San Fransisco

Murphy_The_Cat

vanilla8 wrote: »

Just booked yest with Virgin - 535 each.
Couldnt wait much longer!

On a side note, can someone recommend how long to stay in San Francisco? We are doing a west coast tour.

North or South from SF ?

_Andy_

vanilla8 wrote: »

Just booked yest with Virgin - 535 each.
Couldnt wait much longer!

On a side note, can someone recommend how long to stay in San Francisco? We are doing a west coast tour.

If you haven't been there before I'd say 5 nights minimum.

Bob63

I work for a Silicon Valley company so I'm lucky to have lived there for a year and have been back more than 60 times in the past few years. It is my favourite city in the world.

If you like burgers then Johnny Rockets at Fishermans Wharf is a great 50's style burger & shake restaurant with jukeboxes on the table. Also try the In N Out burger fast food restaurant on Fisherman's Wharf. To call it fast food is to do it a dis-service. Yes, it operates like McDonalds, but it only has 3 items on the menu - burger, cheeseburger and double-cheeseburger. Fries are peeled, cut and fried on the premises from fresh potatoes. Everything is cooked to order (so it isn't fast!) but oh my, the taste! Mmmm....

While you are at Fishermans Wharf, walk over to the bottom of Hyde Street (where the cable car ends) and visit the Buena Vista. This cafe is famous as being the place where the Irish Coffee was invented. I have spent a few winter Sunday afternoons getting out of my tree on delicious Irish Coffee

North Beach (nowhere near the beach ironically) is the Italian area and has some fantastic pizza restaurants - all of which are dirt cheap.

San Francisco has a very large Chinatown with some fantastic food.

A fairly cheap tourist trip is to rent a pushbike from Fishermans Wharf (no need to book, just turn up at one of the many shops) and cycle over the Golden Gate Bridge to Sausalito - a wonderfully quaint waterside town with great shopping and some nice bars & cafes. Return ferry travel to the city is included in the price.

Close to Fishermans Wharf is my favourite restaurant in the city the Fog City Diner which is a classic looking aluminium-sided restaurant which looks a bit like an old railway car. The food is out of this world.

I could go on, but to be honest you would be best off taking a few recommendations, don't plan too much in advance and instead discover this wonderful city for yourself.

Murphy_The_Cat

_Andy_ wrote: »

If you haven't been there before I'd say 5 nights minimum.

I'll go against the flow here.

Unless you have an overpowering desire to stay in SF, then 2-3 nights is enough.
Especially if you are heading Southwards along the Big Sur, which is a real treat.

It all depends on what you wants your USA holiday/touring trip to be.

owtfornowt_2

We did something similar a few years ago - LA/Vegas/San Diego/San Fran then drove back to LA. Be cheeky and ask for an upgrade - we got a sports car and only paid for the basic kind.

Try 'Biscuits & Blues' in San Fran - can't remember street sorry. Great music, scrummy food and some very nice liquid grapes to be sampled!

Chowder bowls down at the Piers are wonderful for filling up the tummy.

Try & get to the fortune cookie factory in Chinatown - buy the 'reject' cookies, handy for munching on whilst freezing your toosh off while sailing under the GGBridge. Take a fleece.

Also - don't stop outside milatary bases, they don't like it...... long story.

vanilla8

Murphy_The_Cat wrote: »

North or South from SF ?

Going south from San Fran, no itinerary set yet, except Yosemite and Las Vegas, also keen to do San Diego.

Murphy_The_Cat

vanilla8 wrote: »

Going south from San Fran, no itinerary set yet, except Yosemite and Las Vegas, also keen to do San Diego.

I'm doing the opposite to you - I'm doing Las Vegas - Sedona - Phoenix - Tucson - San Diego and then up the coast to San Jose.

If you are coming Southwards for a bit, Monterey, Pacific Grove & Carmel is a really nice area, The Big Sur (the road that hugs the Pacific Coast) is an absolutely tremendous drive, and one of our favourite American 'real towns' is San Luis Obispo (if you stop here, try and do it on a Thursday night as the farmers market is a real treat) - I can't put my finger on exactly why we like it, but we do.
If you carry on down the coast you'll come to Santa Barbara, which again is a cracking place to stop for a bit.
Depending how long your away for, you may be pushing it a bit to do several days in SF, The Pacific Coast highway, Yosemite, Las Vegas & San Diego. If you can get an open jaw ticket and fly back from Las Vegas it may help you pack some more sightseeing in.


Good luck and happy planning :beer:

vanilla8

Have a bit of a dilemma. Shall we hire a car out when we arrive in San Francisco or wait a couple of days until we are ready to leave on our drive?
We have return flights from LA.

Bob63

vanilla8 wrote: »

Have a bit of a dilemma. Shall we hire a car out when we arrive in San Francisco or wait a couple of days until we are ready to leave on our drive?

A car in San Francisco is a liability as parking in the city centre is so expensive (hotels typically charge $20-$30/day) and traffic is so bad. My recommendation is to get a taxi to your hotel, then when you are ready get the BART back to the airport to pick up your car.

Mike