Does anyone have any suggestions for safe, affordable parking outside of San Francisco for 3-4 days (a Saturday - Tuesday)? We will be arriving via I-80 as part of a cross-country road trip this Fall and would prefer to park outside of the city and take public transportation in. I understand that driving/parking in San Francisco is not recommended (especially for us Midwesterners!).
Any help/suggestions would be really helpful. Thanks in Advance.

Where will you be staying in SF? There are a number of hotels with free parking, otherwise, hotel parking can be very expensive.

driving in to SF is not gawd awful bad except during the commute hours. Busy - of course, but certainly doable. It will likely be better to find a hotel/motel in SF that has parking and leave your car untouched most of the time you are in the city. You may find you do need the car during the 4 days it you are going to Muir Woods or somewhere else as a day trip.

Where are you going after SF? If anywhere other than the direction you came from in the first place - the complication of getting back out to the outer suburbs to pick up the car will add time/hassle for the next leg of your trip.

Parking in San Francisco can be very expensive, especially at all of the major hotels. If you don't want to drive into the city, you can park at one of the Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) parking lots by making advance reservations to do so. You can then get on the train which will take you into San Francisco. Here is the web site.

http://tinyurl.com/23d6xj

Sure - parking can be very expensive. But if you stay somewhere like these 2 sister properties - parking is free.

http://www.cowhollowmotorinn.com/