The good life in San Fran

Cow Hollow along Union Street is a great, untouristed neighborhood with excellent restaurants (see my Dining entry) and shops. For a glimpse of San Fran's Beat history, go to Lawrence Ferlinghetti's City Lights bookstore in North Beach. Lawrence still mans the counter, and the selection is great. You'll also find photos and posters of Lawrence with Ginsberg, Kerouac, and others from the era. North Beach is also a good neighborhood for wandering (once you get into the hills) - if you walk to the Coit Tower, you'll pass some beautiful homes.

Quick Tips:

Fisherman's Wharf is a tourist trap. I wouldn't recommend going at all, except to catch the ferry to Alcatraz, Angel Island, or Sausalito/Tiburon. Make sure you book your Alcatraz visit well in advance; when I was there, they were sold out for a week. Do visit San Francisco's Museum of Modern Art, which holds an excellent permanent collection and hosts world-class traveling exhibits. If you love baseball, go to Pac Bell Park. It's a fantastic place to watch a game. As for the Golden Gate Bridge... There is absolutely nothing else like it. Pictures do not do it justice. Go see it. There are parks on both sides, and you can walk along the bridge from one side to the other.

Best Way To Get Around:

The cable cars can get extremely crowded, and the area they serve is limited. Taxis are common and convenient. If you have a car, you'll find that parking is a problem; it really isn't necessary to have one in such a compact city, but you'll definitely need it to visit Napa, Santa Cruz, and the other areas. Use the ferry to visit Sausalito or Tiburon.

Very nice. The W is in a good location (in SOMA, across the street from Yerba Buena Gardens, within walking distance to Pac Bell Park and SFMOMA), and it is extremely swank. It caters to ''new economy'' business travelers - lots of chrome and black, with a hipper-than-thou atmosphere and techno-lite music in the hallways - so if that isn''t your kind of thing you might be a little uncomfortable. The rooms are the best I''ve ever stayed in, however. The beds are extremely comfortable, each room has a CD player and stereo, and my room had a daybed in the window overlooking the city from the 22nd floor. You can request a room with a bridge view (the Bay Bridge) or a city view. There''s also good restaurant (the XYZ - get it?) on the ground floor - try the scallops...

Excellent food in the heart of Cow Hollow on Union Street. It's so good I went there twice. The restaurant has a very hip, sophisticated casual atmosphere, with New Asian cuisine. The tapas are excellent; the spicy green-curry chicken with eggplant is good stuff. For dessert, try the cinnamon ice cream. When you finish, you can wander along Union Street and enjoy the shops and atmosphere. There's also a very beautiful, restored theater a block or so away that's a great place to see a movie.