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Back from San Francisco

This is for first-time visitors to San Fran. I was really apprehensive about going after reading some (alot) negative comments on this site. Maybe it really is not as special as it was ten years ago, but for a first-timer like me it was a good experience. The homeless people weren't as aggressive as this site indicated, nor was the city as dirty and smelly as some people said. We stayed at California and Powell which is the Nob Hill area and right on all three cable car lines. We used not only the cable cars, but streetcars, busses, underground and even the BART to get from the Oakland airport to the city. We were there for a week so we bought the $15 pass that was good for all transportation except the BART for the full seven days. Definitely got our monies worth. We did a "tour of the city" which I always like to do in a new city to get the lay of the land. After that we used the Fodors book which broke the city down into neighborhood walks. After the city tour I was able to pick which neighborhoods I wanted to go to. I enjoyed the walks that I chose to do. Saw many pretty gardens; the "vertical" gardens were especially interesting to me. A million tourists drive me crazy so we spent a very short time in Chinatown which was very close to Nob Hill where we stayed. We only were at Fisherman's Wharf to pick up tours. Be sure if you go to Alcatrez to book in advance or immediately upon arrival. We just barely got to go there. Also, I'd strongly suggest paying the extra for the audio tape. Lots of the stuff on the tape was from men who had been sent there. I also took Trevor Haley's "Cruisin the Castro" tour. It was supposed to be a four-hour tour for $40 that included lunch. We actually were with her for over five hours. It was a really interesting time, and she knew so many of the people who were out and about in the neighborhood. I had a political question that she couldn't answer, so she just stopped at a campaign headquarters (where she knew the guy running) and had him answer my question. Be sure to check the extended weather forecast before leaving home. I needed sweaters every day until the last day when a heat wave came through. Plan on layers. Can't give much restaurant help because we were staying in a place with a full kitchen. If you like Chinese (Dim Sum), the place to go to is Yank Sing. They have two locations--neither of which is in China Town! A guy in Napa Valley suggested it and then our hotel did too. They were right. We did a bus tour to Monterey and Carmel. I wouldn't recommend it. We did it because my husband broke his ribs right before we left for vacation so he wasn't feeling great. Plus we thought he'd miss all the great scenery of the 17 Mile Drive because of driving. We didn't know that on the 17 Mile Drive there are lots of places to pull off the road and gawk. Plus it costs $8.00 to go on it, but they give you a booklet so you know what you're seeing. I wish we would have driven; I would have skipped Monterey, had lunch at Pebble Beach (what the heck; you only live once), and spent the rest of the time in Carmel. I think a week was maybe a little too long. Probably three or four days would be enough. Feel free to ask me any questions!

You mean you didn't have to engage in full scale hand to hand combat with all of the armies of homeless, drugged out prostitutes just to walk one city block like a lot of anti-SF posters want all tourists to believe?

Thanks for the report Bev. I, too, will be making my first trip to San Francisco this fall. Did you get to the Golden Gate Bridge? Did you use the MUNI to get there? Is it worth the time and effort? How convenient was public transportation? I plan on using it when I am there.

Thanks for the trip report and I'm glad you were able to see for yourself that SF is not the crime-ridden armpit that some people on this site would like people to believe.

I guess that Susan Spike and Kam gave Bev a pair of rose-colored glasses to put on before entering San Francisco.

I'm glad you had a good time. I'm curious, which neighborhoods did you choose to walk around in yourself? I've been itching to get back to "the city" for months now and have kept an eye on flights from the east coast. Let me know if you see anything. I actually found an amazing deal from Orbitz the week of labor day but sadly, I can't get away.

xxx, maybe you should give those glasses a try? maybe you wouldn't be so negative? maybe your partner may even look pretty? doubt it!!!

