TRAVEL & LODGING INFORMATION

Balancing Culture, Conservation, and
Economic Development: Heritage Tourism
in and around the Pacific Rim
 

Right: Argonaut Hotel

In a unique partnership with the San Francisco Maritime National Historical Park, the Argonaut Hotel makes its home in the historic Haslett Warehouse at The Cannery.  This boutique hotel overlooks San Francisco Bay and this national park, including its fleet of historic ships.  Many of the 252 spacious guestrooms feature unobstructed breathtaking views of Fisherman's  Wharf, the San Francisco Bay, and the city skyline.

International Callers

Australia	0011-800-54678660
Brazil	000811-005-4499
France	00 800 54678660
Germany	00 800 54678660
Italy	00 800 54678660
Switzerland	00 800 54678660
UK UK	00-800-546-78660
UK U2	00-800 546-78660
IDC (Japan)	0061 800 54678660
KDD (Japan)	001 800 54678660
Japan Telecom	0041 800 54678660
NTT (Japan)	0033 800 54678660
For all other countries, dial 415-397-5572

US/ICOMOS Conference Rate
at the Argonaut Hotel

Wednesday through Saturday nights the nightly rate is $179.00 (plus 14% room tax) for single or double occupancy rooms.  Please mention US/ICOMOS when you make reservations.

Click on map for a larger version
on MapQuest

Argonaut Hotel

The Argonaut Hotel is located adjacent to Fisherman's Wharf.  A shuttle bus will be provided from the hotel to the Golden Gate Club on the grounds of the Presidio, the main conference venue, each day.

San Francisco is located on the Pacific Coast in northern California at the tip of a peninsula that forms part of the Golden Gate, the entrance to the San Francisco Bay.

By Air: The Bay Area has three major airports: San Francisco International Airport (SFO), Oakland International Airport (OAK), and San Jose International Airport (SJC). You can get to your hotel via shuttles, the BART system or taxi. There are different options at each airport.  Most international flights arrive at the San Francisco International Airport (SFO), where as the other two are mainly limited to flights from Canada and Mexico.

By Bus: While not the only bus service in the area, Greyhound is the only one with long-distance service.

By train: Amtrak serves the San Francisco area, but its Bay Area terminal is across the Bay at Jack London Square in Oakland. A free shuttle bus connects with San Francisco's Caltrain station and the Ferry Building at the Embarcadero. Travelling north from Los Angeles, one could transfer to Caltrain at San Jose and take that service to San Francisco.

San Francisco occupies the tip of a peninsula that forms the southern part of the Golden Gate, the entrance to the expansive San Francisco Bay.  Its hilly terrain provides for spectacular views, reachable in some parts by the city's famous cable cars, and its particularly location often leads to extremely foggy conditions (particularly in late summer) as hot air inland blocks the cold air coming in from the Pacific Ocean.

While Native Americans resided here as early as 3000 years ago, the San Francisco Bay peninsula was essentially de-populated at the time of the earliest European visits.  A number of expeditions along the Pacific Coast missed the Bay entirely, not recognizing what lay just inside the Golden Gate.  In 1775, Juan Manuel de Ayala became the first European to enter the Bay, followed the next year by Captain Juan Bautista de Anza, who built a presidio (fort) above the Golden Gate and the Mission Dolores in the heart of today's Mission district.  A tiny village known as Yerba Buena developed between the fort and the mission, becoming the birthplace of modern San Francisco. Yerba Buena was renamed San Francisco in 1847, just two years before the discovery of gold in the nearby Sierra Nevada mountains to the east.  With the influx of prospectors, the population of San Francisco balloned from 500 to over 25,000 in less than a year.  In 1850,  California becamse the 31st state of the union.  By the end of the century, it became known as the Barbary Coast for its debauched resemblance to the pirate-plagued coast of North Africa.

Visit the website of the
San Francisco Convention
and Visitors Bureau

In 1906, the Great Earthquake along with the resulting fires destroyed nearly half the city.  Rebounding quickly, however, San Francisco rose to eventually become a major world-class city.  The Bay Bridge was constructed in 1936 and the famous Golden Gate Bridge was completed the following year.  During World War II, the Bay Area became a major focus of military preparedness operations in the Pacific.

San Francisco since has been the home of successive alternative scenes, including the Beat Generation, with Jack Kerouac and Allen Ginsberg moving their in the 1950s, the hippies and the "summer of love" in the 1960s, centered around the Haight-Ashbury section of the city, and one of the worlds earliest and liveliest gay communities, the Castro, beginning in the early 1970s.  In the 1990s, the area was central to the booming dot.com enterprises.  Following their bust at the turn of the 21st century, the area has rebounded economically once again.

The 2007 US/ICOMOS Symposium will take advantage of the rich cultural and architectural history of San Francisco, utilizing the Argonaut Hotel at Fisherman's Whart as the conference hotel and the Golden Gate Club at the Presidio as the main conference venue.  Field tours and mobile workshops will provide registrants with a more detailed look at various aspects of San Francisco and the Bay Area, and evening lectures and receptions will take you inside some of the most illustrious architectural treasures the city has to offer.

Links to learn more
about San Francisco

San Francisco Prehistory

San Francisco History

Historic Sites in San Francisco
(by National Geographic)

San Francisco Architectural Heritage

WWII in the San Francisco Bay Area
(National Register of Historic Places)

City Parks in San Francisco

California State Parks

National Parks in California

In late April, San Franciso temperatures average around a high of 65°F (18°C) and a low of 50°F (10°C).  Therefore, while the daytime can be pleasant, the evenings may be somewhat cool, particularly when there is a breeze off the Pacific Ocean.  Also, given the influence of El Nino, it may also be rainy at times.