We had a great time when we took Claire to San Francisco, but there were a few things we could have done to improve the trip. I’m documenting all this so that on our next visit we’ll have an even better time!
- Make reservations on AdventureCat–sounds very cool!
- Bring a map of The City (duh!)
- Look up destinations, e.g. City Lights, before arriving in SF. Maybe “destination #0″ should be web cafes, etc. where you can look things up if needed?
- Get tokens or a pass for Muni and make sure to have a Muni map.
- Walking in San Francisco was an experience in itself. Ditch the car and get around on foot, or perhaps bicycle. Wear comfortable walking shoes.
- Dress in layers. It can go from cold, to warm, and back to cool throughout the day.
- Bring extra batteries for the camera.
- If you’re planning to ride the cable cars, do it early! Same thing goes for a Bay cruise if you don’t have reservations.
- Bring some water bottles–you get pretty thirsty walking all over The City.
- Sunscreen! Maybe a hat, if it won’t blow away…
- Skip Fisherman’s Wharf and Pier 39.
- Maybe bring a tripod onto the Golden Gate Bridge? (Just leave it in the car the rest of the time.) Try taking pictures close to the towers so that traffic vibration isn’t so pronounced. Arrive before sunset.
- The Italian restaurant in Marin was quite good, definitely worth a return visit. What was it called? Get coffee there before leaving, since all the coffee shops closed before the restaurant!
The restaurant was Pasta Pomodoro in Mill Valley. (Google Maps shows the location incorrectly. The restaurant is facing Hwy 101, so just get off on Tiburon Blvd and take the frontage road.)
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RT Rider described his transit trip to/from San Francisco.
Assuming a Saturday trip, if we take Amtrak we’d leave the Sacramento station at 07:40, arrive in Richmond at 09:05 (hopefully!), take BART’s red line at 09:10, and arrive at Powell Street station (Union Square) at 09:48. We’d have to depart from Powell Street (if we chose to leave from there) at 20:14, giving us about 10.5 hours in The City.
Round trip on Amtrak would be $126 for 3 adults 1 child ($108 for 2 adults 2 children). Round trip on BART would be $30.40 (4 people, 2 fares each at $3.80). Figure $6.50 for all-day parking at Sacramento’s train station for a total travel price of $163 (!) or maybe $145.
I think it cost us about $50 for gasoline, parking, and bridge tolls when we drove, but the 3+ hours of driving time sure wasn’t fun for me (the driver).
I’m not sure about arriving/departing at Union Square anyway–Given that our earliest possible arrival time is ~10:00, I don’t think I’d want to spend a lot of time waiting for a cable car, especially since we recently did that. Besides, BART and Amtrak should be enough rail travel for one day.
Hmm, maybe we do need to arrive at Powell St, since that’s the BART station nearest to the California Academy of Sciences.
Afterwards we could take the Muni N Line to Golden Gate Park.
Check the 511 trip planner for other destinations, e.g. City Lights.