Goober
Premium
join:2000-12-17
Naperville, IL
1 edit | San Francisco - Where is it better to stay? Fisherman's Wharf or Union Square area?
I'll be there for a week with my wife and 3 kids. | |
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Warzau
Premium
join:2000-10-26
Naperville, IL
clubs: | Re: San Fran - Where is it better to stay? If the kids don't mind walking, Union Square area. My wife and I stayed in that area, we walked alot did the downtown tours, went to Chinatown, did the trolleys. But alot of walking.. | |
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Goober
Premium
join:2000-12-17
Naperville, IL | Re: San Fran - Where is it better to stay? Thanks. Another question. Is seven days too long to spend there? | |
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DavisPhotog
Flyingphotog
Premium,MVM
join:2001-08-26
Oakland, CA
clubs:
| Re: San Fran - Where is it better to stay? I thought you said "trick question" at first.
The longer you stay in a city - any city - the more you'll get to know it past its surface elements. Sure, I could tell you a handful of museums that you could see in a day, or you could visit one museum per day and not get museum fatigue, all while taking it in at a more natural pace.
How good are the kids in the car? You wouldn't believe the wealth (and diversity) of stuff to do within 2 hours of here.
You could see Sonoma/Napa wine country one day, go down to Santa Cruz the next (and see a bit of silicon valley on the way down), you could go to the state capitol (midtown Sacramento is quite nice these days), or you could drive up the coast toward Mendocino (which may not be as kid-friendly as you might like).
If you're going to stay in the city, for that whole 7 days, I'm not going to try to dissuade you. Each neighborhood is quite unique and you could easily spend a half day in each neighborhood seeing certain sights.
What kind of food do you like?
What kind of attractions do you like?
I'm a 12 minute drive (w/out traffic) from downtown SF so I manage to make it over there as often as I can.
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I am the Flying Photog, see my website accordingly named Flyingphotog.com. User known formerly as zakooldude. | |
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DavisPhotog
Flyingphotog
Premium,MVM
join:2001-08-26
Oakland, CA
clubs:
| Re: San Fran - Where is it better to stay? You'd be surprised but I've done it more times than I can count. Most parts of the day, it's a breeze from 24 down to the maze, and then if that's not blocked, there might be a bit of traffic at the toll plaza - Fastrak is damn handy!
One day I went from my house to being PARKED in downtown SF (getting there is one thing, parking is another) in that same 12 minutes. 
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I am the Flying Photog, see my website accordingly named Flyingphotog.com. User known formerly as zakooldude. | |
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Warzau
Premium
join:2000-10-26
Naperville, IL
clubs:
| said by Goober  :Thanks. Another question. Is seven days too long to spend there? Nope I think it's more than enough. Wife and I took public as well as the trolley to get to the usual sites. | |
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Goober
Premium
join:2000-12-17
Naperville, IL | Re: San Fran - Where is it better to stay? I was going to rent a car, but from everything that I've read it's more of a liability--an expensive one at that considering daily parking rates-- than a help. | |
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kjgi
join:2009-05-14
Martinez, CA | Re: San Fran - Where is it better to stay? Most hotels will charge you for parking. At the Sheraton Fisherman's Wharf it was $40 a night. You can take Bart from SFO to downtown San Francisco and save some money. Get off at Powell St. and walk to Union Square. | |
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Goober
Premium
join:2000-12-17
Naperville, IL | Re: San Fran - Where is it better to stay? Yeah, that's what I'm going to do. Between rental and daily parking fees it turns into about $80/day to rent and park a car. | |
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DavisPhotog
Flyingphotog
Premium,MVM
join:2001-08-26
Oakland, CA
clubs:
| Re: San Fran - Where is it better to stay? I've parked at that Sheraton lot before and it is amazingly ridiculous to park. Parking in the city, in general, is not cheap. If you don't mind using public transit, 'tis very effective.
Do you have an iPhone by any chance? I've gotten by in the city a number of times recently on MUNI using the "public transit" feature on the Maps application.
