We will be out in CA visiting S1 and DIL who live around an hour east of SF. S2 is joining us for part of the trip. He’s taking a redeye flight out of SFO on the day he leaves. I thought that, since S1 and DIL would be working the day he leaves, that DH, S2, and I could go to SF for a good part of that day until we needed to get him to the airport.
I was figuring it would be easiest to drive to one of the BART stations between SFO and SF, park the car there, and take BART into SF; then take BART back to the car to drive S2 to SFO.
Does this seem like a reasonable idea? What BART station would you recommend we park at? We’d hope for one that’s easy to find, likely to have available parking around noon or 1pm, and safe enough to keep the car there (S2’s luggage will be in the trunk).
If anyone has another suggestion or advice, I’m certainly open to it. Also, this will be S2’s first trip to SF. What are must see or do for a twenty-something?
For a first trip to SF you probably want to do the super touristy stuff. Fisherman’s wharf and Lombardy Street and cable cars at a minimum. I had a great time last year doing various walking tours. The San Francisco City Guides http://www.sfcityguides.org/ provide free walking tours which are quite informative. There are some do it yourself architecture tours that you can do on a smart phone. I also did an eating tour that was fun.
The closest BART station w/ parking to SFO is Millbrae. And it’s pretty safe. TBH though, I can’t think of any BART stations that will have parking at that time on a week day. Where will you be coming from? There might be other stations more convenient, or it might be worth it just to pay for a garage in SF, park the car and explore. As for must dos in a day – it really depends on what your son likes. Nature, culture, gourmet food, what?
We’re coming from Livermore, so parking out that way doesn’t make much sense since we’ll just have to head back to SF to get to the airport. We’ll be taking 92 to 101 so any station along that way would be possible, if there would be parking available
Walking or eating tours sound like things he’d enjoy. He also likes music and doesn’t mind museums.
Would you consider having you son take a bus from one of the hotels to the airport? Just an idea.
Also, it’s Lombard Street, not Lombardy. I like to walk all over the city. Taking the ferry to Alcatraz for a tour is a popular thing to do. Ghiradelli square? Walking or riding a bike over the Golden Gate Bridge? Coit Tower?
Art Museum? Golden Gate Park, China Town? Pier 39? cable car ride?
Finding parking at any Bart station midday could be dicey.
I’d just drive into City, park in a garage, tour around and then either put S on Bart to SFO or Uber or drive him yourself.
SF can be a very walkable City: I have walked from Ferry Building to the Wharf, then to North Beach, then Chinatown then thru the Stockton Tunnel to Union Square and finally to ATT Park in a day (some stops for food, Starbucks). The key is to know where the hills are (and aren’t). The GG Bridge would be too much to walk to in your time frame, but if you have a car, there is parking near the South End. There’s a newish Visitor Center and lots of interpretive stuff there.
Also, if you are bikers, rent some in North Beach or the Wharf and ride to the Bridge…
As others have said mid-day BART parking will be very tricky.
How much time do you think you’ll have in the city? What kinds of things does your son generally like?
If you’re serious walkers a great walk begins at Lands End (Sutro Baths) which has free parking and takes you through the Presidio to the batteries just west of the Golden Gate Bridge then under the bridge and down to Crissy Field. If you have lots of time and energy you can continue all the way to the Ferry Building. Wherever you end up you can Uber back to your car. You can also start the hike in the Presidio near the batteries and save yourselves a lot of the walk. If you’re looking for Presidio/GG Bridge hikes, search for GGNRA and you will get the info you need. Most of the Presidio locations have parking nearby so you can check them out without the hike if you care to. It’s a beautiful place. Just remember that summer is foggy and cool in SF while it’s really hot in Livermore. Make sure everyone has a jacket!
If you’re foodies The Ferry Building is fun. The building is beautiful with many great food stalls and restaurants. It also has a great farmer’s market that operates T/Th 10 -2 and Saturdays starting a bit earlier.
I second the SF City Guides suggestion…Really fun tours.
