Anyone here from San Francisco or currently lives there?

I am taking my wife there from 8/25-8/28.

Of course we are going to eat at Fisherman's Wharf and Chinatown and the Mission district.

Is the Alcatraz tour worth the 2.5 hours $38 per person price?

How about the boat cruises to the Golden Gate bridge and through the bay?

What else is there to do there?

Thanks!



We picked out these restaurants based on what we saw on the Food Channel and the Travel Channel

1. Sotto Mare Oysteria and Seafood Restaurant

MENU:

http://www.sottomaresf.com/Sotto_Mare_Seafood_Restaurant/Menu_files/Menu%20update%20%2011-14-13.pdf

Website:

http://www.sottomaresf.com/Sotto_Mare_Seafood_Restaurant/Home.html

YELP:

http://www.yelp.com/biz/sotto-mare-san-francisco

Why GO there?

For the CIOPPINO





2. Swan Oyster Depot

MENU:

http://www.zmenu.com/swan-oyster-depot-san-francisco-online-menu/

Website:

http://www.sfswanoysterdepot.com/

YELP:

http://www.yelp.com/biz/swan-oyster-depot-san-francisco

Why GO there?

For the CRAB LOUIE SALAD



3. Taqueria La Cumbre

MENU:

http://www.taquerialacumbre.com/menu.html

Website:

http://www.taquerialacumbre.com/

YELP:

http://www.yelp.com/biz/taqueria-la-cumbre-san-francisco

Why GO there?

For the 19 Oz SUPER MISSION BURRITOS



4. House of Prime Rib

MENU:

http://houseofprimerib.net/

Website:

http://houseofprimerib.net/

YELP:

http://www.yelp.com/biz/house-of-prime-rib-san-francisco

Why GO there?

For the KING HENRY VIII CUT of PRIME RIB

Don't live there, wish I did anyway.

Don't forget to throw empty bottles of beer at the sea lions at Fisherman's Wharf while you are at it. It is a local tradition.

Not food-related but visiting the WW2 USS Pampatino sub should be everyone's priority. I enjoyed it quite a bit, even my wife (who is not a sub freak) did, it doesn't take too long.

I'll let the local HQers with better suggestions.

Cheers,
Slug

It's been some time since I was visiting San Francisco, but some of the things I really enjoyed were

- Golden Gate Park
- Presidio
- Coit Tower and Telegraph Hill
- Chinatown
- Haight Ashbury
- driving down Lombard Street
- USS Pampanito and the Liberty ship next to it

There right now. Kennedy's: Two pints for one. Indian restaurant upstairs that delivers downstairs. Very good chicken curry.

I would definitely love to take a vacation to SF and check out the city for at least a few days.

I would never live there of course.

Stuff to do: the locals seem to like to panhandle and urinate on the doorways of downtown businesses.

You visit the nuclear wessels in Alameda.



The Jedi Master

I took my kids to the Exploratorium. It was very cool, even for my wife and I. (Possibly because I'm still a man child). It was a highlight for all of us. http://www.exploratorium.edu/

Alcatraz is definitely worth the visit. We did the day tour. The whole place is interesting to visit. The view from Alcatraz to SF is great. The audio tour is really well done. I hear the night tours are really good too but I didn't want my kids (or me :-) to be too spooked out.

My son was sick this day but my daughter and I took a ferry then a cab to the USS Hornet museum. We had been to USS Intrepid in NYC as a family and everyone really enjoyed it to my surprise since I'm the only aviation and naval aviation aficionado in the family. So we were looking forward to Hornet. Hornet is definitely different than Intrepid. More museumish and less family friendly interactive. I always love seeing the aircraft and the carriers whenever possible so I still enjoyed it. It was a bit of bore for my daughter but bless her heart, she was a good sport and just humoured me for the trip.

We also toured the the Aquarium of the Bay. It's a bit small compared to other aquariums I've visited (New Orleans, Dallas) but it was interesting. We did a behind the scenes tour and got to feed the sharks and fish from above the glass tunnels.

We bought a CityPass for our trip and it was well worth it. We stayed on the edge of China town beside the Bank of America tower and took public transit everywhere. The pass was even good for street cars on the Embarcadero and the cable cars plus it had passes for most of the attractions we visited.

Wizard

First thing. Take a Jacket! Tourists don't realize that SF is COLD compared to the rest of the state. It stays in the 60's in the Summer, and the wind is blowing in off the Bay. So take a sweater at least.

Take the Tour of the Rock. Make sure you do the Audio. Really fun. The boat ride over to it fun.
When at the Wharf, be sure and have some of the Clam Chowder in the Sourdough bowl. Outstanding. And I don't like clam chowder. San Francisco is known for its Sourdough Bread, and Ghirradelli chocolate.
Drive down Lombard St.
Take a Trolley ride.

