San Francisco Advice for September 2014 trip
 

My best friend and I (both 53) are planning a long weekend in San Francisco as a girls weekend. In the past we have stayed in a Union Square area hotel but this time would like to stay in a neighborhood and probably do a vacation rental for 4-5 days. We will want to shop but we will also want to just chat and eat local, walk etc. Need recommendations on a safe, good neighborhood area with good transit connections to SFO and other areas of town plus any hints on a good vacation rental source. Thanks!

Only BART provides connection to SFO, so check along its stations.

try VRBO.com. There are some in the Noe Valley area which is great and weather is awesome there. I highly recommend a book on walking neighborhoods in SF. We have a couple but our favorite is Stairway Walks in San Francisco. You explore great neighborhoods, get some exercise and then as we do, we get coffee or beer in a local place in the neighborhood we walk in. The book tells you what public transportation to take to get there as well. walking the Golden Gate Park is great and of course the DeYoung and Legion of Honor art museums. There might be a good play in town too. You can rent a bike and ride across the Gold Gate bridge too.

My husband and I rented an apt/ condo in The Casrto, loved staying there even though it was a bit of a ride on streetcar to get co some places. Easy to get BART there as well as Church St ,N, Judah lines. Get sfmta 7 day transit pass to save money. We used AirBnB to find apat.

If you haven't checked out the free (donation only ) walking tour given by SF public library, do check them out.

Sfcityguides.org

We rented a little house in the North Beach area from vrbo. When I was looking, there were lots of wonderful places available. The public transportation is excellent and really easy to use.