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I am the Flying Photog, see my website accordingly named Flyingphotog.com. User known formerly as zakooldude. | |
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Goober
Premium
join:2000-12-17
Naperville, IL | Re: San Fran - Where is it better to stay? No iPhone. My Blackberry is going to have to do. I think we should do okay . . . famous last words.
I still have to figure out where we're going to stay. | |
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Warzau
Premium
join:2000-10-26
Naperville, IL
clubs: | We did rent a car but only to take day trips to Napa and other places, but for the city we walked or public transportation. | |
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Goober
Premium
join:2000-12-17
Naperville, IL | Re: San Fran - Where is it better to stay? That's exactly the lines along what we're thinking. | |
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Warzau
Premium
join:2000-10-26
Naperville, IL
clubs: | Re: San Fran - Where is it better to stay? Oh and also we rented for a day or so, so we got the day trips done and the rest of the week after we returned the car, we used public trans. | |
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DavisPhotog
Flyingphotog
Premium,MVM
join:2001-08-26
Oakland, CA
clubs: | Re: San Fran - Where is it better to stay? That's a good strategy. I'm sure that you can find plenty of cheap car rental places in the city that are not at the airport. | |
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BIGMIKE
Premium
join:2002-06-07
Westminster, CA
| said by Goober :Thanks. Another question. Is seven days too long to spend there? One Day is too long. | |
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Goober
Premium
join:2000-12-17
Naperville, IL | Re: San Fran - Where is it better to stay? lol. | |
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RR Conductor
RailRoadDude
Premium
join:2002-04-02
Redwood Valley, CA
 ·Comcast
2 edits | Be prepared for MAJOR sticker shock  If you have some time, come on up here to my neck of the woods, Mendocino County, it's BEAUTIFUL up here, and no crowds! »www.gomendo.com, Redwoods, Mountains, unspoiled and undeveloped coastlines, wildlife, rivers and lakes, forests, it's an outdoor paradise, and we have REAL Wine County, we call it Napa without the crowds (and stuffines) | |
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Bink63
Tweet THIS
Premium
join:2002-10-06
Everywhere
| Re: San Fran - Where is it better to stay? said by RR Conductor :you don't have to fight the traffic and horrible Bay Area drivers  HEY!
I RESEMBLE that remark!
But, I was also a Chicago-Area cab driver so...
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Hopefully the Ministry Of Truth and Thought Police can sort this whole thing out.
»www.otadigitaltv.com
Frank Shoemaker would call this noise
GO Cubs GO!!! | |
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Boricua65
join:2002-01-26
Puerto Rico
| I was going to recommend Union Square as well, since it is centrally located to alot of shops and mass transit. Parking will be a royal pain around there and you also have to watch out for restrictions on parking (if you do find any), like street cleaning or if there's an event happening at that time.
I can also recommend going to Oakland by BART and checking out Funderland at the Lake Merritt for the kids. I was in Oakland a few weekends ago and saw there's some construction around some parts of the lake because of bond measure passed a few years ago, so if you want to walk around the lake be careful.
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Yo te digo, el mundo esta jodido | |
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DavisPhotog
Flyingphotog
Premium,MVM
join:2001-08-26
Oakland, CA
clubs: | Re: San Fran - Where is it better to stay? Do you mean Children's Fairlyland? My step-brother works there. Very clean place and seemingly a lot to do. | |
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Boricua65
join:2002-01-26
Puerto Rico | Re: San Fran - Where is it better to stay? Yeah, that's the one. At least I knew it started with an "F".
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Yo te digo, el mundo esta jodido | |
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Bink63
Tweet THIS
Premium
join:2002-10-06
Everywhere
| BTW...
It's San Francisco, "The City" or "Baghdad by the bay", it is NOT 'Frisco or San Fran!!!
Damn FIB!
maybe you should stay in Naperthrill *yawn*???
--
Hopefully the Ministry Of Truth and Thought Police can sort this whole thing out.