I'd say rather than take a boat under the GG Bridge, walk across it. I think that's more fun. Also, if you are a baseball fan at all, try to see a game at ATT Park. It's a nice stadium and the cheapest tickets are also the ones with the best views of the bay (if you're not a baseball fan).

Lumbard Street is cool
Trollies are cool
I thought Alcatraz was OK

If you guys are going to have a car you could head to Half Moon Bay or Pacifica for breakfast, lunch, or dinner one day, for a nice, less urban, activity.

That's all I can think of off the top of my head.

That sounds like a setup...



+1 on the USS Pampanito! Watch out for the friggin' seagulls though... I think they are working for the Japanese Emperor.

+ several on the USS Pampanito. If you have a car, Sausalito, just on the north side of the Golden Gate, is a nice place to visit. I loved it in SF when I was there in 2010, and I'm aiming towards a visit there next year again.

Thanks for all the suggestions,

We have seen the USS Nimitz in San Diego and since we only have
Half day Tuesday and 2 full days on Wed and Thu and flying back
On Friday at lunch time, we will pass on the USS Hornet.

I want to see Alcatraz and the Submarine. I haven't mentioned it to her yet. She may not be interested.

I know she may rather do one of the twilight cruises on the bay
than take a bay cruise to a prison museum.

Jacket? I have a heavy biker leather jacket. Is that too much?

We won't rent a car. My company has an Uber account. That's how we will get around most of the time especially
from/to hotel and airport.

By the way we are staying at a hotel in Fisherman's Wharf.

Which one of these jackets should I get?

This one rated COLD:

http://www.dickssportinggoods.com/produc...;fg=Temperature

This one rated MILD:

http://www.dickssportinggoods.com/product/index.jsp?productId=3956095&prodFindSrc=cart

Both are waterproof and windbreakers.

I plan to walk the entire 3 miles of the Golden Gate Bridge and one of these jackets got to keep me warm from the wind up there.

http://www.canada-goose.com/snow-mantra-parka-9501M.html#start=1

It's low in the 50's.

It's not the arctic there.

I am not going to Siberia.

Irony, man, irony.

Unless there's going to be a serious drop in temperatures, a T-Shirt and a light windbreaker (a good softshell jacket should also keep you reasonably dry in light, drizzling rain) should be more than enough.

I might consider taking a jacket such as that "mild" Northface jacket you posted on an Alpine hiking trip in November/ December. Certainly not when visiting San Francisco in August.

Unless you plan to walk at a snail's pace, the very fact that you are moving will keep you warm enough.

Depends where you're from. If it drops below 70, I wear my leather bomber jacket.



The Jedi Master

According to the 16-day forecast for SF, temperatures should be between 71 and 83, so you'd only have to bring the light version of that leather bomber jacket ("Iniana Jones" A2, as opposed to "Top Gun" G1?)

We visited in May last year. I typically wore shorts or cargo pants with zip off pant legs and a light wind breaker. When it got warmish, I'd tie the jacket around my waste. I think there might have been one time when I wished I had a fleece jacket under my wind breaker. We walked over the Golden Gate bridge on a sunny day and was comfortable with the windbreaker. Walking the bridge was a highlight for me. I'll also second the motion that clam chowder in a sour dough bowl is a must do.

Wizard

Ok...ew! Did you dump the jacket or wash it later?




The Jedi Master

I layover there twice a month. Stay out of Tenderloin. A lot of shopping there but its really a dump. The homeless are polite but relentless. Comstock Saloon is the best noir bar on the planet. Have lunch in Sausalito if you can. By bike if you are in decent shape. Otherwise get a car for the day but if you park it in the city it will cost you $$$. While you have the car, hit Napa, Sonoma or both. Its been years since I have been so I can't recommend any wineries. Plan as little time on the wharf as possible. It is obligatory to go but the rest of the city has far more to offer with less stress.

Right now, it has been phenomenally drier and warmer than anyone alive has even seen. It's supposed to rain frequently, but over the last couple of years, we haven't seen any. So right now it's warmer than normal. This has another problem- normally the rain cleans up the streets, but since it hasn't really rained in a few years, the streets and sidewalks are dirty, and it smells like a sewer everywhere in the more trafficked neighborhoods. If you're from the suburbs and don't spend lots of time in cities, you will definitely get a whiff of various things and you won't be as desensitized. The city in my view is overly dog friendly, there's dog crap everywhere that isn't getting washed away by the rain.

The Sunset District still has the most bleak microclimate of all the neighborhoods. That's where there can be strong winds which blow in from the cold currents of the Pacific Ocean and the fog tends to gather and linger. It's cold and humid there much of the time. It's a residential neighborhood and much quieter there generally than other neighborhoods. But it's also much less touristy and has its own charm, set off against the posh, commercial homogenization that is going on everywhere else.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sunset_District,_San_Francisco

In that area there is the famous Cliff House restaurant

http://www.sanfrancisco.com/the-cliff-house-b8891

And again, that's where it's colder.

