Oakland, CA Airport
 

Is this airport as convenient as SFO to get to downtown San Francisco???? As far as public transportation is concerned.

SFO is a bit easier.

You can take BART from both airports (Bay Area Rapid Transit).

See www.bart.org

SFO is about 10 miles from downtown SF.
OAK is about 20 miles from downtown SF.

If you use BART, you have to first take a short bus ride to get from the airport to the station. Whereas at SFO the BART station is right at the airport.

There are also shuttle buses, but Im not familiar with these. Maybe someone else can help with the buses.

Have a safe trip!

SFO would be the most convenient, since the BART station is right in the airport. (At least that's what I've read; we were going last mo. but had to cancel.)

Last year, we flew into Oakland, because the flight was cheaper and there were better seats available on the plane. We (4 of us) took the bus to the BART station, BART to downtown SF, and a taxi to our hotel. Total cost was $40-45. Going home, we took a taxi all the way from SF to the Oakland airport. Total cost was $50.

Transportation on the BART from SFO should cost less than half that.

BART from SFO to downtown is $5 per person; from OAK to downtown it's $3.15 per person plus $2 per person for the AirBART Shuttle bus. BART travel time from SFO is roughly 1/2 hour, from OAK is roughly 20 minutes plus the time for riding the shuttle and making the connection.

There are also a number of door-to-door shuttles. SuperShuttle serves both airports to downtown SF. To a downtown hotel from SFO it's $13.50 per person. From OAk it's $25 for the first person, and $15 for additional persons in the same group.

www.bart.gov

www.supershuttle.com/htm/cities/sfo.htm

Well, I'm certain the innocent readers of this forum will take your advice, Robinsen/Abi/Guarto/Franklinn/Lake or whatever you choose to call yourself today.

That is, they will take your advice over my AAA Auto Guide information.

I also wonder about the fog, which must follow you wherever you go, Abi/etc. Since all three airports are located almost next to SAN FRANCISCO Bay, it's strange that the fog will hit only SFO and not the other two airports. VERY strange fog!

Where do you REALLY live, Abi? You seem to have so much MISINFORMATION about the Bay Area!

Oakland Airport may be "closer" to downtown SF than SFO (as the crow flies?) but I would say it is more convenient to get to downtown from SFO. In addition to BART there are buses and Super Shuttles.

Easytraveler, are you saying that SFO *doesn't* have far more fog/weather delays than OAK or SJC?

I find the sheer size of SFO makes it rather inconvenient; long hikes to/from the gates and dragging bags around. Haven't used BART there, but I thought you still had to take a separate shuttle train from the terminals to the bart station.

If you are using BART, I would call it a tossup, if a shuttle, SFO will be cheaper. Of course, there are more non-stop flights into SFO; I live in San Jose and I will still fly out of SFO at times to avoid multi-hops.

Oakland is definitely better than San Francisco. It turns out that SFO is the 5th worst airport in the country for delays. Other advantages that OAK has is that it's closer to SF and the public transportation on BART is very convenient to SF as well.

The Top 20 Worst Airports

Rank
Airport Total
Operations Total
Delays % Operations
Delayed
1 NYC La Guardia
2 Chicago O'Hare
3 Newark
4 Atlanta
5 San Francisco
6 Boston
7 Philadelphia
8 Dallas/Fort Worth
9 Los Angeles
10 Phoenix
11 NYC JFK
12 Houston Intercont.
13 Detroit
14 Washington Dulles
15 St. Louis
16 Cincinnati
17 Minneapolis
18 Miami
19 Teterboro
20 Seattle

Source: Federal Aviation Administration


http://abcnews.go.com/sections/us/Da...ays010131.html

If you go by mapquest's driving distance, SFO is 13.6 miles from Market/11th. OAK is 20.17 miles.

On Yahoo maps SFO is 11.8 miles from SF and OAK is 11.5 miles from SF.

Driving distance from Oakland downtown to SF downtown is 11.5 miles on maps.yahoo.com, which uses mapquest technology.

If you type in the address of the Oakland Airport, which is:
1 Airport Drive
Oakland, CA 94621

you get 19.6 miles.

So, I think it's accurate to say that SFO is about 12 miles from downtown SF, and OAK is 20 miles by car.

To say that the Oakland Airport is about 10-12 miles from downtown SFO by car is simply wrong.

How is it possible for Oakland Airport to be only 11.5 miles from downtown SF?

Oakland Airport is south of downtown Oakland, near the Coliseum. It is about a 10 miles drive northward just to get from the Airport to downtown Oakland. One HAS to go this way to get from Oakland Airport to San Francisco.

Then, to get from Oakland to San Francisco, one has to cross the Bay Bridge, a "modern marvel" of a bridge, which by itself is 8 miles long.

Lake/Abi/Robinsen/Guarto/Whatever , not only do you disseminate misinformation about the Bay Area, but you also INVENT facts and figures to fit your own fantasies!

I'd go with rkkwan's figures any day.

Hey, cool! Finally, for the first time, I get involved in one of these weird San Francisco vs surround areas debate... This is so much fun.

Anyways, if you click on my name, you'll see that I usually has nothing to say about SF/OAK/SanJose. But I was a truck driver, and am obsessed with maps, distance and driving directions. That's the only reason why I've posted in this thread.

rkkwan, if you click on any of the names in these threads you can figure out pretty quickly what's going on. And it's not a debate -- it's one disturbed person.
PS Welcome to The Borg! You are now part of us. :-D

I last went to SF before the new BART station, but I have used both OAK and SFO. Both are reasonably convenient to downtown, although SFO undoubtedly does have the edge now. I'd go with whatever gives you the best schedule and price.

Having lost one round to rkkwan on the realitic distances from airport to downtown SF,

enter Abi/Robinsen/Lake/etc. as "Hann" - another one of his 62 or 162 different names.

This time he's smearing rkkwan as one of "us" or "us-as-one" and tossing out another piece of misleading garbage: that the BART station is in the "International Terminal" at SFO, for heavens' sakes!

What does this mean in ONE building that is shaped like a closed U? Nothing. The International Terminal is in the same building as are the other terminals. YOU DON'T HAVE TO CHANGE TERMINALS, i.e., buildings. There is NO shuttle that you have to take at SFO to get to BART. What nonsense!

In other words, the BART Station at SFO is right there in that ONE terminal building and is very easy to access.

Check out flysfo.com which will give you as much info as you may need.

The Oakland Airport BART station, on the other hand, is OUTSIDE the airport, which is why you have to take a minishuttle to get from the airport to the BART station.

I'd go with WillTravel's suggestion that you consider as more important the elements of flight time and flight price, as flying into either SFO or OAK would be fine as far as ground transportation is concerned. The difference is not that great.

Curmudgeon: If you have a lot of luggage and if the distances are too great next time at SFO, take the free Airtrain inside the ONE terminal building next time. :) It's to help passenger make connections.

BTW, the free Airtrain also stops at Terminal G where the BART station is located.

Personally, I'd consider myself lucky if I have to go to the International Terminal(s) at SFO. It's the FOOD! Such great international choices! :)

hbo6:Have a safe trip!

Sorry for the typo: that's "realistic distances".