San Fran

[dpolo50]

Hi All,

Looking for some help planning a trip to San Fran w/ the misses.

For those that are from there and have been - which neighborhood should we stay in?

Union Square? Nob Hill? Financial District? Chinatown? Fishermans Wharf?

I have no idear where I should be looking at and figured I'd ask you folks if you know.

[ocam]

I'm not a SF local, but Fishermans Wharf had a stack of homeless people living there, which I'm sure some girls might find uncomfortable.

Union Square is the main tourist hotel area and although there's not much "vibe" there, it seemed pretty well connected to the tram lines. I was with a couple of lads and we made our way around the whole of SF from Union Square without may issues.

With uber now, I'm sure the city is even more accessible.

We really liked Sausalito (other side of golden gate), mission district and Polk Street.

I'm sure there are some Norcal locals who can chip in with some "local" suggestions.

[kp3205]

Wife and I stayed at the Chancellor Hotel in Union Square for our 2nd leg of our honeymoon for 3 nights after staying in Sonoma for 4 nights back in Oct 2013. Personally I like Union Square which is where the hotel is at. Fisherman's Wharf is a tourist trap on hotel pricing. Great place to visit but I won't stay there. The seals are hysterical at the wharf.

Boutique hotel with the trolley line less than a block away and also where the trolley starts from. We booked the romance package they have online by calling them directly. We're true tourists when we go on trips so we're not into the high end hotels but won't go cheap. Very comfortable bed and they actually have a menu of different pillows you can request.

http://www.chancellorhotel.com/specials.php

We went around SF using the trolley and got the SF city pass which gave you a bunch of free entries to different places plus a week of unlimited access on the trolley. There was a killer noodle house about 2 blocks from the hotel past Victoria's Secret that was unbelievable. Reminded me of the ones in Japan I used to go to when I lived there.

http://www.citypass.com/san-francisc...FUYTHwodmnMNtw

We did the 3 hour city food tour through group on or living social which was very cool which was around the Little Italy section of SF. The guide was very knowledgeable and the tastings at the 6 places were great.

We did the SF city double decker bus tour which came out of Fisherman's Wharf. Took the trolley to the end and it was a 3 block walk. I don't remember which site we found that one on. Probably Group on or such.

Definitely do Alcatraz. I think that was the only one we paid regular price for.

The hotel was able to book the car back to SFO to fly out. There is also a van service they can book for you.

I lived in Monterey for 2.5 years also. If you can do 17 mile drive somehow, it's a must. May want to look at doing a day up in Napa or Sonoma if you have time to do wine tasting. They have tons of limo trips to do that.

Hope this helps.

[EastCoast]

This may not be directly on point, but SF strip clubs are basically brothels. Whatever you want is available. Within minutes of walking in the door. It is shocking. At least let me knock down a couple of drinks before you offer me Greek for an extra $100. I'm not an animal. Again maybe not precisely on point with your question, but if you do decide to let the missus go shopping, you can too, just for something a little different.

[dpolo50]

Wife and I stayed at the Chancellor Hotel in Union Square for our 2nd leg of our honeymoon for 3 nights after staying in Sonoma for 4 nights back in Oct 2013. Personally I like Union Square which is where the hotel is at. Fisherman's Wharf is a tourist trap on hotel pricing. Great place to visit but I won't stay there. The seals are hysterical at the wharf.

Boutique hotel with the trolley line less than a block away and also where the trolley starts from. We booked the romance package they have online by calling them directly. We're true tourists when we go on trips so we're not into the high end hotels but won't go cheap. Very comfortable bed and they actually have a menu of different pillows you can request.

http://www.chancellorhotel.com/specials.php

We went around SF using the trolley and got the SF city pass which gave you a bunch of free entries to different places plus a week of unlimited access on the trolley. There was a killer noodle house about 2 blocks from the hotel past Victoria's Secret that was unbelievable. Reminded me of the ones in Japan I used to go to when I lived there.

http://www.citypass.com/san-francisc...FUYTHwodmnMNtw

We did the 3 hour city food tour through group on or living social which was very cool which was around the Little Italy section of SF. The guide was very knowledgeable and the tastings at the 6 places were great.

We did the SF city double decker bus tour which came out of Fisherman's Wharf. Took the trolley to the end and it was a 3 block walk. I don't remember which site we found that one on. Probably Group on or such.

Definitely do Alcatraz. I think that was the only one we paid regular price for.

The hotel was able to book the car back to SFO to fly out. There is also a van service they can book for you.

I lived in Monterey for 2.5 years also. If you can do 17 mile drive somehow, it's a must. May want to look at doing a day up in Napa or Sonoma if you have time to do wine tasting. They have tons of limo trips to do that.

Hope this helps.

This is great advice - thanks so much! We were planning on doing 3days/nights in SF. Could we get away w/ going up to Napa for a day and only seeing San Fran for 2 days?

How do the trolley's work? Just jump on and pay?

[kp3205]

Get the 1 day or multi day passes as the cost is $5 each way/person which can get costly while the pass gives you a full day or multiple days.

http://www.sfcablecar.com/riders.html

I think you would be jamming in to much in a short period of time if you put Napa in the mix. Realistically you lose an entire day doing Napa and honestly Napa/Sonoma is a separate vacation for a few days in order to really enjoy it. Some of my friends have done it and loved it while some others regretted doing it because they lost a full day of roaming the city.

We did Sonoma and did not do Napa at all. From what we were told from our guide, Napa wineries charge you a fee to visit their winery which includes so many tastings in the range of $10-20 per person. The wineries in Sonoma were $5 per person max or free at some of the smaller ones we went to. All of the ones we went to do not sell commercially and maybe produce 500 cases max of any wine.The ones that charged waived the fee if you bought a bottle which of course costs more than the tasting but when you find what you like...

We did regret not doing the wine tasting boat cruise in SF. We learned about it the night before we left. Looked really cool and may be an option instead. I have a conference out there next May so I promised her that when we go out there.

http://www.sanfranciscobayboatcruise...ng-on-the-bay/

Wife loved Macy's out there as there are 2 of them across the street from each other. One is 4 or 5 stories of all women's clothing, shoes, etc while the other one is all men's and a full floor of just furniture. One of the 2 have the Cheesecake Factory on the top of the building and if you get the right outside table you can see the bridges. We didn't wait for that part but she geeked out on the entire floor of just women's shoes.

Ocam mentioned Sausalito which is a really cool area. There's a candy store that has an amazing view across the bay looking back over to SF. If I can find it on google I'll post it. Plus after you cross the Golden Gate Bridge t go to the East Bay area there's a parking lot where you can park and get some outstanding pics of the bridge and such

Hope this helps.

[ryan850]

I would stay in Union Square because that is where most of the action is.

Also, there are a ton of shows, comedy clubs, live music, etc to check out so just use google to find out different things going on for the dates that you are staying.

You could do golden gate park or the museum of modern arts one day. both are really cool spots. I think on thursday nights, they serve alcohol at the museum.

definitely lots of good food all over as well.

[dpolo50]

Thanks guys!