The hilly geography can block a lot of the weather out of select neighborhoods, so it really depends on where you spend much of your time- but generally, the western extremes are the coldest and look and feel a bit differently than other neighborhoods like the Mission District.

Thanks again everyone.

They do a night tour of Alcatraz, if you time the one to catch the sunset and have a decent camera, you can get some amazing shots of the city at dusk.

Also very good view from the battery park on the bluff right across the Golden Gate Bridge (forget the name at the moment.)

Any particular restaurant for the Clam Chowder in the Sourdough bowl?

Also I have been reading the reviews on some of the tourist trap restaurants at Fisherman's Wharf for Dungeness Crab (Franciscan, Crabhouse at Pier 39) and it seems they are just over priced and not any good.

Some of the reviews on YELP looks like some people had issues with the service and food and other parts of the restaurant months ago and the owner posted a reply apologizing and saying it will be taken care of, please give us another chance;

and then week after and week after that week and on and on and on until the present day, more reviews by other YELP users saying the same thing and more apology from the owner and nothing is done and nothing has changed.

I don't want to go to a place like that!

They figure for every tourist that doesn't go there or goes there and has a bad experience and won't return, they have 100 waiting in line to get in and give them their $.

Not this tourist! I won't be a sheep!

Any other places in SF away from Fisherman's Wharf we can get good Dungeness crab without having to pay tourist high prices and deal with long lines of tourists waiting for a table?

THANKS!

EDIT:

I am looking at our hotel location near Fisherman's Wharf and it's 1.1 miles walk to Chinatown and 3 miles walk to Golden Gate Bridge.

Google Map on my iPhone will even give me turn by turn voice direction to walk anywhere I want from point A to point B.

Is it safe to walk?

No, yer a dead man...

I am preparing for my trip by watching movies about San Francisco:

Dirty Harry
Magnum Force
The Enforcer
Bullitt
The Enforcer
Pacific Heights
48 HRS
Vertigo
Point Blank
The Conversation
The Rock
Escape From Alcatraz
What's Up, Doc?
Invasion of the Body Snatchers 1978

This list will help round out your prepping.

If you are into baseball and have time, get some tickets at AT&T Park. One of the best ballparks with- in my biased Giants fanboy opinion- the best view. The St. Louis Cardinals are in town that weekend. Big series. (I'm south of SF, in Silicon Valley.)

Check out Chinatown and Japantown as well.

If you have a rental car, drive across the Golden Gate bridge to Sausalito. Nice town with great eats, window shopping, people watching and view of San Fran.





If you really want a well rounded vacation, you can drive a little further north to infamous San Quentin State Prison.

Should I be worried?

Should I cancel the trip for next week?

http://www.cnbc.com/2015/08/17/earthquak...tely-clear.html

Not at all. A 4 makes a good alarm clock, but I'd hardly cause for concern, especially in the Bay Area, where they've invested significant resources in being prepared for exactly this.

I found this:

https://www.google.com/maps/d/viewer?hl=...b4.k9z1P6U6kxGk

It's no fun anymore now that I know it wasn't a continuous route.

Original chase:

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x7du5s_steve-mcqueens-bullitt-car-chase-se_news

2009 route recreation:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UcdDtKriJTw

filming locations then and 2013

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nhSDAxgLgho

My wife and I have reservation next week with Marriott.

Of course as Marriott Rewards members and as having an active reservation with them for a future stay at one of their hotels, they have been SPAMMING our emails with ways to earn more rewards point by of course spending $.

They just email us this.

Make your trip to San Francisco memorable by having everything perfect and order from room service NOW so it will be ready and waiting for you when you arrive.

My Gawd! The Prices!

Talk about double strong arm highway robbery!



Or if that's not to your liking, you can also make reservation now for their daily breakfast buffet for only $27.50 per person.

I already studied the area on Google Map.

There is a Walgreens right across the street from the hotel.

I will be going there to buy bottled water and bottled juices and snacks.

Trip cancelled.

Oh well!

Life is a B....

Thanks to everyone who took the time to make suggestions and advice about SF.

I live in the central valley but we go to SF quite often. Its a beautiful city with a lot of things to see. Personally I would stay away from fishermans wharf its an overpriced tourist attraction and Alcatraz doesn't interest me much although my Dad swam there once (maybe twice), he's a retired Coasty and a good swimmer.

I would recommend a sweatshirt or light jacket like others mentioned. You'd be surprised to see how goes from a nice day to pretty cold fairly quick.

I highly recommend a stroll in Golden Gate park and the beaches west of the GG bridge are really pretty (watch out for the nudist one though). If you're into light hiking check out Point Lobos/USS San Francisco Memorial area. Some great trails (easy hiking) and pretty areas of the coast as well of great views of the GG Bridge. If you have a car drive over the Bay Bridge to Treasure Island for great views of the city at night. Oh damn just noticed the trip cancelled post! NVM...............