san francisco
 

Have to switch vacations after Wilma wiped out Cancun.

Would like to go to San Fran over Christmas vacation. Am from Iowa. Never been to San Fran. Will bring family, hubby, 2 girls 15 & 10. Will be there about a week. would like to be touristy and see all can see plus a musical and/or museums (french impressionism). Would love help on where to stay etc. HELP!

THANKS
kelkie

Stay near Union Square if you can. It's a great base. There's shopping, you can hop on a cable car, etc.
It's a great city to explore! Bring walking shoes and plan to do a lot of walking.

Alactraz is an interesting destination. Christmas might be crowded, so buy your tickets ahead if you can. The boat ride alone gives you a great view of the city.

Take several of the free walking tours offered by SF City Guides. They are sponsored by the public library & there are over 30 different walks.

www.SFCityGuides.org

Stu Dudley

Also, click on my name & see all the posts in the United States group. I've posted a lot of suggestions for drives, interesting views, restaurants, neighborhoods, Shopping areas, etc - and so have many other locals & frequent visitors.

Stu Dudley

I agree about the Union Square location. Go to hotelres.com for discounted rates. It has maps, so that you can see where the hotels are.

If you choose "contract" or "extra value" rates, they will charge your credit card and I am not sure about cancellation policies. However, if you just choose their regular discounted rates, the credit card is used only to secure the reservation and you pay the hotel directly when you check out. And, you deal with the hotel's cancellation policy, which is usually 24 hrs.

I wouldn't wait too long before making reservations.

We stayed at the Marriott Stanford Court hotel on Nob Hill. It is a quiet area to stay. We hopped the cable car right outside our hotel. MY girls (13 and 11)liked Chinatown and we did a great walking tour with Wok Wiz. We did the tour with lunch. The guide we had was Dorothy and she is a chinese native of SF and was born and raised in Chinatown. She had great stories of her childhood. My girls really liked her.
Buy your tickets for Alcatraz in advance. You can also buy Muni passes in advance (for the cable cars). You can combine the Alcatraz/Muni passes for one fee.
North Beach has great italian food. We also saw a show. You must go to the Sunday Matinee(only time kids are allowed). It is called Beach Blanket Babylon. It is a funny musical comedy about SF. It can be a little racy, but it was clean enough and even my kids laughed at some of the jokes.
You will enjoy your trip. Our family spent Easter week last spring (2005 ) there and we all had a great time!

Another recommendation for the MUNI pass - works on cable cars, buses, lightrail and the F Line street cars - very convinient.

Just made res for Executive Vintage Court Hot going and Chancellor Hot rt from China: the Chancellor @ Union Sq is recommended by nearly everyone on the SFO TA forums and the Vintage Court was a "steal".
Highly recommend Beach Blanket Babylon if los ninos are current events "savvy".
M

For a fun night out you might try Teatro Zinzanni. www.teatrozinzanni.com Personally, I prefer it to Beach Blanket Babylon. I've seen some very good rates on Priceline. You might like the Hyatt Embarcadero; next to the outdoor ice rink and ferry building. I prefer that area to Union Square.

Since you will be there during the Christmas season, how about seeing the S.F. Ballet's "Nutcracker"?

If you take a museum trip to the Legion of Honor, you will get your French 19-th century art fix along with a spectacular view of the Golden Gate and the Marin headlands.

For a fun meal after the Nutcracker, I recommend Citizen Cake (address is 399 Grove Street, walking distance from the Opera House). You can choose your dessert from the bakery in the front of the house - and you will have a hard time choosing!

I highly recommend the Stu Dudley auto tour of San Francisco. We did it on our first day and it gave a great overview of the major sights. Return to the places of greatest interest on subsequent days.

http://www.fodors.com/forums/threads...p;tid=34598939

My boys (15 & 13) liked Restaurant Lulu and the Taquerias on Mission best of all for food.

Museum of Modern Art for Impressionists, also check out the Legion of Honor (www.thinker.org)

Also a very interesting museum for all ages, especially children, is the Oakland Museum accessible by BART (light rail train).

When making plans - most of the places are closed on Dec 25.

You might want to check out the Haight Ashbury (N Judah subway goes to Cole Street, 3 blocks away; and the 6, 7, 71, 71L all run down Haight) for the girls. The shopping is pretty good and it's pretty popular amongst teenagers. I wouldn't like to be in the area at night (although it is relatively safe).