The City by the Bay is the Best (San Francisco)

Member Name: freddiesmom

Product:	San Francisco
Date:	01/03/04 (194 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: great food, beautiful views, so much to do

Disadvantages: expensive, hard walking

Firstly, just in case anyone was wondering, San Francisco is not in the UK or Ireland, so I don't know why it is listed that way on the site. But to get to the point, I love San Francisco. I used to live there before I moved to Stirling Scotland. Now, you may be asking yourself a question I hear quite often..."Why, would you move to Scotland from San Francisco?" It is a fabulous place to visit but it is soooo expensive to live there and the pace of life is anything but calm. That's not to say that for a visitor it isn't relaxing because it can be.

San Francisco is certainly one of the most beautiful cities in the US, if not the world. With it's high hills and beautiful views of the bay. I really think everyone should visit it at least once in their lives. I would hope too that if you did visit that you would see more than just the tourist traps...that's what I am here for.
When you fly into The Bay area (as it's known around there), you actually have a couple of choices. You can fly into San Francisco or Oakland. Now San Francisco Airport is actually in South San Francisco, a seperate city just, uh you guessed it, SOUTH of San Francisco. It is easily accessable by car, train and then bus connection (not so easy with lots of luggage) and of course taxi. The other option, Oakland is just east of San Francisco, across the bay. It too is easily accessable. I mention Oakland because sometimes you can get a better deal flying there rather than San Francisco and it's only a 20 minute drive or so from San Francisco, depending on traffic of course. Also I think it is a fabulous introduction to the City to come in from the east bay over The Bay Bridge, what a lovely view!

There are lots of hotels in the city and a large number of them are centered in downtown or union square. Really, you can find a great place to stay no matter what part of the city you want to be in. San Francisco is divided up into neighborhoods. Y
ou will often hear people refer to these neighborhoods. For example if you asked someone where they lived they would mention the neighborhood vs the street. I used to live between the Marina and North Beach. Some of the neighborhoods are:

North Beach: centered around Columbus Ave. and Washington Square park (which is great for a picnic, you might even see the flock of escaped parrots!), Italian area with tons of restaurants, and the area where beat poets used to hang around City Lights Bookstore.

Fisherman's Wharf: Check it out if you must but this is tourist trap city. It is where you go to see attractions like the wax museum, pier 39 and buy lots of plastic souvenirs. Could be worth it to see the sea lions lounging in the sun. You may read in guide books that this is the place for seafood, it isn't it's the place for tourists to pay lots of money for mediocre seafood. If you want great seafood check out Swan Oyster Depot. It's a fish market and restaurant. Don't be put off by the que, get in there and sit down to plate of fresh dungeness crab.

Union Square/downtown: Great shopping for designer clothes and housewares. There are lots of stores for those with a big budget around here like Tiffany's, Neiman Marcus and Saks. Union Square is actually a square/park in the center which is a great place for people watching. They often have art shows here as well.
This is also the main theater district.

The Castro: The gay district, lovely victorian houses and a lively shopping area as well as good restaurants and boutique type stores.

The Mission: The Latino quarter. This is the place to be for awesome Mexican food. Also Valencia street is hip and happening for the young and cool. It may look shabby but there are some fabulous finds here and it is "real" San Francisco. Also a great place to find the trendy restaurants. My favorite is a little place just off of Mission at 14th street called
Woodward's garden.

The Haight: This the famous Haight Ashbury, home of the start of the summer of love. Believe it or not it still looks like it's the summer of love. It a fun place for trendy shops. Hip students and hippies alike flock to the Haight. If you are looking for cheap, filling food that is also yummy you will have lots to eat here. Check out the house where the Grateful Dead lived too. Or, just get your picture taken in front of the psychedelic murals.

Japantown: Of course great Japanese restaurants but also great shopping. There is a fabulous Japanese grocery store here called Maruwa (sp?) and a mall called Japan Center. In the mall is a gorgeous little insense shop that sells beautiful things, all wrapped in pretty paper. There is also a great stationary shop which sells all kinds of amazing Japanese pens, pencils, notebooks and more origami paper than I have ever seen in one place.

Chinatown: One of the largest in the world and a great place to come for Dim Sum on a Sunday morning.

There are lots more neighborhood but those are some of my favorites.
Even though as far as American Cities go, San Francisco is actually not that big, it is packed with things to do. It is very easy to get around San Francisco and the whole Bay Area really on BART (Bay Area Rapid Transit). It's like a subway but goes outside of the city as well. The stations are underground in the city and above ground outside of it, for the most part. You just look for the BART sign, climb down the steps, buy a ticket from the machines on the wall, pop it into the automated gate and hop on a train. There is a decent bus system but it is notorious for breaking down and not coming on time. Also I have found the drivers to often be very rude. Taxi stands are all over the place and you can flag one down in the street as well. However, they are rather expensive and in short supply so depending on the time of day it could take a while to get
one.

In my opinion to see the true San Francisco you should do at least some of the following:

Ride a cable car. I think if you are a tourist it's the law that you get on one! Actually they are a great way to get from the Marina/Fisherman's wharf area into downtown. They get very bust during the sumer and are easier to get onto in the morning and at night. Grab a seat on one of the outside benchs or cling on, while standing on the edge for the best experience. You do not need to buy a ticket in advance as a conductor will come along and sell you a ticket once you are on.

Go to the mission and get a burrito. The best ones (in my opinion!) are at Pancho Villa on 16th street at Mission. Get of the Bart train at 16th street. It is just up from the station. Get in there and order yourself a super burrito and don't forget to try ordering in spanish. Walk around the mission district eating your football sized, foil wrapped delicacy!

Go to the farmers market and the new Ferry Plaza food market. If you like food this is the place to be. The Ferry Plaza building which sat for ages doing a whole lot of nothing has suddenly become a food mecca. It now houses an amazing "permanent market" with stalls from Cow Girl Creamery, Acme Baking and amazing chocolate makers-Schafenberger and Micheal Recchiuti. Plus so much more. Go when the farmers market is on and the stalls of produce, flowers, cheese, fish, olive oil, honey, you name it are all outside surrounding the building. Oh and bring an empty stomach!

Browse in the bookstores. San Francisco has a great literary tradition and a large number of good independent bookstores, something that nowadays is becoming so scarce.

Take a trip on the ferry. There are lots of options here. You could go to Alcatraz, which for a touristy thing is pretty good. Go over to Saulsalito for the day and check out the shops and have lunch looking over the bay or even just ferry a
round and under the golden gate bridge.

Check out the east bay. Just hop onto Bart and get of in downtown Berkeley. Stroll over to Telegraph avenue and buy some handicrafts from a street vendor or even a bumper sticker extolling the virtues of pot smoking! Get great pizza from Zackary's or a burger to die for from Barney's. Or get off bart at Rockridge in Oakland and check out the great boutique shopping. Try a free slice of bread from great harvest and check out market hall for gourmet goodies.

The weather is almost always decent in San Francisco but it does rain during the winter and can get hot in the summer. The city itself will often be cooler than the rest of the bay area and it is a good idea to always have a light jacket with you. It may be California but it's not L.A.! Also be aware that you will probably encounter some massive hills to climb so wear comfy shoes.
I could go on but this is getting long. For some great local info check out:
http://www.sfgate.com/

Summary: