a car in San Francisco?
 

We are planning a weekend in San Francisco. We will be staying at the Palace Hotel on New Montgomery Street. Our plans are to do Alcatraz, Chinatown, ride the cable cars, shop, shop and shop. Will the public transit system and the odd cab be okay or do we need a car? We will also be taking a cab to and from the airport. We will be taking the Alcatraz after dark tour and wondering if we will be able to hail a cab after the tour or will it be a long wait in a not so desirable area at night? Thanks for the input.

If you're staying at the Palace, you're probably parking that rental car in the hotel lot. It'll be very expensive...plan on about $20+/day. If you're planning to go to Chinatown, I'll tell you now that it's most busy during the day. On the weekends, they have an evening market reminiscent of the ones in Hong Kong. But, from the Palace, you could walk up to 3rd & Market and catch a #15 or #30 to Chinatown w/o any difficulty.<BR><BR>For Alcatraz, you can definitely catch mass transit. Much easier and you wouldn't have to look for parking or pay for it. I believe you catch the ferry to Alcatraz at or near Pier 39 - shouldn't have too much difficulty getting a cab.<BR><BR>If you're going to shop, the main stores are around Union Square (about a leisurely 10-minute walk from your hotel). You don't need a car unless you plan on buying out the stores. If you wanted to shop in the neighborhoods, that could be a different story...keep in mind that those neighborhoods w/ cool shops (i.e., Fillmore District, Union/Chestnut Street, upper Sacramento Street) often have little parking as well. You can take a bus to these neighborhoods also.

If just doing the tourist areas, don't bother with a car. Public transportation or a cab, is great for those areas or even better yet, walk to Union Square. Avoid Civic Center area & south of market/5th St at night.

do not get a rental.....for all the reasons mentioned above. we always get a hotel near a cable-car route....they're a great way to get around although they run in a small area.......get a multi-day pass for all public transportation.

We rented a car in S.F. and used it to go to wine country and to Carmel, but were lucky in that our hotel was less than a block from a garage they had an arrangement with. Yes, we did use the car around S.F., but found the taxi prices very reasonable. Parrot Pop has a handicap card and that made parking quite a bit easier on the streets.

I'd recommend going with public transporation too, but I've had less trouble parking in SF than in New York or Chicago. Personally, I rent a car when visiting SF, but New York and Chicago, no way.

You probably won't need a car. We stayed in SF for three days before heading down to Carmel, and we never used our rental car. I am not familiar with the exact location where you'll be staying, but SF has an awesome pubilc transportation system, and everything seemed like it was in walking distance. (We walked from Fisherman's Wharf to Chinatown, to the Japanese Tea Gardens, and although we were exhausted, it WAS doable.)<BR><BR>(It was cheaper to get he car for a week and pay $20 a day to park it than it was to rent the car for the four days that we'd need it.)

Thanks everyone for your help. It is really helpful to hear from people in the know. We are leaving next week and looking forward to a nice weekend getaway.

Live very close to SF. Everytime we go to the city, we regret that we have to dispose of our car for the day. Do not rent a car while you are staying in SF. You'll find many rental agencies in the city that you can get a car from for a day's excursion to the wine country etc. A car in SF is a pain for tourists and for those of us who live close.

I agree that you don't want a car in SF if you only plan to visit the city and not drive out of it. It's the cost of parking that really makes it non-sensical as driving in SF is really not bad. We paid $20 per day to park at the hotel and paid as much as an additional $50 per day for local parking. Honest, one lunch in the Embarcadero cost us $27 just for parking!