonus AND the maritime museum off the lobby was 5 stars.
The resort tax is ridiculous- just make the rates higher.
13 January 2025
Fantastic location and wonderful staff!
Great location and fun rooms.
12 January 2025
Loved San Fran and the Argonaut and will come back to visit again!
Loved the location and the support from hotel employees - all were welcoming and friendly. We were able to park our car when we arrived and then utilised the extensive public transport network within walking distance.
Everything was as expected and there was nothing that we disliked although the service at the Blue Mermaid restaurant attached to the hotel could have been better.
11 January 2025
Very relaxing and fantastic people
The restaurant was amazing, not just the food but the staff they were so helpful and well trained .
11 January 2025
Great location!
The location is beyond amazing - views to the bay and golden gate Facilities were really good Our welcoming person was Sharon and she was very thoughtful and considerate
Coming from Australia the aud - USA $ conversion is not good . This ended up being quite expensive - at home we would not pay what we did for anything.
10 January 2025
Super location, Unique hotel, good front offive
Hotel location was super...it close to everything that you need, the room was spacious, clean and you can open the window. This hotel had its own character and very confinience.
I dont know this is common or not but they charge us for cleaning our room and when we had a breakfast the supervisor / manager was so rude and ask me to move to another table while the restaurant wasn't that busy.
5 January 2025
Exceptional
My wife and I loved it
Everything was perfect
4 January 2025
Fabulous
Great location near Fisherman's Wharf. Ice machine on every floor. Friendly staff. Nice restaurant connected to the hotel.
It was 30C outside... but there was a real flame fire on in the lounge! Why?
3 January 2025
Very good
Location
Breakfast was not included
2 January 2025
Would definitely come back!
Great location - so much to walk to nearby, beautiful rooms
Small complaint but far walk from room to elevator or staircase. Small convenience shop would have been welcome.
29 December 2024
We’d absolutely stay here again.
Beautiful hotel, right in the heart of where we wanted to be.
I thought we booked a room with a bay view, unfortunately, our view was across the roof at other rooms.
25 December 2024
We love this hotel and will come again.
This was a family event during the Christmas season. The staff were friendly and helpful. The location and condition of the hotel was exceptional. All were happy.
The Mermaid bar staff were busy and a little scattered. It took time for them to notice people and offering coffee for people before their order.
24 December 2024
Lovely view of the wharf.
Location, location, location!
So expensive to park!
20 December 2024
Perfect location!
Excellent location! Beautiful property!
Loved everything!
17 December 2024
This hotel has character and located in a great location on the waterfront.
The restaurant was quite good.
15 December 2024
Exceptional
The accommodations were very nice. We loved the decor of the hotel. The bed was extremely comfortable and the room location was very quiet.
Didn’t realize the price of parking was taxable. This was probably my own fault for not checking. I just assumed that $75 for parking at $75 and not $85.
11 December 2024
Fabulous
Friendly staff and spacious rooms.
Breakfast fairly expensive.
10 December 2024
Awesome
Decor and staff
There was no tea in the room
7 December 2024
Would stay again if we come to San Francisco
Location near many historic places
5 December 2024
A great place for exploring San Fransisco
Really convenient spot for Fisherman’s Wharf and other attractions. Very comfortable.
Bathroom a bit dated, needs an upgrade.
5 December 2024
A high quality, whimsical hotel in tourist zone that invites walking and exploring city and expanse
Staff persons were responsive, friendly, and engaging. The location beckoned one to walk and experience SF in a more intimate way in that regard. The bay view room and lobby common areas were clean and easy to navigate.
While I get it, I preferred the non-Christmas music as I found it a bit disorienting
5 December 2024
Fabulous
The location was perfect for Fisherman's Wharfe, getting on the cable cars and feet away from the Buena Vista bar. Great restaurant on site which had in our opinion the bast Chowder (with crab)
The price is top end, but to be fair the hotel is great and if you eat / drink at restaurant you get a 15 dollar daily credit for each day you spend.
26 November 2024
Exceptional
Lovely building, excellent staff. Great restaurant attached to the building, the Blue Mermaid. Would stay again.
Hotel facilities
Food & Drink
- - Restaurant
- - Bar
- - Breakfast in the room
- - Special diet menus (on request)
- - Wine/champagne (additional charge)
General
- - Room service
- - Non-smoking rooms
- - Facilities for disabled guests
- - Family rooms
- - Lift
- - Safety deposit box
- - Heating
- - Non-smoking throughout
- - Air conditioning
- - Pet bowls
Business facilities
- - Meeting/banquet facilities (additional charge)
- - Business centre (additional charge)
- - Fax/photocopying (additional charge)
Reception services
- - 24-hour front desk
- - Express check-in/check-out
- - Tour desk
- - Luggage storage
- - Concierge service
- - Invoice provided
Activities
- - Fitness centre
- - Massage (additional charge)
- - Back massage
- - Neck massage
- - Foot massage
- - Couples massage
- - Head massage
- - Full body massage
- - Happy hour (additional charge)
- - Bicycle rental (additional charge)
Cleaning services
- - Laundry (additional charge)
- - Dry cleaning (additional charge)
- - Ironing service (additional charge)
- - Daily housekeeping
Entertainment and family services
- - Board games/puzzles
Parking
- - Parking garage
- - Accessible parking
Outdoors
- - Outdoor furniture
- - Picnic area
23 May 2025
Cool of SF building, nice rooms, fun common areas.