>>with all the vagrants. It's a shame that this Powell area will be your introduction to San Francisco.<<

That was what I meant by all the 'foot traffic'. Much of it sitting/lying on the ground ;)

We have been to San Francisco twice before, previous times we have taken the Super Shuttle, and our hotels were the Columbus Motor Inn, and the Lombard Motor Inn, this is the first time we are staying in the centre of town.

You will notice a difference in the "community" around Union Square. The farther away from Union Square that I get, the more I enjoy San Francisco.

Stu Dudley

As a follow-on to this post: today we flew into SFO landing around 10:30 AM. We usually don't check bags but did this time and by the time we collected luggage it was close to 11 AM.

We usually uses BART as I said above but decided to take a taxi (not Uber). There was absolutely no wait for a cab. What there was which one should IMO always anticipate was traffic which began around Candlestick where it was bumper-to-bumper for a couple of miles. This happened again as we approached the Ferry Building. When we arrived at the Hyatt Regency the total taxi fare was a bit more than $50.00

Dukey, was that "plus tip" or tip-inclusive? (again, Lyft and Uber are generally under $30)

We arrive about 1pm, but last time it took us about two hours to get through Immigration. There were huge queues. (Note to self do not go to the bathroom when you get off the plane). That is good to know how much a taxi costs Dukey, thanks for posting that info.

The cost was tip inclusive and it would have been less had the traffic not been so backed up in spots. I suspect we still saved time by using the taxi vs taking BART to the same location. I have no idea what an Uber ride would have cost.

As to the various less-than-fortunate persons "on the streets" I am sorry to say it is what it is and we are used to seeing folks asleep at night at various spots both outside as well as inside some of the spaces such as the Muni metro stations. Of course real estate prices have absolutely zoomed over the years and I always look at them when we are here.

Weather has been good on "this" side of twin peaks.

Dukey1.
Are you going to run Bay to Breakers on Sunday???

>>Weather has been good on "this" side of twin peaks.<<

I think that the weather in May this year has been a tad sub-par. We usually get pretty good weather this time of year - but we had lunch at Half Moon Bay today, and it was very cloudy & windy most of the day. Same at our house inland & just south of SFO.

Stu Dudley

No, Stu, just here for the overnight and the departure of the California Zephyr tomorrow morning.

Recent experience in SF
 

Chiming in here. After years of mainly Uber we have recently been going back to taxi’s more often case in point our visit to SF earlier this month. Arrived about 10 PM on May 3rd, grabbed our bags and hit the Uber App. Quickly located us and typed in our destination the Hyatt Embarcadero, UberX popped up at about $37.00 headed upstairs and hit the icon. Little circle on phone round and round looking for a driver then error comes up saying to try again. Recalculating UberX now comes up at $68.00 due to high volume! There were probably 20 people standing outside waiting for Uber/Lyft. Headed back downstairs and walked right into a taxi at the Hyatt in no time $48.00 and change. We had similar experience in Manhattan a few months ago, taxi less expensive and faster as they are waiting at hotel stand. Took BART back to SFO on Tuesday afternoon from Embarcadero station, piece of cake midday with lots of room on the train $9.65 each.

I appreciate Dave's anecdotal experience with Uber surge pricing, but I live in San Francisco and have never once had that experience at the airport (I also tend to use Lyft rather than Uber due to the aforesaid corporate issues).

SF: This is only the second time I've experienced "surge" pricing with Uber. We flew Delta into terminal 1 and as mentioned probably 20 people waiting outside upstairs, sounds like it was an unusual situation. We used Uber last year for the Hyatt, no problems.

Just reporting back that we managed to navigate the BART system and get to our hotel and back to SFO. Not too daunting, we were fortunate that the elevator was working at Powell St, howver still had to get bags up the escalator from the actual track to the next level up. That was a bit tricky. . It was not crowded on the train either time we travelled which was a bonus. Still next time may use an Uber!!!

The only reason I can see to use ANY cab would be the convenience of door-to-door conveyance and there are plenty of times when that is worth whatever money it costs.