San Francisco 15April - 20April, 1999
The Trip and the Tips
Although our trip was only 4 days long, we had tried our best
to visit as many people as we could. The following are places
that we visited:
- San Francisco International Airport
Nothing really interesting here although you will have to visit
this place if you fly there. Anyway, just a couple tips for you:
(1) The taxi will cost you around US$35 to San Francisco downtown
during non-peak hours (i.e., not including extra cost due to traffic
jam). You may instead consider taking shuttle bus to major hotels
for about $11 per person. You will have to call and book for ride
back from hotel to the airport. (2) The domestic airlines' counters
and the international ones are so far away so make sure you're dropped
off at the right place or you will need a lot of walking!
- San Francisco downtown
Lots of nice buildings, hotels and shops to see. The Union Square area
(about 10 mins walk from the main financial district) has a lot of
shops of the famous brands like Armani, Gucci, Banana Republics,
Timberland, Porsche Design, etc.
Of course, don't expect to find anything cheap there!
You should especially visit the Macy's department store which consists
of 3 buildings in a block. Also, visit the cafe on the top floor of
the Neuman Marcus department store! The place and the view is great
(the prices too!)
- Cable Cars
Of course, you can't miss the cable cars in San Francisco. It's the
most important "attraction" in SF! It is a train running along certain
main streets in downtown and to the Fishermen's Wharf. The main
stop in downtown is on Powell St. and there are 2 lines going North.
One is to the Fishermen's Wharf (Market St.) and the other to Hyde St.
So you have to pay attention on the label on the top of the car to tell
where it's going to. I would suggest you take the train from downtown
to Fishermen's Wharf and back, if you want. The ride costs $2 each
and remember to catch the train at the main terminal because you can
see how the cable car get "turned" (change direction) at the end of
the track by men! If you're really crazy about cable cars, you can
buy a $6 daily pass which is good for unlimited rides within a day.
I don't recommend it though because you probably don't have time
to ride the cable cars for so many times in a day... especially it
sometimes takes you 30 mins or so to catch one. (Especially at
the main terminals, expect to wait for 30 mins as there are always
so many people lining up there!)
- City Hall
I think this is a must go. The City Hall buildings and others
(such as a public library building and an arts center) are on
the Van Nees blvd. pretty close to downtown. The city hall
buildings have a very beautiful garden and some very fancy, classy
looking buildings and gates.
- Japan Center
The Japan Center is a small shopping center with a lot of Japanese
restaurants and some shops inside. The center is west of downtown,
about 5-10 mins driving. If you want to buy anything there, my opinion
is that you can save the trip. But if you like Japanese food, I think
they have many restaurants there and all of them are very traditional
Japanese style.
- Little Italy
Very close to the downtown (right next to Chinatown). If you like
nightlife and/or side-walk cafe, you would like visiting here in
an evening. You will find many people there enjoying coffee and chatting
on the sidewalks. You will also find many restaurants (including
the Stinking Rose mentioned in a snapshot below) and some nightclubs
in that area. At first, I worried about the safety of walking in that
area, but my experience was that it seems pretty safe visiting in
that area even at night... after all, many people there are tourists.
- Golden Gate Bridge
Needless to say, this is a must see; although I don't know how you can
get there without a car!? You can definitely see the bridge from downtown
or even better at Fishermen's Wharf. But if you want to take some nice pictures,
there's a view stop right at the North end of the bridge.
I drove a car through the bridge from North into San Francisco and I missed
the view stop! :'( You must pay lots of attention if you come from
North because there's a left turn into the stop over area. Once you pass it,
there'll be no place for you to stop and you will have to pay $3 and cross the
bridge. (If you don't mind to spend another $3, you can U-turn and cross
the bridge again to the view stop.) Once you cross the bridge at the South
end, there doesn't seem any place for you to stop and take pictures anymore.
- Golden Gate Park
The Golden Gate Park is not right next to the Golden Gate Bridge as I thought
before. Instead it's South to the bridge and on the west coast of San Francisco.
It's a pretty big park with different scenic areas. We went to the Japanese
Tea House which is a Japanese garden with a tea house there. The garden is
quite nice... but probably not worth the admission of US$3.5 per head.
You would rather take some pictures right outside the Japanese Tea House which
are the California Academy of Science and an outdoor stage...
- Bay Bridge
Bay Bridge is the bridge connecting SF and Oakland from West to East.
The bridge is quite long and driving on it gives you a chance to see
the nice view of the Bay area. The toll is $2 from Oakland to SF (i.e. West bound).
- The Cliff House
It is right next to a long beach close to the Golden Gate Park. The Cliff
House was originally an indoor swimming pool. You can look out the coast
and see some rocks not far away. On those rocks, you can probably see some
seals resting there. Free of charge.
- Fishermen's Wharf
You can't complete a trip to SF without visiting Fishermen's Wharf. It's
on the North side of the city and you can take cable car to there.
It's definitely a tourist area with many shops and a outdoor market
selling ready-to-eat seafood like crabs, lobsters, oysters, etc.
It's quite interesting to see, but you probably don't want to pay almost
US$20 for a crab and eat on the street. Instead you should go to Pier 39 and
enjoy the seafood in some nice restaurants for almost the same price.
