San Francisco Livin'

The City By the Bay is the most amazing city in the entire United States. Once you come, you will never want to leave.
First of all, its breathtakingly beautiful. You have magnificent bay views, with the Golden Gate Bridge or the Bay Bridge completing the magnificent picture. San Francisco is a city of hills, and a city of old Victorian mansions, so everywhere you walk is beautiful. You can be taking an afternoon stroll and just look around at the rows of old Victorians and the beautiful water and feel like you are in heaven. Even the occasional fog is beautiful and lends a sort of surreal quality to the whole city.

There's also so much to do in San Francisco I'd make sure you leave yourself plenty of time. You can eat the delicious clam chowder bread bowls at fisherman's wharf, take the tour of Alcatraz, take a ferry boat over to Sausalito (a great little artistic community with tons of fun speciality shops) or Caramel (beautiful magnificent beaches). You can shop in the fabulous stores of union square, while walking around and enjoying the outdoors. You can eat at San Francisco's many many restaurants- everything from inexpensive Ethnic Cuisine (Vietnamese, Moroccan, Ethiopian, Italian, China town) to fab five star restaurants (Top of the Mark at the top of Nob Hill comes to mind).

San Francisco has fantastic weather almost year round. There's a rainy season from March to about May where it rains, but even those are warm rains. The summers are comfortable, not too hot- it rarely gets above 75 degrees and there is always that delightful ocean breeze. The warmest months are September and October where you can go and get delightful sunshine to walk around this amazing city.

The great thing about San Francisco is that every neighborhood has something to offer and you can just walk around them all. The city is 7 miles by 7 miles so you can literally walk from one end of the city to the other, and you will experience something great in every neighborhood on your walk- they are all unique and different and beautiful in their own way! I'd highly recommend you give yourself at least a week, and some time to experience the wonders of this city.

Quick Tips:

Make sure you go to China Town (Kearny Street) and walk around. There are great shops to buy souvenirs, beautiful embroidered linens, Chinese lanterns, tea sets, Rosewood, and everything else you could ever want. The prices are great on the tea sets and the linens, and you can definitely find a gift for everyone on your list. When you are done shopping stop in and get some Dim Sum- little Chinese appetizer type foods that come around on carts and you pick your selections right from the carts.

After Chinatown head over to Ghiradelli Square. There're a bunch more little shops, and also the Ghiradelli store where you can get amazing chocolate and ice cream. There're usually a line for the ice cream, but it is absolutely worth waiting because the sundae will be the most amazing delicious ice cream you have ever eaten in your life.
Continue on to Fisherman's Wharf. Check out the bay and the sleeping sea lions on the rocks. Get some clam chowder in a sourdough bread bowl- theres tons of restaurants around the wharf that serve it, or even just little stands, and its delicious! You can also get crab legs or lobster from little stands along the wharf that is not terribly expensive and is fresh and delicious.

From here you can get the boat to Alcatraz- make sure you book your tickets in advance, they are usually sold out about a day ahead of time. Do the audio tour- you can hear prisoners talk about their time in the famous prison and it adds to the experience. If Alcatraz isn't your thing, the wharf also has ferry boats to Sausalito- a little artistic community that has great art galleries and speciality shops and hosts an art festival- or to Caramel with beautiful beaches.
Once you have done the wharf you can go to the great shopping in Embarcadero or Union Square. Union Square is a cluster of stores that you walk around about a five block radius to get to- all outdoors and beautiful landscaped walking. There's a Macys, Niemans, Tiffanys, etc. There're also less expensive shops like H&M and Gap. There's a great little hidden wine bar in the Union Square area off Taylor Street on Cosmo- its called the Hidden Vine & it has cheap and wonderful wines to sample.

There're also tons of other great areas to visit in the city!

Best Way To Get Around:

San Francisco is a small city that you can basically walk from one end to the other (it would be a long 7 mile walk up a lot of hills but its possible and a beautiful walk). Bring a map and get in shape before you come. A lot of the city is hills, so you will be walking up and down some very steep ones- but it is all so beautiful and you can really see the beautiful Victorian detail on the houses if you walk around a lot.

