Vacation in San Francisco

[Ble_PE]

Mrs. Ble and I are heading out to San Francisco for our anniversary the first week in May and I was just wondering if anyone had any suggestions on what we needed to see/do while we're there. We are going to obviously go to Alcatraz and the Golden Gate, as well as general sight seeing, but is there anything that we should make sure to get in while we're there? We are going to be in the city for about 4 days, so I don't think we'll do a day-trip out to Napa or Sonoma cause I don't want to rent a car.

Thanks for the help!

 

[Dexman PE]

Chinatown I've heard is one of the best in North America. I would also look into the fish markets.

Whatever you do, make sure you pay close attention to the clientelle before entering a bar or club though...

 

[Chucktown PE]

Take in a gay pride parade.

Chinatown is pretty cool if you like really nasty food and and cheap chinese crap.

Take a ferry boat over to Sausaulito.

Fisherman's Wharf, awesome food there.

 

[chaosiscash]

I was there a couple summers ago for work. Make sure you check out fisherman's wharf and chinatown (which I really liked, but I guess it depends on what you like). Also, if the wife likes shopping, she'll love the embarcadero(sp?). As far as Alcatraz goes, make sure you get your tickets weeks before you go. You can't just walk up and buy tickets day of, as I found out. If you like baseball, you can take in a Giants game. As far as getting around, BART is pretty nice. If you're staying in The City or just outside, you shouldn't need a car.

Have a good trip.

 

[RIP - VTEnviro]

Never been there, but it's on my list of things to see.

 

[Ble_PE]

Thanks for the tips so far. We're staying in downtown, so we are not worrying about getting a car. The wife has already told me we have to go to Chinatown and the Wharf cause she loves seafood. She's not really the shopping type (yay me!!), so I don't know if she'll be interested in doing any shopping, but it's good to know where's the best location for it.

Dex, thanks for the tip about the bar/club clientele. It's not something I have to think about here, but out there it will be different!

 

[Dexman PE]

Dex, thanks for the tip about the bar/club clientele. It's not something I have to think about here, but out there it will be different!

Looks like something you are looking forward to... :f_115m_e45d7af:

Not that there's anything wrong with that.

 

[chaosiscash]

Dex, thanks for the tip about the bar/club clientele. It's not something I have to think about here, but out there it will be different!

We were only in the City for half a day or so, and I didn't get to check out any of the bars, but I talked to some locals about it and they basically said that there is only one part of the city where that's an issue, and its pretty freaking obvious if you stumble into that part of town. I wouldn't sweat it too much.

 

[Ble_PE]

Dex, thanks for the tip about the bar/club clientele. It's not something I have to think about here, but out there it will be different!

Looks like something you are looking forward to... :f_115m_e45d7af:

Not that there's anything wrong with that.

Damn, should have known someone would turn that around on me. I feel like such a noob!! :tardbang:

Dex, thanks for the tip about the bar/club clientele. It's not something I have to think about here, but out there it will be different!

We were only in the City for half a day or so, and I didn't get to check out any of the bars, but I talked to some locals about it and they basically said that there is only one part of the city where that's an issue, and its pretty freaking obvious if you stumble into that part of town. I wouldn't sweat it too much.

Honestly, we probably won't be hitting up too many bars anyway, and I'm sure we wouldn't stray too far from the tourist spots anyway.

 

[benbo]

All the above are good suggestions. A lot of old Victorian Architecture - inclduing the Charmed House, etc.. There used to be a place on Fisherman's Wharf with thousands of seals, but I think they may have left. Of course you want to ride a cable car - if it's not crowded they might let you work the brake/clutch. Also Haight Ashbury is sort of interesting. There are lots of little neighborhoods, there's Coit Tower (famous from Dirty Harry) and Lombardi Street ("the most crooked street in the world").

The place you want to avoid is the Castro District.

My agency's main office (I won't say "headquarters" for obvious reasons) is located there. I go up from LA about 10 times a year. But when my wife came up there with me we took a sightseeing bus. I thought it was worth the money - they showed us a lot of stuff I didn't know about.

And the BART is very good for getting around in general.

 

[Supe]

Say "hi" to this guy when you're down there. Doesn't have to be anyone in particular, just pick one. I'm sure they're all over the place. He'll probably be driving a Prius. Not that there's anything wrong with that.

