Travel Thread

[DigitalGypsy66]

We had a great AirBnB in the Hayes Valley area. Easy public transport or walk to most touristy things, and the apartment was nice. I don't see it listed any longer, but this was back in 2015. Maybe it was the dates I randomly put in.

[NTP66]

Source of the post My problem is San Fran. What's a good area to stay? Would you recommend a nice hotel or would Air BnB be the way to go? I'd like to be in an area close enough to walk to touristy ****, safe enough to not worry about walking around late at night, and nice enough to be appropriate for a honeymoon. Any help would be much appreciated.

@tifosi77 can comment more, but when we were in SF we stayed at Chancellor Hotel in Union Square and enjoyed our stay. Plenty nearby, and anywhere you wanted to go was either a trolley or bus trip away. We'd stay there again if visiting.

[tifosi77]

My problem is San Fran.

Preach, brother!

Oh......

What's a good area to stay? Would you recommend a nice hotel or would Air BnB be the way to go? I'd like to be in an area close enough to walk to touristy ****, safe enough to not worry about walking around late at night, and nice enough to be appropriate for a honeymoon. Any help would be much appreciated.

Unless cooking for yourself is a big deal, I'd skip the AB&B thing. We've had good experiences with it, but there's also something to be said about creature comforts on a honeymoon. YMMV.

If we were younger and didn't have dogs when we moved, I'd have wanted to live in the Hayes Valley/Civic Center neighborhood. Tons of great restaurants ('our place' was Absinthe Brasserie) and museums (Asian Art Museum is one of the best of its kind in the country), very walkable, has a BART/Muni station, Dolby Labs and Twitter are HQ'd right there as points of interest, the symphony hall and ballet company are there, etc. But they recently had to close a Burger King in that area because of the public heroin consumption, so there's also that.

Union Square is good, also; never fact checked it, but I'd wager most of the best hotels in the city are within a couple blocks of there. If you go up Powell to the top of the hill on California St there's a cluster of good hotels - Mark Hopkins, Stanford Court, Fairmont - and my absolute most favorite place on earth The Tonga Room & Hurricane Bar. Staying there makes Chinatown and North Beach/Little Italy walkable, so you can go see the hospital where Bruce Lee was born and get the best pizza in the country at Tony's.

Get yourselves Clipper Cards upon arrival; I think they vend them at the SFO BART station, and they're good on all public transport in the Bay Area (including the cable cars). And they also run balances instead of the stupid fare system Los Angeles metro passes use. That means you can pre-load, say, $20 onto the card and it debits the cost of the trip when you swipe out at your destination. And afaik the balance never expires. (We actually bought half a dozen Clipper Cards after we got our house and kept them on hand for visitors.) And when you BART into the city, give a shout at the South San Francisco station (second stop from the airport), as that was only like three blocks from our house.

Have no shame regarding the cable cars. They're life savers, because no matter where you are, everything else is up a f**king dirty great hill. Also, don't wait in the line at the terminus for either the Powell or California St lines. Go one stop downstream; you may have to stand a bit once you board, but you won't be facing a 90-minute queue.

Touristy things that are worth it: The aforementioned Greatest Place On Earth - The Tonga Room; Swan Oyster Depot; the Ferry Terminal (Hog Island Oyster Co, El Porteño, Humphrey Slocombe Ice Cream); all the stuff at Golden Gate Park; the Presidio (stop by Lucasfilm and say hi to the Yoda fountain), especially Presidio Picnic if you're going in the summer*; we never went to Alcatraz, which I sort of regret; if you're going to be there Aug 22, I'd recommend Eat-Drink SF, which is a great food-and-wine event in Fort Mason; the Castro and Mission districts are both pretty great. There's a Steelers bar called Giordano's in the Mission that might be worth a stop if the NFL season has picked back up (if you go, keep your eyes peeled for TV's Adam Savage; he lives in the neighborhood).

Touristy things that are definitely not worth it: Damn near everything else, but mostly Fisherman's Wharf. It's just the worst. The sea lions are cool, and the Musee Mechanique is pretty rad, but not worth the hassle of dealing with all the Pier 39 jibberjabber nonsense imo. Avoid Lombard Street. It's not that neat, and the area is rife with pickpockets and car break ins.

Feel free to PM if you have any specific questions. I had a crap time living in SF, but I do genuinely love the city.




* Summer in San Francisco is awful. The Mark Twain quote is dead accurate: If you will be there any time between June and September, dress in layers and be prepared for it to be improbably cold for a North American summer. No joke: If you go to the Presidio Picnic website and look at the homepage header, those photos of people in sweaters and wool coats and neck scarves and s**t...... the thing only runs between like April and Halloween. Speaking of, October is positively glorious, which is when Fleet Week happens. The weather is spectacular and the place looks like it's out of a storybook.

[NTP66]

Oh, and book Alcatraz BEFORE you get there. They sell out damn near instantaneously, and you can only actually get on Alcatraz if you buy tickets from the National Park Service. Alcatraz was awesome, and I highly recommend it.

[nocera]

Damn you guys are awesome. Thank you.

