Off the beaten path for a quick trip to San Francisco

In My Humble Opinion
1

I considered bumping this thread (hi, usedtobe!), but this isn’t quite the same thing: my husband and I are heading to Grass Valley, CA next week, and we plan to swing by San Francisco for a day and a half. We’ll be flying into Sacramento, arriving early afternoon on Wednesday. We plan to rent a car and drive to somewhere on the outskirts of SF, ideally near a BART station, to rent a hotel room. It’s looking kind of likely that we’ll end up staying on the Oakland side. We’re thinking of taking the BART or the ferry into town, do…something, take the train back for the night, then do the same the next morning and do…something else that could last all day before going back to the hotel. The next day, we’ll be driving up to Grass Valley, where Mr. Legend’s co-workers have activities planned for us.

We’ve been to San Francisco a number of times, and we’ve loved it. We’ve done all the typical touristy things - the Embarcadero, Golden Gate Park, Fisherman’s Wharf, Coit Tower, the de Young Museum, the Exploratorium - but we don’t know the city well enough to find less prominent attractions. We’re planning to use public transit so we don’t have to try to park in the city, and we expect to walk a fair amount, but neither of us is in the finest of shape physically, so we aren’t up for hiking miles on foot. We’d like to have one fairly nice sit-down dinner (but we’ll be in clothes suited to walking around town). I’m a vegetarian; Mr. Legend is an enthusiastic meat-eater but is willing to partake of well-prepared vegetarian food.

Any suggestions for interesting activities and/or restaurants that are suited to this kind of lighting-fast trip?

2

Parking wouldn’t be an issue at the SF Zoo, which would also give you the opportunity to wander up & down the beach for a while.

My favorite restaurants: close to a BART station, Il Cane Rosso in the Ferry Building; not close to a BART station, Pesce on Polk at Bonita. There are a couple other nice restaurants in the Ferry Building (but I don’t remember their names), as well as numerous opportunities to wander past a whole bunch of shops selling high-end foodie goodness.

3

Don’t worry about dress - we just went to Roxy’s for a 10 course tasting dinner (not really suited for vegetarians) in khakis and stuff. I don’t know of any restaurants which are formal. There are lots of restaurants in Chinatown but do some research to avoid tourist traps. We go with a friend from Hong Kong who likes places with rather odd menus.
As for places to go, the Exploratorium just moved, so is different from before, though I haven’t been. I have been to the Academy of Sciences, also new, and very nice. Visit the Ferry Building, on the Bay. Lots of interesting food shops. There is also the free Cable Car Museum, where all the cables meet. The Oakland Museum, just a block from the Lake Merritt BART station, has some nice exhibits on California History and an Art wing.
There are a lot of places on BART a bit further away than Oakland which might be cheaper and easier to get to - and less crowded. Check around.

4

Not in SF but the Jelly Belly factory is just a couple of miles of off I-80 in Fairfield. We’ve stopped there 3-4 times and the tour is a hoot. It’ll add a couple of hours to the trip but well worth it IMHO.

5

If you have been to SF quite a few time, why not try Monterey/Carmel this time? The Aquarium is the best in the World, there’s shopping at Carmel, the weather is better, etc.

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My usual suggestion is http://sfcityguides.org/. Their walking tours run the gamut from Chinatown to Victorian San Francisco to Deco Downtown to the Golden Gate Bridge. The tours last about 2 hours and cover about a mile to two miles. There are only a few tours that are strenuous, like the Telegraph Hill Stairway Hike. Read the descriptions to choose the ones that are for you.

7

Thank you for the suggestions so far! This is a kind of spur-of-the-moment side trip, but we’re trying to gather some ideas about what to do so we don’t end up wandering aimlessly all day (although there are some positive things about doing that). So far, we’re thinking of maybe taking the ferry from the Oakland side just to get some time on the bay, and we’ll try to be somewhere we can see the Bay Bridge one of the nights.

DrDeth, Carmel and Monterey Bay are gorgeous, but we’re kind of sneaking over to the coast on this trip as it is, and we’re looking forward to seeing SF again. The main focus of our trip is Grass Valley, where Mr. Legend’s company is headquartered, and we’ll be spending most of the week there, so the San Francisco part is an out of the way indulgence.

8

Note, InternetLegend, you didn’t mention how long it’s been since you were Out West, or when you last visited various places.

As Voyager already mentioned, the California Academy of Sciences in Golden Gate Park has been re-built from the ground up, in the same location where it was; and the Exploratorium just re-opened in new digs in the Fisherman’s Wharf vicinity. So if you haven’t seen these re-boots yet, they are worthwhile suggestions for your itinerary.

Others above have suggested off-the-beaten-track places a little closer to where you’ll be, north of S.F.: e.g., the Jelly Belly factory tour in Fairfield (just off State Route 12, near the junction with I-80).

Here’s another possibility: Railroad museums. The Sacramento thread mentions one (and a great one) in Sacramento. There’s another on State Route 12, in between Fairfield and Rio Vista.