 

[Ble_PE]

All the above are good suggestions. A lot of old Victorian Architecture - inclduing the Charmed House, etc.. There used to be a place on Fisherman's Wharf with thousands of seals, but I think they may have left. Of course you want to ride a cable car - if it's not crowded they might let you work the brake/clutch. Also Haight Ashbury is sort of interesting. There are lots of little neighborhoods, there's Coit Tower (famous from Dirty Harry) and Lombardi Street ("the most crooked street in the world").
The place you want to avoid is the Castro District.

My agency's main office (I won't say "headquarters" for obvious reasons) is located there. I go up from LA about 10 times a year. But when my wife came up there with me we took a sightseeing bus. I thought it was worth the money - they showed us a lot of stuff I didn't know about.

And the BART is very good for getting around in general.

Thanks for the heads up about the Castro District. Just googled it and yea, we won't be making any trips to that area. I had thought about the sightseeing bus so I'm glad you thought it was worth it. We might look into that because it's a good way to see a lot since we won't be there too long.

 

[Santiagj]

The presidio (SP?) is a cool park. Its across the golden gate bridge. There are old bunkers there where they used to have hiding cannon installations.

 

[benbo]

One thing I forgot -I heard the cable car wheel house, where all the cables that power the old cable cars that run in the city run over big pulleys, might be an engineers delight. I couldn't talk the wife into making a special trip to it.

 

[MechGuy]

Definitely head up to Napa if you have a chance. My wife and I have spent a few days there before and had a great time!

 

[Kephart P.E.]

I would suggest checking out a Comedy Club or Concert.

SF has great venues and top comics almost any night of the week.

My ex-gf lived in Napa so we used to take the ferry over and just wander/drink around.

 

[Ble_PE]

I would suggest checking out a Comedy Club or Concert.
SF has great venues and top comics almost any night of the week.

My ex-gf lived in Napa so we used to take the ferry over and just wander/drink around.

What ferry is this? I haven't seen anything about this and would like to find some more information. Thanks! We probably wouldn't do a comedy club because my wife is not a native English speaker so she sometimes has a little trouble at events like those, but a concert might work.

 

[jeb6294]

As far as Alcatraz goes, make sure you get your tickets weeks before you go. You can't just walk up and buy tickets day of, as I found out.

x2 on Alcatraz...although if you don't get tickets in time there are plenty of boat tours that take you around Alcatraz and out under the Golden Gate.

FOR GOD'S SAKE MAKE SURE YOU BRING SWEATSHIRTS/JACKETS!!! We went in the middle of July so like a lot of people we figured "hey California in July is warm right?" Wrong...one of the biggest sellers at Fisherman's Wharf are crappy overpriced sweatshirts.

One thing you have to do is get a bowl of clam chowder in a sourdough bread bowl at Fisherman's Wharf.

Overall a fun city (to visit) with lots to do on foot. We had a rental car when we went but parking at the hotel was a hassle so we did everything on foot.

 

[TouchDown]

The presidio (SP?) is a cool park. Its across the golden gate bridge. There are old bunkers there where they used to have hiding cannon installations.

I thought the presidio was on the SF side, kind of located Under / around the entrance to the GG Bridge?

My wife and I did a business / pleasure trip. She met me out there after I did some work a year ago, and we stayed in Sausalito. Not a lot to do there, it's a little artsy place, with some shops, but not worth the ferry ride from SF in my opinion. That is unless you just want to take some cool pics of the bridge from the Ferry. Then it might be just the thing!

However, you can sign up for bus tours going out to Muir Woods. It's one of the remaining redwood forests. They aren't Sequoias, but they are MASSIVE. This was the best part of our trip in my opinion. It's worth an afternoon if you can arrange the trip. Although we went in rental car, and didn't have to sit next to someone that had cabbage for lunch.

Muir Woods

Either way, you have lots of other great suggestions, sounds fun and enjoy it!

 

[Bman]

You could spend a day walking around Golden Gate Park. The Academy of Science was pretty cool and worth checking out. There's a few other museums in the park too. Haight-Ashbury is located right off the park so you can always swing by and check it out if you were thinking about it. Its a big park though so bring your walking shoes. I would also second Muir Woods and Sausalito, they made the trip for me and my wife (aside from Napa). If you're into wine, you should definitely look at taking a tour out to wine country, they do bus tours and stuff so you won't need a car. Their busy season doesn't start until Memorial day so there won't be too many people there and the weather should be great. We went and spent 2 days in SF and then a week in Napa about the same time last year and it was great, the wineries were pretty much empty so we got to talk to people and learn quite a bit.