Travel Thread

[DigitalGypsy66]

BART from the airport to downtown San Francisco is very easy. We managed it with a 6 and 8 year old back in the day. Enjoy!

[skullman80]

BART from the airport to downtown San Francisco is very easy. We managed it with a 6 and 8 year old back in the day. Enjoy!

Everything I looked at made it seem that way, but my wife is a worrier. I told her I had everything handled, so I need to make sure I actually have it handled

[nocera]

The most stressful part of any trip for my wife is the transportation from the airport to the hotel. This is why we now do private transfers on most trips. It's expensive but it takes away a huge amount of stress and anxiety for her. And I have to admit, I really enjoy getting off the plane and seeing somebody with a "nocera" sign waiting on us.

[skullman80]

The most stressful part of any trip for my wife is the transportation from the airport to the hotel. This is why we now do private transfers on most trips. It's expensive but it takes away a huge amount of stress and anxiety for her. And I have to admit, I really enjoy getting off the plane and seeing somebody with a "nocera" sign waiting on us.

Yeah I still may just uber/lyft or whatever, but it seems like the BART route should be pretty simple. We will see how nervous she gets as we get closer to leaving.

We have time to kill since we are getting in so early and can't check into our hotel till after 12, so may have to drop our bags off and go find something to do, but we have no rush at the airport at least.

[nocera]

We did Uber from SFO to our hotel. If I remember correctly, we were around that same area and it ended up being $50 or so. I'd probably go for the BART too.

[tifosi77]

The Ferry Bldg is one of my favorite places on earth and one of like two things I miss about SF. It's a bummer you get in on Sat because the farmer's market there is one of the best food experiences to be had in the whole country imo, including the Roli Roti porchetta truck.

Hog Island Oyster Co (huge lines)
Humphrey Slocombe ice cream
Far West Funghi
El Porteño (empenadas)
Epicurean Trader
Acme Bread Co
Fatted Calf
Señor Sisig
Stonehouse (olive oil)
Fort Point beer
Wine Merchant

There are dozens of great restaurants along the Embarcadero and in FiDi and SoMa that are walkable from the Ferry Bldg area, you'll do well. The neighborhood west of city hall is called Hayes Valley, which is where we probably would've lived if we had been 15 years younger; it's like three BART stops from your hotel, but the Civic Center area where the train stop is can be a bit sketch. Upside: When you get there you can throw poop at the Xwitter building. Sausalito is nice; on weekends the waterfront area is immensely touristic and kinda flooded with ferry people (literally right off the boat haha), but if for some ungodly reason we had to move back to the Bay Area and I didn't have to worry about a work commute I'd really consider lower Marin Co and Sausalito in particular.

The second BART stop after leaving the airport is about three blocks from where we lived, we used to walk to it to go into the City.

[tifosi77]

The most stressful part of any trip for my wife is the transportation from the airport to the hotel. This is why we now do private transfers on most trips. It's expensive but it takes away a huge amount of stress and anxiety for her. And I have to admit, I really enjoy getting off the plane and seeing somebody with a "nocera" sign waiting on us.

We've had that on our last couple overseas trips. "Bom dia and welcome to Lisbon, Mr and Mrs Tif, can I take your bags?" Feels pretty neat.

[tifosi77]

BART from SFO to Embarcadero is easy peasey. No transfers, takes maybe half an hour-ish. No more or less safe than any other major metro train system.

From the airport to Daly City it's a mix of above ground and tunnels, but from Balboa Park through it's all underground. And it is noisy AF.

[skullman80]

We are staying at the Hyatt Regency so we are right near the Ferry building and Bart station. I'm assuming my best bet is to get a clipper card on my phone and just use that to get us around (outside of tours and such).

The biggest PITA is going to get getting to Levi Stadium it seems. It looks like its doable by public transportation (with transfers), but may just uber there even though it might be insane money wise.... unless there is some better way I'm not thinking of.

[dodint]

Get to the 'choppa.

[nocera]

The most stressful part of any trip for my wife is the transportation from the airport to the hotel. This is why we now do private transfers on most trips. It's expensive but it takes away a huge amount of stress and anxiety for her. And I have to admit, I really enjoy getting off the plane and seeing somebody with a "nocera" sign waiting on us.

We've had that on our last couple overseas trips. "Bom dia and welcome to Lisbon, Mr and Mrs Tif, can I take your bags?" Feels pretty neat.

Yeah I rarely feel fancy but hot damn do I feel fancy pants with private transfers.

[tifosi77]

Take Muni (SF subway) from Embarcadero past the baseball stadium to King & 4th. (It's only a few stops) Muni is above ground there so you won't have to worry if you're taking the right exit. Across 4th St is a CalTrain station, which is proper choo-choo type trains, not subways or light rail. I think you can take CalTrain all the way from there to the Santa Clara station with is actually at the San Jose airport. From there there's a light rail line that runs almost directly to the stadium. I think there might be shuttle service, too. And there's also rideshare, which will be significantly less scratch than Ubering all the way from DTSF. (Don't do that)

I've taken the train from SF to San Jose before, and it's pretty great. It's quicker and significantly less hassle than driving or being driven, if you don't mind being dependent on public transit or rideshares and taxis at your end point. It was like $25-$30 for a regional day pass when we lived there (per person, obvi).

