Anyone who has been to LA, DC or San Francisco (or those that live there!)

himbeer29 wrote:I'm not sure how much time you have in SF, but you might also want to consider going out to Napa for a day. It's not too bad of a drive, if I remember correctly, and most of the wineries are free. There's a cute grocery store there too, so you could easily make a picnic lunch and save some money (rather than eating at the restaurants). Although to really save, I would pack food, because even the grocery was a bit expensive.

Unfortunately neither of us can drive

himbeer29 wrote:For Alcatraz, do the night tour. You go out by boat in the late afternoon, spend the evening on the island, watching the sun set and then you get to see alcatraz in the dark. It was so cool. We had to buy our tickets in advance, so plan for that.

That sounds awesome. Do you remember where you got the tickets?

himbeer29 wrote:Fisherman's Wharf is fine... know that it's pretty commercialized. I wouldn't plan on spending too much time there, because it's really just like a lot of other Piers/Wharfs/tourist areas in the other main cities. Not that you shouldn't go there at all, because there are some interesting things, but it's crowded and there isn't too much there that you won't find elsewhere. It's near where you will take the boat to Alcatraz, so you could do it close to that, if you're looking for organizational ideas. Also, right near Fisherman's Wharf is the Buena Vista Cafe, which prides itself on being the first place that served Irish Coffee drinks in America.

Thanks for the info! We figured we'd just wander around for a little while

himbeer29 wrote:On the drinks note... we went to a speakeasy in SF where you had to have a password to get in. It's called Bourbon and Branch... they had amazing drinks and the place itself was cool just to look at. You have to make reservations (in order to get the daily password to get inside) and it's fun leaning up to the door and whispering the password into the speaker. Makes you feel all VIP ;-).

That sounds totally awesome!! Googling that right now!

himbeer29 wrote:Also, I don't know if you are going to have a car or anything, but it's also a lot of fun just driving around the streets cause they are CRAZY. Lombard is known for it's steep, crookedness, but there are also other VERY steep streets that make you feel like you're on a rollercoaster.

No car unfortunately

himbeer29 wrote:Oh! very important - to get around during the day, we used the streetcars (because it's SF! you have to ride them when you're there!). Now, the main stop where they start downtown had a giant, huge line where you would have to wait for a long time to get on the streetcar, but they don't fill them up all the way, so we just walked uphill about a block or two to the next stop and hopped right on. The streetcars will take you to the Fisherman's Wharf area, plus, it's just fun :-). We stood in the back and watched one of the guys working them and it was really cool.

Definitely plan on using the cable cars to get around!! That's for sure

himbeer29 wrote: Hope that helps!

Very very helpful! Do you by chance have any other recs for eating, other than the mexican? We are there for 4 days, 3 nights

Oh and is Chinatown good?

flyersfan35 wrote:Yeah, you should have no trouble finding a metro station from where you're staying. You can probably just walk a few blocks to find one, or I'm sure your hotel will shuttle you; most do. I love the metro...and they run probably every 10 minutes or so.

The Arlington tour sounds good, that should save you lots of time. I just didn't want you to waste your money if you're going to be touring museums all day, but your second day would be fine with the tourmobile. btw, the Changing of the Guard is really something to see.

We are staying in a friends apartment not a hotel, but it's meant to be pretty close to most things.

I really really want to see the Changing of the Guard. One of the major reasons i want to go to Arlington.

IheartB&B wrote:If you are going to San Francisco and enjoy history I recommend going to the San Francisco Mission. Here is some information on it [Only admins are allowed to see this link]

And if you are going in the LA area you have to check out Santa Monica Pier.

Ooh.. Thanks for the suggestions!

future_anthro wrote:

himbeer29 wrote:For Alcatraz, do the night tour. You go out by boat in the late afternoon, spend the evening on the island, watching the sun set and then you get to see alcatraz in the dark. It was so cool. We had to buy our tickets in advance, so plan for that.

That sounds awesome. Do you remember where you got the tickets?

We bought them online. You can do this at [Only admins are allowed to see this link]

future_anthro wrote:

himbeer29 wrote: Hope that helps!

Very very helpful! Do you by chance have any other recs for eating, other than the mexican? We are there for 4 days, 3 nights

Oh and is Chinatown good?

I probably do, I just have to think of them (and get my husband's notebook... he keeps track of EVERYTHING.) I know we went to a really good brunch place, but I forget the name. Also, a buffalo burger place that was a bit of a hole in the wall (by appearances) but apparently well known and very popular :-). Names are escaping me, sorry... I'll get back to you on that.

I actually missed the Chinatown day/meal because we went out to Berkeley to visit cousins, so I can't personally say that I know anything about it, but I've heard the dim sum is amazing ;-).

(also, you can just do mexican as a lunch. most of the places we went to were little taquerias, so not really for a nice dinner. Delicious, yes. But they were more lunch places than dinner places, if that makes sense?)

himbeer29 wrote:

future_anthro wrote:

himbeer29 wrote:For Alcatraz, do the night tour. You go out by boat in the late afternoon, spend the evening on the island, watching the sun set and then you get to see alcatraz in the dark. It was so cool. We had to buy our tickets in advance, so plan for that.

That sounds awesome. Do you remember where you got the tickets?

We bought them online. You can do this at [Only admins are allowed to see this link]

future_anthro wrote:

himbeer29 wrote: Hope that helps!

Very very helpful! Do you by chance have any other recs for eating, other than the mexican? We are there for 4 days, 3 nights

Oh and is Chinatown good?

I probably do, I just have to think of them (and get my husband's notebook... he keeps track of EVERYTHING.) I know we went to a really good brunch place, but I forget the name. Also, a buffalo burger place that was a bit of a hole in the wall (by appearances) but apparently well known and very popular :-). Names are escaping me, sorry... I'll get back to you on that.

I actually missed the Chinatown day/meal because we went out to Berkeley to visit cousins, so I can't personally say that I know anything about it, but I've heard the dim sum is amazing ;-).

(also, you can just do mexican as a lunch. most of the places we went to were little taquerias, so not really for a nice dinner. Delicious, yes. But they were more lunch places than dinner places, if that makes sense?)

Thanks! And yep, makes total sense.

Ok so I have food updates for you:

We went to dinner at a place called Oliveto. It was delicious, but we did it as our "nice" dinner because it's a bit pricey. If you google it you can look up the menu. Also, while it says it's not in SF proper, it's right next to a BART stop (their version of subway/commuter train) so it's really easy to get to.

The hamburger place was called Pearl's... It's a block north of Bourbon and Branch. Again, hole in the wall, but it's soooooo yummy. Also, we went there before going to Bourbon and Branch so it was convenient. (Since we had a specific time we had to be at B&B).

Neither one of us remembers the name of the brunch place. I can email my friends who live there to ask, if you want.

Ooooh, thanks! No need to email, it's okay. We are definitely going to go to Bourbon and Branch so i'll look up Pearl's for sure.