Hey folks,
I’ve never been to SF (shocking!) and I’ll be in California anyway this Christmas (my grandma, who lives in Los Angeles, is celebrating her 90th birthday on Christmas Day). So I’ve just booked my tickets and I’ll be in San Francisco from the 17th to the 25th.
(And yes, I know it’ll be cold – though no colder than home – and I know that Los Angeles is far away.)
Any Bay Area Dopers want to meet up, give me tips as to what to see?
Lucky you. I spent about ten days there in September and it was the best holiday of my life. Valencia Street is a must, for the bookshops and for the street art on Clarion Alley.
There’s also a lovely Italian cafe/bar in North Beach called Mario’s Bohemian Cigar Store.
Well, i’m not officially a Bay Area Doper, but my wife grew up in San Francisco, and we go back for Christmas each year. I’ll be there over the same time period, and would be happy to meet up if you have some spare time. Maybe we can organize a gathering, if enough other Dopers are going to be around.
Well, it will be chilly, but i’ve been in Montreal during December and January, and San Francisco is nowhere near that cold. It doesn’t get below freezing in SF, basically, and you can expect daytime highs in the mid-teens celsius. That’s positively balmy by Montreal winter standards, although rain and wind and fog can make it seem colder. Of course, you can avoid a lot of the cold in parts of Montreal by hiding and traveling underground; there’s not really that option in SF.
As for what to see, are you interested in doing anything in particular? Do you want this to be a party trip (bars, nightclubs, etc.)? Are you interested in spending time in museums? Are you happy just walking the streets, going to restaurants, cafes, etc.? What about outdoor activities like parks, bicycle rides, boat trips?
I’d like to do some partying, but I mostly like alternaqueer events that are sometimes hard to find out about, and to get any fun out of partying I need a native guide (I get some nasty anxiety when I try to go out to night spots by myself).
I do love museums; I also like just walking around and absorbing the atmosphere, and walking etc. tours would be great. I like seeing what you can’t find anywhere else.
alexandra, thanks for the tip!
Matt ~ Let’s keep in touch. While I don’t attend the alternaqueer events, I am enough of a FagHag to be able to find out about some for you.
I am however, a massive museum junkie and we have some fabulous places to consider; SFMoma, the DeYoung, the Legion of Honor, Yerba Buena, and more.
I’m a major foodie so if you give me an idea what types of food you like, I can definitely guide you towards the better, non-tourist-trap eateries.
FDH, that’s awesome, thanks 
Well, i definitely can’t help you with the alternaqueer stuff. While i’ve got a few gay friends from SF, and i’ve been to a few parties, i don’t really know the scene at all. The best i could do is point you in the direction of Castro Street and say, “Check out that area.” 
San Francisco is a great city for walking, although the hills mean that it can get tiring if you’re not up to it. As alexandra says, Valencia is great, and so is Mission Street, which runs parallel, and this whole area has the advantage of being reasonably flat.
The whole Mission District has great food, interesting people, good bookstores and some really great murals, mainly in the back alleys. I’ve taken a bunch of pictures of them over the past few years (e.g. 1, 2), and if you like this sort of thing i’d be happy to spend some time walking through the Mission with you. It’s always a good place for lunch and/or getting a drink too.
Fried Dough Ho’s museum suggestions are all excellent, and the Legion of Honor also has the advantage of offering great views of the Golden Gate, as well as some great walks out along the cliffs to the ocean.
I think that Alcatraz is worth a visit, if you have a few hours to spare. It is a pretty standard tourist destination, but i think it’s a really interesting place, and you also get the advantage of getting out on the water to get there and back.
If you like sitting in cosy cafes reading, alexandra’s suggestion of North Beach is excellent. There are some great old cafes up there, and my wife and i frequently spend a few hours just relaxing with the newspaper. Especially nice on cool, winter days. You can also walk a bit further and go up to Coit Tower, which has some great views out over the bay and the city, and some really nice WPA murals inside.
mhendo, I’d love to explore the Mission District with you, thanks!
So far, my only other firmly established itinerary items are:
You might like to get a City Pass:
They are cool in that they get you into a couple of great museums and you can ride Muni and the trolleys for free for 7 days.
If renting a car is possible, you should check out Muir woods or just spend the afternoon at Stinson Beach.
That’s right! I forgot that you’re a transit geek.
You have to check out the Cable Car Museum. It’s pretty small, and it’s free, but also fascinating. The main feature of the museum is that the large engines and wheels and cables that power the cable cars are in the open and visible and working in the museum. It’s very cool.
If Zhen’ka’s suggestion of Muir Woods and/or Stinson Beach interests you, i might be able to take you up there. We drive from San Diego to SF, so i’ll have our car with us. I’m not quite sure yet what our own itinerary/obligations are for that week, so we would have to wait to finalize plans, but if i can get away for a half-day or a day it might be possible. Marin County has some lovely scenery, and Muir Woods is nice. The redwoods aren’t the hugely massive ones that you find in Sequoia, but they are very tall.
I’ll probably be around (unless I get a job between now and then, which isn’t looking great) so feel free to drop me a line. I’d be happy to show you around, and I’m also good for stuff north of the city, as it happens to be where I am at the moment.
Hmmmmm… maybe it is time to plan a NoCal Holiday Dopefest!
