Review our San Francisco itinerary please
 

Hello.
We are hoping for some constructive criticism please of the first draft of our itinerary for a trip to San Francisco from Sunday, September 25, to Sunday, October 2.
We are then going to on to Carmel-Pacific Grove (October 3 and 4) and the winelands (Napa and Sonoma October 5 and 6), so would not need to include day trips within our San Francisco itinerary.
We will see Alcatraz from our boat cruise, and feel this is sufficient as we aren't terribly interested in touring the attraction itself.

Sunday, September 25: We only land at 6pm, so our plans are really limited to getting a cab to our Noe Valley self-catering apartment, leaving our luggage and popping out for some essential groceries. We don't sleep on planes and, after a trip from the UK, expect to be too tired for much exploring.

Monday, September 26: First objectives are to buy a disposable phone and visit the Union Square tourist information centre.
Then we would head back to Noe Valley to explore our immediate neighbourhood, along with the Catro and Mission District. We realise this means backtracking, but we find a visit to the tourist information centre can prove useful as a first port of call.

Tuesday, September 27: 10am Local Tastes of the City tour in North Beach, San Francisco boat cruise, Coit Tower and a wander around North Beach.
In the evening, a visit to AT&T Park to watch a baseball game.

Wednesday, September 28: Shopping in Union Square, and hopefully a walking tour of Chinatown. Perhaps some recommendations here please?

Thursday, September 29: Berkely - we've allocated a day to this, since there seems to be a lot to see.

Friday, September 30: Presidio, then walk across the Golden Gate Bridge to Sausalito (after 1pm as advised on previous posts) and take the ferry back to SF.

Saturday, October 1: Visit the Farmers' Market at Ferry Plaza, SFMOMA

Sunday, October 2: Lombard Street, Painted Ladies and, in the afternoon, Golden Gate Park and the De Young Museum.

We've kept our days as light as possible. We do tend to try and pack too much in and generally enjoy having a wander. We are wondering if we should swop Sunday and Friday. The work on the western walkway of Golden Gate should be complete by then (I think the website says it is closed for September) and I guess we wouldn't have to worry about competing with cyclists? Is this really a big problem? Do they invariably not yield to pedestrians as required?
Appreciate your time and advice.
Thanks
Lisa

You can find most all San Francisco tourist information on line. The one big reason to go to the tourist office is to purchase a pass for using the bus and cable car system, but that pass can also be purchased elsewhere: http://www.sfmta.com/cms/mfares/passports.htm

If you buy a pass, it is also useful to purchase a map of the transportation system.

Fodor's publishes an excellent guide to SF: http://www.fodors.com/world/north-am...san-francisco/

You may also find some good ideas here: http://www.frommers.com/destinations/sanfrancisco/

HTTY

Thank you

We will be there at the same time, 2 weeks and staying not too far from you.

We visit SF regularly and absolutely love doing free tours given by SF public library. A small donation [$5 or so per person] at end of tour is all that is suggested. We have done close to a dozen tours. They cover so many different aspects of SF.
http://www.sfcityguides.org/

Also, a free City Hall tours [given by docents at City Hall] is worthwhile [watch the movie "Milk" first.

Thanks, DebitNM. I didn't know about those tours. I've made a note.

A few years ago we took and greatly enjoyed a tour of the Haas-Lilienthal House: http://www.sfheritage.org/haas-lilienthal-house/

HTTY

HTTY - I didn't know about Haas-Lilienthal house; guess we have evened the score! :o)

This is really what makes Fodors so great - the exchange and sharing of info; the real essence of the site.

Thank you DebitNM, we are hoping to do one of these tours. We'll have a look at their calendar closer to the time to see what's available. We thought a tour would be particularly useful for an area like Chinatown.

My only comment is that you should move Lombard Street to the same day as Coit Tower - much closer.

Thanks sf307, we'll bear that in mind. I did worry that we were already cramming rather a lot into Tuesday's plans.

I love the City Guides tours - definitely recommend at least one.

