When it came time to end our train journey in San Francisco, one of the most vexing challenges facing me was where we might want to stay for a night. After all, it would obviously be a free night, thanks to points, but there were just so many options.

I could have used SPG points to stay at one of the many outstanding locations they have in the city, such as the Westin St. Francis in Union Square or the Lé Meridien San Francisco, which was once the Park Hyatt.

I could’ve sprung for the Marriott Marquis or even the Ritz-Carlton San Francisco.

However, as is often the case, it came down to one of several Hyatt properties. That’s because Hyatt offers the most options for the fewest points, with the easiest route to earning more points later on, thanks to their partnership with the Ultimate Rewards program.

The Hyatt Regency San Francisco and Hyatt Fisherman’s Wharf could both be had for 15,000 points for a night. I ended up siding with the Fisherman’s Wharf purely because of its proximity to our transfer stop from Amtrak and its central location, nearby many of the more touristy points of interest I wanted to check off of our list early on in our limited time on the ground.

Our Stay Experience

The Hyatt was undergoing major renovations to its lobby when we arrived, so check-in was being handled out of what’s likely normally a small banquet room. There wasn’t much noise from the construction, and any minor inconvenience was easily outbalanced by the fact that they had a room ready for us at around 10:30AM, far earlier than our scheduled check-in time.

The room was nicely-sized and appointed, as I’ve grown to expect from Hyatt. While it certainly wasn’t a suite like our magnificent stay at the Hyatt McCormick Place a few days earlier, it was more than sufficient for an evening and an extremely welcome respite after several days cooped up on the train.

By the window was a nice lounge with a pull-over table, good for a laptop:

The room overlooked a narrow pool, which was unsurprisingly not in use given the high winds and cool temperature:

The shower was large and included a ceiling-mounted waterfall spout, which is a favored feature of mine:

The bathroom came with the standard array of amenities:

One sign of our location, perhaps, was the amount of focus placed on the room’s electronics and outlets. It’s always a downer when a room lacks enough visible outlets to charge up my gear, forcing compromises between lights and clocks being plugged in and laptops functioning the next day. That wasn’t a problem here, as the room had a variety of integrated USB connections for charging, along with an HDMI connection, aux port and even bluetooth capability for streaming media to the room’s large TV:

We spent very little time in the room, as we were mostly out exploring. That meant it easily filled our basic requirements: it was free (with points, of course), it was more than nice enough, and it served as a great basecamp for exploration. I’d easily recommend the Hyatt Fisherman’s Wharf to others looking for a similar feature set. For those looking for something more luxurious, one of the options linked near the top of this article might serve you better, and I’ll look to review one of them next time I’m in town!