My husband and I are planning a trip in April for 8 nights to San Francisco and have an idea of what we would like to do, but need some guidance and advice. We would really prefer not to have to rent a car while we are there. We would like to have the following tours along with the city sights as well. The carmel area, Alcatraz, a wine country tour,and possibly a muir woods tour. We want to see as much as possible, yet we are trying to budget our money as well. We are open to some suggestions. We will be arriving around noon on a Friday and will be departing on a Saturday around 11:00. Thanks

there are a few excellent posts going on right now - i highly encourage you do a "things to do in san francisco" search on this board and read through them.

I'm currently in SFO and printed about 10 pages of things to do, eat, drink and places to sleep during my stay!

Hi cindy, if you click on California next to the search engine and type in Stu Dudley in the search box you will see many posts by Stu that gives a lot of good information. Now he doesn't enjoy some things that the typical visiting SF, especially for the first time, such as Fisherman's Wharf but you will be able to read very valuable information which should help you plan your days.

Also, note that SFO is the San Francisco Airport..SF is San Francisco.

There are also many other threads regarding visiting SF as cfntmpn said so you will have a lot of reading to do!

I hope you are enjoying your visit cfntmpn, and thankfully you are not having rain which sure helps! Have fun.

Hi Cindy. My husband & I are planning a trip to SF in May for 7 nights! We want to do some of the same things that you are interested in. We are thinking, however, of renting a car for a couple of the trips to have some flexibility, such as the Muir Woods/Pt Reyes Ntl Seashore day & for a trip down the coast to Monterrey/Carmel (we actually may decide to do an overnight there midweek). We may decide to do a day tour for wine country (some folks recommend Extranomical Tours). We would just rent a car for those day trips when we need one & use public transportation the rest of the time. Comparing prices for the tours, especially smaller groups, with car rental, you might come out ahead with renting a car by the day & taking your own tour - unless of course you'd just rather leave the driving to someone else, which is also nice to do on vacation!

You can't do wine country, muir woods and carmel using public transportation. A bus tour to Monterey includes Carmel. Not sure if there is one tour for both Muir and Wine. Even if yes, it will be expensive.

I advise to rent a car for 2 days. 1 day to explore Monterey-Carmel area, possibly Santa Cruz. Another day go to Muir woods early to get a parking spot, and then on to the wine country.

And please, Monterey has only one R in it, Monterrey with 2 Rs is in Mexico. You don't want to drive that far

In a nutshell, it is pretty easy to get around within San Francisco without a car. It is a great place to walk around and there are of course taxis, MUNI, and tour buses.

If you plan to leave SF and visit Marin, Napa, Sonoma, South Bay, or Monterey, you will need a car.

Have fun in the Bay Area.

Rent a car when u leave the city, rent a convertible and go along the coast from Muir woods to wine country. Rent bikes and ride over the Golden Gate Bridge to Sausalito have lunch and ferry back. Make sure u rent a convertible, will be worth extra $$$

The "rent a car for two days" to do the day trips is the only way.

If you do that, try to hit the Marin Headlands just on the Marin side of the Golden Gate Bridge even if it is for a drive by and photo op. You can then head up to Muir woods and the wine country.

Have a great time.

thereyet

I am thinking of taking the advice and maybe renting a car to go to the carmel area. Would we be better off to also do the Muir Wood's renting a car? Are the wineries near the Carmel area worth a visit instead of sonoma or Napa, where we would already be in the area? What about Big Basin State Park instead of Muir Woods? Any ideas on how to get everthing in the easiest way so we only have to renbt a car for a couple days? We are arriving in San Francisco on a Friday and are staying until the following saturday. Maybe it would be easier to rent the car at the airport on Friday and return to the city on Monday or something. Suggestions?

Use your rental car to visit Muir woods and head up to the wineries in Sonoma Co.

Dear cindy:

The wineries in the Carmel Valley/Monterey County would be fine to visit. It is also a highly regarded wine growing region. You wouldn't be missing anything by not going to Napa/Sonoma. I think this would work better with your plan. Rent the car at the beginning or end of your trip.

MY

Well it seems like you should either go North or South. Listed below are attractions in each direction:

North-Point Reyes/Muir Woods, Mt Tam, Sausalito-Tiburon, Napa, Sonoma, Russian River, Jenner

South- Pacifica/Half Moon Bay, Palo Alto, Santa Cruz, Big Basin Park, San Jose, Stanford, Monterey, Carmel

If you select either choice, you will see spectacular places. I would go North since the drive down to Carmel is really far.

