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San Francisco for N00bs
Justboy
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
So my lovely Aunt over in the US has offered to pay for flights to come visit her for two weeks at the end of September, now that i'm 21 and can finally quaff a beverage over there. I shall be staying with her and her husband in San Mateo, who both work, so i will have most days to myself to take in the sights and sounds. As a Londoner who has only ever been to Kansas City i was just wondering if anyone had any suggestions for cool things to do, see, eat, watch, smell etc in the San Francisco area towards the end of September. I'm quite into film and live music (an avid guitar player), lots of sports, interesting culinary delights,general sightseeing activities and the odd unusual happening/interesting photo op. Any help would be greatly appreciated, cheers
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San Francisco is awesome.
Go to a 49ers or Giants game... I'm not sure when the baseball season ends, but the 49ers should be playing by then. Get tickets now, or you won't get good ones or any at all.
Get a drink at http://carnelianroom.com/ after dark.
Eat an insane cheesecake slice at The Cheesecake Factory at the top of Macy's in Union Square.
Good live indie music seemed to always be south of the freeway, I am sure you could walk there but I personally wouldn't want to after dark. San Francisco is a very safe city, but there's no need to be silly. Take a bus there (but again the public transport thing rears it's head on how you'd get back to San Mateo).
Eat chowder at Fisherman's Wharf, then eat chocolate at Ghiradelli Square.
If you can, head down to Santa Cruz (which should not be as ungodly hot by September) to see a Californian beach type place.
Most of the cool stuff you can just find out about on Ticketmaster, or in a good guide book. You are really limited by your transport options, sadly, so you'll need to be very careful about planning ahead. Or find a car rental place you can pay a huge wodge of cash to.
Ghiradelli Square [public transit]
A small plaza that can easily be reached via the cable car from the Powell BART stop. It plays host to a deliciously sweet dessert shop as well as some sight seeing along the coast
Pier 39 (and the rest of the pier) [public transit]
Near the Ghiradelli Square, there's a huge number of tourist attractions here including sea lions, street performers, shops and I think an aquarium (though I have not been in it myself). It's a great place to go on a sunny day to eat the food and take in the sights. Granted that the Pier 39 doesn't have the
best food around, it has plenty of good eats.Shopping in SF [public transit]
Westfield Shopping Centre is an enormous shopping mall. It spans across a block and goes up for several floors and has a pretty nice food court in the ground floor. If you're in the market or just window shopping, this is definitely worth a visit.
Union Square is also a fantastic place to go. It is a little less convenient if your purpose is to purchase, but if you're there to sight see, you should definitely visit here also. The view is pleasant from the top floor of the Macy's building and you can eat some (IMHO) overrated and overly portioned food at the Cheesecake factory; otherwise just stay for the view and explore the rest of the square.
Chinatown [public transit + walking]
An exciting place to visit whether or not you speak Cantonese. Most of the vendors know enough English to make the transactions flow smoothly enough, and if you're not there for the food, being there for the sight is also great. The hustle and bustle of the street vendors and residents looking for the best deal is great.
The Golden Gate Bridge
I don't really know of an easy way to visit this particular landmark via public transportation. The best view I've had of it was on the end not in San Francisco and we got there via car. But this is a must! (Though, parking in San Francisco is a nightmare)
The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art and the Asian Art Museum of San Francisco [public transit]
Every few months, their exhibits switch up and are always impressive. I haven't been to either in over a year, so I'm not really sure what's going on now. But both have websites where you can investigate for yourself.
SF Moma and Asian Art Mus.I know that there are other places to visit and to see in SF, but as of now, I live in Berkeley. So whenever I visit with friends, we tend to stick to things that are easily accessible through BART (subway). If you have a car (or do not mind navigating the tangled web of public buses), there is much more to do and see like visiting Golden Gate Park or the Japanese Tea Gardens. Another great website to visit for ideas of where to eat and things to do is Yelp. It's a peer review site of various shops, services, etc. Take a gander and just stumble on something you like.
EDIT:
Oh, right, I keep mentioning public transportation. You can visit 511.org to plan out trips in the Bay Area and San Francisco, it typically has the most up to date schedules. From there you can also find links to the other major public transit sites, or, you know, just google it.
If you want Japanese (not sushi, but almost every sushi restaurant in SF is good, because it's always super-fresh), Osaka Grill on Sutter just off Polk was always my favorite.
If you're into the whole club scene, most of the clubs on Folsom are pretty interesting. It's been a few years, though, so I don't guarantee anything as far as that goes.
The BART runs from SF out to almost San Mateo every day until around midnight, so you don't have to worry too much transport-wise, as long as you can get to Fremont.
As far as the tourist-thing, you can do Pier 39 and Union Square, but I wouldn't hang out too long. They're both designed to separate you from your money as soon as possible.
If you want a super-hip sushi experience, check out Ozumo in the Financial District. It's pricey, but I like it. Plus, you can walk on the Embarcadero after dinner.
