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Donatello vs Wyndham Canterbury in San Francisco

L

lily28

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Hi. I have the opportunity to either exchange into a hotel unit in Donatello vs a 1 bedroom in Wyndham Canterbury with limited kitchen (refrigerator/microwave only) for 2/11. My party will have at max 2 adults and 1 5 year old child or only 2 people. I think both are located near Union Square in San Francisco. There are limited reviews at the Wyndham Canterbury timeshare and it requires unbelievable amount of wyndham points (300k) if I use wyndham points to book a week long stay. Which one of these timeshare should I choose? thanks
 
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We will be staying at the Wyndham Canterbury in a couple of weeks. I'll report on it after we return July 16th.
 
Hi Wyndham owners,

I am also a member as a VIP Gold and have stayed twice at the Canterbury which was my home resort for a short period before I had switched to Waikiki.

The place is very nice and very well kept. Book the resort at 300,000 points and then within either 45 or 60 days of your arrival, look at the inventory to see if there is any availability. I remember I did and then I cancelled my reservation and then re booked it and got 35% reduction in points. It is located on Sutton Street, just west of Mason and on a bus line. You can walk to Chinatown and go east and south to Union Square. The restaurant on the corner, an Italian place, a block east, is very good. Don't remember the name. The Wyndham staff do a mid week cleaning and you get a paper delivered every morning. (Try to get the SF Chronicle).
The kitchen is small but has a sink, microwave, fridge. It needs a countertop stove. I just loved it there and the computer room is downstairs in the main lobby near the elevator.

Calady

You must do this very quickly and type fast but it was worth it. I know the sales Manager, Fran, there and I always get treated well by the front desk staff.

[I'm sorry, but advertising is only permitted on the Bargain Deals Forum.-DeniseM]
 
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How far is it a walk from Canterbury to Chinatown? This exchange is for early feb 2011 around Chinese New year. I have always want to go back to China for Chinese New year but never get the chance, esp with my daughter starting school in sept. I can no longer take her out for 4-5 weeks at a time when we went back for visit like we just did in May. I figure San francisco might be a good substitute as it might have more Chinese New Year celebration than Chicago. I just wish weather in S.F. is warmer in february.
 
The Wyndham is on Sutter, which borders China Town on one side. MAP

The parade actually crosses Sutter. We went to the parade a couple years ago - it was great, but quite a mob scene. You have to go real early to get a seat (on the curb.)
 
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The Donatello isn't far from China town either, so that shouldn't influence your decision. I would think the big issue would be a one bedroom versus a large hotel room. We like Donatello, but it is just the two of us.
Liz
 
Love SF!

Both Canterbury and Donatello are lovely locations, both within walking distance of Union Square. Our experience has been positive with staff at both locations. As Liz mentioned, the real difference is a studio-hotel style stay vs. 1BR limited kitchen. Personal preference for us will always be the 1BR, especially for a week-long stay. Sometimes, I just want coffee and breakfast in my jammies ;) and DH hates watching morning TV sitting on the bed while he waits for me to run around getting ready for the day's adventure! It's much tidier to have a separate bedroom!

Be aware that unless you are a VIP, Gold or otherwise, the release and re-book isn't going to work for you to preserve points. Depending on what your MF $/K are with Wyndham, the more economic route might be the exchange. You'll have to do the math on that. If it's about economics, do the Donatello. If it's about space and privacy, Canterbury will be better.

Whatever you decide, enjoy SF! It's fabulous and we never run out of stuff to do!:cheer:
 
booking a week at canterbury with wyndham points is too costly for me (300k / week) which I don't even have that many point annually. So it is an exchange for me. It will cost me $225 more in maintenance fee to exchange into wyndham canterbury compare to Donatello. I think I will go ahead and confirm the exchange into canterbury tomorrow. Thanks for everyone's input.
Any activities in S.F. that are good for a 6 year old girl?
 
I have lots of ideas here.
 
thanks DeniseM. Is wyndham canterbury close to the tenderloin area you mention to avoid?
 
Suggestion for Activity Discounts w/o Owner Update!

DeniseM said:
I have lots of ideas here.
Click to expand...

Hi everyone. Great resource list, Denise :)

Just wanted to let people know about something we stumbled across getting ready for our recent trip to SF. I think I read about it in AAA. It's called the Go San Francisco card. You can purchase a card for 1, 3, 5 or 7 day use and then your admission to over 50 activities/attractions is free with your card. You can view the whole list of included activities on their website but it includes things like the Aquarium, Six Flags, Wax Museum, the Academy of Sciences, Asian Art Museum, MOMA, Bike rental with self-guided tour map and helmet, Golden Gate Bay Cruise, the Charles Schulz museum (Peanuts), a hop on hop off trolley tour and many others. I went to find the website for you and I see that they are currently having a sale on their 3, 5 and 7 day cards (10% off regular price). Adult 3 day card right now is 86.39 and a child card is 59.39. 5 day cards are 116 adult, 81 child; 7 day cards: 131 adult, 95, child.

