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I'm going to find myself in California in November, and will be taking No. 6 from Emeryville to Chicago. I need a hotel in Emeryville -- is there one within walking distance of the Amtrak station?
Mr. Toy Member # 311
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There are a couple hotels right across the tracks, accessible via a pedestrian overpass. Unfortunately I don't know their names. Hopefully someone here does.
wayne72145 Member # 4503
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There is a Holiday Inn near the station that runs a free shuddle service.
wayne72145 Member # 4503
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Sorry I tried to look it up and that property must no longer be a Holiday Inn. I last used it in '04.
royaltrain Member # 622
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The nearest one to the station is the Woodfin Suites. I think there is a nearby link with a pedestrian overpass. I stayed there a few years ago and they had (at that time) a free shuttle from the station to the hotel, but not coming back. The hotel is very nice, except they did not have room service.
smitty195 Member # 5102
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If you're looking for a hotel with room service, then you will probably have to stay in Oakland (about a 5 to 10 minute cab ride away). Oakland has all of the major hotels that any big city has, so finding one to suit your taste would be an easy task.
For Emeryville hotels, this topic has been discussed to death for the last few years over on another railfan website. I live close to Emervyille, and if it were me, I can give you my own personal opinion. I would take the Four Points Sheraton in Emeryville over anything else. It's clean, modern, has a decent free breakfast, and is mostly a business type of clientele (except on weekends, but that's with almost any hotel these days).
As far as walking to the Four Points (or the Woodfin Suites), I try not to tell anyone that it's "an easy walk" anymore. Some people have physical limitations that do not allow them to walk very far. So for me, what is an easy 3 or 4 minute walk from the EMY Amtrak station to the Woodfin Suites, might be a complete nightmare for someone else. And others might not think it's an easy walk if it's dark out. My own personal opinion is that I would have no problem at all walking from EMY to either the Woodfin or the Four Points. But that's something you can decide for yourself, by looking at the distances (using Google Maps or something similar) and figuring it out. The worst case scenario is that you get there and decide, you know what, I don't want to walk over there----then you just walk out the front door of EMY and hop in a cab. It's nothing that really needs to be decided now----you can always change your mind at the last second once you arrive. And if it's raining, I probably would not walk.....so the weather might make the decision for you.
Here is some good information from TripAdvisor.com. I like this website, because people are able to write their open and honest comments about their particular experience at hotels. One thing I always keep in mind when reading reviews is that people on vacation, or on a "once a year" trip, will often make mountains out of molehills. For people who do not travel frequently, they tend to have some weird expectation that everything will be flawless and perfect from start to finish. So keep that in mind as you read hotel reviews from people. Sometimes a person will have to wait an hour for the room to be ready, and they'll write "Never Again!" about a particular hotel----even though everything was fine. People are funny that way.
NOTE: TripAdvisor shows that the Woodfin Suites is the #1 recommended hotel in Emeryville.
I hope this helps out a bit.
smitty195 Member # 5102
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Well, if this timing isn't funny! I just finished watching the local news here in the San Francisco Bay Area, and they did a story on the protestors and employees on strike at the Woodfin Suites Hotel in Emeryville. I knew that there were employees on strike and were protesting, but I did not know it was going on this long (many, many months now!). There was a loud and active group at the hotel today, and they sort of "stormed" the front door and hung "CLOSED" signs on it---which of course were immediately taken down by the manager.
There is some sort of on-going dispute between the employees and the hotel, with the employees claiming they are owed something like $50,000 in back-pay. It stems from a local ordinance that was passed, and as of yesterday (according to the news report), the hotel had not complied with the ordinance and there was talk of pulling their permit to do business. I don't know if I'd make a reservation there, for fear of them being open for business when your trip in November rolls around.
For what it's worth, just wanted to let you know what I just saw on the news......BTW, if you would like to see the news report for yourself, here is the link that goes directly to it:
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