[tifosi77]

Forgot one touristy thing that's worth it: If you're going to be there in a good weather month, visit the Top Of The Mark restaurant & bar in the Mark Hopkins hotel. 360° views of the city from the top of one of the tallest buildings on top of the highest hill. Spectacular. There's usually a line, so I'd recommend going right at opening (which iirc is 5 pm) or make dinner reservations (same with The Tonga Room).

[DigitalGypsy66]

Yes about the weather. The week were there in June, it was cold (!) at night, dropping into the upper 40s (with the wind factored in). We went to a Giants game and had to buy sweatshirts (ugh) because it was windy and cold. In June.

[nocera]

Well, my future wife is a teacher so the ONLY time we're able to vacation (and obviously honeymoon) is the Summer. So we will be there at the beginning of July.

[NTP66]

I prefer off-peak vacationing, and having kids disrupts that. That said, I know a few people who still pull their kids out of school for an entire week during the school year.

[nocera]

I would prefer that as well but it won't be possible until retirement, unfortunately.

[robbiestoupe]

I prefer off-peak vacationing, and having kids disrupts that. That said, I know a few people who still pull their kids out of school for an entire week during the school year.

This was the best before kids started school. Our anniversary is September 19th, which was a perfect time for our yearly vacation.

[NTP66]

I prefer off-peak vacationing, and having kids disrupts that. That said, I know a few people who still pull their kids out of school for an entire week during the school year.

This was the best before kids started school. Our anniversary is September 19th, which was a perfect time for our yearly vacation.

Ours is a few days before yours, which we loved. Had to move vacations to early June once my daughter started elementary school.

[DigitalGypsy66]

Yep, we used to pull our kids out to go to non-peak Disney when they were in elementary school (my wife is also a teacher, but a curriculum coordinator). Now, with them in middle and high school (next year) they use a block schedule, so an absence is worth double or something, making it impossible for them to miss that much time in a block.

[Dickie Dunn]

We were in SF in July a couple years ago. Don't think it got above 65 while we were there and it was pretty cold at night. Did a nightmare bike ride across the Golden Gate Bridge (don't do it) and while the rest of SF was low 60s and sunny, it was 40 something degrees with horrific wind and rain while on the bridge. Got to Sausalito and it was in the mid 80s.

[NTP66]

Kids in HS? Leave them at home and vacation whenever you want.

[DigitalGypsy66]

Well, yeah eventually we'll do that. He's in 8th grade, and his brother in 5th. I'm sure I want a ninth grader in charge of a sixth grader for more than a day or so. It would be like Lord of the Flies

It's mostly my wife not wanting them to miss any instruction time, which I find is highly overrated in SC public schools.

[NTP66]

Yeah, I get it. I won't pull my daughter out of school for a vacation, especially now that I want to do 2+ weeks at a time every other year. Wife barely accepts leaving work for that long, so there's no chance she'd pull our kid out of school.

[Orlando Penguin]

Yes about the weather. The week were there in June, it was cold (!) at night, dropping into the upper 40s (with the wind factored in). We went to a Giants game and had to buy sweatshirts (ugh) because it was windy and cold. In June.

Went to a Giants game on Father’s Day weekend and I had to dress like I was going to a Penn State game in November.

Which, oh btw, if you can go to a Giants game, do it. Great ballpark with some great sight lines.

[DigitalGypsy66]

^this, almost as good as PNC Park. Almost.

[shafnutz05]

I prefer off-peak vacationing, and having kids disrupts that. That said, I know a few people who still pull their kids out of school for an entire week during the school year.

Man, I hear that. We loved going to the OBX Labor Day week, but obviously we can't do that anymore. Yeah, we get more daylight going in early August, but the traffic/crowds are worse.

[nocera]

Source of the post Did a nightmare bike ride across the Golden Gate Bridge (don't do it)

That and Alcatraz are the only two things my fiancé requested we do while there.

[tifosi77]

Well, my future wife is a teacher so the ONLY time we're able to vacation (and obviously honeymoon) is the Summer. So we will be there at the beginning of July.

June 29, 2017. View from the second deck of our house.



It's like this for four solid months. Lucky for you, there is usually the odd respite here and there, one or two consecutive days that are clear and nice. It's usually around the beginning of July, which also usually coincides with Pride Week.

[tifosi77]

Also, even though I hate baseball we went to two Giants games while we were there. Great fun, excellent food options. Tickets aren't absurdly expensive, sightlines are decent.

[tifosi77]

We were in SF in July a couple years ago. Don't think it got above 65 while we were there and it was pretty cold at night. Did a nightmare bike ride across the Golden Gate Bridge (don't do it) and while the rest of SF was low 60s and sunny, it was 40 something degrees with horrific wind and rain while on the bridge. Got to Sausalito and it was in the mid 80s.

Mrs Tif, the morning this photo was taken (in May): "Let's go to the Bridge. Maybe we'll see some whales."



We had a better view of the Bay Bridge than the GG when we were actually standing on the GG.

[shoeshine boy]

Best bagel in NYC?