The Millwood
1375 El Camino Real
Millbrae, CA
A polished motor-lodge remodel with real warmth, minutes from SFO.
This property is an Honorable Mention. It has been vetted and approved for our highest standards of cleanliness, safety, and operational excellence. While it is still evolving toward our full design-led designation, it is a proven, reliable anchor for any road trip. We recommend it with confidence.
About The Millwood
The Millwood is a motor lodge on El Camino Real in Millbrae, thoughtfully remodeled into a boutique property that keeps its drive-up bones while raising the finish well above its roadside origins. Rooms open to the outside in the classic motel layout, with parking right in front, but the owners added a glass privacy screen along the exterior walkways, giving guests keyed access and buffering road and airport noise. The result is a quiet, contemporary stay a few minutes from San Francisco International Airport, set in one of the Peninsula's stronger neighborhoods with good restaurants close by. What sets it apart is care: planted, flower-filled walkways, marble bathrooms, and a genuinely comfortable feel that reads as honest and considered rather than a quick refresh. Guests return year after year, many for the reliable early-flight convenience, then stay for the comfort.
What The Millwood Is Known For
The Millwood does something most airport-area properties never attempt: it makes the stay itself worth remembering. Rather than settling for functional, the remodel invested in the details that matter, marble bathrooms, all-cotton bedding, solid-core doors, central air, and plant-filled glass-screened walkways, while keeping the honest drive-up motel layout and the free parking in front of the door. Paired with warm, attentive service and a genuinely good breakfast, it turns a Peninsula convenience stay into a comfortable one, the reason so many guests book it again on their next trip through San Francisco.
Amenities
- Breakfast Included
- Marble bathrooms
- Glass-screened private walkways
- All-cotton bedding
- Solid-core doors
- Central air conditioning
- Daily complimentary reception
- Two-bedroom suites
- Planted flower-lined walkways
What Guests Love
- Bathrooms are finished in marble and stocked with quality bath products, an unusual step up for a remodeled motor lodge.
- A glass privacy screen along the exterior walkways adds security and buffers road and airport noise while keeping the drive-up motel layout.
- All-cotton bedding, encased mattresses, and solid-core doors make for a quiet, comfortable night before an early flight.
- A complimentary breakfast with real variety and a daily reception round out a warm, service-forward stay.
Worth Knowing
- The property is a few minutes from San Francisco International Airport, making it a strong pick for early departures or late arrivals. It is roughly a nine-minute drive to the rental car center.
- Layouts range from standard rooms to two-bedroom suites that live like a small apartment. If you need the extra space, request a suite when booking.
- Well-regarded neighborhood restaurants are within a short walk, so dinner does not require a drive.
- Free self-parking sits right in front of the rooms in a well-lit lot, with keyed glass-screened walkway access to the doors.
The Room
Rooms are contemporary and comfortable, with all-cotton bedding, encased mattresses, and beds that guests single out as some of the best on a California trip. Bathrooms are finished in marble and stocked with quality bath products, an unexpected step up for a remodeled motor lodge. Solid-core doors, including interior suite doors, and central air keep rooms quiet, avoiding the noisy wall units common at this price. Layouts run from standard rooms to genuine two-bedroom suites that live like a small apartment. The overall effect is crisp, clean, and calm, designed around comfort and rest rather than flash.
The Grounds
The signature detail outside is the glass-screened exterior walkway: rooms still open to the air motel-style, but a glass partition between the parking and the room doors adds privacy, security, and quiet. The walkways themselves are dressed with plants and flowers, and the property is known for smelling of the greenery as much as looking the part. Free self-parking sits right in front of the rooms, well lit and easy, with an outdoor seating area for guests. The El Camino Real setting keeps restaurants and shops within a short walk and the airport a few minutes away.
The Experience
The Millwood is built for an easy landing or an early departure, and it delivers on comfort in a way airport-adjacent stays rarely do. Front-desk staff are warm and genuinely helpful, remembered by repeat guests by name. A complimentary breakfast with real variety starts the morning, and a daily reception adds to the welcome. Rooms are quiet enough for a full night's sleep before a dawn flight, the beds are a standout, and small requests, down to a proper roller crib for a baby, are met without fuss. Guests walk a few minutes to well-regarded neighborhood restaurants for dinner. It is the sort of practical stay that quietly overdelivers and earns loyal return visits.
