My husband and I are taking a weekend trip to San Francisco in July and staying three nights (Friday through Monday). We are flying into the San Jose airport and will be arriving at 9:45 p.m. We plan on staying in the city of San Francisco but I'm trying to decide if we should spend the first night at a hotel around the airport or drive to our hotel in San Francisco. We will be renting a car. I'm assuming it would be easier to get to our hotel in San Francisco in the late evening than it would be on a Saturday morning, traffic-wise? How far is San Jose airport from downtown San Francisco? I've been to San Francisco before but my husband has not. Any recommendations on what we should do?

By the time you get your luggage and yur rental car it will probably be about 11:00 or 11:30 PM. I would recommend staying the first night in San Jose. Downtown would be a lot nicer than staying by the airport. SF is about 1.5 hr from the city, depending on the traffic. Saturday should not be a problem. I would recommend taking 280 rather than 101 since 101 tends to have more problems with traffic and 280 is also more scenic.

My recommendation is to scrap the car rental idea if you are spending all three days in SF. You won't need it, and it's expensive to park. You can take public transportation from the SJ airport to SF, and public transport around SF is quite good.

Hi, tcreath!

I'd offer you a compromise. jenifer is correct, you don't really need a car to tour San Francisco. However, the fastest way to get from San Jose Airport to downtown San Francisco is by rental car. So, I'd suggest getting a car for the ride to and from the airport. There have been Fodorites who have recommended the Cow Hollow Suites in San Francisco as having free parking. Maybe someone could confirm this?

If you haven't made reservations already, then try and get a hotel that doesn't charge for parking, as parking fees in San Francisco could range up to $30 a day. Cow Hollow is pretty convenient to a lot of places.

On the drive up: Where you stay will impact a bit on the length of time it'll take you to get from airport to hotel.

If you arrive in San Jose at 9:45pm, you shouldn't have much trouble getting your luggage and your car, unless there is a whole lot of incoming flights (not very likely, this being a business traveler airport). 11 to 11:30pm is probably a worst case scenerio. I'd say about 30 minutes at the fastest and 45 minutes as realistic from time of arrival to time when you are in your rental car.

San Jose Airport is under construction at the moment, so whether you get a car to go to a local hotel or whether you drive up to San Francisco, you need to be able to find your way out of the airport.

From the car rental lot, you will take a LEFT at the light. Stay in the LEFT HAND lane all the way. If you get to merging lanes, get into the leftmost lane. Look for signs saying Highway 101 NORTHBOUND. Highway 101 will take you up to San Francisco.

If you choose the Cow Hollow Suites, just stay on Highway 101 which eventually turns into Lombard Street intown. Cow Hollow is on Lombard Street.

The route I've delineated is probably the easiest route through the maze of highways in the Bay Area.

Once you've found your way out of San Jose Airport, I'd guess that it will take you about a hour to get to your hotel. This includes driving in San Francisco traffic. At that time of night, you shouldn't have too much trouble negotiating San Francisco city traffic.

Contrast this with maybe half an hour getting to a hotel in San Jose. Right now, the nearest airport hotels are on one side of the freeway - with no viable quick way to get to them because of the construction. It's difficult to know what the situation will be like in July. So, if you want to stay in a San Jose hotel, you probably have to drive away from the airport - and, if you are going to drive away from the airport, you might as well start for San Francisco.

Hope this helps!

I agree w/ just about everything easytraveler says. You certainly wouldn't need (or probably want) a car if you are just staying in SF. But if you decide to go over to the Marin county coast/Muir Woods or maybe a day in the wine country, you will want a car. But a car IS the easiest way to get to the city from San Jose.

So IF you can find a hotel that has either free parking or some sort of discount parking package - rent a car at San Jose and drive to your SF hotel right after you arrive.

And for that short a trip you probably aren't checking luggage so you would only need about 1/2 and hour to get from the arrivals gate to the car rental desk.

Having done this, I'd advise going ahead and driving up to SF Friday night. It will add maybe 30-45 minutes to the time from collecting your bags/car to being in your hotel, and you'll wake up in your destination rather than close to it. Traffic will be lighter at that time than the next day. 101 vs 280 won't really matter - 280 is more scenic but at night you won't see the beautiful terrain anyway.

I want to thank everyone for their help! I think we are just going to rent a car at the airport and drive to San Fran that evening. We will probably keep the car parked most of the time but it seems like the easiest option.

Thanks again!!
Tracy