Are you flying in? If not, where are you coming from? Are you looking for a place *in* SF or on the road toward Napa? (It's only a little over an hour to Napa from SF.)

What time will you be arriving and what time do you plan to leave?

Sorry for all the questions, but I'm not sure of your itinerary. For example, if you're getting in at 8pm and want to leave at 7am, I'm not sure the price of an SF hotel would be warranted. Which brings me to my last question, what's your budget?

Flying in , get in at 3:30 pm...Just thought there might be a good for the money hotel that is either great to stay in, or by somethings that would be cool to go by on the way to Napa the next morning. Early Jan.

Just so you know, its about an hour drive to 90 minute drive to Napa....

so, its one of those - how short do you want to stop on this "long" drive

If you are just looking for an alternative to see something else the first night, perhaps Claremont in Berkeley/Oakland area

http://claremontresort1-px.rtrk.com/

Stay somewhere in San Francisco -

or take the longer route into Napa and stay the first night in Sonoma, perhaps at the Fairmont

http://www.fairmont.com/sonoma/

or perhaps stay overnight in Sausalito at the Inn Above Tides

http://www.innabovetide.com/

other possibilities...drive a bit out of your way and stay the night at the Ritz Carlton in Half Moon Bay, etc.

Inn above the Tide looks great! That's what I was looking for!

Thank you for this suggestion!