My thought: Find cheap available parking near a BART station and ride into the city.
Depending on where you are coming from, you could also ride an Amtrak train to Emeryville and take the Amtrak bus in to Fishermans Wharf.
Your thoughts on this Stu?

There is a parking garage right on Embarcadero with a walk way to fisherman's wharf. I took two teens and thought that this lot was super convenient. We could return to the car with any pruchases since it was close and we didn't have to carry them around.

please don't listen to tomfuller. to take an amtrak...never mind it's just absurd.
Depending on where you are staying you could take the F historic Streetcar directly to the Wharf from market St and the kids might enjoy that.
Otherwise the Embarcadero lot is a goo d idea. There's no "secrets" anymore especially since the city has unveiled "dynamic pricing" for meters

Glad to hear that parking has improved since the last time I spent over an hour trying to find a parking spot in SF.
I heard that there is a new visitor center downtown now.
I might come back someday with my own car.

There are parking lots/garages all over San Francisco. Finding a spot in a residential area, or trying to find a spot on the street in a busy area such as FW or Unioin Square is more difficult (and when you do, you'll never be able to decipher the no-parking signs anyway). Park in the lot, you'll be happy you did.

If you spent over an hour looking for a place to park while visiting SF, you were ill prepared on your visit. Nevertheless taking Amtrak everywhere is not the answer. What is the obsession?

There are tons of places to park near the Wharf. Head west on Bay, Francisco, Chestnut or south on Van Ness or Polk to find pretty cheap hourly parking. The garages at the Wharf tend to be expensive.

Stu Dudley

tom recommends amtrak for just about every trip anywhere. Whether it makes ANY sense, one would need to know where you are coming from. And to know that you would have to return to this thread and tell us. (It probably doesn't make sense)

Are you driving into the city for a Giants game (as mentioned on one of your other threads), or for a day trip (as this thread hints), or for a longer stay? If a longer visit, where are you staying? You might not need to drive to the wharf at all. If you do have to drive, then just park in a lot as suggested.

Hard to give useful advice w/o any feedback.

janisj - I think tom recommended Amtrak for the Caribbean...

Try this for City parking. http://sfpark.org/

or this http://sanfrancisco.centralparking.com/search/29+Pier/San+Francisco/CA+94133/USA

Another option, not necessarily cheaper, is to park in the Stockton St. Garage and then grab the cable car a block to the west, although it might not be easy to get on it at the height of tourist season. Instead of the cable car, one can take the 30 Stockton bus.

$18 for the Cable car, each way or $14 each for 1 day Visitor Pass. Not necessarily cheaper is right.

I was thinking that as visitors to San Francisco they might want to take a cable car ride anyway. I would take the 30 Stockton to Fisherman's Wharf and the cable car back.

Folks,

You have to remember that the 30 Stockton (Orient Express) currently has disruptions and reroutes during the Big Dig project, and will be that way for years to come.

http://www.sfmta.com/cms/apress/SFMTAAnnouncesAlternativeMuniServiceduringCentralSubwayConstruction.htm

http://www.sfmta.com/cms/malerts/UnionSquareSoMa3045Reroutes.htm

Also, I'm not sure that a not-too-often visitor would enjoy parking downtown hear Union Square and then immediately trying to figure out the bus system, and then get on the bus with a 10 & 11 YO. As many people know, I'm not a fan of the Wharf. But I think doing the Stockton garage/30-Stockton/Wharf shuffle (twice in a day) would not be how I would want to introduce San Francisco to a visitor.

Stu Dudley

The "Big Dig" project is causing major headaches for me personally trying to get home every night ---- stay away from it if you can!

I was not aware that the OP was staying in the Fisherman's Wharf area.