Hi, I have read that the traffic into San Francisco is very bad how bad are we talking our flight leaves Wednesday 12:20 pm and as we are classified as being international (Canadian) we have to be at the airport 2 hours prior. We will be coming in from the South end of Napa Hwy 29/221 area, do we really need to leave at 6:30 am. What we are planning on doing is renting a car in the Union Sq area (that is where our hotel is located for the 1st 3 nights) and then I guess we need to return it back to the same location. Have the Airport shuttle pick us up from our 1st hotel location does anyone know if this is a good idea?
I have read quite a few trip tips here and on other sites and have a pretty good idea on what we are going to do. As its our 1st time
Friday night - not sure what time things close down but by the time we get to the hotel @4:30 get settled in it will be @ 5:30 want to get some milk and snacks
Saturday-Ferry Bldg market taking Cable Car (buying Bus 3 day pass that allows us to use most of the transportation avail) Chinatown Unless we can do this Friday night??
Sunday early tour of Alcatraz and then onto see the submarine and the Wharf area
Monday pick up car @ 8:30-9 am cross the Golden Gate Bridge (take photo's we hope there is a place to stop on the other side?) onto Napa to Wine tour - Printed off a pretty good map from http://WineCountry.com">WineCountry.com going to drive straight up to Nickel & Nickel then onto Frogs Leap stop for a picnic lunch at Casa Nuestra then come back down Silverado Trail, Joseph Phelps Plumpjack and maybe Robert Sinkey we will be splitting some of the wine tasting as we understand that we should only be doing 3-4 wineries. Then onto our hotel
Tuesday- doing the South End of wineries want to see the view from Artesa as per trip tips
Not sure where we will have supper will we need to make reservations we do not want anything high class, about 50 -70$$ each for our last night then back to San Francisco to catch a plane home.

If you want to tweak this it would be much appreciated and or any other advise. One can get quite over whelmed with the amount of information so I am putting together a booklet of an antennary so that we can at least stay on some kind of time schedule otherwise we end up roaming mindlessly and missing something that we really wanted to see oh also have to visit the Fire station, hubby fireman

Because youhave to take the rental car back downtown and then a shuttle plus rush hour traffic, if I were driving I'd leave at 6:30. Getting across whichever bridgeyou take into the City can take a lot of time, or not, all depends on traffic.
On the south end of Sonoma County, not a terrible drive from Artesa, is Viansa Winery and Italian Market. The wines are average, but they have a great market.
Be sure to stop at Domaine Carneros, almost right across the highway from Artesa and Carneros Creek, that's you'll pass before you go up the hill to Artesa.

Change it to return the rental at the airport. May have to pay an extra fee may balance out the shuttle / subway

Dollar Car rental has an office on O'Farrell Street which is Union Square.

We were able to pick up a rental there and drive it [we went south to Monterey area] and then return it directly to airport for no additional drop off fee. It worked out great. Plus, we got a great rate - 3 days with all fees etc was under $80.

Deb

If you can return the car to the airport, that would be the way to go. You could leave Napa at 8 then and avoid most of the rush hour traffic. 6:30 is the worst time to leave.

Otherwise, I'd stay that last night closer to the airport.

If you change to drop the car at the airport, you can go from Napa to SFO via I680 and I80 and 101 and never have to drive in the city after your initial departure.