I will be in San Francisco for Cisco Live! from June 28th to July 4th. I’ve driven through San Francisco twice, but never stopped there. Most of my evenings will be free and the Friday afternoon.
I will be staying at the Hilton downtown.
What are some must see sites? How difficult is it to go see Alcatraz? Golden Gate bridge? What’s the best way to get to these sites? Transit? Tour? Cab? Walk?
What else should see? Anything I can’t miss?
My plane leaves at 1:45PM on the Saturday (4th of July). I’m from Canada, are there any 4th of July events that happen before 11:00AM (when I should leave for the airport)?
Thanks!
MtM
If you’re into such things, the San Francisco Pride Parade will be on the 28th.
If you’re not into such things, just be aware that the parade is very long and will make it impossible to cross Market Street anywhere east of Van Ness until mid-afternoon, so that may slightly complicate how you get from the airport to the hotel.
If you want to go to Alcatraz, the boats fill up FAST in the summer. My advice is to pick a date and time now, and buy your tickets from the official site. (There are un-official vendors that may charge extra.)
If you’re staying at the Hilton I think you are, that’s an easy walk to Moscone Center. If you want to get around for the rest of your explorations by transit, pick up a Muni Passport as these are good on the cable cars as well as the regular buses and streetcars. Otherwise, the cable car fare is five bucks each way.
Looks like the Giants are at home against Houston on the 3rd and 4th. Might wanna catch a ballgame. Afternoon game on the 4th won’t work with your plane schedule, but a night game on the 3rd might work.
http://janecek.com/sfgiants.html
Anyone can see the Golden Gate Bridge. One of the best views of the bridge is from the Marin Headlands. To get there from San Francisco, take the first exit immediately after crossing the bridge. There is a road that crosses under the main highway and leads up into the headlands.
There are so many things to see in San Francisco: Chinatown, Golden Gate Park, Coit Tower, art museums (my favorite is the Asian Art Museum), the Mission District, Muir Woods (actually in Marin County), the cable cars. It would help if you told us what types of things you’re interested in.
More thoughts:
I doubt there’s any July 4 event you will be able to see before 11:00. Sorry.
There are some things you can do only during the day. Since you have only one free afternoon, you will have to choose carefully. For instance, I don’t think Muir Woods is open at night (and there wouldn’t be much point in trying to see it in the dark). There are night tours of Alcatraz that leave at 6:10 and 6:45, so you may want to do this and leave Friday afternoon for something else.
Please do yourself a real favor and go to the Pride Parade. It’s going to be huge this year, not only because of Prop 8, but also because it’s the 40th anniversary of Stonewall. I wish I could make it myself.
Golden Gate is fun to walk over. The bus stops right by it. One thing to know is there is one small stand on the San Francisco side that sells (way overpriced) merchandise and drinks. On the other side there is nothing. There is a drinking fountain and a bathroom but that’s it. So remember you have to walk back over. It’s worth doing though.
One thing to also remember is it’s always 10º colder on that bridge. So you may be in short sleeves but you’ll need a sweatshirt once you’re on the bridge. San Francisco is weird that way, depending on where you are the the temp varies a lot.
Buy your tickets for Alcatraz online. It’s definately worth seeing. But that too is VERY cold. Bring a sweater.
Fisherman’s warf is fun. You can see the seal (or sea lions or whatever they are). There is a lot of typical touristy stuff to buy there.
Don’t forget [Lombard Street](Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Lombard_Street_(San_Francisco)) (the world’s crookedest street), and the Coit Tower is fun too. There’s the Octogon house, which is really just a house buildt like an Octogon and then Haight/Ashbury corner which is famous for the 60s Hippies that started all that trouble back when 