There's also lots of good public transportation. The bus system is really good and covers the whole span of the city so you can pretty much take a bus everywhere. I've never had to wait more than 10 minutes to get on a bus, so get yourself a bus schedule and plan out your routes. Sfmuni.com has a terrific trip planner that you can put in your starting point and destination and it gives you options like cheapest fare or fewest transfers or quickest route and then plans your trip for you. The bus is .50 per trip but you get a transfer that is good for an hour and a half. You can also get daily or weekly passes. Just make sure you don't get on the bus going the wrong way- the trip planner tells you to wait at the Northwest corner (for example) so if you are not good with your directions you might want to bring a compass.

There is also a subway system called Bart. This doesn't go to a lot of places in the city, but can get you from the city to other places like the East Bay (where Berkeley is) or from certain parts of the city to others- like from the Civic Center downtown area to Union Square or to the Mission District. The Bart is also part of the SF muni system, so if you use trip planner and the Bart is convenient, it will include the Bart on your route. The Bart is a very clean subway system with lots of security- much cleaner then the busses which tend to have homeless people riding them- but its expensive- .50 minimum within the city and can be up to .50 or more if you take it to the airport or the East Bay
Overall its very easy to get around!

For great Chinese food, walk around San Francisco's Chinatown area--there are hundreds of really great cute little inexpensive restaurants. The best thing to do in Chinatown is go with a group and get dim sum, which is basically like a bunch of different little appetizers you choose off a menu (or a passing platter). They are all good and most are very inexpensive, and you can pretty much go to any restaurant in Chinatown to get it--they all offer it and it is good in all of them. Just walk around and wait for someone to hand you one of the many menus that feature dim sum. I definitely highly recommend you go there and try it.

There is a large open area outside the UN Plaza, by the Civic Center, where a local market is held every day. On Wednesdays and Sundays it is a great farmers market, with fruit, fish, cheese, vegetables, and all kinds of wonderful things, mostly homegrown or organic and all at great prices. The other days of the week it is more of a craft/artisan market. People sell all different kinds of nice crafts and homemade things, and there is some very wonderful stuff there--hand-blown glass and purses and a great and wide selection. There is something for everyone.

There is a great Alcatraz Island tour that leaves multiple times a day from Fisherman's Wharf. I recommend that you call ahead or book tickets online in advance because these tours fill up very fast. You usually have to book at least a day or two before you want to go (although that is less true in the off-season).

The boat takes you over to Alcatraz Island. It is a beautiful trip over and you can see the island and the Golden Gate Bridge in the background (if it is not too foggy). You can walk around the island and prison and stay for as long as you'd like--you don't have to go back on a specific boat.

I would recommend doing the guided audio tour of the prison. You just get a cassette that tells you where to go, the history of the prison, and some first-hand accounts from guards and inmates, but it makes it much more interesting. Its really neat to see and understand this piece of history.

This is a must-visit. Fisherman's Wharf is the last pier on the water. There are 49, I think, and it is Pier 49. You can take a bus to get there. There are tons of attractions: lots of little shops, a merry-go-round for kids, a creperie, and a bunch of seafood and souvenir vendors.

You also have to get the famous clam chowder in the sourdough bread bowl. This is fantastic pretty much anywhere, even the stands that are set up right as you walk in to the wharf. This is an absolute must-do for any first-time visitors to San Francisco (or even if you've come before--you know how good the clam chowder is!).

For absolutely the best shopping, go to Union Square in San Francisco. This square, and the surrounding blocks on Market Street, have every type of brand-name store you could dream of. There's Macy's, Nordstrom, Saks Fifth Avenue, Tiffany's, Cartier, Gucci, Prada... everything you would expect from big-city shopping. For those on smaller budgets, there is also an H&M, Gap, Abercrombie, American Eagle, Ann Taylor Loft... all the typical stores you would find in a mall that had everything you could ever want. The San Francisco Shopping Center is here, so a lot of the stores are inside that, but you do have to walk around the blocks in the surrounding area to get to most of these stores, so try to go on a day when there is okay weather.