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Things to do in San Francisco
bigpanda
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
I'm going to be in San Francisco in a couple weeks for a work conference and will most likely take some vacation time while I'm out there to check out the city. I'm looking for recommendations on things to do and see while I'm out there and will be relying on public transportation and an occasional cab ride to get around.
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However, I enjoyed the Piers, and in particular Pier 39. I think. That whole place is great. Aside from that, I remember Alcatraz being enjoyable, but that was like five years ago. And is purely tourist.
Enjoy the food, but read ahead so you can go to the good restaurants and not the touristy ones. Lulu is a must, the food is killer, the wine bar is amazing, and it's reasonably priced-we've never spent more than $90 a person in there. The Virgin Megastore is cool, and the Metreon is a great place to see a movie, but the stores suck. Have dim-sum in Chinatown.
As for my general interests, virtually anything movie related, I'm hoping to at least stop by M5 Industries (Jamie Hyneman's visual effects shop from Mythbusters) as I'm a huge fan and love what those guys do (visual effects artists). I've strayed a bit from my path in college (graphics programming) and would love to get back into it as I was hoping for something in the film industry but coming from Detroit we were always being pushed into the automotive industry. Include the Presidio as well since Lucasfilm is there now too.
I'd like to see Alcatraz partly because I'm interested in abandoned structures for some reason (growing up w/ urban blight I think) and also partly because I heard that it's supposed to be haunted. I might end up pussing out because of the haunted part though. I've been to plenty of graveyards and other "haunted" places in michigan but am always tense when I get there because you never know if that time you'll actually experience something to make you believe. The whole prison thing is kind of a bummer too (not your happy happy joy joy kind of place unless your a sadist).
Golden Gate and Lombard St. are on the list. I'd also like to get to see the Pacific Ocean too as I haven't seen it yet. Going to a museum or two would be ok, but I'm not sure that I'll have time for that unless there's an exhibit that I feel I NEED to see.
As much as I'm trying to get into a healthier lifestyle, I love food. While I enjoy a good upscale meal, my favorites are always the dive places that do things greasy and they do them well. So the question for that is what is San Fran known for? Philly has cheesesteaks, NY has just about everything, Detroit/Dearborn has middle eastern (mouth is watering thinking about some hummus and chipped lamb right now).
I'm also trying to get a feel for whether or not I'd be comfortable living out there as well. I'll be making some contacts while I'm there and I've been thinking for years that California is the place for me, so this is an opportunity for me to check it out.
How's the transportation system out there too?
Bart and Cal Train work well for getting around the bay.
Amoeba Music is at the end of the street too, definitely go there. I saw The Mountain Goats play there once, absolutely wonderful.
As for bars to look up, I suggest Gestalt House in the Mission (liter beers and great German food), The Bitter End on Clement and Trad'R Sam's on Geary (amazing bowl drinks).
I have to second the headlands as well, especially since it's quite close to the bridge. lots of abandoned army bunkers that you can crawl around in. there is plenty of fantastic art in those bunkers so bring a flashlight and the scenery is very nice. it's a bit of a hike though, so be prepared!
Get burritos in the Mission district. I suggest Pancho Villa.
Get chinese in Chinatown. (No particular suggestions.)
Get Italian and/or pizza in North Beach. (Again, no particular suggestions.)
Also, get Thai food from Thai Stick and Ethiopean/Eritrean from Massawa.
the "no true scotch man" fallacy.
Hey Panda are you going to San Fran for GDC? I am in much the same boat as you.
Haight St. kind of sucks. Almost everything is overpriced, and the people are typically tourists, yuppies, and street kids (And the occasional crazy). It's worth going to, but I wouldn't spend much time there. Chinatown is way cool, I'd go there more often if I didn't live on the opposite end of the city. Walking around there at night is awesome.
San Francisco has pretty much any type of food you can imagine, you just need to do some research and figure out which places are good. I don't get much of a chance to experiment, since I'm a broke college student, but you're welcome to take me out to dinner.
Hey, I did that exact ride but in reverse (ie: San Jose to San Fran) and it was very easy. Interstate all the way believe.
There are some museums worth seeing and they're all downtown. SF MOMA is lots of fun and there's a Museum of Comic Book Art between MOMA and the Ocean that's just awesome - it's small, so google it to make sure you don't get tripped up walking there.
For an absolutely BEAUTIFUL sunset, go to the Palace of the Legion of Honor and look out across the bay towards marin.
You can easily do public transit from San Francisco to San Jose. You just have to do SF's subway (BART) about halfway down, then take the Caltrain lightrail the other half of the way.
The only snag with that is once you step out of any one of the train stations in San Jose the public transit sucks. San Jose is a big suburban sprawl and it has one of the shittiest most disorganized bus systems ever vomited on a map. But if you can get your friend to pick you up at the station it's all good.
Try transit.511.org to plan your trip.
the "no true scotch man" fallacy.
I go about once a year.
If you're not too old to play video games, you're not too old to go to the Exploratorium.
the "no true scotch man" fallacy.
Pier 39 sadly though has gone down hill in the last few years or so..The once giant arcade is now gone and replaced with a Hard Rock Cafe..And most of the stores are basic T-Shirt shops, and expensive tourist stuff..
Metreon fell into the same trap..The fourth floor used to have this AWESOME Where the Wild Things Are exhibit, that let you walk through the entire storybook..It was grand, now its gone..Also gone is the anime theatre, and the giant Discovery Channel Store...BUT...there is a small and decent comic book shop, a Games Workshop store, and a really nice Sony Lifestyles store which is worth checking out...Sadly the arcade there went from HOLY SHIT AWESOME to WTF all of these games suck balls and dont work anymore
Exploratorium is all kinds of fun..If you can try to get into the Tactile Dome..Its utterly amazing..Its a pitch black dome that you need to use all of your other senses to get through..Incredible awesome..I believe it is 16 dollars extra to do it, but well worth it
Take a quick tour of the Presidio while you are there..Its a historic ArmyPost..Beautiful landscapes, and lots of history
The Steinhart Aquarium is a really nice place to go to, there is TONS of awesome stuff there and its not just an aquarium. They offer plenty of other exhibits including a cheesy but pretty cool earthquake simulator, and the last time i was ther they had this incredible display of animal skulls all along a huge wall..pretty impressive..
The Japanese Tea Garden is really nice if you are planning on seeing the Golden Gate Park..Its very beautiful and a niceplace to have lunch
No, I wish though. I'm a systems administrator for an ad agency in Seattle. We have a conference with Adobe and some of our sister agencies. Long story short, California is supposed to be where I end up, but I'm sidetracked in Seattle right now.
The Steinhart and the Academy of Sciences is closed for renovations, right now. They've relocated to a temp location, but I'm not sure where that is.
They've got live music by local and touring bands almost every night, pretty good food, and the kitchen is open really late, which is good after a night of drinking.