Hotel Sausalito
16 El Portal, Sausalito, CA 94965
Verified September 2026
Sixteen rooms — fourteen bedrooms and two suites — a spot directly on the little park across from the ferry landing, and a French Riviera decorating scheme that's stuck since a 1996 renovation. The building itself went up in 1915 in a Mission Revival style and has picked up a genuinely colorful backstory since: hotel lore has it running as a bordello and rum-running stop during Prohibition, with Baby Face Nelson rumored among the regulars, though that's the kind of thing you take as local legend rather than fact. What's better documented is that writer Sterling Hayden lived here through Sausalito's 1960s-and-70s artist-colony years, and the hotel has turned up on film in Serial, Partners in Crime, and Mother. It's the smallest of Sausalito's hotels and the one that puts you closest to the ferry without paying resort prices for it.
Rooms & Amenities
Rooms are compact, as you'd expect from a 1915 building, but each is decorated individually with custom furniture from local artisans rather than a chain-hotel template. The reproduction Matisse and Monet paintings lining the hallways are the work of Napa Valley artist Kelleen Sullivan — a small, slightly eccentric touch that fits the hotel's personality better than it sounds. Check-in runs from 3 p.m., checkout by 11 a.m.
Getting There
The hotel sits at El Portal and Plaza Vina del Mar, immediately next to the city parking lot and a couple hundred feet from the ferry landing — genuinely walkable if you're arriving by boat with luggage. The hotel itself has no on-site parking; guests use the adjacent city lot, running around $30 a day, or the discounted parking passes the front desk can arrange.
What's Nearby
You're steps from the ferry, the fountain and palm trees of Plaza Vina del Mar, and Bridgeway's restaurant row — this is about as central as lodging gets in Sausalito.
Our Take
If you want to be able to walk everywhere and don't need a bay view from your pillow, this is the practical choice — smaller rooms, but you'll spend more of your trip out on Bridgeway than in them anyway. Ask for a room away from El Portal if you're a light sleeper; it's a lively little corner on summer evenings. And it's worth asking the front desk about the bordello rumors, even if you take the answer with a grain of salt.