- Pier 39
Pier 39 is just a couple blocks east of the Fishermen's Wharf. It's again
a market place but definitely more upscaled. You will find some much
nicer restaurants here and the one we tried is called Pier 39 Market.
Their clam chowder is great and reasonably-priced ($3-$4.5 per bowl).
You should eat inside the restaurant and you can have a whole crab for
$20. Plus they have other stuff like shrimps, oysters, clams, etc.
When you go there, make sure you walk to the end of the pier and go out
of gate K and look at the water there. You can see many sea lions sunbathing
there! Also, if you're there and you plan to go to Alcartz (The Rock), you
should buy the tickets in Pier39 in advance. The ferry fare to the island is
$7.5 return per head. You should buy at least 1 day in advance and probably 1 to
2 weeks in advance in peak tourist seasons. If you don't want to line up,
you can call a number (see local advertisment) and buy the tickets on phone.
You pay $2 more for the service charge but that definitely worth the time
of lining up for purchasing tickets there.
- Ripley's Believe-It-Or-Not Museum
This place is quite interesting though it's not very big. It has quite
many interesting displays and stories about some weird things in this
world. The admission is a bit too expensive (US$7 or something like that)
but it's quite worth the visit. It's right next to fishermen's wharf. On
its west side.
- Alcartz
Again, this is a must go place, in my opinion. For $7.5 per head, you
can take a ferry to go to this island which had been a military base and
a state prison before. This island has a lot of stories and it will
take you at least 2-3 hours for the whole trip. Just the ferry itself,
which gives you a chance to see the whole downtown view of SF, probably
worth the cost. If you go in a hot summer, make sure you bring some water
and a hat and a sunglasses too. Also, you need to walk (and stand in the
crowd of people!) a lot, so be prepared with a pair of comfortable shoes.
- Exploratorium
We didn't go inside to see the exhibitions... but sounds like the things you
will see inside are kids stuff. So if you don't think you are interested,
walk right next door and see the Fine Arts Museum!.
- The Fine Arts Museum
This is a very very beautiful place to take some pictures. The building
and the columns are gothics style and you're like in Europe. It has a lake
there and that's the best place to take pictures with your girlfriends or
wives. The houses on the nearby streets that overlook this museum are very
nice too... you may want to stroll around that area with your love one for
a romantic evening. Free of charge! :)
- Stanford University, Palo Alto
If you drive around that area, go take a look at their nice campus.
You will also see Sun Microsystems and HP, etc. offices there.
- Half Moon Bay, Highway 1
Nothing really exciting to see there!
- The Tech Museum, San Jose
I have to say that the exhibitions in this so-called "Tech" Museum are
not very high-tech... they're defintiely quite interesting to see and
if you're such technologies fans, you can easily spend 2 to 4 hours in
here. However, considering the museum's sponsors are HP, Microsoft, IBM,
Intel, etc, super high-tech companies and this museum is in the center
of Silicon Valley, you would think the exhibits are just a bit too "kiddy".
Anyway, if you take your kids to San Jose (which is insane!), you should
never miss this museum. Admission is $10 per adult.
An interesting REAL story: When we lined up to buy the admission tickets
to the museum, their computer system crashed! (BTW, I think they're running
Windows... not a surprise!) The guy at the ticket counter apologized to me
about the down-ed system, and I said "it's ok. We all understand that this is
what our today's TECHNOGLOGIES are like..." And the guy smiled. :) We still
keep the admission tickets that were hand-written by a museum attendant; the
tickets were supposed to be printed by computers!
- Muir Woods National Park
To those who like to see some big redwood trees but don't have time
to drive to the more famous Yosemite National Park, you should try this
one. Muir woods are just north of San Francisco, about 30 minutes driving.
You can cross the Golden Gate Bridge to North and then turn into Highway 1
and you will see the sign. The National Park has a trail inside the
redwood forest where you can see some big trees and they're 200 feet or
so tall. The trail can take you 30mins to 1.5 hours to complete.
If you like driving, you should definitely go there, why? 'cos the Highway1
to this national park is a mountain road lots of curves and slopes! I mean
a LOT! In certain part of downhill road, you simply don't need to press
on the gas, but shifting between 1st and 2nd gears! Each curve is just
10 seconds between one another, so you will soon feel dizzy after 10 turns
or so! You definitely need a nice sport car such as Miata, Porsche, or
a BMW to really enjoy this road though. :)
Snapshots
The following pictures were taken during our trip in San Francisco.
Our friend, Raymond Ngai, took these pictures for us using a digital
camera... and the results are quite good! Too bad that you can't
see much famous attractions of the "Cable Car" town in these
pictures... I will try to scan some of our other pictures of the
trip and post them here later.
Taken outside the "Cliff House" near the Golden Gate Park
In the italian restaurant, The Stinking Rose, which is quite famous
with their "everything-with-garlic" dishes.
A restaurant in Japanese Center just about 10 mins driving off the San Francisco downtown.
There are a lot of Japanese restaurants in town and they are quite good!
Inside my friend's Silver Beetle... quite a nice car and you'd be surprised
with its generous interior space despite of its tiny look outside.
In Raymond's home... playing Playstation!! Yes, I can't stop playing Playstation
even when I am on a trip! :P
More pictures of Elaine in Raymond's home
Yet another picture!
Visit my friend, Raymond's web page at
here