I am heading to San Francisco for a family event this weekend. I have four nights in town. Any recommendations on places that my partner and I should check out outside of the cliche tourist spots? Restaurants, Bars, museums, etc? Thanks for any thoughts.
I went over to San Fransisco last year. I loved it so much I am determined that I'm going to move there. I highly recommend the Exploratorium. It is an insanely cool museum made up of art and science pieces, at the same time. There is just so much cool stuff there. It was my favorite place that we went to. Totally amazing.
Always bring a ton of money or just bring a credit card. SF is notorious for having such high prices for some of the simplest things. To save money, take the public transit like the BART. Rent a bike, it's very bike-friendly in SF due to NorCal's image of environmentalism. Castro village for sure. Very prominent gay district in SF. Chinatown was an interesting experience. It was the first Chinese settlement in the U.S, so a ton of things look old and run-down. Tons of cigarette smoke everywhere and it feels like you'll step on noodles every block. Come if you want some real Chinese food Fisherman's Wharf is bustling with shopping centers and restaurants. Loved it! But it's still very messy there. Nearly stepped on an abandoned bread bowl and clam chowder. Such a waste of money! Hike up Lombard Street. Beats climbing a mountain! I've been to SF twice, but I never really had the liberty to explore the city myself. But I hope you enjoy your time there!
In Golden Gate Park is the Exploratorium and Japanese Tea Gardens. Under the Golden Gate Bridge is Fort Point I've heard that it is very cool. Check out the Embarcadero and if you have time catch one of the ferries. You get a completely different view of the city from out in the bay. Enjoy your trip.
Make sure to do the Golden Gate Bridge. I was only in San Francisco long enough to ride through town on a bus (As I was taking the airport shuttle up to Sonoma County) but at least I got to make the trip over the Golden Gate Bridge and see Alcatraz through the fog.
I'm excited for you. I would say I'm jealous but we're going to be there in a couple weeks, so I'll just be happy for you.:lol: We love it so much there that we are pretty determined to retire there--even though it will add a couple hundred thousand to the budget. Everyone is so friendly and easy-going. I mean it's so much that way that it is a little weird. As far as what to do, well there's just so much to soak in and just wandering aimlessly can be so much fun. We get the week long transit pass and have found their transit to be very convenient and user friendly. You can buy the passes from the concierge at the airport. Like I said people are weirdly friendly and any time we even looked remotely confused someone would step up and ask if they could help us--they'd tell us where we were, how to get where we were going and make some other suggestions as to things we should see or do and maybe just chat for a while--like I said it was a little weird but really wonderful. After a while we just stopped using our navigator app and just asked random passersby. It was easier, more effective and a lot of fun. So what should you do? Well, on top of the touristy stuff (yes, you should take a cable car) go for ciopino at Anchor Oyster Bar, go for oysters and prosecco during happy hour at Waterbar. San Francisco City Guides run a series of free walking tours--there are like 36 of them. We did the Castro tour and the tour of the Japanese gardens last time and both were amazing--the guides were seriously knowledgeable and entertaining. Do something out on the water. There are cruises and the like or you could bike over the bridge to Sausalito for lunch and take the ferry back. We've been hiking out at the Muir Woods and thought it was a really beautiful day trip. If you can bar hopping in the Castro is a lot of fun. There are nicer, more chichi bars and clubs closer in to downtown but we found the ones in the Castro to just be really friendly and down-to-earth. And then afterword you can wander over to the Mission to get a burrito from a hole-in-the-wall. Also I highly recommend you go see Beach Blanket Babylon. It's silly and over the top, but a lot of fun. Oh and bring a light jacket. There are a ton of merchants on the Wharf who have put their kids through college selling sweatshirts to Midwesterners who didn't bring a jacket because "it's California.":lol: Have fun and if you come up with some wonderful out of the way undiscovered gem let me know--we're going about a week after you.:icon_bigg
If you like art museums ... these are a must De Young Art Museum (great art and a fine modern building) San Francisco Museum of Modern Art.. in downtown Friends say the boat trip to Alcatraz prison is very good
