I'm going to San Francisco!
 

DH and I will be making a trip to San Francisco at the end of August, staying at the JW Marriott. I understand that's a great location for shopping. I'm soooo excited. I've only been to the Pacific coast once before (San Diego) and the beauty there absolutely dazzled me.

We will stay there for a few days, then travel north about 45 miles, to stay in the vacation home of a colleague of my husband's (assuming that the dates are ok for him).
Any suggestions on things I must do are greatly appreciated. I could just sit and watch the water, but DH will want to do things. He's very "touristy" .

DH will be working while we're at the Marriott, which is ok with me since I definitely want to shop. I love art and hand-made crafts that are specific to the area. Oh, and of course, we enjoy a good meal!

Thanks.
Vicki

I'd have your hotel arrange a tour..there are great tours of the city. Also on this post Stu Dudley (sp?) has posted great suggestions for what to see and do.
Where are you going when you go North? If its Healdsburg, you'll see the beautiful wine country of Sonoma County..better than Napa. Enjoy our state........

I was just at the JW Marriott last week. We shopped a lot as well.

I thought the corner room we had was great. It was large and spacious, bed was comfortable, the flat panel HDTV was nice but the shower was crazy small. You can't really even bend over in it so don't drop the soap!

Here is a link to some of my suggestions
http://www.fodors.com/forums/threads...1&tid=35129049

Stu Dudley

For hand-made crafts you'll find better deals at the Russian River (Guerneville).

Noe Valley is one of the nicer neighborhoods to shop in along 24th Street.

The J-Church Muni street car goes to Noe Valley.

I recommend the free, docent led tour of City Hall.

Also, the SF public library has dozens of free, [gratuity appreciated] tours of the city's best. We did 2 of them and loved the getting the insider's view of things we would never have seen. In fact, we are talking about a return visit so that we can do more of these tours!

http://www.sfcityguides.org/

{The 2 tours we did were: "City Scapes & Public Spaces" and "Victorian Homes"}

Deb