Impromptu 2 days in San Francisco - please help with itinerary
 

Greetings to all ye kind Fodorites. My brother will be in SF for a convention next weekend and I was given permission to crash in his hotel room. Yay!

Arriving Friday night 9:30. First question: Will it be easiest to catch a cab from the airport to Westin on Market Street? I looked into getting a car service and gasped at the quote. Sigh. Renting a car is not an option.

Any good sushi place close to Westin that will still be open at around 11? If not sushi, any other recommendations?

Here's what's on my wish list:

Saturday 4/20
morning - head over to Ferry Building/Farmer's Market. There is a Goat Festival (?!) that day and I need to check it out, if only because I love goat cheese and have enjoyed a goat curry or two years ago. :-) http://www.ferrybuildingmarketplace...._fest_2013.php

After a couple of hours of grazing and munching, next stop is the SFMOMA.

Walk around Union Square and/or head on to Noe Valley for dinner at Incanto or Contigo.
No car, but I think my brother can join me for dinner and we will take a taxi as it is quite a distance from the hotel.

Sunday 4/21
Walk to Sears Fine Food for breakfast. I hear the french toast is quite good! :-) No reservations taken for breakfast/lunch. I understand that the line can be long, and I was wondering if it is realistic to be at the restaurant by 7 am if I want to be at St. Patrick's for the 9 am mass..... The alternative is breakfast at the hotel's Ducca. Breakfast will need to be substantial because I won't have another bite until after I've been to the next two stops - and most likely, that will be dinner. (groan).

10:30 or 11:00 am timed ticket to see the Terra Cotta Warriors at the Asian Art Museum

Maybe 2 pm or 2:30 pm - De Young's Vermeer Exhibit: Girl with a Pearl Earring. Thinking about a timed ticket for maybe 2 pm (it closes at 5:15 pm). I've never been to the De Young/Legion of Honor and don't know if I should allot more time here?

For those lucky enough to have seen the two exhibits where I need to get timed tickets - is this schedule sane? I'm not sure if I should switch one of the Sunday museums for the SFMOMA on Saturday?

Finally, may I ask for restaurant suggestions close to the Westin for Sunday night? My brother will be able to join me for dinner - we are both fond of tapas, Japanese, seafood, fusion food. Italian, if it's not the Olive Garden type..... Or we can switch dinner plans and go to Incanto or one of the Noe Valley restaurants on Sunday instead of Saturday and eat dinner close to the hotel on Saturday. I just don't feel like taking a long drive for dinner for the two nights that we will be dining together.

Regarding shopping: Not interested in big-name stores, outlet stores, or other typical mall stores. Interested in local artists (paintings, jewelry, pottery).... one-of-a-kind pieces. I realize I may probably not even have any time to do any shopping, but was wondering if you know of any stores close to any of the places that I'll be going to? Oh, and I was hoping to have time to maybe check out A.G. Ferrari or any other food places you recommend. I'll have a mostly-empty suitcase that I can fill with edible goodies.....

I'm not BART-savvy and will most likely walk or take a taxi as needed.

Anxiously waiting for your kind replies.....

Lots of questions buried in your post.

It's also a mixture of what you have planned vs. questions.

Check out the public transportation in SF, it's very very good. It's called MUNI.

Unless they've changed recently, Sears is cash only.

Oh, I'm so sorry. In my haste to post my question, I forgot about the next day.

Monday 4/22

Maybe this is when I should go to Sears for breakfast? My flight leaves at noon. Being unfamiliar with traffic patterns, what time should I leave for the airport? I assume that there will be a taxi line at the hotel and this won't be a problem.....

Anything else I can do on Monday morning before I head to the airport? If not Sears for brekkie, is there any other place close to the hotel that you can recommend?

Thanks so much!

Rasta:

Thanks for your quick response. Yes (hanging my head in shame) - lots of buried questions....Thank you for the heads up about the cash-only policy at Sears.

So many things to comment on....

1) Do you have dinner reservations for Saturday night? You might be able to get into Contigo, Incanto will be much more difficult.

