San Francisco - Bus Tours
 

My husband is at a conference on Friday and I'd like to get aquainted w/ the city to show him best paces on Saturday and to take up some time. I've seen a couple of the tour itineraries (Grayline, Blue & Gold, Golden City Tours, etc) Does anyone have a recommendation for one that might be better than the others???

Think they're all about the same. But, if you wanted a really fun thing for a woman alone to do, I would take a WokWiz walking tour of Chinatown. It's usually a nice group from all over and the leaders are charming women, many of them Chinatown natives. The tour ends with a dim sum lunch and then you can take your bus tour. www.wokwiz.com and also check www.sfvisitors.org

We ended up on a Grayline tour a year ago by default - wanted to go to Alcatraz and since it was over July 4th weekend, all trips to Alcatraz were sold out - so we bought a tour that included Alcatraz. It was a fine overview of the city - we found places to which we returned over the next few days. I did the same sort of thing in New Orleans when my husband was at a conference there. It certainly is not the most creative or exciting way to see a city, but I was more comfortable with it than I would have been on my own.

I can tell you about a Grayline bus tour I took in San Francisco about 6 years ago, with a friend of mine who happens to be a gay man. The bus driver was, to put it mildly, not exactly a fountain of information (the only thing she could think of to say about the Golden Gate Bridge, for example, is that it owes its orange color to the fact that it was painted orange - gee, thanks!) - but the final straw came when we got to Castro and she actually said "There are a lot of homosexuals in this area, so if any male passengers happen to drop something on the pavement here, don't bend over to pick it up." Most of the passengers just stared at her; we thought it was pretty funny later when we had time to cool off, but at the time we were very angry. I wrote a letter to the bus company and we got a letter of apology and were told that the driver had been sent for "further training." I'll bet she doesn't do anything like that again, so you're probably safe on Grayline!

Thanks! The WokWiz tour sounds great and I might just stick w/ the Blue & Gold bus tour, since that's who I'm doing an Alcatraz trip with later that day. Saturday we'll probably do a combo driving/walking tour on our own. Found alot of great places on the site!

www.towertours.com has alot of favorable responses. Sounds like buses are small and guides very nice and informative. We are going in March & booking with them.