Spent 3 days & nights in SF, primarily to see the Christmas lights. Had a great time, as we took the cable car tour of lights, having bought a ticket through Groupon. Original cable cars now on wheels! Lot of fun, and a good way to see parts of the city, we had never seen before.

Shopping was really crowded, as you can well imagine. Took in the exhibits at the SFMuseum of Modern Art. Went specifically to see the one on Wine, but enjoyed the photographic exhibits as well.

Got a great price on Priceline for 2 nights at Le Meridian Hotel. Room was very large, and very nice. Concierge was excellent, suggesting 2 "don't miss" places in my opiniion. The first was an Italian Restaurant by the name of Ideal, and the other was "Mama's"-for breakfast. We liked it so well, we went Sunday & Tuesday! Great ambiance and fun experience.

Also did well on Priceline for our 3rd night with the Mark Hopkins Hotel. Would love to stay there again. Caught a bus for a couple of our outings from there, but did stay on Nob Hill for dinner at the "Nob Hill Cafe" which was within 2 blocks...an easy walk. We really enjoyed that place and were glad we did not go later than 6:30 as it quickly got crowded and the wait became much longer. Many just ordered a bottle of wine, and imbibed on the front sidewalk tables while waiting as it was not too cold out.

Sounds like you had a lovely time. Just wanted to correct a little bit of misinformation--the wheeled "cable cars" are not original cars on wheels; they are purpose build for tour companies for the tourist trade and made to look like cable cars. I have a friend who works as a volunteer for an organization that restores real cable cars and he is very opinionated on this subject!! We can't pass one of the tour cars without him detailing all the ways they are not like real cable cars!!!!!

Cable cars, street cars or trolleys. How do you tell them apart.

Actually, that one's easy!

Cable cars run on tracks and are pulled via cable (underneath the street).

Trolleys technically are any vehicle powered by the electrical connection on top, but in SF, the street cars that run on tracks are most frequently called trolleys (rather than the electrical buses).

Where was "Ideal" located?

hoping, I'd never heard of it either, but I looked it up -- it's actually spelled "Ideale", its on Grant Avenue, and it gets excellent reviews on Yelp.

http://www.yelp.com/biz/ristorante-ideale-san-francisco

Thanks. DH likes Italian. I was also finally able to make the Belden place link work.

Does anyone know how long after Christmas the SF Christmas lights stay on? We will be there for New Years Eve and the day before and after. If the lights are still on I'd love to take the light tour by cable car.
pumpkin, do you recall the name of the tour company where you got your Groupon?
BTW, thanks for the report. Good info.

See www.groupon.com for the Groupon coupons -- you sign up for email alerts and prepay the coupon amount ($20 for a $50 item, or something similar).