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San Francisco visit
Drakeon
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
So the Girlfriend and I are planning on visiting SF (we live a little past Sacramento, so not too far from us) and I was wondering if anyone had any advice on what to see/do there if we've only got ~2ish days. Also, if anyone happens to know any good hotels/motels that are relatively cheap. We kind of want to do enough that we'll probably be spending the night there, so thats why were looking at hotels/motels. Also any other advice related to San Francisco is appreciated.
A very minimal amount of google-fu led me to believe that the La Luna Inn in SF was a good place to stay, anyone have any comments about it?
A very minimal amount of google-fu led me to believe that the La Luna Inn in SF was a good place to stay, anyone have any comments about it?
PSN: Drakieon XBL: Drakieon Steam: TheDrakeon
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If you like ruins and ocean views, check out the Sutro Baths (though they're admittedly a little out of the way, especially for a short visit).
I also really enjoyed the Exploratorium, and you will too if you enjoy interactive science exhibits, which also happens to sit in the palace of fine arts area, a good place to take a leisurely stroll around in and free.
I can't think of much else off the top of my head, there's so much to do in the city, hell you could spend an entire day just wandering around Golden Gate Park, or wander down to Crissy Field (an old military air base converted to a giant grassy field on the bay) to people watch and check out the old WW2 emplacements. There are even ways to get down to the beach directly west of the golden gate which makes for some crazy good picture opportunities, but quite a walk if I remember correctly. Also be aware if you do this, when we snuck down there to do some illicit public drinking, we happened to break in on two dudes' romantic tryst hidden away behind some rocks. Shit was awkward, so yeah.
Oh and lastly, you could take a trip back through your 90's sitcom memories:
Look Familiar?
A bus ticket will get you all around the city for cheap, so I recommend buying a bus pass, it's easy as hell to get where you want to go relatively timely and easy in SF.
How early we talking? like 10am? 8am?
Also, about the bus passes, where would I procure one of these and would I be able to obtain a map of the routes at the same location?
Sutro Baths were pretty nice and you can do some hiking on the hills there.
If it's during the week, look into taking a trip out to Alcatraz - it's rather cool, but if you go on the weekend, there'll be tons of milling crowds.
If you enjoy hiking, consider taking one of the days to go up to Point Reyes.
Other than that, might want to look into what's going on in terms of fine arts/concerts/etc when you're in town.
For food: B-Star/Burma Superstar are great if you like Burmese/Indian food (they're a few blocks from one another, sister restaurants, and allow you to sign in on the door with a cell number so they can call you in X number of hours when a table is available, or you can walk to the other one which most people don't seem to know about which had no wait for us vs 3 hours at the other one) - not terribly cheap
Alternatively: The Stinking Rose for all your garlic food needs. Mmmm.
Also, since it's just two days it's borderline, but you should really look into taking Amtrak from Sacramento (or hell, just take Light Rail to it from Folsom) as opposed to driving - parking is expensive in the city, and I think it's cheaper just to take the train so long as you're going to be there for more than one day. Particularly if you can get someone to just drop you off at the train station.
e: Obligatory useful link
As to bus tickets, you can procure them right on the st usually, I was pretty drunk at the time but I seem to remember there being machines you could by them at. The routes are pretty explicitly explained where you buy the tickets, and the buses have all the maps on the ceiling as well, so it's pretty damn hard to get lost. I mean...we were wasted and we pulled it off. I think we rode the busline for an entire day for under a couple bucks, though technically the tickets are supposed to expire, we just held onto ours and nobody ever checked.
Though you do end up meeting some of SF's more colorful denizens on the bus. We had one old hippy lady try to convince us she was Carlos Santana.
Amtrak and BART share a station at Richmond. When I went to Europe, I was flying out of San Francisco International - took Amtrak to Richmond, then Richmond (which is one end of one BART track) to the airport (which is the opposite end of a different track), with one transfer - total commute took about 3 hours-ish. It's 1:25 to Richmond, and I can't imagine that his BART trip would be longer than going from Richmond to the airport.
Thanks for the suggestions all, and by no means am I telling anyone to stop if they think there is something that isn't mentioned here that is a must see. Thanks again for the suggestions, definitely will be going to a lot of these places.
I recommend against the Academy, it will eat up too much of your short time and the new building is terrible. Not to mention the terribly long lines.
Really? I think the new building is fantastic.
But you're probably right about it taking up too much time for a 2-day trip, especially with it being on the other end of the city from most of the other touristy stuff.
I think the new building looks great but wasn't built very well for crowd flow or ease of finding stuff.
Also, ferry building is pretty nice, as is just going up Market st.
1. California Palace of the Legion of Honor Museum
2. SFMOMA
3. De Young
The De Young is right across the courtyard from the Academy of Sciences and is usually less packed, so if you hit the Academy early you can just jump over to the De Young, and spend lunch in/around Golden Gate Park.
The SFMOMA is the MOMA, it's big, it's colorful, it's in the heart of downtown, built by a famous Italian modernist architect, and has some truly awesome collections.
The Legion of Honor is probably the smallest in terms of size and collection, but it's a great place to spend a good portion of the day. Check it out:
http://www.mattychopper.com/Images/Palace_of_the_legion_of_honor_th.jpg
And there are a bunch of smaller galleries on the north side of Market St.
It's fun, but the traffic to get to that point is not.
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