We had a lovely stay with our two Goldendoodles with Shantanu and his wife in their lovely home in the hills. Our room overlooked a canyon and at night it was so peaceful up there - we felt surrounded by nature and the air was clean and refreshing. The upstairs bathroom is a quick flight up stairs up from the bedroom and wasn't much of an inconvenience. 10 min down the hill is the Piedmont downtown where there are some wonderful restaurants and cute shops like a cheese/wine specialty store and deluxe chocolate shop. There is an off leash dog park just a 5-10 min drive up the hill called Redwood Park and an on-leash Sibley dog park just a bit further - just watch out for poison oak (bring Technu with you)!! Its a short drive into Berkeley - 11 min to Claremont hotel to Rick/Ann's brunch spot and maybe 15-20 min without traffic to UC Berkeley Campus.