Regarding the cyclists on the GGB, I think that the problems are overstated and mainly due to a few cyclists who try to zoom through and a few clueless pedestrians who don't watch where they are going. As long as you pay at least a little attention to your suroundings, you should be fine.

I love the City Guides tours - definitely recommend at least one.

Regarding the cyclists on the GGB, I think that the problems are overstated and mainly due to a few cyclists who try to zoom through and a few clueless pedestrians who don't watch where they are going. As long as you pay at least a little attention to your suroundings, you should be fine.

Thanks november_moon, we're looking forward to the walk.

It's a long walk from the north end of the GG Bridge to Sausalito. Is there a bus you can take into Sausalito to catch the ferry back?

Hi Charnees. I didn't realise it was a long walk from the end of the bridge into Sausalito. We will need to look into that further. Thank you. Lisa

I've just had a quick look and the entire walk seems to be two miles, which is fine for us. Would that be accurate?
Thanks
Lisa

Um ISA, it's about 6 miles from the San Francisco side of the bridge into downtown Sausalito. Ye/' you can return on the ferry.

Well, that should have said "UKLisa", not "Um ISA"!

Thanks, I think we can manage that - just done some fairly challenging walks in Wales - and I think the views and experience will be worth the effort.

The views I can vouch for, not the experience (never done it in the 38 years I've lived here :-) )

Reviewing the itinerary today, topping for any final thoughts?
Thank you
Lisa

I think you're still cramming too much into your day on Tuesday - you're going to fall asleep in your seats at AT&T park and miss the ball game!

Did you see my "ideas"???
http://www.fodors.com/community/unit...mendations.cfm

Have breakfast or lunch at Savor on 24th in the Noe Valley. Dine outside in the back. We also like Firefly on 24th, Contigo on Castro just south of 24th, Bacco on Diamond just north of 24th, Incanto & Pomelo (very casual) on Church.
There is a Whole Foods grocery on the north side of 24th between Noe & Sanchez streets.

Stu Dudley

Dress very, very warmly for the ball park. People bring their winter coats with hoods and blankets - no kidding. Even though it's summer, the moment the sun sets, it can get really cold.

Layer your clothing - t-shirt, sweater, jacket. If the hotel will let you, bring one of their blankets, since I assume you don't travel with a blanket every trip you take. :)

Wednesday, Union Squre and chinatown. What kind of recommendations were you looking for here? Shopping? Food? Places to visit?

Thanks for all the advice.
We were hoping for feedback on whether we were using our time wisely, planning sights in the same part of the city each day to avoid backtracking and, yes, whether we were cramming too much in.
We'll revisit our Tuesday plan if that sounds too much and take layers for the game. We have our tickets now!
Stu, yes I have your recommendations including the Noe Valley walk and restaurants. We love Italian food, have a medium range budget for restaurants. We won't eat out every night to save our budget so the advice on grocery stores is great too. Thanks for that.
We'd also like some seafood restaurant recommendations if anyone has a mid-range favourite please?
Thank you again for your generous help.

Almost every restaurant in The City will have some seafood selections. Pomelo has several seafood choices. We are going there for Paella on Aug 13 or 20 (they have it once a month on weekends).

I noted that you want to visit the Castro from the Noe Valley. The Castro's real/historic name is the Eureka Valley (Castro became a neighborhood name in the 70s). Usually between two valleys there is a mountain - which is the case between the Noe Valley & Eureka Valley. It is quite a steep hill. Unless you are a mountain trekker, you won't want to walk between the two valleys. Take the 24 Divisadero bus instead, or the J-Church. Church St is a bit flatter than Castro St - but still has some hills. Noe & Sanchez streets (between Castro & Church) are quite steep also between Castro/Eureka Valley & Noe Valley.

Getting to the Mission from the Noe Valley has a hill also between about 18th & 25th streets. You can take the J-Church to 18th and access the Mission from there (with a stop at Bi-Rite ice cream) or walk east on 25th or 26th to Guerrero & access the Mission from there.

Stu Dudley

Thanks Stu, we recently tackled some serious climbs in Wales but it's good to know about the bus. We looking forward to exploring.
Lisa