Fantastic Jeep Tour around the city (Sights & Attractions in San Francisco in general)

Member Name: janeh

Product:	Sights & Attractions in San Francisco in general
Date:	16/07/02 (136 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Very relaxing, Lots to see, Excellent guide/driver

Disadvantages: none I can think of

Before visiting San Francisco I took a look at the web to see if there were any worthwhile tours to take and came across www.goldengatejeeptours.com. They offered escorted tours of San Francisco in a jeep which sounded like fun.

The site offered many tours, from one hour around the city, to three hours and more to more fully see the city or to extend into surrounding areas. They even offered day trip to places further a field such as Hearst castle. The prices were very reasonable and as a couple we would have the jeep and driver to ourselves. I Gave them a ring one evening and booked a 3 hour deluxe tour of SF for $68 each. For this they would pick us up and drop us off at a location of our choice. Although they took details of my credit card, they said they would not take payment until after the tour.

On the morning of our tour we stood in anticipation outside the hotel and sure enough exactly at the time arranged (9.30am) a racing green jeep pulled up. Our tour guide/driver introduced himself as Hank Davis who owned the company and he installed us into his jeep.

He asked us if we had visited before, we said we had but only for a day so hadn’t seen as much as we would have liked. We booked our tour for our second day, so that if we went anywhere that we wanted to return to we still had a few days left. Hank said he would take us to all the tourist areas as well as the historical and landmark areas. He also said he would take us across the Golden Gate Bridge to Sausalito. The virtues of a jeep tour soon became apparent as many of the streets we went down had signs up stating that tour buses etc were banned. Being in the jeep we were able to visit many places we would not have been able to see on a “normal” guided tour.

We visited many areas including Nob Hill, Coit Memorial Tower, The Palace of Fine Arts, the Presidio, Fort Point, Telegraph Hill, Chinatown and we travelled down Lombard Street – the croo
kedest street in the world. We were able to stop at many of the locations for photo opportunities etc. The trip across the Golden Gate Bridge was great (if a little windy) and on the other side we entered the town of Sausalito. The temperature on this side of the bridge was about ten degrees higher than in SF. This town is very different to SF with very expensive houses set in to the cliff side overlooking the bay. Hank explained that a derelict house we passed which basically resembled a just about standing pile of wood recently sold for nearly a million dollars. It is very expensive here. There were lots of boats and yachts which again stank of $$.

After the return trip across the bridge we travelled along the coast and viewed Ocean Beach, then went through Golden Gate Park and back into the city through Pacific Heights and eventually back to our hotel.

Hank was a brilliant host, explaining areas that needed explaining, but keeping quite when nothing needed to be said (Americans sometimes forget you can do this). When we got back to the hotel, 3 hours later to the second he helped us plan our last couple of days in SF suggesting we included a trip to Muir Woods (which we did) and even going as far as helping with directions for our trip down to coast and suggesting a couple of places to visit on route including Monterey Bay and Hearst Castle.

We thoroughly enjoyed the tour and found many interesting places we later returned to such as Chinatown. The tour was very relaxed, we never felt rushed and if we wanted to stop anywhere for whatever reason, then Hank was ever obliging.

I cannot recommend Golden Gate Jeep Tours enough. They made a lovely trip to SF even more pleasurable and we now feel that we have truly seen most of the city. At about £100 for both of us for three hours, I consider this to be excellent value for money. Long may Hank reign.

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