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Metro Hotel in Petaluma
Not many realize it but most everyone’s seen Petaluma in movies like American Graffiti and dozens of TV shows. Once the “Egg Capital of the World,” today the city’s well out of it’s carton. The small downtown’s saved the best of its 1800’s architecture. Storefronts house culinary exploits befitting a burg on the edge of the wildly popular Napa-Sonoma wine region and proximity to San Francisco. There are shops full of handmade clothing, retro to modern arts and crafts, and bakeries are full of locals in the mornings. Personality burbles onto the sidewalks. A river runs through it too.
Cuddly critters spied in a Petaluma storefront.
I thought I had a handle on the place after visiting dozens of times over the years. So it was a revelation to pull up to the Metro Hotel and be transported into an eccentric version of Parisian culture.
Metro Hotel garden
There’s no question why accolades have been heaped on the inn. It’s in the top twenty most unique hotels in the country with awards from Sunset and Vacation Ideas magazines. Trip Advisor fans can’t speak highly enough.
Cafe in Metro Hotel
Why the French accent? The couple behind the place took over the 1870’s building in 2004. The wife makes regular trips back home to France and can’t stop returning with retro remnants of her home country. Her husband runs the place and is doing well competing with the bigger hotel chains closer to the freeway.
My family stayed upstairs in a two bedroom suite with one bath. We had a claw foot tub with a shower and deeply comfortable beds. The staff was more than happy to give me a tour and I couldn’t stop taking pictures.
Bedroom in Metro Hotel
There’s a cottage to rent too and most amazingly, several shiny Airstream guest rentals on the property. I’ve heard they’re fun but can be chilly in the winter but would love to test the theory. A bocce ball court beckons just outside the back door.
One of the Airstreams at Metro Hotel
In the morning we helped ourselves to pastries and pour over coffee. The WiFi was great. There were comfortable places to sit and relax, to work or read indoors or out, but the creative distractions kept me savoring the space with every sip.
Banquet room at Metro Hotel.
There’s plenty of free parking, tandem bikes to enjoy on the flat terrain and it’s a short walk to restaurants (within a few minutes drive from downtown.)
Foundry Wharf
Sadly we were there for just one night. For dinner we walked two blocks towards the riverfront and listened to a theater company doing a reading of Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar while we supped on salads and pizza.
Bakery cafe in Petaluma
It was a perfectly unique sojourn and I look forward to returning to Petaluma again. Especially when the renovations at the historic and much larger, downtown Petaluma Hotel are complete.
Historical Petaluma Hotel
What else might you find in Petaluma?
- Peruse the busy local calendar.
- Check out the Metro accommodations online.
- Take a tour of the Hollywood locations in Petaluma or DIY and Download a PDF listing film locations in downtown Petaluma.
Elaine takes a breather at a graffiti yard in Petaluma
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This was a completely independent trip, and all opinions are too.
I would love to try out the Airstream! These cheeky little places are so much more fun than predictable freeway chains.
I’ll take a hotel chain if absolutely necessary and gladly so but like you would much prefer a unique place to stay most of the time.
What fun! It looks like such a one-of-a-kind property~
It is a one of a kind place. I was enchanted and so surprised.
Such a great find! I’ll have to check it out next time I’m heading up north for a getaway. Quite an honor for the inn to be so highly regarded and I guess I can see why from your post. I would love to stay in the Airstream — it would probably bring back all kinds of great road trip memories from my youth.
You’re fortunate to have Airstream memories to re-kindle. I always wanted to be part of the big caravans that cross the U.S. Another lifetime perhaps.
I had to look this up on Google maps- thought it was further south. I’d love the Metro Hotel- we once lived in an Airstream in another lifetime. Ours wasn’t this cool!
I should’ve known you’re Airstream savvy! I’d love to try the Metro ones out one day too.
The suite you stayed in sounds lovely. However, the rebel in me says I would want to tryout one of the Airstreams.
Yes. Wouldn’t it be fun to stay in the Airstream?! We were a group of 4 and it was a last minute arrangement. Next time.
It sounds absolutely lovely — both Petaluma and the Metro Hotel!!
Thanks, Marilyn, it’s a delight to see and stay.
What a wonderfully quaint and quirky place! The Metro Hotel certainly seems like my kind of place…and well worth a visit.
I think you’d find the Metro charming and fun.
Being interested in anything that involves Paris, I clicked on your blog link as soon as I read your title. I had no knowledge of where Petaluma was so I was quite surprised to realize that it lied just north of San Francisco, an area that I thought I knew well. I guess there is always something new to learn! Thanks for your very colorful and charming photos!
Thank you, Denis. I take your praise as a compliment. The pictures don’t do the place justice but I try.
Oh, my gosh! This looks like so much fun, and it is not so far from home for me! Love the tandem bikes to borrow. 😉
Sounds like a staycation might be called for.
I think that Petaluma looks to be my type of town and the quirky and beautiful Metro Hotel looks amazing – it all seems to work.
I think you’re right! It all works well.
This is an area of California I have not explored yet. I think I have see the Airstream part of the hotel in Sunset. However, I didn’t know about the other “side” of the hotel or about the French accents. Looks like a nice place to stay.
I hope you get a chance to explore more of northern California before long.
This seems like one of those little hotels that I’ve seen in Southern France. Very chic and comfortable. Unfortunately, the little town of Petaluma had its name tied to a horrible crime some years ago. As unfair as it may seem, every time I hear its name, the murder of Polly Klaas comes to mind.
I can see how that connection would be painful. It was a tragedy for sure. I’ve found the people of Petaluma, their hard work and creativeness overcomes so many other impressions.