2) Tapas near the Westin - Colibri was quite good last time we were there. Not exactly tapas, but definitely "shareable".

3) Sushi near the Westin - there's always a line at Ketana-Ya. I'm not a sushi maven, so can't comment on quality.

4) SFMOMA - the current photography exhibit is supposed to be very good. Also, there's a new installation called "The Clock" that I've heard is mesmerizing.

5) You can definitely do both the Asian Art Museum and the DeYoung the same day. Take a taxi or a bus between the two (according to Googlemaps, it's a 17-minute drive or a 26-minute bus ride). Not sure how the Legion of Honor factors into this.

The line at Sears moves very quickly.

Taxi will take less than 30 minutes to the airport on Monday morning, especially since you won't be going during primetime rush-hour. Assuming you want to be there by 10:45, leave the hotel between 10 and 10:15. Yes, there will be a taxi queue at the hotel.

Two more things:

On Monday morning, just walk around Union Square.

Don't miss the light project on the Bay Bridge. It's only on the north side of hte bridge, so you have to view it looking north to south. A good spot is just south of the Ferry Building.

sf:

I was hoping you'd stop by. :-)

You're right - Incanto for Saturday dinner is almost impossible, except for a very early dinner. Had more luck with Sunday.

Will definitely check out "The Clock" at the SFMOMA. Just googled a few pictures of the light project on the Bay Bridge - that is amazing!

Thank you for all your tips! Looking forward to all my "me time" in SF!

Glad to be of service :-)

What airport are you flying into/out of? You can take BART from either, but it is a bit easier from SFO than OAK [you have to take a bus to BART station].

I would get Terracotta tix ASAP - when we were there, the line to buy was out of the door to the curb. Check out all 3 floors of Asian Mus. - very interesting.

The Girl is very worth seeing, and if the days is nice, go to the 9th floor observation tower. They are not strict with the timing, so don't worry about it. Don't spend much time at DeYoung, go to the Legion after The Girl and the tower.

Debit: It's the San Francisco airport. I'm taking a suitcase though - would it be easy to haul that thing around? :-)

Dayenu: Will get the Terra Cotta ticket as soon as I post this.
I wasn't sure how I would manage both Legion and DeYoung, but I'll take your advice and head straight to the Legion of Honor after seeing Vermeer's painting.... Will try to catch one of the free tours as well.

Thank you!

p.s. Any favorite restaurants near the Westin Market Street area? :-)

Hi gelatolover,

It's great that you can join your brother in San Francisco!

In looking at your itinerary, here's one thing that sticks out - you are planning to go to mass on Sunday and then take in three museums? That's really a bit too much. You will have sensory overload times three.

The DeYoung exhibit is timed to allow you only an hour. You can exceed your hour as there is a lot to see. Get the audio, it's well worth the $6 or $7 and then take your time going through the entire exhibit.

Having seen the Terra Cotta Warriors in situ in Xian, I haven't gone to see the current exhibit at the Asian Art Museum. Personally, I wouldn't want to do Asian art and Western art together in one day, especially when the exhibits are so specialized.

I would suggest doing DeYoung and SFMOMA together and do the Warriors on a separate day. Depending on whether your own preferences are classical art or modern art, you can portion your time between the first two.

The Legion of Honor is really way out and may not be worthwhile to make a trip out there, especially with your time limit. Maybe another day would be better.

Welcome to San Francisco! It sounds like you already have a wonderful plan worked out!

San Francisco has a very good public transportation system. You really don't need a car. BART is a train, it's really easy. You go to the station, get on the train, then get off the train and leave the other station. It's really easy peasy.

Here's how to get from the airport to Central SF.

http://www.bart.gov/guide/airport/inbound_sfo.aspx

You want to get off at the Powell Street Station, then follow the cable car tracks for a couple of blocks and you'll be on Union Square and the Westin St Francis.

Here's a map of the BART stations:

http://www.bart.gov/stations/

At the Powell Street stop, as you emerge from the station, there will be a SFMTA kiosk where you can buy a three-day passport ($22) that will allow you to take almost any kind of transportation. The kiosk also has a very good easy-to-understand map of the entire transportation system. The map is really worth while.

p.s. Any favorite restaurants near the Westin Market Street area?

