San Francisco advice - from those who have been
 

Will be spending 3 or 4 days there, bit of advice.

Do I pick car up at airport and get a hotel a little out of town with parking or get a taxi from the airport and pick up the car in town 3 days later.

Is it a city where we are going to want a car to make the most of attractions? Or are most things i.e golden gate, fishermans wharf and alcatraz easily reached by foot or public transport/taxi?

Money I save on hire for 3 days will pay for taxis etc anyway.

Any advice would be appreciated.

Chop :)

About ten years ago i was there, never bothered with a car, loads of public transport, taxi, bus trams.
we stayed down by pier 39 so everything we wanted to see was fairly close by.
Lombard street would be good in a car though:thumb:

We walked or used the trolley buses when we were there - so easy to use.

We stayed in the Westin on Union Square, and it was a fair walk down to the wharf and the Alcatraz ferry, but a great way to see stuff that you can't from a car.

That said, we were only there for 3 days.

As above. Plenty of public transport there. Its a great city.

Might be worth hiring a car for a day if you can and visit Yosemite national park. Its about 2 1/2 - 3 hour drive from SF but absolutely stunning and well worth the drive.

I wouldn't recommend getting a taxi at the airport as they are extremely expensive. You can get the BART ( http://www.bart.gov/guide/airport/inbound_sfo.aspx ) into the city.

As for the rest, San Francisco is a fun place and you can get around on the trams. Stay out of Tenderloin!

If you go want to go further afield then there is Monterrey, Yosemeti to see the redwoods and I did this a few months ago (for work, team building): http://sonomacanopytours.com/ Lots of fun!

I am lucky enough to go to San Francisco (well, 30 miles south anyway) every couple of months for work.

Steve

We are there for 3 weeks and will be driving from San Fran to Yosemite then accross the park to Death Valley and down into Vegas then back across to La Jolla/San Diego/Santa Barbara.

Going to pick up car in central san fran rather than at airport. Thanks for advice.

Just booked night tour tickets of alcatraz :thumb:

Chop

Collect the car from the airport and prebook here in the UK, I usually use Avis, I paid £200 last year for 7 days for a 2011 Mustang convertable, San Fran is a great city you will love it plenty to do, if you do get a chance try and drive down to LA (short drive) home of the celebrities, plenty to do there as wel, Beverly Hills, Hollywood, Santa monica beach, etc

Thanks Boxst :thumb:

Chop

The drive is amazing, make sure you stop off at the Barstow shopping outlets on the way to vegas, its the only place thats tax free :thumb:

And if you're going to Vegas then get one of the charter flights/days out. You fly over the Grand Canyon and then land and spend a few hours there and then do the same with Bryce Canyon. Stunning.

I was there last week. I didn't bother with a car, used taxis and buses to get around. Hotels are expensive though, and will rip you off on things like WiFi.

If you fancy some seriously strong cocktails I can recommend Bourbon and Branch on the corner of Jones and O'Farrell. The password is "books". Take ID - however old you are.

Agreed for around town don't bother with a car, when I was out there for work I had 4 days to sight see before 2 days of meetings and was staying out in menlo I used http://www.caltrain.com/stations.html to get back and forth into town and just got taxis' around, you'll like the Alcatraz tour , I did the daytime one it was very eye opening.

Ray t

Make sure you do Alcatraz tour with the headset on ,explaining what the place is about .Dont be a pussy ,walk up Lombard its better than driving it .We did not bother with a car as we enjoyed walking the sites .Although if going further afield then yes its needed .6 seater type plane over Canyon is fantastic and chopper down into Canyon is great .
Enjoy .

Depends if you like walking up hills :D

Most of the touristy stuff is round by the bay and wharf. There are buses (some electric, not sure nowadays though) and of course the famous cable cars (which you'll struggle to get on at peak times).

We stopped in a Holiday inn on Van Ness Avenue, which is more a boring business hotel and a bit far away (about a mile and a half) from the bay, but still managed to walk most of the time and just used a Grey Line tour bus for the obligatory city tours. Plenty of sheduled tours to go on by the like of Grey Line etc usually departing from the pier area, and of course a ferry to Alcatraz is a must.

IIRC our transport to/from the airport was by a pre-booked 'chauffeur' transfer by the tour operator (I use the term chauffeur loosely as it was just a bog standard Ford Taurus :mad: ;) )