San Francisco

[oldtrig]

My son will be taking a trip to San Francisco in late March. They live in the southeast US and never been to the west coast. His wife give him three tickets for his 40th birthday last year for him, his 17 year old son and of course his wife.

They will be flying to the airport in San Francisco and staying a week.

Any suggestions on hotels and places to visit ? how to get around and any other thing they need to know. They are new to this so any help appreciated including costs per day to take such a trip. I know many factors would play a part in the cost like hotels and food but maybe a rough idea on what they need to expect ? . Thanks

[DrRoy]

Coit Tower has a nice view. Go over the Golden Gate bridge and visit Muir Woods.

[Meadbh]

Alcatraz.

[FIRE'd@51]

I'd definitely suggest a trip to Sausalito. If you don't have a rental car, you can get there by ferry, which is a scenic ride. Depending upon where you stay, you can get around SF via cable car and the BART. If you want to splurge on a hotel, I'd suggest Knob Hill (we used to stay at the Stanford Court). You also want to be sure to see Lombard Street.

[Nemo2]

Winchester House

https://www.google.ca/maps/uv?hl=en&...BjwQoioIgwEwEA

[Car-Guy]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Meadbh Alcatraz.

Get your Alcatraz tickets well in advance of your tour date.

Take a walk on the Golden Gate Bridge, ride the Cable Cars for quick and cheap tour, visit Union Square, Fisherman's wharf, etc, and watch out for the scammers that prey on tourist.

[Souschef]

Quote:

Originally Posted by FIRE'd@51 I'd definitely suggest a trip to Sausalito. If you don't have a rental car, you can get there by ferry, which is a scenic ride. Depending upon where you stay, you can get around SF via cable car and the BART. If you want to splurge on a hotel, I'd suggest Knob Hill (we used to stay at the Stanford Court). You also want to be sure to see Lombard Street.

The Spinnaker Restaurant by the ferry terminal. The bar has a set of mirrors where you can see the bay. Also the bar has a nice menu, if you do not want the dining room.
Pier 39 at Fisherman's wharf is also a must. Clam chowder in a sourdough bowl is a treat

[euro]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Car-Guy Get your tickets well in advance of your tour date.

+1 for Alcatraz - definitely a memorable experience, especially for a 17yo. That's the one thing my kids still talk about (plus Chinatown as well)

[LOL!]

I always rent a bike and ride from bike place (there are many near all hotels) through Golden Gate Park, over the Golden Gate Bridge and back.
You can get a CityPass with a number sites to see. See tripadvisor.com about some tricks.

[marko]

Not sure if it's still a hoppin' place but Irish Coffees at the Buena Vista Cafe is (was?) quite the scene. On a busy night there might be 400 people cheek to jowl standing there drinking IC's and spilling out into the street; great way to meet fellow tourists and locals alike. One of the best parties going!

Driving over the GG after dark there's a turnoff and you can look back on the city lights. As noted, Muir Woods is a good take as well.

[FIREd]

For more affordable hotel options, I would suggest getting a hotel room near Fisherman's Wharf. I would also highly recommend not renting a car. Parking is expensive and most attractions in SF are easily accessible from Fisherman's Wharf, on foot or via public transportation (streetcar, cable car, or Ferry). Bring good walking shoes.

Things to do:
Ride the cable cars , cable car museum
Visit farmers market at the Ferry Building (Saturday mornings) - use the F streetcar from Fisherman's Wharf
Coit Tower
Walk or ride a bike across the Golden Gate Bridge to Sausalito (bike rentals available near Fisherman's Wharf). Come back on the Ferry.
Alcatraz - ferry departure near Fisherman's Wharf
Chinatown
Get a burger at In-N-Out and a sundae at Ghirardelli a Square - near Fisherman's Wharf
Visit Boudin's sourdough factory - near Fisherman's Wharf
Pier 39 (restaurants, shops, sea lion colony, Aquarium of the Bay) - near Fisherman's Wharf
Take a whale watching boat tour - departure near Fisherman's Wharf
Golden Gate Park (botanical garden, Japanese tea garden, De Young fine art museum, or the California Academy of Sciences)
San Francisco Zoo (pretty far from Fisherman's Wharf but easily accessible via public transportation).

[Lagniappe]

Grey Line and other tours give half day and full day tours that cover most of the highlights, and you can go back to what your want to see more of. They also pick up at all the hotels.

My favorites:

Japanese Garden at Golden Gate Park
Sutro Baths
Run or walk in the Marina/ Presidio - great views across the bay
Dim Sum in Chinatown
Conservatory of Flowers/ Butterfly Garden at GG Park



If you can't find enough to do in the city, Sausalito is great. Or go to Sonoma or Napa for the day.

[oldtrig]

THANKS, this is great info that I can pass to him. Tom

[Van-Guard23]

In addition to what everyone has already posted, how about a drive up to Napa Valley. Even if they're not big wine drinkers a drive up to see Helena, Yountville, Napa and Sonoma are worth the drive (and traffic). If they're up for some more driving, Lake Tahoe is beautiful.