I should say that we have not tried them yet. We were only going to be there a couple of days primarily to visit a friend, and it seemed like we would get better value over a longer period, so we are planning to schedule a return trip and will order the cards and do all the tourist things :)

Any restrictions are outlined on the website, the only one I really see is that many of the attractions don't allow admission after 5:30pm. It seemed like a really good value to me as I checked it out. One other bonus I noticed on the San Francisco cards is that many of the attractions feature a "Skip the Line" benefit with the Go Card, so less standing around waiting to get in, and more actual exploring. They also do cards for other major cities like Boston, NYC, Chicago, San Diego, Seattle, Miami and others. We are headed to Hawaii soon and ordered the cards for Oahu. (We didn't order the cards for Maui because they don't seem like as much of a savings to me based on what we will need/do there).

Anyway, I was pretty psyched when I found it, so I thought I'd pass it on. The website is smartdestinations.com The cities are listed across the top of the page, just click on the one you want to see. You can keep drilling down further to see more information. Once you get to the city tab you want, you will see a partial list of attractions. If you scroll down to the bottom, click on "See Included Attractions" and the full list will come up. From there, you can click on each individual attraction for details.

Take a look and see if it's of interest to you. It was to me. Have a great trip!
 
Compare it with the City Pass, which is cheaper, has less attractions, but includes all transportation and 7 different activities or museums.
Liz
 
Liz Wolf-Spada said:
Compare it with the City Pass, which is cheaper, has less attractions, but includes all transportation and 7 different activities or museums.
Liz
Click to expand...

I recommend the City Pass. Last time I was in SF, I bought one and it saved me lots of $$ on bus and cable car fare as well as the bay boat ride and other attractions.
 
If you might have a third person, I'd definitely go with the Canterbury. I just got back from a stay at the Donatello. It was perfectly fine and I'd be happy to go back, but the Canterbury sounds like a better fit.
 
I went ahead and confirmed the exchange to wyndham canterbury for next Feb. Now I only need sonme cheap airfare from Chicago to S.F. Thanks everyone.
 
We need to be in SF on specified dates, and this property has availability. Has anyone stayed recently? We have a good hotel option but always prefer a kitchen (even limited) if we can snag one.
 
This is an old thread, I stayed at both locations in 2019.

Keep in mind Donnatello is just a high end hotel. At least the room I stayed in. Had one room, no bedroom, no other separation except the bathroom. Room was very nice and comfortable, bed was VERY comfortable I remember that. They had a rooftop deck which was very nice. Just mini fridge and microwave, no dinnerware, plates/bowls or cups. No resort amenities other than a (paid) spa up on the top floor by the sky deck. I stayed there when it was a Shell resort before Wyndham took them over, for free on one of those RCI vouchers, so it was worth it to me.

Canterbury was more "resort style/condo style" rooms with an actual bedroom, partial kitchen with a full size fridge, pull out couch and actual bedroom. I stayed in a 1BR Deluxe for what it's worth. I do not remember the resort having any real amenities other than workout room. No pools/hot tubs, don't remember there being any sort of sky deck either. VERY high points values, but it was nice.

Both resorts are very close to each other. Near Union Square (Donnatello is a little closer to Union Square) and equidistant to one of the cable car lines.

If it was just me and the wife, we would do Donnatello again, it's much lower points values and we can handle the smallish room.

One word of warning, Donnatello is closer to "the tenderloin", you walk a couple blocks away and it gets pretty wild. Immediately around the resort it wasn't bad.

Union Square was full of druggies at times, especially at night. I have no idea what it's like there currently though, I have not been since 2019.
 
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what about Suites at Fisherman's Wharf. How could that compare?
 
Floridaman76 said:
This is an old thread, I stayed at both locations in 2019.

Keep in mind Donnatello is just a high end hotel. At least the room I stayed in. Had one room, no bedroom, no other separation except the bathroom. Room was very nice and comfortable, bed was VERY comfortable I remember that. They had a rooftop deck which was very nice. Just mini fridge and microwave, no dinnerware, plates/bowls or cups. No resort amenities other than a (paid) spa up on the top floor by the sky deck. I stayed there when it was a Shell resort before Wyndham took them over, for free on one of those RCI vouchers, so it was worth it to me.

Canterbury was more "resort style/condo style" rooms with an actual bedroom, partial kitchen with a full size fridge, pull out couch and actual bedroom. I stayed in a 1BR Deluxe for what it's worth. I do not remember the resort having any real amenities other than workout room. No pools/hot tubs, don't remember there being any sort of sky deck either. VERY high points values, but it was nice.

Both resorts are very close to each other. Near Union Square (Donnatello is a little closer to Union Square) and equidistant to one of the cable car lines.

If it was just me and the wife, we would do Donnatello again, it's much lower points values and we can handle the smallish room.

One word of warning, Donnatello is closer to "the tenderloin", you walk a couple blocks away and it gets pretty wild. Immediately around the resort it wasn't bad.

Union Square was full of druggies at times, especially at night. I have no idea what it's like there currently though, I have not been since 2019.
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Closer maybe, but not close. We have stayed at the Donatello several times, never at the Canterbury so can't compare the two.

As for the "druggies" we visit San Francisco every year. Last visit was in March of this year (2025). Don't remember Union Square being full of druggies. When we were there it was full of tulips as we happened to be there during their big Tulip Day. But even when the square is not full of tulips it's not full of druggies either.
 
Sandy VDH said:
what about Suites at Fisherman's Wharf. How could that compare?
Click to expand...
My personal opinion is I wouldn't want to stay at Fisherman's Wharf. Too touristy, which is why tourists love it.
 
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