San Francisco - good times

Cycling over the Golden Gate Bridge was a great experience - it's a good way to see the bridge at your own pace and the views are spectacular. I also really enjoyed my trip to Alcatraz, it was a fascinating visit and very evocative.

Quick Tips:

I bought the CityPass, a tourist package that gives you entry to several main attractions and free travel about the city for the week for only . There was only one of the attractions - the Exploratorium that wasn't particularly great and I definitely got my money's worth traveling about the city.

Best Way To Get Around:

San Francisco has a good public transport system - in fact you're spoilt for choice between the cable cars, streetcars, buses, and subway. You have to go on the Cable Cars at least once, they are such fun to ride, especially hanging out at the side. But don't use them if you have to go anywhere in a hurry, especially on holidays where you'll probably have to queue for half an hour if not longer.

The Downtown Hostelling International (H.I.) is conveniently located just a couple of minutes away from Union Square. The hostel is very large, with five floors, a huge kitchen, TV room, common room, reading room, Internet room, payphones on every floor, and even an information desk. There's usually some daily activity or tour, and the information desk also has notices of current local events.

The dorm rooms are clean and fairly spacious but share bathrooms with another dorm room, which can be disconcerting as you can't lock the bathroom doors from the inside.

The hostel is extremely security conscious--you have to flash your receipt every time you enter, so don't lose it! There's a separate storage facility in the building next door--which you'll need if you decide to change rooms during your stay; it's a real pain as you have to check out at 11am and can't check back in until after 2pm.

In amongst all the shops and fast-food places, there are a few bars, some more decent than others. The Gold Dust Lounge is as cheesy as it sounds. The seats are covered with red velvet, and at night they have a (bad) pianist playing requests for the middle-aged crowd. If you are desperate for a drink at 10 o'clock in the morning, though, this is the place to come.

Foley's is the obligatory Irish bar with draft Guinness and cider. It serves food in the evening, and if you sit at a table and don't order any, you will be asked to move to the bar. It's a bit of a strange crowd there, depending on the music. It seems to have live music most nights, ranging from cover bands to cowboy music. On a good night, it's a lot of fun.

Lefty O'Douls is a baseball-themed bar, once owned by the aforementioned. It serves basic, cheap food--think school dinners--and drinks. The TV is always tuned to a game. It's certainly not pretentious.

If you fancy something a little more fancy (and expensive), Le Continental is at Post and Taylor streets, down a little alleyway. It's a restaurant/bar, and on a warm day, it's great to sit out in the wicker chairs amongst the greenery and listen to the very chilled-out music in the upstairs bar.

San Francisco is built around the Bay, and with the Golden Gate Bridge one of the main tourist attractions, sailing around the Bay is a good way to familiarize yourself with the city as well as see the sights. In theory. We bought this ticket as part of our CityPass, and having failed to get tickets to Alcatraz, decided to go on the cruise instead. My tip is to make sure you go on a clear day.

The cruise was nice to start off with. We left from Fisherman's Wharf, getting a good look at the sea lions on the way. We then sailed along Golden Gate Park, with the audio commentary explaining what we were seeing. The closer to the bridge we got, the mistier it got, and the weather turned absolutely freezing. The automated guide continued, telling us what we were seeing now--except we couldn't see a thing, even when we were right under the bridge. It turned into a bit of a comedy at that point. It was quite cool in a spooky way, as the mist was so thick and everything was so still. It was good to get back towards Fisherman's Wharf, though, and warm up again.

The Academy of Sciences is located in Golden Gate Park and includes an aquarium and natural-history section. You can reach it using the Metro N line.

The aquarium had all the usual tanks of fish, including an impressive fish roundabout--you can follow the fish swimming around by walking upstairs to a circular tank. It's actually pretty cool as the lights are dimmed and you can just chill out watching the fish swim round and round. The aquarium also has a reptiles section, with a nice collection of snakes and a couple of alligators.

The natural-history section has a large display on earthquakes--San Francisco having been through a few--and there's a little interactive show that lets you experience an earthquake for yourself. I really liked the section on skulls--all sorts of skulls, from animals to humans. One whole wall is mounted all with skulls; it's very impressive. There's also an art display of the imagery of skulls, showing how its meaning changes according to culture. For instance, in Mexican culture, a skull is not particularly scary--children play with them as part of the Day of the Dead celebrations. There's also a skull gift shop, just the place to buy a present for your Mum.

NB: If you're using the tourist maps to find your way around in Golden Gate Park, the park is actually a lot narrower and a lot longer than depicted.

The Palace of the Legion of Honor is actually an art museum in Lincoln Park. You can take bus #38 for Geary to 33rd Avenue. I'd heard it was a really good museum--San Francisco places a lot of emphasis on the arts. The museum does have some good pieces, with a main exhibit on Rodin (two rooms). Downstairs, there's a pottery room with a couple of cases of ancient artifacts. At the time I visited, the museum had a temporary Egyptian exhibition which I didn't see. Maybe I was expecting too much, but the Palace of the Legion of Honor just seemed a bit small, with odd pieces thrown together.