Voyager also mentioned the Oakland Museum. Note that this is three museums in one: One entire floor is a natural history museum; one floor is an art museum (showcasing local Bay Area artists); one floor is a history museum full of memorabilia.

If you like art museums, have you been to the Palace of the Legion of Honor in S.F. ? It’s a big (mostly classical) art museum.

Consider also the Schulz Museum in Santa Rosa, which has themed exhibits of Peanuts strips. (Often with historical interpretations.) There are all kinds of wineries you could tour in Napa and Sonoma Counties, if you want to get into that.

There’s a nearby current thread titled “Driving the Redwood Highway”. Have you studied that yet? It has lots of suggestions for sightseeing from Marin County up to the Oregon border; many of those suggestions are in Marin, Napa, and Sonoma Counties, which are in reasonable driving distance from Grass Valley, I think.

9

Okay, here’s the link to that thread: Driving the Redwood Highway.

It may be worth your while to read: Many suggestions for places to see or visit, in San Francisco and northward from there, mostly in or around the Highway 101 corridor. Take note of all the suggestions within a reasonable drive for you. (That is, S.F. and Marin, Napa, and Sonoma Counties.)

If I read your OP right, you have Wednesday afternoon, ALL DAY Thursday, and Friday morning on your own, right?

10

Thanks, Senegoid. Our last trip to San Francisco proper was nine years ago; we took a trip up through the redwoods into Oregon and Washington five years ago, and we drove through Yosemite three years ago. Come to think of it, I guess California tends to be our default vacation destination! We’ll be getting to Sacramento around 2 in the afternoon on Wednesday, which means we should be able to get close to San Francisco by 3:30 or 4. We’ll have that night and Thursday to ourselves, but we’re due in Grass Valley around 11 on Friday morning, so we won’t have much time in the morning before we have to head back.

The museum in Oakland sounds really interesting, and I think we’ll make a point of stopping in. If I can talk Mr. Legend into it, the Jelly Belly factory would be right up my alley, too. It sounds like things may have changed enough in the past decade that it wouldn’t be repeating ourselves to go see at least some of Golden Gate Park. Il Cane Rosso looks very good, Ethilrist, and since it’s in the Ferry Building, that might be a good place to see the Bay Bridge lights - it sounds like an excellent place for dinner.

Thank you, everyone, for all of the suggestions. There’s certainly no lack of things to do - the hard part will be narrowing it down to what’s practical for a day and a half!

11

If you want to visit S. F. or Oakland the same afternoon that you arrive, why not fly into SFO or Oakland instead of Sacramento? Then spend the afternoon in Oakland or SF, then stay in Oakland or SF that night, then spend Thursday in Oakland or SF (or Fairfield or wherever), then drive to Grass Valley on Thursday evening to check into a hotel there?

How long is the drive from SF to Grass Valley if you did it all at once? About 3½ hours or so?

ETA: You will be renting a car, I take it? Can you arrange to arrive in SF or Oakland, pick up car, and then leave for home from Sacramento, dropping off your car there? Or would you have to drive all the way back to SF or Oakland to return the car and catch a plane home?

12

We looked at doing the trip that way, but flying to SFO or Oakland and then back from Sacramento is a lot more expensive, as is the cost of returning a car to a different location. In addition, the drive between San Francisco and Grass Valley is about two and a half hours. It’s just over an hour between Grass Valley and Sacramento. I’ll be going back before Mr. Legend (and returning the rental car), so I’d have to do the drive back alone, and no one’s going to want to drive him to SFO or Oakland when he goes back.

All in all, doing the drive over and back on our own means less hassle and expense. We like driving - and I hear there’s a Jelly Belly factory on the way!

13

Vayable has community run tours that tend to be a bit more eclectic than the standard corporate tours.

If you’re looking for a place to stay, consider checking out AirBNB as well. You can find a great place with lots of personality for far cheaper than a hotel.

Sosh has great event listings for the area.

And finally, if you’re sick of walking, don’t hail a cab, use Lyft. It’s easier, cheaper and friendlier than a cab.

14

I know they’re not BART-able, but Muir Woods, and Point Reyes National Seashore are wonderful. They’re just north of the bay, and while I’d rather drive than walk to the kitchen, even I was able to walk these with ease.

Mt. Tamalpais is on the way, and the view back to town is awesome!

Get a convertible, put the top down, and enjoy!

15

It’s been along time since I’ve eaten at Greens but I expect they’re still a great veggie restaurant.

And the Sacramento airport is much smaller and friendlier than SFO or OAK; you’ll do fine there. The Jelly Belly factory is in Fairfield- just about exactly halfway from Sac to SF.

16

Just take I-80 towards S.F., but not all the way. At Fairfield, head east on State Route 12 towards Rio Vista – but only for about one mile or two. Jelly Belly factory is on your right, immediately alongside the freeway there.

(But note: I’m not sure if the I-80 / SR-12 junction has all possible ramps connecting the two freeways in all possible directions. Not sure if there’s a connector from I-80 southbound to SR-12 eastbound.)