Bev: Thanks for the report. I live in N California and get a kick out of all the negative things on this site about SF..."The City". They really have no feel for the City and the people. We travel all over the world and still look forward to coming home to the SF Bay Area. It is a great place to live year round...expensive, but worth it. We have lived in the south, in the midwest and Europe. This area has them all beat. Visit again soon and spend more time in the Monterey Peninsua....another great location. Great report also. Made me want to head back up there this weekend.

Dear Bev, Thanks for posting about your experiences in S.F. As a longtime resident in the city, it always interests me to see what people like to do on their trips here. I'm so glad you got out into the neighborhoods instead of staying downtown the whole time. The Castro tour sounds like fun - a lot of people, even those who live here, fail to see how vibrant and history-laden this area is. Since you love gardens, I might suggest that your next trip to S.F. be in early spring - the last week in February or so. The plum and quince trees start to blossom very early here, and it's uplifting to see flowers when so much of the country is still under snow.

Bev: The wife & I enjoyed our first trip to San Francisco this past May. The mass quantity of negative posts was getting sickening. Sure the city has its problems. If you live there & don't like it, either do something about it or leave. If you visited there & hated it, don't come back. I don't see anybody holding a gun against the heads of these people. We found the city to be quite interesting & would go back in a heartbeat.

Bill, You asked about the Golden Gate Bridge. When my husband and I were in SF a few years back, we saw the bridge. We rented bicycles from a shop in the Fisherman's Warf area and rode them all the way across the bridge and into Sausalito. We then took a ferry back and they loaded the bikes no problem. Just an idea.

Thanks for a nice report, Bev. Glad you refused the rose colored glasses I offered you and got to see a bit of the real city. BTW saw two homeless men walking on El Camino in Palo Alto last Friday. Do you think I should be in fear of walking my dog, or should I buy a bigger one? :~)

SF is especially full of wierdos and freaks, graffiti, prostitutes, crime, and traffic, etc. Miscreants of all forms continue to abuse SF as a dirty playground turning SF into an open sewer. Every day when people go to work or walk to the store, they have to step over people, past hands, and resist the urge to slap down the mendicants who grab onto them as the beg for money. Loke it or not, this is the truth about SF, despite what the likes of Kam and Bob RW, and Bev may say. Bob, to say that someone who tells the tuth about SF has no feel for SF is ludicrous. There is no denyiong the fact that SF has become an absolute dump in the last 10 years. I gues that you don;t mind the smell of human excrement as you walk down the street. Most rational and decent people would find it to be rather repulsive to see the druggies shooting up on the street and turning into a large public toilet. Bottom line, SF is one overrrated city that has rested on it laurels. It is not right to mislead people into painting this perfect picture of SF just to boost the tourist dollars. That is nothing but a fraud.

Thanks for the tip Deb!

Cal: If you feel that way stay home in Peoria. The tourists sure won't bother you there and the homeless freeze in the winter.

Bob, By the way, I do live in New York City, so I definitely enjoy an urban environment. How arrogant can you be. Just because someone does not like SF you automatically assume that they are from a hill billy town. For your information, SF is a hill billy town compared to NYC!! SF is not even a real city. SF likes to portray itself as some cosmopolitan place, when in fact it is nothing but a backwater town.

OOOOOOOOOH. New York City!!! All bow down to you!!! "How arrogant?" Your continual anti-SF posts keep showing just how arrogant YOU can be. Keep giving New Yorkers a black eye with your pompous, condescending attitude. You actually make us Southern Californians look normal. Your new part-time mayor will run NYC back into the Liberal wasteland it has always been and it will soon go begging to the Feds for more money.

CAL, I'm really surprised at this coming from you! I thought you were pretty reasonable in other posts. What's gotten into to you today? Are you the same CAl who used to live in SF? And, how is NYC since Rudy left? I've heard not so great. I was in NYC a number of years ago when it was just a huge cesspool so remember "pride goeth before a fall......"

Cal, Invest in some spell check ... and Prozac.

Kam, So far NYC is still in good shape. Crime is still down. If SF stopped giving cash handouts to the homeless as they did here in NYC, the problem would be solved.