City Guides has the best walking tours around. I can recommend the Castro: Tales of the City, Golden Gate Bridge, and Gold Rush City as the tours to take if you have limited time. (For others, skip the Castro if you don’t have a specific interest.)
As most previous SF threads have pointed out, SF is a city made for walking, and the public transportation is excellent and easy to use.
I am also available, but it sounds like you already have plenty of offers to show you around.
There’s a community thrift store and a number of book shops on Valencia St that might be able to help you. Modern Times Bookstore had a load of queer lit and zines.
Sigh. I *loved * the Mission District.
If you decide you want to see Alcatraz, book now. The tours sell out in advance and many a tourist has had a rude shock that they can’t just walk up and buy a ticket.
And bring a windbreaker, so you can point and laugh at all those people who thought that California + palm trees = shorts weather year-round.
San Francisco! One of my favourite cities.
I remember the first time I went there and I looked down from the plane at the tawny gold-coloured hills and couldn’t figure out what I was looking at. Where were the trees? There were clearly trees along the watercourses in the valleys, but the bulk of the hills? I couldn’t figure it out.
They’re covered in grass.
If you had the time, a classic excursion is to rent a car, drive down the Peninula, across Highway 17 to Santa Cruz, and then down past Watsonville and Carmel and Monterey and Big Sur, down past the Bixby Creek Bridge. This is the legendary Highway 1 that was carved out of the cliffs overlooking the ocean during the 1930s, leaping across canyons and winding up slopes. I think it’s in the Top Ten of gorgeous road trips in the world.
Definitely check out BART. When I was there, it had this retro-futuristic 1960’s feel to the carriages. Extremely cool. Also note the 5’6" broad-gauge tracks. Also be jealous that they are electrifying the Caltrain, the commuter train on the Peninsula. And you can take BART directly from the airport (that wasn’t built when I was in SF in 1998).
I love bridges. San Francisco was heaven for me.
Now look at me. I want to go back.
Interesting places to walk:
North Beach - the Italian district. Lots of interesting shops and restaurants on and around Columbus Ave. City Lights bookstore is at the Chinatown end of North Beach.
Coit Tower - At the top of Telegraph Hill, near North Beach. It’s better to walk there than to drive, since there’s usually a line of cars and tour buses waiting for the few parking spots. There’s an interesting depression-era mural inside the tower. One way to get there is to climb the Filbert steps - Filbert Street on the bay side of Telegraph Hill ends at a stairway that you can take up to Coit Tower. It’s a long climb - I wouldn’t recommend it to someone who’s in poor physical condition - but it offers views of beautiful homes and gardens that you won’t see anywhere else. if you’re lucky you might see some of the birds that were documented in the movie The Wild Parrots of Telegraph Hill.
Several people have already mentioned the Mission District. You should know that Mission Street is very long, and not all of it is interesting. The area around the 24th Street BART station is worth exploring.
Chinatown - Yes, it’s touristy, but it’s still worth seeing. The best Chinese restaurants in the city aren’t in Chinatown, though. Go to Clement Street for good Chinese food.
Golden Gate Bridge - You can walk across, but bundle up! It’s often very cold and windy there. You can also visit Fort Point, the Civil-War-era brick fort that’s under the San Francisco end of the bridge - very interesting and picturesque.
As for museums, my two favorites are the Asian Art Museum and the Exploratorium (a must-see for anyone who is interested in science).
Since you’re interested in transit, you should know that Muni uses historic streetcars on the F line, which runs between Fisherman’s Wharf and the Castro District (mostly on The Embarcadero and Market Street).
I don’t even know if it still works (it may work only with good weather), but when I was there back in 2003 I took a tour on a fire truck that I loved. The guides were good, the stories were fun, we crossed over the Golden Gate just enough to take a pic and then drive back. I liked Coit Tower and that incredibly squiggly street which I can never find in the map (help me here, guys!).
I took one of my favorite pics ever there, too, a very colorful grafito which reads (IIRC) “my people, your people, when will we realize we are all one people?”
Nava, I think you mean Lombardo Street.
We were in SF in July on our way to TAM. God, I love SF. Hadn’t been for about 6 or 7 years, and it is always good for a visit. Can’t help you on the alternaqueer stuff, as we are at the other end of the tourist spectrum (married with teen child), but:
We stayed at the Donatello and it was great. Large, comfy bed. Would stay again. Desk staff were a bit snotty, but the concierge (?Leopolda?) (?Leopoldine?) was fantastic.
Took the cable cars, but they were often off-line.
Did a harbour cruise. Recommended.
Did a hop-on, hop-off bus tour. Recommended.
Went to Haight Ashbury (got a Tshirt and funky socks for m’daughter)
Went to MoMA. Recommended
Wandered the Farmers Market and Ferry terminal food area. Bought pickled pig products, cheese, bread, dips - nom,nom,nom. Bought silver jewellry from nearby stall, still happy with it. Recommended
Went to California Academy of Science. Meh.
Ate a couple of times at Burger House on Union. Excellent burgers and garlic fries. Recommended.
Ate once at Lori’s Diner so m’daughter could try a Diner. Bleargh. pthhh, pthhh pthh. SOOOOOOO not recommended.
Other meals not memorable. (Next time I will ask for recommendations from **Fried Dough Ho ** rather than picking things we walked past.)
Second the recommendation for the citypass.
And take a windproof jacket. Ye gods but it can get cold there in summer.
Are you travelling down to Monterey?