Not sure this would work for you, but BART has a station right at SFO (people actually reserve multi-day airport parking at BART parking lots and take it to the airport), so you wouldn’t have to actually drive your son to SFO. If you went to the Millbrae station, you’re probably more likely to find a spot. It can be crowded mid-day at all stations, but the Millbrae lot is huge and people do leave mid-day, some of them returning from a flight who have parked there. The next stop up from the Millbrae station is SFO, so on the way back from San Francisco, you could just ride with your son on BART to SFO, say your goodbyes and continue on to the Millbrae station.
There’s a fee to park for the day ($6) and you pay for it on line and then print out a permit which you leave on your dash. (Google BART Select-a-Spot.)
However, there are several lots around Union Square that charge approx. $35 a day. By the time you pay for parking and 3 roundtrips on BART, you’ll spend close to that amount. Hotel lots sometimes charge a premium. I was staying at the Park 55 hotel near Union Square a couple of times a month for a while and they charged around $55 a day even for guests.
You could also just take BART from the San Leandro station, but you’d need to part ways with your son at the BART station in the city because you’d be going in different directions.
In the past, we rode bikes over the bridge to Sausalito and ferried back to the warf. That was fun. When will you be out there? We will be as well, in a few weeks!
Great suggestions for what to do. DH and I have done some of those walks, but not always in the right direction to avoid the hills. Oy vey!
We’ll have to take all your advice into account when it comes to figuring out if we want to risk parking at a BART station vs. driving into the city and parking at a garage there. I’d prefer to avoid driving into the city if possible, but I understand station parking fills up. Does it help that after 10am you can park anywhere, so, if someone with reserved parking didn’t use it that day, or is on vacation, etc, that there would be spaces available? We’ve only ever parked at the Dublin/Pleasanton station and never had trouble finding a parking space after 10am.
Any good casual restaurant suggestions? S2 certainly likes to eat, and will eat just about anything but seafood.
Re eating – there are tons of great restaurants in SF, but I would suggest eating at the Ferry Building. It’s got a lot of good casual options, including a Vietnamese restaurant (Slanted Door) that the NY Times called the best in the country, and a great burger place called Gott’s Roadside. There’s also local bread shops, a local cheesemaker, local sausage maker, etc. If you don’t want a sit down place, you can just go through and get things from various places. It’s a fun place with great views, and from there you can easily go to BART, Muni, etc. to get to other places in SF, and even walk to the cable car pickup at Powell Street if you want to do that. It’s right at Market and the Embarcadero. We always take visitors there and they love it. I think it is much better than Fisherman’s Wharf which is full of tourist T-shirt shops and chain restaurants like Bubba Gumps. The Ferry Building is unique in that it’s a tourist attraction, and a place popular with locals. It’s similar in some ways to Chelsea Market in NYC, if you’ve been there. http://www.ferrybuildingmarketplace.com/
Thanks, LionsMum. DH and I have been to the Ferry Building, and have picked up bread and cheese there, but have never eaten at any of the restaurants. Thanks for letting me know they’re not tourist traps like the places around the Wharf.
If you decide to go to Slanted Door, make reservations. It’s very casual, but also very popular. There are offices in the Ferry Building, and it’s right at the Financial District, so it gets the work lunch crowd. Market Bar is very good, but more upscale and pricey. Hog’s Island Oyster is amazing, but not if your son doesn’t like seafood! Mijita, the Mexican restaurant, is good – though there’s definitely better Mexican in SF. And Gott’s has great burgers, salads and shakes. Very Bay Area in that almost everything is locally sourced, they serve local beer and wine, etc.
My H was in San Francisco for business quite often in the last three years and his company rented an apartment in the Financial District. We loved the Slanted Door. Also, not too far from Ferry Building is a Greek restaurant, Kokkari, which was excellent. I did a lot of walking in the city–one great workout is to take the Filbert Steps to Coit Tower. We also did a guided hike in the Presidio to see the Andy Goldsworthy sculptures. It’s off the beaten track, but IMO worth the trip.
This is for pre-reserved parking. If you just go there and park in an open general parking space, you are supposed to note the number on the space, go into the station, go to the parking validation machine, put in the space number, and then put in the parking fee (currency or coin, $3 at Millbrae).