Details
Millbrae, CA 94030
The Boutel designation is earned, not purchased. Boutels is editorially independent and has no financial relationship with any listed property.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is The Millwood pet friendly?
No, The Millwood does not accept pets. You can filter the Road Trip Planner map for pet-friendly Boutels nearby.
Does The Millwood have EV charging?
No, The Millwood does not have on-site EV charging. The Road Trip Planner map shows public chargers near the property.
What is there to do near The Millwood?
San Francisco International Airport: 2.5 miles, about a 5 minute drive, or you can bike there. Millbrae BART and Caltrain Station: 0.8 miles, about a 5 minute drive, or you can walk. Downtown San Francisco: 14 miles, about a 30 minute drive.
How far is The Millwood from San Francisco International Airport?
San Francisco International Airport is about 2.5 miles from The Millwood, roughly a 5 minute drive or a short bike ride.
How far is The Millwood from Millbrae BART and Caltrain Station?
Millbrae BART and Caltrain Station is about 0.8 miles from The Millwood, close enough to walk (roughly a 5 minute drive).
How far is The Millwood from Downtown San Francisco?
Downtown San Francisco is about 14 miles from The Millwood, roughly a 30 minute drive.
How far is The Millwood from San Francisco International Airport?
The Millwood is about 2.5 miles from San Francisco International Airport, roughly a 6-minute drive, and about nine minutes to the rental car center, which makes it convenient for early flights.
Does The Millwood have interior hallways?
No. Rooms open to the outside in the classic drive-up motel layout, with a glass privacy screen added along the exterior walkways for security and quiet, and free parking right in front of the rooms.
Is breakfast included at The Millwood?
Yes. A complimentary breakfast with good variety is served daily, along with a daily complimentary reception.
Is parking free at The Millwood?
Yes. Free self-parking is included, located right in front of the rooms in a well-lit lot with keyed glass-screened walkway access.
Can I reach San Francisco from The Millwood without a car?
Yes. The Millbrae BART and Caltrain station is about 0.8 miles away and connects directly into downtown San Francisco and along the Peninsula.
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Things to Do Near the San Francisco Peninsula
Twin Peaks
10 miles away
San Francisco's great free overlook, a pair of grassy hills over 900 feet high near the city's center.
Dolores Park
10 miles away
A sunny fourteen-acre hillside lawn at the western edge of San Francisco's Mission District, where the whole city seems to gather on a warm day beneath a palm-lined view of the downtown skyline.
Harvey Milk Plaza
11 miles away
A small public plaza at the gateway to San Francisco's Castro, at Castro and Market, named for Harvey Milk, one of the country's first openly gay elected officials.
Palace of Fine Arts
14 miles away
A grand and romantic monument in San Francisco's Marina District, a great domed rotunda and sweeping colonnade of golden classical architecture set beside a tranquil lagoon.
Alcatraz Island
15 miles away
The Rock, a rocky island in San Francisco Bay that held the most notorious federal prison in America from the 1930s to the 1960s, locking away dangerous inmates like Al Capone behind cold water famed as inescapable.
Vista Point
16 miles away
Vista Point on the Marin side of the Golden Gate Bridge is the most reliable quick stop for a full-span view of the bridge and the bay. The parking area is directly off Highway 101 north of the bridge and is free.
Bay Model Visitor Center
19 miles away
The Bay Model in Sausalito is a 1.5-acre working hydraulic model of the San Francisco Bay and Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta, built by the Army Corps of Engineers between 1957 and 1963 to test how engineering projects woul...
San Francisco Bay
19 miles away
San Francisco Bay is a drowned river valley that formed when rising sea levels after the last glaciation flooded the interior valleys of central California.
Millbrae BART and Caltrain Station
0.8 miles, about a 5 minute drive, or you can walk.
0.8 miles, about a 3-minute drive, brings you to the Millbrae transit station, where BART and Caltrain connect directly into San Francisco and down the Peninsula without a car.