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San Francisco


DeeRus

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Looking into the possibility of taking my wife to San Francisco for a 5 or 6 night break and probably over the New Year period, so ....................

Any recommendations on hotels and/or best location to be looking for one
In addition to Alcatraz, where else is worth a visit, without hiring a car

Since it’s going to be over the festive season, any places worth looking at for drinks/meal etc. and/or worth it for the view?


Thanks in advance for any suggestions offered
 

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We hired a pair of cycles and biked across the Golden Gate Bridge to Sausalito then got the ferry back. That was good fun.

The ferry back took us as close to Alcatraz as we wanted. If you DO want to visit, book in advance. Queues are horrific.

Mini-bus tour of Napa Valley was good.

Westin St Francis Hotel on Union Square washes all its coins.

The Queen Anne Hotel on Sutter Street was a nice billet.

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I've been three times and always stayed at The Chancellor. http://www.chancellorhotel.com/
It's in a prime location, right on Union Square.

If you don't decide to actually stay at the hotel above, I'd recommend staying on Union Sq. It's where all the shopping is, and all public transport (Cable Cars, BART, MUNI) either runs directly through it, or 2mns away on Market St.

If you're going to Alcatraz, do the night tour (if it's on at that time of year). You go out just before dusk and return after dark.
The place definitely has a different atmosphere at night.
Only book through https://www.alcatrazcruises.com/index.aspx  They're the only official website for pre-booking tickets.

The Cable Car Museum is good.
Golden Gate Bridge obviously.
Bike over to the bridge Sausalito, and get the ferry back.
I would have recommended you go to AT&T Park to see the Giants play baseball, but it'll be the offseason. You may still be able to get a stadium tour if that's your sort of thing.
Coit Tower is worth a visit. Wild parrots live in the trees on the side of the hill it sits on. Great views of the city from here also.
There's plenty to see in Golden Gate Park - Japanese tea Garden, Academy of Sciences etc.
I'd recommend one of these also - http://www.sfcityguides.org/ - free (although you can tip if you want) walking tours around most parts of the city. You just turn up at the specified time and place, and you'll get a tour of a specific area by an SF local.
Just walking through some of the different neighbourhoods is great. They each have their own vibe.
Go and see Pier 39 if you must, but it's full of tourist tat.

You wont need a car.
The San Francisco public transport system is brilliant, and everything is pretty centralised anyway.
If you want to get out of the city for the day, there are plenty of companies who run bus trips either North to see the Giant Redwoods/State parks, or South to Carmel/Moneterey (Monterey Bay Aquarium is something else!)

San Francisco is a totally foodie city. Plenty of great restaurants to eat in.
If you really want to impress the Mrs, take her to Gary Danko - http://garydanko.com/ - Your talking about $100 for a four course meal, but it's worth every penny. Pre-booking essential.
My other favourite SF restaurant is Flour & Water - http://www.flourandwater.com/ - It's out in the Mission District, but is very much worth the journey out from Union Sq. It's Italian-based food and quite hipster, but the food is amazing. Pre-book if you ant a table on your own, as walk-ins usually get seats at the communal table, so you'd be sitting at a table with about 12 strangers, although it's not as bad as that sounds.
The Slanted Door, which is inside the Ferry Building, is also very good. It's Vietnamese Cooking.
Plenty good Italian restaurants in North Beach and loands of good Chinese/Dim Sum places in Chinatown, as you'd expect.
The newspaper runs a yearly best 100 SF restaurants list - http://insidescoopsf.sfgate.com/blog/category/guide/

Just a quick work of warning, San Francisco has a massive problem with homeless people.
There's the combination of a temperate climate, which makes it easy to live on the streets; "Greyhound Homelesness", being the theory that other cities give homeless people a bus ticket West, to the sunshine, and SF is usually where they end up; and the fact that San Francisco is a fircely libertarian city, meaning that if they're not breaking any laws, they're usually just left to get on with it. Rudy Giuliani's New York, it is not.
I've never had a problem on any of the times I've been, but I think it's something to be aware of, as it's on a scale we're not used to here.

If you have any other questions, fire away. San Francisco is a great city.

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50 minutes ago, Sherps said:

You wont need a car.

Ha!  You will if you want to play Bullitt though and ride up and down the streets.  Good fun, if a bit scary in an automatic.   (You can try it on Glasgow drumlins too if you can hire a Mustang here :o )   Car hire is good for touring the coast north & south.   (I love that more than towns.)

As for Pier39, the dock at the end is good when the sea lions are there... but, not they're not there at New year I hear.

The Martin Luther King memorial hidden under the water feature at the Yerba Buena garden was touching.   No idea why it's there.

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Loads of great info in Sherps post.  

I love San Francisco and six nights is a deccent amount of time. Most of the to-do list has already been covered, bike the bridge, fisherman's wharf, china town, Alcatraz, etc.

I'd be tempted to hire a car for a couple of days and drive down the coast to Monterey / Big Sur region. Or maybe an overnight in Napa Valley.  Yosemite NP is one of my favorite places in the US but not at that time of year.

If you are going to do that make it the last couple of days and collect / return the car at the airport.

Having said that, if you are happy to spend a couple of days wandering around eating fantastic food, drinking good beer, etc, then you will be happy in the city.

Hotels are stupidly expensive at any time of year so book early. I would try to stay quite central (nearish to Union sq as noted above).  Uber is a good option for when you can't walk or use public transport.

Edit to add: south of Union Square is the Tenderloin which can be a bit dodgy at night.

Edited by Denny's Yard
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  • 2 weeks later...
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I've stayed here  http://www.intercontinentalmarkhopkins.com/  just up the road from Union Square, there is a bar on the top floor well worth a visit for the views.

We bought a 3 day transport pass that covered unlimited travel on buses and cable cars, used it to go out to The Golden Gate but that was a bit of a drag of a journey.

No need for a car in downtown SFO as you`d spend a fortune parking it

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