»www.otadigitaltv.com
Frank Shoemaker would call this noise
GO Cubs GO!!! | |
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DavisPhotog
Flyingphotog
Premium,MVM
join:2001-08-26
Oakland, CA
clubs: | Re: San Fran - Where is it better to stay? Agreed. Nor do we ever call California "Cali." That drives me NUTS! | |
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Bink63
Tweet THIS
Premium
join:2002-10-06
Everywhere
| Re: San Fran - Where is it better to stay? said by DavisPhotog :Agreed. Nor do we ever call California "Cali." That drives me NUTS! "Cali" is a city in Columbia.
There are some drug cartels there.
'Nuff said???
--
Hopefully the Ministry Of Truth and Thought Police can sort this whole thing out.
»www.otadigitaltv.com
Frank Shoemaker would call this noise
GO Cubs GO!!! | |
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Goober
Premium
join:2000-12-17
Naperville, IL | Okay, fixed.
But, I'd rather live in Naperville than San Francisco. That's why I'm only visiting that place and not moving there. | |
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DavisPhotog
Flyingphotog
Premium,MVM
join:2001-08-26
Oakland, CA
clubs:
| Re: San Francisco - Where is it better to stay? Summers in SF have gotten progressively warmer in recent years but by no means do you actually *need* AC. You'll find it's a lot less humid out here than it is in IL, so any heat will be a lot drier than you're used to.
Do yourself a favor and don't stay at Fisherman's Wharf. It's a pretty good hike to get to the Embarcadero BART station and traffic sucks on Embarcadero Street.
I'd check the Yelp reviews for those hotels and see what suits your family best.
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I am the Flying Photog, see my website accordingly named Flyingphotog.com. User known formerly as zakooldude. | |
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Goober
Premium
join:2000-12-17
Naperville, IL | Re: San Francisco - Where is it better to stay? Great. I'll look at the site. Thx. | |
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ninjatutle
Premium
join:2006-01-02
San Ramon, CA
 ·Sprint Mobile Broa..
| I would stay somewhere centrally located and skip public transportation. You can use zip car or hail a cab. You have 4 people so it would about $2 each way/each person for bus. Plus the buses are dangerous and people are always getting run over. Taking one of those tour buses would cost a lot for this amount of people, get a private limo tour service.
Downtown SF is a little hard to navigate, you have these bus only lanes, hills, pedestrians, one way streets, nuts on bikes to swerve around, etc.
No need to venture into Oakland like someone suggested. You don't want to go there. I would do 3 days in Frisco. The last few days would be nice to take a road trip on The Pacific Coast Highway 1 on a rental car. Either north or south and fly out from an airport at a the end of the road trip.
I would skip Napa because your kids would be bored to death. | |
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See 14 replies to this post |
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| Fat City
Premium
join:2003-03-10
Freedonia | Re: San Francisco - Where is it better to stay? Another one for kids in Oakland:
»chabotspace.org/
And I've always been a big fan of the Oakland Museum of California:
»museumca.org/ | |
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Goober
Premium
join:2000-12-17
Naperville, IL | Re: San Francisco - Where is it better to stay? Thanks for all the Oakland references. Realistically though, I have a feeling that we won't have the time to do more than a day or so there. | |
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RR Conductor
RailRoadDude
Premium
join:2002-04-02
Redwood Valley, CA
·Comcast
| I'd suggest staying outside of SF, in San Bruno, Redwood City or one of the suburbs, then riding Caltrain or BART into SF, then riding MUNI around, driving in downtown SF is a HEADACHE, and parking is a nightmare, not to mention EXPENSIVE (but then, most of SF is $$$ lol).
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You've got to stand for something, or you'll fall for anything. | |
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See 6 replies to this post |
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sfromsf
join:2001-03-03
Sacramento, CA
clubs: | You made the right call in staying at Union Square. If you were on a tighter budget, staying out of SF would be a good idea. Enjoy your stays, ignore ninja turtle.
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Tough times do not last, tough people do | | |
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