What kind of food? There's a very good, upscale Indian restaurant, Amber India, around the corner, and a very good, very upscale (but not as upscale/expensive as, say, French Laundry or Meadowood ;) ) restaurant in the St. Regis next door (Ame). Those are just two of so many!

You can take a suitcase on BART, but the smaller it is, the easier it will be to manage. Since you'll only be there for a weekend, you should be able to get away with a small one! :)

easytraveler:

I am embarrassed to tell you that I thought that the two museums (De Young and the Legion of Honor) were right next to each other. Duh...... So much for planning without actually checking the map. You are right - the schedule I had initially set is a bit much and so I am definitely removing the Legion of Honor for this trip. Going back to SF in October and will make that a priority.

And THANK YOU for encouraging me to use the BART. I lived in fear of the NYC subway until kind Fodorites urged me to give it a go, and so I did and had such a positive experience. I shall endeavor to use the BART then.

sf:

Thank you for the restaurant recommendations. Made a reservation via opentable for Ame for Saturday night. Took a look at the menu - it is TOTALLY what my brother and I like to eat. :-)

French Laundry - heh heh, that's right up his alley, but I think he would rather take his wife than his sister.

After learning my lesson to look at the map, I took a look at the Incanto location and found to my dismay that it's quite a distance from the hotel. So now I am looking for another restaurant for Sunday night.

We both love seafood, Japanese, French, fusion, tapas, Mediterranean, some Italian as long as it's seafood, not pasta..... We don't have an aversion to steak (love it, in fact) but he can easily get good steak back where he lives......

Btw, sf7307, I would love to see your personal list of restaurant/shopping favorites - that would come in handy for a return trip in the fall as well.

tentthumbs:

I'll still be lugging around a bigger suitcase (not carry-on size) to hold anything that I could get my greedy hands on..... just in case.....

I will definitely give the BART a go, just maybe not to and from the airport.

Thanks, all you kind people! You make traveling a pleasure!!! :-)

I have seen folks lugging large suitcases on BART......but the smaller ones are easier to manage. You could also take a fold up tote in your carry on just in case greed really sets in and you exceed the capacity of your carry on. :)

If you go towards Market Street from the Westin St Francis (follow the cable car tracks), right across the street is the Westfield Shopping Center, one of the high end shopping "plazas", only this one goes upwards instead of spreading out.

Down in the basement is the food area. There's a Bristol Farms in the center and it has some of the best poke (marinated raw tuna) around. Bristol Farms may have food stuffs that you would want to tote home (don't know where you live that you want to carry home a suitcase full of food! :) ). It has a really good cheese department, so maybe you could bring a cooler as well. Just kidding! That would be the most convenient major food shopping close to the Westin that I can think of.

If your flight leaves at noon and you get to SFO early enough, there is a very good food court in the International Terminal (anyone can go in there) with an Ebisu branch. Serves pretty good sushi - for a last minute taste of Japan before you leave:

http://ebisusushi.com/ebisu-sushi-menu.php?location=3

"I will definitely give the BART a go, just maybe not to and from the airport."

That is exactly where you would use BART, it normally wouldn't be used for "in"the city transit. For that, you would use MUNI for either bus, the historic F street car on Market, or light rail for getting from place to place while in the city.

http://www.sfmta.com/cms/mhome/home50.htm

We had a delightful dinner at Farallon in January. They specialize in seafood, the service was excellent, and the architecture wonderful. It is on the first floor of the historic Mason Building, and part of the restaurant is in the intriguing tiled and muraled bath house. It is just around the corner from the Westin St Francis on Sutter St, I think - next door to the Kensington Park Hotel.

Regarding Sears Fine Food, we have gone twice and have not been that impressed. They do move guests through quite fast and they know how to handle lots of tourists. The food's not terrible, it's just not all that great. They are "known" for their Swedish Pancakes, but we found them to be more like regular pancakes, only smaller. If you are used to really good coffee, you'll be disappointed. Depends on what you are looking for...