Casa Madrona Hotel & Spa
801 Bridgeway, Sausalito, CA 94965
Verified September 2026
Casa Madrona climbs a hillside above Bridgeway, which means almost every one of its roughly 60 rooms and suites looks down over Richardson Bay instead of across it. The property started in 1885 as a private Tuscan-villa-style residence built by a lumber baron named William G. Barrett, became a guesthouse in 1906, and has been added onto over the decades with a scatter of hillside cottages — so no two rooms are laid out quite the same. It survived landslide damage in the early 1970s before a new owner restored it and got it listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The ground-floor restaurant, Poggio Trattoria, is run independently by San Francisco restaurateur Larry Mindel and draws its own crowd separate from hotel guests; the spa is enough of a destination that locals book treatments without staying the night.
Rooms & Amenities
Rooms split between the main Victorian building and a cluster of hillside cottages connected by outdoor stairways and walkways — some of the Mansion rooms require climbing 75 to 90 steps to reach, so ask when booking if stairs are a problem for anyone in your party. Several of the cottage rooms have private decks and soaking tubs; the view rooms facing the bay cost noticeably more than the garden-facing ones, and it's worth the difference if you can swing it. Bath amenities throughout are EO-brand, a small detail that fits the boutique feel better than the usual placeholder toiletries.
Getting There
The hotel sits directly on Bridgeway, Sausalito's main waterfront street, a few blocks south of the ferry landing — walkable if you're coming off the boat with a carry-on, less fun with heavy luggage given the hillside stairs. Driving in from the Golden Gate Bridge, take the Alexander Avenue exit and follow it into downtown; Bridgeway street parking is metered and fills up fast on weekends, so budget time to circle or use the hotel's valet.
What's Nearby
Bridgeway's restaurants and shops are a short downhill walk, and the Sausalito Ferry Landing is about ten minutes on foot — mostly downhill on the way there, less fun in reverse.
Our Take
This is the hotel to book if the view matters more than the walk. A bay-facing room here at sunset, with the fog pulling back off the water, is the postcard version of a Sausalito trip. Just know you're paying resort rates for a small-town address, and ask about the stairs before you book a Mansion room if anyone in your party can't manage them.