NB: The cafe is quite pretentious and very expensive.

The Palace of Fine Arts is situated in the Marina District. You can get bus #30 from Kearny and Market streets to the end of the line. The Marina District is one of the nice (expensive) areas to live and right slap-bang in the middle is a huge, fake ancient ruin. I loved it. It was made a hundred odd years ago for the Panama-Pacific Exhibition, and has now been restored to its former glory of concrete and plaster.

But it just looks so pretty--it's even surrounded by a lake with swans. You can walk all around it, under the main arches, and in and out of the huge classical columns. On a sunny day, it's an absolutely beatiful (and romantic) place to go for a picnic.

Union Square is the place for shopping in San Francisco--if you have plenty of cash, that is. Around the square are several big name shops like Saks, Macys, and a huge Borders bookshop with several floors (you will be tempted). The Levi flagship store is here too, and it's pretty cool--you can pick out a pair of jeans and take them down to the ground floor to have them personalised or altered; if you have time, you can also order Levis to your specifications (style, material, and measurements).

In the square itself are several arts-and-craft stalls, especially on weekends. On a sunny day it's a good place to sit down with a coffee and people watch.

The shops continue on from Union Square, and you'll find a Virgin Megastore, FAO Schwartz, Chanel, Sephora, etc. If you walk towards the Civic Center though, the shops get distinctly seedier, while expensive shops and boutiques continue in the opposite direction. (There is a little market selling cheap sunglasses and so forth by the Civic Centre).

Across the road from the Cable Car turntable is the main shopping mall: seven floors of shops with Nordstroms department store occupying the top four. The mall consists mostly of brandname clothing shops like Guess and Victoria's Secret, and is not the place to get a bargain.

Haight-Ashbury shops are a world away from Union Square (although the neighborhood does have a Gap) and you can definitely find a bargain here. The shops range from retro second-hand and tie-dyed sarongs, to the latest urban fashion, with a biker's shop, old-fashioned cobblers, and alternative bookstores in between.

The other place to try for cheaper options is the Mission, San Francisco's Mexican area, which also sells the expected leather and silver goods.

If you want a closer look at the Golden Gate Bridge, one option is to cycle over it. You can rent bikes at Fisherman's Wharf, cycle from there to Golden Gate Park, over the bridge and then to Sausalito to get the ferry back to the wharf. We rented our bikes from Bay City Bike Rentals, $24 for the day, which includes helmet and lock.

The entire trip only took a couple of hours to cycle and was not too tough, although there were lots of times when you had to peddle hard to get up a hill. The stretch from Fisherman's Wharf is mostly on a cycle path. The view from the bridge is quite incredible--try to go on a clear day. It can get very windy cycling across, and watch out for all the local bikers, who will probably overtake you at a high rate of speed.

Once you get across, follow the signs for Sausalito. It's a pleasant ride through (hilly) country roads. Sausalito itself is a nice little town with lots of antiques shops and coffee shops. If you've got time, it's a good place to chill out for a couple of hours. The Red and White Ferry runs a service back to Fisherman's Wharf; a ticket costs $7.25.

Alcatraz Island is one of the main tourist attractions of San Francisco. You can get a ferry over to the island from Fisherman's Wharf at Pier 41 on the Blue and Gold Fleet (415/705-5555). Tickets cost $13.25 with an audio tour. The trip doesn't take very long--about half an hour. Look out for pelicans on the way (Alcatraz means "pelican"). The island itself is unexpectedly beautiful with amazing views, but the bare rock is not very hospitable--even on a sunny day, the wind is freezing. You'll be greeted by a ranger at the dock who gives a brief introduction to the island. The ranger also gives free historic walking tours, explaining the history of Alcatraz, from army base to prison to Indian occupation.

The prison itself is on the hill (the unfit or very lazy can take a little train up there). You can just wander about the buildings by yourself--cells, refectory, library, yard--but I really reccommend getting the audio tour. You're given a little cassette player and told where to go and look, and the commentary is exceptional. It includes interviews with both guards and prisoners and recounts the legends of Alcatraz--Al Capone, Machine Gun Kelly, the Birdman of Alcatraz. It's incredibly evocative listening to these stories when the evidence is in front of you--seeing the tunnel through which the prisoners made their escape, or the machine-gun gouges still etched in the concrete from the gun siege. Alcatraz was an awful place, looking at the cells there's no doubt about that, but still there's something about it that makes it fascinating.

NB: During the tourist season and on holidays, you may need to book your ticket in advance. The first time we went down to Fisherman's Wharf, the Alcatraz ferry was sold out for the next two days.