radiofanatic

I'm looking at some options of whether I should keep the rental car when in san fran or just doing a couple of tours instead. Thoughts? seems like with rental and parking fees it would almost be the same in cost. I was looking at:

http://www.allsanfranciscotours.com/

fnarf999

With a car you will spend nearly every waking moment trying to find a place to park. Seriously, it's brutal. You will almost always have to spend amazing sums to park in lots, if you can find one anywhere near where you want to be. Unless you just park it at the hotel and leave it there, and what's the point of that?

mykidssherpa

As a San Francisco native, I can say driving in San Francisco is expensive ($17-$25 for a full day of parking) and frustrating (lots of one way streets and you have to know where the parking lots are). We have a fairly reasonable, safe transit system and you can also take a cab if there are 4 or fewer of you. Since the city is only 7 miles x 7 miles, cabs are a reasonable option, most of the places you would want to go are $7-$13.

If you come from New York or Boston and can deal with aggressive driving, you'll be fine but otherwise on a weekday expect a white knuckle time.

christy1

For in-city sightseeing, it is very easy to get around by foot, bus, cab, cable car, etc-you don't need a car OR a tour bus. If you are thinking about day trips outside the city, I'd keep the car, and try to get accomodations that have or are near RELATIVELY reasonable parking (like some of the b and b's and motels in the Marina).

FainaAgain

Get a MUNI pass, and you're set.

janesch

If you're just going to stay in the city, then no need to rent a car. This past summer, we stayed in SF for one week, but rented a car for three days so we could make our own way and take our time to see Napa Valley, Muir Woods, Monterey, etc.

StuDudley

I've lived in/near San Francisco for 30 years now - and we almost always get around by car in the City. Generally speaking, if you want to visit sites east of Van Ness, it's probably easier and less frustrating to get there by public transportation. West of Van Ness is not that bad. The main thing you need to watch out for is the 2 hr "sticker" parking on week days in some areas.

Union St, Golden Gate Park, Noe Valley, Ocean, Marina, Presidio, Fillmore St Shopping, Pacific Heights, Inner Sunset*, Calif st shopping west of Divisadero are all areas where I usually don't have trouble finding a free or metered place to park. Haight/Ashbury & the Mission are a little more difficult. When I want to visit the Mission, I park in the Noe Valley and either walk to take the J-Church there.

Of course, the "view" spots - Twin Peaks, GGNRA on the other side of the Bridge, Lincoln Blvd, Treasure Island are places best reached by car.

If you already have a car & you can reasonable park it overnight without breaking the bank, you will hve a better opportunitity to see "more" of our lovely city.

Stu Dudley

* park in GG Park & walk there. Difficult to park in the Park on Sundays.

El_Swainer

Forget the car and take the tours.

Woody

You do not need a car S.F. The money you save on parking will pay for the tours.

Woody

gail

We took a tour first day we were there - to get sense of location of everything and because Alcatraz was sold out unless we bought transport thru the tour.

Then we got around with 2 kids on public transportation without problems.

It sounds like you are driving rental car from someplace else (we drove from Seattle). If you have day trips planned out of SF, do those first day or 2 and then return car - we had no significant drop-off charge if we returned it to airport.