Fisherman's wharf and Pier 39 are touristy things to do but probably required at least once. The chowder in a sourdough bread bowl made for a good lunch. While there, take a walk down to the Maritime museum and take a tour of the historic ships they have and stop at Ghiradelli Square afterwards. If you continue to walk right along the waterfront heading west you'll come upon a steep road that leads to Fort Mason and a great view of the Palace of Fine Arts, Crissy Field and the Golden Gate Bridge (this view alone sealed the deal in making me decide that I wanted to live there).
The varying neighborhoods all have history behind them and are worth a trip through them if you have time. If you find yourself in the Mission district, grab a burrito while there as it's a distinct style known for being stuffed with all kinds of great things. Chinatown is also a must see as it's world famous.
The Alcatraz tour at night is cool (don't bother with the daytime one as the views in the evening are much better), make sure to bring a camera if you go and get up to the lighthouse just before sunset. if you head over to the southwest corner of the pavilion up there you can snap some amazing photos of the sunset over Golden Gate Bridge.
You'll have a great time, and make sure to bring a camera and extra film or memory cards and batteries as there will be plenty to see and do.
Also, if you want to ride the cable cars, don't bother waiting in line at the turnaround as it can take awhile, just go up a couple streets and jump on as others are getting off.
Oh man, I am the n00b for forgetting the Rose
Also; Lefty O Douls on Geary (I think) near Union Square is awesome in it's crapness. It is the last bastion of unpretenciousness, a place where a sandwich consists of having a slab of meat cut off a fucking huge ham slammed onto some bread. It has this weird sports bar/cocktail bar decor mishmash. I love it.
I go there every time I'm in the city.
- Going on a roundabout ~17-mile walk through various parts of the city, of which the best part was Golden Gate Park.
- Another walk through Chinatown and then up in the hills (Russian, Nob, etc) at the north end downtown.
- Touring Alcatraz.
- Walking around the beach at the Presidio near that end of the Golden Gate Bridge.
If you've only been to Kansas City in the US, I would highly recommend setting aside a day or two just to walk around the downtown area and the waterfront along the north and east sides of downtown. Be aware that it is much more hilly than most US cities, so it's kind of a hike if you don't make a habit out of that kind of thing.
http://www.thelostworlds.net/
Yeah. More specifically, the BART stops about 5 miles north of San Mateo in a town called Millbrae, where it connects up with CalTrain that will take you to San Mateo (or all the way down to San Jose if you want.)
So doing San Mateo - San Francisco does require one transfer, but it's not a pain or anything. Both trains run pretty frequently at all hours.
I live in San Mateo and, well, it's a nice place to live, but I wouldn't want to visit here. There really isn't anything for a tourist to do here except hop on a train to San Francisco.
Edit: for public transportation, if you have access to a computer while you're here, use transit.511.org. You can enter your From: and To: addresses and it will tell you exactly what buses/trains/etc. to take.
the "no true scotch man" fallacy.
Srsly though go to haight st. Plenty of bums with signs asking for cash to buy weed, but they're all too lazy. There are incredibly expensive stores, it is SF after all, but they also have some incredibly cool and thrifty stores. Mainly don't walk into the stores with thumping basslines and you'll be fine for cash. The Giant Robot store is just off the corner of Haight near Amoeba Music (go there too, read the wiki) if you're into that kind of thing. Too expensive for my blood, though. Real real good food on that street, too. Speaking of food, though, there's a Belgian fry shop called Frjtz in Hayes Valley (which is sorta like a yuppie version of Haight), which is nearby (you might want to take a bus, though.) Coolest place I've ever eaten, and it was absolutely delicious. Google it, a lot of people say good things about it.
edit: hey, here's a youtube of it, actually. except the place in hayes wasn't so big. there was a big patio out back though, which is where I ate.
What's the name of the hooka bar near Haight/Ashbury? I was absolutely hammered somewhere around North Beach as I was being dragged around by the Designated Driver, and then said DES drove us to Haight (despite my protestations about needing to drink more RIGHT NOW) and to this hooka bar there, which was super awesome. I had some apricot shit and pretended I was Snoop Dogg.
Needless to say, I did not remember the name.
Just bring lots of money. Lots.
IOS Game Center ID: Isotope-X
the "no true scotch man" fallacy.
Granted, I'm here for law school, so I haven't had much time to explore the city.
I live in the South of Market neighborhood. There are some decent bars and restaurants on second and third streets, and the cross streets south of Market.
Also, if you're into Mexican food, take BART to 24th and mission, and go either to La Taqueria, or El Farolito. Those restaurants probably have the best burritos in the city, and they're only a block apart.
― Marcus Aurelius
Path of Exile: themightypuck
If you're not into modern art, the Legion of Honor is an excellent museum, in a setting that can't be beat.
www.ofarrell.com
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