The Clipper card is pretty great, btw, I should've thought to recommend it. I still have a physical card with like a $21 balance on it haha. It will work for pretty much every rail or bus option you can think of throughout the Bay Area. (The service-specific websites will indicate if they accept Clipper for fares) I forget if you can reload the card balance online or it's a POS thing, but I remember I always loaded mine up right at the BART station fare terminals. Clipper has their own customer services kiosks inside certain grocery stores, too, if you'd rather. I honestly don't remember how CalTrain works with Clipper, because you're supposed to get a reduced rate on the train if you get a day pass or a regional pass, so you might want to hop online and do some Googling on that. I think when we did it we just paid for the CalTrain fare directly and didn't use the commuter card.

[skullman80]

Take Muni (SF subway) from Embarcadero past the baseball stadium to King & 4th. (It's only a few stops) Muni is above ground there so you won't have to worry if you're taking the right exit. Across 4th St is a CalTrain station, which is proper choo-choo type trains, not subways or light rail. I think you can take CalTrain all the way from there to the Santa Clara station with is actually at the San Jose airport. From there there's a light rail line that runs almost directly to the stadium. I think there might be shuttle service, too. And there's also rideshare, which will be significantly less scratch than Ubering all the way from DTSF. (Don't do that)

I've taken the train from SF to San Jose before, and it's pretty great. It's quicker and significantly less hassle than driving or being driven, if you don't mind being dependent on public transit or rideshares and taxis at your end point. It was like $25-$30 for a regional day pass when we lived there (per person, obvi).

The Clipper card is pretty great, btw, I should've thought to recommend it. I still have a physical card with like a $21 balance on it haha. It will work for pretty much every rail or bus option you can think of throughout the Bay Area. (The service-specific websites will indicate if they accept Clipper for fares) I forget if you can reload the card balance online or it's a POS thing, but I remember I always loaded mine up right at the BART station fare terminals. Clipper has their own customer services kiosks inside certain grocery stores, too, if you'd rather. I honestly don't remember how CalTrain works with Clipper, because you're supposed to get a reduced rate on the train if you get a day pass or a regional pass, so you might want to hop online and do some Googling on that. I think when we did it we just paid for the CalTrain fare directly and didn't use the commuter card.

[DigitalGypsy66]

My Passport arrived today from Tucson, so 4 weeks from when I mailed it in. No too bad, just weird my wife's came back a week earlier. No word on the kids' passports - they are in process.

Are the Florida Keys worth visiting? Or is it an overcrowded tourist trap these days? Not particularly a Parrot Head or bigly drinker these days. (Yes, I know you don't need a passport to travel there)

[MrKennethTKangaroo]

the last time I looked the cost of lodging in the keys was eye watering

[blackjack68]

I think I read that Key West is the most expensive destination in the continental US for tourists.

Wonder if that’s still true, or ever was.

[blackjack68]

Looks like it dropped to 6th.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/brittanyan ... 24-report/

[Dickie Dunn]

The Keys are a weird place populated by weird/interesting people. Ate some amazing shrimp at a restaurant that was literally catching stuff behind their restaurant. Otherwise, the beaches suck, everything to eat, drink, or experienced is overpriced, and the most common activity on the islands is to get tanked. Wasn't for me.

[NTP66]

I’d only go to the keys if my entire plan was to snorkel and dive exclusively.

[dodint]

One of my first big trips I plan to make when I get my pilots license is to fly down to Marathon and explore the keys from the bottom up.

[MWB]

The Keys are fun to visit for a one time thing. Beaches were okay, the snorkeling was okay. The food was good for sure. Lot of other places I’d rather go for water vacation.

[dodint]

Visited the kinzua bridge this weekend to see the foliage. Unfortunately the wind in the valley had already taken down all the leaves, but the surrounding areas were gorgeous. I've been going to the bridge all my life and I've never seen so many people there this time. There was a line 3/4 of a mile long to get in to park. Crazy. Kids always have a blast with the strong wind gusts so it makes it worth the trip regardless of the people or view. They've done a wonderful job with it over the years. Stopped in Kane for lunch at Table 105. It was very good.

Hit me with your recs for what to do up there for a weekend. Spending the 13th-15th in the area. Other than booking a couples massage and walking around at the bridge we have nothing planned.

They're shutting it down in November for like two years so we're taking a short jaunt to the area.

[tifosi77]

The only reason I'd ever visit the mid Keys is if I planned on never leaving.

[skullman80]

First day in SF was fun.

Got to the airport at 4am. I didn’t sleep at all and didn’t sleep on the plane. Got to SF at 9:30 local time and decided to just Uber to our hotel. Hotel let us have a super early check in so that was nice. Chilled for a bit then decided to go out and walk around.

The Ferry building was jumping. Farmers market still going on. Vendors everywhere. Walked through there then the whole way down the boardwalk area to scope that out.

Ended up walking to Fisherman’s Wharf area and exploring there since our tour today picks us up in the park near there. Watched some people playing water polo for a bit with the Golden Gate Bridge in the background.

Walked the whole way back to our hotel and grabbed some ice cream on the way and stopped to see the sea lions. Got back to our hotel at like 5. We were both wiped from no sleep the night before and our bodies thinking it was 8pm. Both of us passed out for 10 hours and just woke up.

Everything we want to do is walkable so that is nice. I loaded up a clipper card to use to go to the game tomorrow but in general we can just walk places and get our exercise in. 23k steps yesterday.

The weather here is perfect. 50’s in the morning and 70 in the afternoon with a breeze.

Today is tour #1 so we shall see how that goes.

[MrKennethTKangaroo]

The key here is that you ate ice cream