Have a great trip.
Dario

If you want to get the total "wine country" experience, go north to the Napa area and do some planning on the wineries you want to visit. If you are going south to the Carmel area, there are small wineries, but not the same experience. Carmel is a pretty little town on the beach with small shops and B&Bs. Has one of the best beaches on the Northern coast. You can take the 17 mile drive along the Pebble Beach Resort.
If you do, the $8 gate fee to get in will be refunded to you if you stop and eat or shop at Pebble Beach or Spanish Bay. Best weather along the coast is between storms in the winter or September to November. California coast tends to be overcast in the early summer months (June - July)
There are many golf courses in the Monterey area as well. The drive down the coast highway 1 thru Santa Cruz to Carmel would give you one experience, and the return to S.F on 101) thru the valley would be another. If you really have time for the drive back, take the Carmel Valley Road east (where the wineries in the area are) out to Greenfield, and then start back North...You will see where all the produce is grown and some beautiful scenery.

we too are visiting SF for a week. We are renting a car for our last two days and are flying back east on a red eye the second nite. We are staying over nite in Sonoma. I am confused as to the order we should do things. Want to do Muir woods, Tiburon, Sonoma and wine tasting, Reyes Point. any suggestions? DJ

Start with Muir woods as the parking space is tiny, fills up fast. Go there as early as you can.

Are you sure you want to drive to Tiburon? It's a long drive around... maybe a boat will be better?

You are getting some good advice here and some bad advice. I hope this will help you sort some of it out.

1. Take the advice on reading Stu Dudley to help you sort out what really matters to you.

2. You are talking about at least two trips here: one to the city of San Francisco, one to the surrounding countryside but in two different directions. It is _all_ wonderful, and you can do a good bit of it if you can accept only skimming the surface. For more depth, drop either Monterey/Carmel or the Wine Country.

3. You don't want a car in the city, though the city is easy to drive through as long as you stick to freeways. There are plenty of rental agencies in the city, but it is not easy to drive in and out.

4. What time of day do you arrive?
If you arrive at SFO the airport by noonish on a weekend, you can easily drive to Monterey or Carmel and have time to wander through the scenery and get your bearings before dark. Next day, spend the morning sightseeing locally (Monterey has never seemed that interesting to me), have lunch, and drive north to Napa or Sonoma or one of the other towns in the wine region. They are only a little over an hour from the airport, 3 and a half from Carmel.

5. Spend a couple of nights in the Wine Country, and you still have five nights in San Francisco. You can stop in Muir Woods and at the Marin headlands on the way back to the city. I would probably add a night in the wine country and subtract one in SF, but your interests may vary.

6. If you come down through Muir Woods, you are going to cross the Golden Gate and spend some time on city streets. When you get into San Francisco, you could drop one person and the luggage at the hotel while the other takes the car back to the airport and takes the BART back into the city. Or you can both go back to the airport and take a van into the city. A van will run $15 each, a taxi about $45 and the BART something like $5.35 to Powell and Market.

By spending money, you can also do all this stuff on day trips organized by your hotel, but why pay money for a hotel room if you are not going to be in it?

Just be clear on what matters to you, and haave a really wonderful time!

I would suggest going into SF to start the trip [use BART to get to downtown/hotel area]. Pick up a rental car IN San Francisco and then go either north or south for a couple of days.

By picking the car up in town, you save on a lot of fees that you pay if you rent at airport.

Also, Dollar will let you pick up a car in city and drop it off at airport for no additional fee! A great way to get yourself back to the airport easily and save some $$. Also, by picking up car just as we were leaving the city to so to Pacific Grove, we did not have to pay any parking/garage fees for the car [VERY expensive in SF].

We just did this and it worked out great. Got a car for $22 a day and only paid sales tax. Ran $25 a day total costs included.

ALSO - we bought a 7 day muni pass for $24 and it was money well spent. At $5 a pop for cable car and $1.50 each way for bus, it paid for itself in 2 days.

Deb

Better advice than mine!

I second the suggestion of renting a car for Muir Woods/wine country and/or Monterey Carmel. Try staying overnight in the wine country area. I believe there's some fairly inexpensive lodging in Santa Rosa. You'll save both on lodging costs and on parking, which is horrendous in SF.

If you're doing the wine country, you might want to look at the Russian River Wine Road. Napa and Sonoma have become pretty commercialized (imho). If you jump over the hills to the Alexander Valley area the next morning (or stay in Santa Rosa and just drive north a bit) you'll get to see a calmer and less touristy wine country. I highly recommend visiting Korbel Champagne Cellars in Gurneville. Their winery is gorgeous, they have a great tour, and they have free tasting. Healdsburg is an interesting place to stop for lunch and wine tasting, too. There are some great restaurants and interesting shops, plus there are several tasting rooms right in town, most close to the central square.

Enjoy your trip!

As long as we're talking about good/bad advice, re this advice: "You don't want a car in the city, though the city is easy to drive through as long as you stick to freeways."

It is much easier to get places by car on city streets than on the freeways in SF. Much of 80 through the city is under construction and it's awful. For the most parts, freeways won't get you where you want to go in the city anyway.

That said, I agree with the advice not to get a car until you're ready to LEAVE the city. (P.S. I live here).