Trolley Cars, Robots, and The Rock

As touristy as it is, Alcatraz is a must for a first timer. It is relativly inexpensive (around ) and quite impressive. Make sure you get the audio tour when you make your ticket purchase. Walking across the Golden Gate Bridge is also a must. I am completely in awe of that structure. For nightlife, I enjoyed the Mission area where there are lots of cool bars and restaurants, and the Tenderloin area which is a bit creepier, but extremely colorful and interesting.

Quick Tips:

Bring a coat, even if you "think" it will be warm. It gets cold at night and even the days can be nippy. Even if the day is warm, grab a coat on your way out for the day because you will most likely stay out longer than the warm weather will last. Also, even though it it cool weather, be sure to bring some sunscreen.

Best Way To Get Around:

The BART is no subway system. It is more like a commuter rail system to help people get from the outer cities into San Francisco. The BART will not help you get anywhere in San Francisco. The cable cars and buses are good, but they stop at all the streetlights (which seem to be outrageous in number). Walking is a option as the city is not too large, but the hills will kill. I ended up taking more taxis than I thought I would have to take.

This is a wonderful little hotel with a film motif. Every room is given a title after a movie that was filmed in San Francisco and there is information about that movie in the room. I stayed in "Trenchcoat". The lobby downstairs has a thick 40's art deco design and there is a small theatre that houses the free continental breakfast in the morning and a 7:00pm movie screening every night. This hotel is on the border of a part of town known as the "Tenderloin" which people kept telling us is the "bad" part of town, but coming from living in Brooklyn I found this hard to believe. It is centrally located and a wonderful place to stay. Also, one of my friend's left his wallet in a cab when we were dropped off after a long night of drinking. He realized it after the cab had pulled off and the desk clerk was right on top of the situation. He, thankfully, was paying attention to the type of cab and had the wallet dropped back off in a matter of minutes. Fantastic employees working at the Bijou.

Family style authentic Chinese fare in the middle of Chinatown (although it was strange that chopsticks were not even offered, maybe this is a San Fran thing). A variety of dishes from northern and southern China. The food is fresh and extremely tasty. Try to go with a few people so several different dishes can be experienced.

You take a large boat from Pier 39 over to Alcatraz. When you depart the boat, there is a brief (about 3-4 minute) introduction by one of the park rangers. Then you head up the hill to the main cell block to pick up your audio tour headphones. The tour is individual and self guided. You move through at your own pace. It is riddled with strange facts and mysteries of Alcatraz. The bulk of the tour focuses on Alcatraz during the time it was used as a federal prison and not as a Military prison (as it was before) nor much talk of the American Indian occupation of the island after the prison was abandonded. You may stay on the island as long as you wish, or until 6:00pm that same day.

This tour is a nice, simple tour of the San Francisco Bay. You move up the SF Bay shorline from Pier 39 toward the Golden Gate Bridge. All along the way there is audio that describes the SF skyline and provides historical facts about the city. Then a fair amount of time is devouted to the the bridge as you approach, move underneath the awesome structure, and turn back around. Then you pass by Angel Island and learn about some of its history. Then, of course, you cruise by Alcatraz and actually stop in the water for about 5 minutes while the audio describes certain things about the island. The audio on this tour actually talked more about the Native American occupation of the island from 1969 to 1971 than the Alcatraz tour does.