My wife and I are planning a long weekend on the west coast in October or early November. Is SF nice in the fall? Is the weather such that it is pleasant to walk around then? Thanks.
Jackets. October? Jackets. December? Jackets. July? Jackets.
No big anorak just something you can carry for a short while if it gets warmer for 10 minutes. Sweatshirt okay.
Hard to say. It can be. Here it is October third and the previous two days were sunny and almost uncomfortably hot by local standards, at least in the East Bay ( which admittedly can have a 25 degree swing from SF, the SF BA is all about micro-climates ) - today is quite pleasant. However we are also entering the rainy season and the weather around here can turn on a dime to cold, wet and gray.
The standard advice any time of the year is to layer. Jacket, sweater, long-sleeved shirt, t-shirt, for example. That way you can strip down or bundle up as needed. Never wear shorts - you are just asking for the marine layer to drift in and freeze you out two hours after you walk out of your hotel room into what was a pleasant sunny day.
Bay Area weather is both oddly boring ( few spectacular thunder storms, rare snow, etc. ) and annoyingly unpredictable. Even moving from neighborhood to neighborhood in SF can witness dramatic temperature swings. About the only quasi-predictable facet of weather out here is that late fall-winter = rainy season ( unpredictable in amount, duration and timing, but still rainy season ) and the rest of the year = dry season.
Thanks. Any recommendations on what neighborhoods we might want to stay in?
Boring? Want some hurricanes? Yeah, if for the OP SF = the whole Bay Area, then what to wear in SF > Oakland > Pleasanton.
Where do you want to be close to? How much do you want to spend? Not the Tenderloin full stop. Things are close enough that it doesn’t matter too much. I don’t have specific advice, although I’ll be staying at the Hayes Valley Inn soon.
Weather? SF in October / November is usually the best weather of the year. Fog is minimal, the days are sunny, the wind isn’t strong, and it’s warm and even sometimes warmer. But the summers, well, they surprise a lot of people because the fog can be thick and cold, and it can be windy. That cold wind cuts to the bone. Most tourists come in the summer and are shocked, even those from Canada and cold climes.
There’s an old saying in SF: the SF 49ers play in better weather in the fall than the SF Giants do in the summer. That was especially true when the Giants played at Candlestick - the cold wind and fog off of San Bruno Mountain is vicious in the summer. It’s not so much true now for the Giants at AT&T Park, a true gem whose architects did an excellent job managing the surrounding wind patterns.
In Oct / Nov keep a sweatshirt and a light jacket handy to layer, as Tamerlane suggested. With those, you’ll be fine even into the nights.
As for where to stay, it depends on what you want to do and see, and how you plan to get around.
I lived in The City for 15yrs, and have been living an hour south for 15 more and still get up there fairly often. Let us know and we have plenty of folks here who can help.
Weather: Generally, very nice and fabulously clear BUT… Getting chilly, with some chances of sporadic overcast and/or rain. San Francisco itself especially, and as mentioned above, it can differ literally from block to block.
Remembrance of threads past: This is at least the fifth or sixth thread this year, asking for advice when visiting the Bay Area. You should certainly search them all up and read them thoroughly, for all the suggestions therein.
Why are you coming? Business? Just to visit? Sight-seeing?
Are you specifically interested in visiting and staying in San Francisco? Or anywhere in the Bay Area in general? Do you want to see the sights, the illuminations, theater, opera, concerts, cuisine, etc., that are to be seen in the Big City? Or do you want to get out and see countryside – Big Trees, ocean, wine country, green hillsides with free-ranging black-and-white cows, lighthouses, and stuff like that?
You might consider staying in other places nearby, rather than in SF itself – depending mostly on what you most want to see and do – and how you feel about driving in SF traffic. South Bay area (San Jose, Santa Clara, or thereabouts) maybe. East Bay maybe. North Bay maybe, especially if you want to tour Wine Country, big trees, Russian River, and areas like that. (I recently suggested to another poster, who wants to drive from SF to the Oregon border, that he stay in Santa Rosa and make that his base of operations.)
Do search up all the recent threads. LOTS of touring, sight-seeing, and recreation suggestions there.
I’d like to stay in an area that has good cafes within walking distance and is pleasant to stroll and just kind of poke around. As for how much to spend around $400ish a night would be the upper limit. Both our birthdays and our wedding anniversary all fall around the same week in late October so this will be our mutual present to each other. She has a friend in SF that we’ll spend some time with, but other than that we don’t have any must do stuff on the list. I’d rather not do any driving and would depend on walking, taxis and public transportation.
ETA: thanks for the advice. We’re coming from Washington, DC and mostly will want to not do much more than walk, drink, eat and people watch. I’m a sucker for a room with a nice cityscape. My hidden agenda is that I have to burn off 3k frequent flyer miles to reach the next tier in the program (free business class upgrades!). Don’t judge, I fly about 100k miles a year for work.
madmonk28, given that, then try The Marina District, near the Marina Green at the north end of Fillmore St, at Marina Blvd.
The Marina Green is great for walking around and people watching, and you have good walking destinations in Fort Mason to the east; and touristy spots Ghirardelli Square, The Cannery and Fisherman’s Wharf further east than that; and then to the west are Crissy Field and then westward out to Fort Point. All within easy walking distances.
From Ghirardelli Square, take the Powell & Hyde Cable Car line southbound (the only direction) for some great views of the bay, Alcatraz Island and Angel Island, into downtown for more action and sights. Heading back north, avoid the Powell & Mason Cable Car line. It’s cheesy.
Try Boubon and Branch for a unique whiskey sipping, speak-easy experience.
echo, you have struck exactly the right note, down to the bourbon sipping. Thanks.
AND the Exploratorium!
If it’s sunny, wear a hoodie or track jacket. Something you can take off if it gets too warm.
Gray, foggy, windy days and nights can drop to exceptionally cooler temps on a dime. Wear a real jacket in those conditions.
I stayed in Japan Town, that was really nice.
If you dig Disney (or animation/filmmaking in general), check out the Walt Disney Family Museum. It’s not run by Walt Disney Corp, but the family itself, and is an utterly amazing look at the life, work, history and artifacts of Walt, his family, cohorts, films — everything you’d never see from the corporate juggernaut side of things.
A 2-story multiplane camera he devised to bring depth to his films. His letter to Iwerks (creator of Mickey Mouse) encouraging his friend to come to Hollywood (P.D.Q.!). Rows and rows of jars of paint from the ink and paint department from Snow White. Water colors from Bambie. Illustrated nudie pinups for the troops in WWII. From concepts and pencils all the way to his plans and a fully working miniature for Disney World spiraling down to end the tour with his death.
It was quite something, and very close to the GG Bridge.