Cheap parking in SF's Union Square?

Here are the different garage rates:

http://www.unionsquareshop.com/parking.html

The Sutter/Stockton St. garage 1.5 blocks from Union Square is somewhat cheaper.

I don't think there are any parking validations in that area. In fact, I've only encountered a few in the City - mainly movie theaters not downtown.

Stu Dudley

The Embarcadero does validate on weekends (and I think evenings). I'm not sure what the deal is, but I once bought a pretzel in the food court at Four Embarcadero and got vallidated.

What is the name of the garaga off O'Farrell between Powell and Stockton? Another Fodorite told me, it's the cheapest in the area.

That's the Ellis-O'Farrell Garage. No validation, but yes, it used to be the cheapest around.

Street parking free after 6 p.m. but be sure to read the sign as there maybe street cleaning at midnight.
Sutter/Stockton St. garage has better evening rates after 6 p.m.

And if somebody will do a search later, the supes are deciding now whether to extend parking fees till 10 pm or midnight.

Just got back. We lucked out with free parking 3 times over the weekend in SF.

Fisherman's wharf at night-- we found street parking and it was free, although we could have gotten validated parking because we ate at a restaurant there.

The park near the Golden Gate Bridge -- we found a metered spot with 45 mins still on it and it was enough time for us to walk 1/2 way across the bridge to watch the sunset and back. We didn't have any coins and couldn't get any change at the time, so good thing that we found this spot!

Sat Farmers' Market at Ferry Building -- the meter was broken where we parked and we weren't sure if it's legal. Luckily, a parking patrol guy was biking by, and we asked him and he wrote on official paper that the meter was broken so we put it on our dashboard -- valid for 2 hours.

Just checking this again. According to the weblink provided above, the Ellis-OFarrell garage is not the cheapest anymore ($33.50/24hrs; vs Union Sq Garage $31/24hrs).

Looks like only the first 2 garages listed are open 7 days a week.

Since we're staying at the Westin St Francis right on Union Sq, I guess the Union Sq Garage is our best option... unless we want to pay $50/day for hotel parking.

yk, the only question is whether Sutter-Stockton garage is less expensive (and that you can park there overnight) than Union Square --- Sutter-Stockton is only a block away.

Thanks for pointing that out. I didn't read the info carefully enough...

The Sutter-Stockton garage rates (according to the webpage):

Evening & Sunday Rates
Evenings 6pm - 7am
Sundays 7am-6pm
0-1 Hrs $2.00
1-2 Hrs $4.00
2-3 Hrs $5.50
3+ Hrs $7.50

Hmmm... this may be a cheaper option for us then. We're attending a wedding Saturday afternoon/evening, so we won't get back until Sat night. Say we park from Sat 11pm until Sunday 12noon, based on the rates listed above, shouldn't we be only charged $15 for the entire overnight stay then?

yk, I won't even touch that one! (I have no idea -- is there a phone number you could call to ask?)

We'll be there for a few days before getting a car, so I can swing by the garage and see if I could get an answer.

P.S. Surely that can't be more complicated than figuring out Oyster PAYG vs travelcard for London?

Exactly what I was thinking

If you have the possibility to use Bart, that is the least expensive solution to parking, although no so convenient if you have anything voluminous or heavy purchased from your shopping trip. You can just get off at Powell Street exit which depending on which end of Bart you choose to come up in will put you just off Union Square itself or you can come up through Westfield San Francisco Centre.

There is a parking rate comparison chart for the major garages for the Union Square area here:http://bit.ly/KLQmY8

Hope this helps!