[rodi]

+100 on book in advance for Alcatraz. We're going to be up there early this summer and will pre-book. I've been to SF at least a dozen times, but never had my stuff together enough to pre-book... and hence have never done the tour.

I like going to ghiradelli square (yum, chocolate) and fisherman's wharf. I love the gardens outside the Palace of Arts. Coit Tower has a great view, as mentioned above. If you have a car - Muir Woods is a MUST! Make sure to go to Chinatown and pick a restaurant at random on one of the side streets... We're still trying to re-discover a place that had the most amazing orange walnut chicken... Found some similar restaurants/dishes... but we wish we'd written down the name of that restaurant with the amazing dish.

[YVRRocketSurgery]

While I love the flexibility that a rental car gives, parking in San Fran is a pain in the rear. Consider Uber or HoHo's unless they're going to tack on a longer drive like out to Napa. Our friends did a HoHo day pass when they went down for a cruise recently and they said it worked well for them. Hit key spots they were interested in and had a night tour that was quite enjoyable.

[l8_apex]

SFGate is the city's newspaper online. Their top 100 restaurant article: Top 100 Bay Area Restaurants 2016 - San Francisco Chronicle If they've never had chinese dim sum, the best place is Yank Sing, which is as good as any place pretty much anywhere on the planet.

Only rent a car if you choose a hotel that has parking, and make sure you know the pricing of said parking.

If you do rent a car, then either take a trip to Napa, or take highway 1 south along the coast to Half Moon Bay. Pick any hiking trail along the way and it'll be great. If you make it to HMB, eat at Sam's Chowder House and ask for the Oyster Stew.

Hiking in the redwoods: The Bay Area’s Best Redwood Hikes - 7x7 Bay Area. I'd strongly suggest a hike in a redwood forest, that would actually be in the top 1, 2, or 3 things to do in my opinion.

[Teacher Terry]

We live driving distance to SF but never use the car when there. We just leave it a the hotel because it is way too hard to find a space to park and lots of public transportation plus we walk a lot. Also now that Alcatraz has been open for a number of years it is much easier to get a ticket then in the past. But is probably also depends if it is tourist season. So much to see and do and the weather is great.

[tmm99]

Quote:

Originally Posted by FIREd For more affordable hotel options, I would suggest getting a hotel room near Fisherman's Wharf. I would also highly recommend not renting a car. Parking is expensive and most attractions in SF are easily accessible from Fisherman's Wharf, on foot or via public transportation (streetcar, cable car, or Ferry). Bring good walking shoes. Things to do: Ride the cable cars , cable car museum Visit farmers market at the Ferry Building (Saturday mornings) - use the F streetcar from Fisherman's Wharf Coit Tower Walk or ride a bike across the Golden Gate Bridge to Sausalito (bike rentals available near Fisherman's Wharf). Come back on the Ferry. Alcatraz - ferry departure near Fisherman's Wharf Chinatown Get a burger at In-N-Out and a sundae at Ghirardelli a Square - near Fisherman's Wharf Visit Boudin's sourdough factory - near Fisherman's Wharf Pier 39 (restaurants, shops, sea lion colony, Aquarium of the Bay) - near Fisherman's Wharf Take a whale watching boat tour - departure near Fisherman's Wharf Golden Gate Park (botanical garden, Japanese tea garden, De Young fine art museum, or the California Academy of Sciences) San Francisco Zoo (pretty far from Fisherman's Wharf but easily accessible via public transportation).

This just about covers them all from what I can see.

I used to take everyone who came to visit me to SF (from the south bay) and get them on a cable car, stop by China Town, go to the Warf, have lunch there (a crab sandwich or seafood mix fries) and get on a ferry under the Golden Gate Bridge (everyone just loved this one) or/and take another ferry to Sausalito if they are staying longer and enjoy artsy stuff (You can visit Muir Woods National Monument from there - very close)), and once back, walk from the Warf to Pier 39 (a tourist trap) and all the way down to the Ferry building and eat/drink something there or pick up some gourmet take-outs and then walk all the way to the Giants ballpark (It's a long walk, but I have done it many times with guests.) Food wise, I used to take people to Stinking Rose (North Beach) and order their Bagna Cauda (The amount of garlic cloves in it is insane). If you are close to Union Square, I recommend Max's Opera Cafe (if you like HUGE sandwiches- the waiters sing) or Matterhorn Swiss Restaurant (if you like good fondue). For cheap eats, you can go to Westfield San Francisco Centre - lower levels have tons of eateries, or eat street vendor hot dogs.

[tmm99]

Oh, I wouldn't rent a car either. We sometimes drove (instead of taking the train) from the south bay to SF but even when we drove, we parked our car in a cheap public parking, and when we didn't want to walk, we used to just get a cab (an Uber if it were now). Too much trouble trying to find parking.