California's Historic Berkeley Hotel Is A Charming Escape With Friendly Staff And Downtown Access

Spend a day walking around sunny and vibrant Berkeley — an energetic college city that's often considered one of California's most walkable — and you'll see how the city's appearance shifts from glass-front cafés to elegant villas, from Berkeley campus courtyards to a European-style fairytale village with artsy charm. If you walk around 15 minutes from Normandy Village, you'll reach Berkeley's walkable downtown, where you'll find another stylish landmark with a historic feel. With its molded cornices and Mission Revival style, Hotel Shattuck Plaza is a signature piece of downtown that has stood for over a century.

After decades of hosting visiting college families, artists, and other travelers, Hotel Shattuck Plaza has maintained a solid reputation. As of this writing, it's the No. 1 ranked hotel in Berkeley on Tripadvisor, earning a Travelers' Choice badge, a sign of consistently positive reviews. Reviewers often note the hotel's attentive service. "Staff was so great, very friendly and helpful. Easy valet and check in — they even offered me a glass of bubbles on arrival," one reviewer wrote. Pair that hospitality with its National Register of Historic Places placement and its convenience to local mainstays, and Hotel Shattuck Plaza remains an appealing option for visitors to Berkeley.

The Hotel Shattuck Plaza is deeply tied to the early history of Francis Kittredge Shattuck, one of the founders of Berkeley. The hotel sits on the land that once belonged to Shattuck's homestead. After his death, a competition was held to design a hotel on the grounds, and the winning design (the one you can still see on Shattuck Avenue today) was by architect Benjamin G. McDougall. The hotel opened in 1910, complete with arched windows, adorned turrets, and ground-floor retail space that, for seven decades, housed the J.F. Hink & Son department store. Today, that space is a movie theater.

In 2007, the hotel underwent extensive renovations that latest over two years, adding marble floors, updated furnishings, and en-suite bathrooms to each room. Still, some of the hotel's yesteryear features remain, including the ornate crystal chandelier and the Mediterranean-inspired, cream-colored exterior, from its opening day. Today, you'll also find retro-themed furniture and archival photographs lining the walls, alongside modern amenities like flat-screen TVs, iPhone docking ports, and free Wi-Fi.

For those visiting Berkeley, whether for a campus tour or downtown exploration, the Hotel Shattuck Plaza is just two blocks from the University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley) and right across the street from the Downtown Berkeley BART station. For those flying in, the hotel is roughly a 20-minute drive from Oakland International Airport and approximately 30 minutes from the San Francisco International Airport.

Hotel Shattuck Plaza offers a mix of suites and rooms, which start around $120 per night, as of this writing. All the rooms now come with modern amenities, including Galimard toiletries, coffee makers, and hypoallergenic pillowcases. Some have windows that look out across the San Francisco Bay, and one — the Chancellor Suite — features a private balcony with views of the Golden Gate Bridge. Note that when booking a room, it might face one of the adjacent streets, which, at least one Tripadvisor reviewer has pointed out, can get quite noisy.

Zino, the hotel's on-site restaurant, has a 4-star rating on Google. It specializes in Mediterranean cuisine and offers beer from local Bay Area breweries. There are plenty of great dining options in the area, too — just a few minutes on foot takes you to Ippuku, a Michelin Bib Gourmand-holder that serves Japanese dishes, most renowned for its Yakitori. Across the street from the hotel, you can have something more relaxed at the popular pizza joint and beer garden, Jupiter. When you need a breath of fresh air, just walk about 10 minutes to the Grinnell Natural Area, a small pocket of urban nature.