San Francisco - advice please

missbaywalker

Good afternoon all

I'm fortunate enough to be spending three days (two nights) in San Francisco in early June and just wondered if anyone has any advice they can give about good things to do/places to stay that won't break the bank please. I've never been, and don't know anyone personally who has, so all advice gratefully received

Many thanks

MBW

richardw

The popular places to stay are Fisherman's Wharf, very touristy, or Union Square in the city centre.

Depends what you fancy really.

phatbear

Personally I wouldnt stay in fisherman wharf its like an americanised version of great yarmouth, we stayed at the hotel palomar a kimpton hotel which was very nice and ideally located for bus/trams etc etc.

Things to do

Golden gate bridge walk is free
alcatraz, $33 each but book well in advance

personally I found san fran a tad dull compared to NY but thats just me and the weather was against us too.

sazpot

Hi,

I went last year and stayed at the chancellor hotel in union square as it had good trip advisor reviews and was a reasonable price in one of the more popular areas.

I hight recommend a trip to Alcatraz, I absolutely loved it. The are quite a few tours (duck tours, fake cable car etc), we found that there were lots of offers on the paper maps you can pick up in hotels so I would look at these and see which ones are the best deal at the time.

We found that walking was a perfectly easy way to get around, only used a bus once to get back from the Calafornia Academy of Sciences (which I strongly reccomend if you have bad weather) and we got the cable cars once as it seems an essential thing to do. It is quite interesting to watch the cable cars being turned on their manual turntables.

The Exploratoruim is supposed to be an excellent sicence museum, I havent been personally and also everyone goes to peir 39 to see the sealions.

If you arent used to america I would also reccomened eating a the the cheesecake factor in Maceys.

I hope that helps,

Sarah

987654

Round the Wharf is touristy, but it's a handy location. Union Sq good too.

We really enjoyed Alcatraz - book before you go.

We did the open top bus tours which enabled you to see alot in a short time.

A friend cycled the bridge & enjoyed that.

victor2

You can take a bay cruise from Fishermans Wharf which goes under Golden Gate bridge and back round Alcatraz (without stopping there) for about $24.
Take a cable car, because they are there, and visit Lombard Street - the "twistiest" street.
You can walk to loads of places, although the streets are very steep!

Vikki_74

missbaywalker wrote: »

Good afternoon all

I'm fortunate enough to be spending three days (two nights) in San Francisco in early June and just wondered if anyone has any advice they can give about good things to do/places to stay that won't break the bank please. I've never been, and don't know anyone personally who has, so all advice gratefully received

Many thanks

MBW

Cable car rides are I think $5pp each trip - buy a 3 day travel pass for $21 (in September 2010, may have changed) and ride as much as you like, also includes all the buses/metro etc. A very cool thing to do especially hanging off the edge going down one of the hills - very San Francisco at least in my mind!

Just walking around the city is a lot of fun too. I have a book somewhere with a walking tour that covers the area around Little Italy, Chinatown, downtown and up to the top of Telegraph Hill & Coit Tower which we found really enjoyable. Also a circular tour which you can do on the cable cars to see a bit of the city (and walk down Lombard Street on your way) rather than riding round aimlessly. Let me know if you're interested and I'll dig it out and post the details.

Otherwise, yes Alcatraz is worth a visit and not too pricey.

We also did a sunset cruise on the Bay (https://www.redandwhite.com) with drinks & appetizers - think it should have been c.$50pp but bought for about half that using Groupon (https://www.groupon.com and select SF from the drop down list if you're interested in signing up to their daily deals).

jackieblack

Another vote here for Alcatraz!

We bought a one day ticket for the cable cars $10 each (last year) and you can hop on and off all day as many journeys as you wish. We did each line end to end hopping on and off at points of interest on the way.

missbaywalker

Thank you all so much for your replies - they are much appreciated.

Vicki_74 - details of the walking book would be great - many thanks!

tanith

Another vote for Alcatraz and Coit Tower, fascinating watching cars manouvre down Lombard St too.. don't forget to try the Clam Chowder , so delicious.

wdw2003

If you like the outdoors, I would recommend hiring a bike at the Wharf and cycling along Chrissy Field, over the Golden Gate Bridge and go left up Hawk Hill for views along the coast and back to the city. Also, you can have a walk around the Presidio, get the free bus down to Baker Beach and then walk up the coast back to the city by going past the bridge and along Chrissy Field. We stayed at North Beach, which is 10-15 minutes walk from the Wharf, close to Coit Tower, lots of restaurants (many Italian) and also on the bus route back to Union Square.