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Suites at Fisherman's Wharf May 19-26 2019

Greg G

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Excited about my exchange to The Suites at Fisherman's Wharf. Now the planning starts of what to see and do in San Francisco. Parking wise the prior reviews indicated on site parking around $23/day, but a one reviewer indicated the on site parking could fill up to the point you would need to find parking near by? Is that the case that you wouldn't necessarily get a reserved parking spot? I want a car for exploring outside of SF and the convienence.

Greg
 

JohnPaul

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Parking is first come, first served and there are a limited number of spaces. As such, there is no guarantee of parking. However, if you do get parking you will always have a spot throughout your stay as they don't allow more people than spaces.

Be aware, that the garage can be pretty tight.
 

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One other thing. If Alcatraz is on your agenda, be sure to buy tickets in advance. They are often sold out for same day or even the week.
 

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On the car rental thing. Consider NOT renting a car for the entire time you are there, but just for the days you actually need one. There is no "convenience" having a car in the city.
 

Greg G

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Thanks all for the info.

Greg
 

sue1947

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The parking is in a garage/service/delivery area inside at street level. I don't remember how we got into it when the door was closed but I think it was open when we first arrived. You will probably need to park on the street (the places in front were always full) and get your keys and the information needed about parking. The parking area is small and tight. Once you park, you leave your keys at the front desk and they rearrange cars to fit in as many as possible. So where you parked your car on arrival may not be where it is when you head out the next day. It all works and I don't think anybody was left out, but it wasn't full when we were there (they were remodeling some of the rooms). If full, I don't think there is enough parking inside to fit everybody.
The suggestion to just rent a car as needed is a good one. We had a car because we drove down vs flying. However, when first planning the trip, I tried to find a place I could leave the car for a week and take public transportation into the city, but I couldn't make it work. We needed a car for the Marin Headlands and Point Reyes, but could have used public transportation (or feet) for exploring elsewhere. We also used the car for a trip to Muir Woods, but parking can be an issue there and they have instituted a reservation system: https://www.nps.gov/muwo/planyourvisit/reservations.htm

We really enjoyed exploring the various parts of the Golden Gate National Recreation area which includes various sites along the north part of the city as well as the Marin Headlands across the bridge. https://www.nps.gov/goga/planyourvisit/maps.htm
You can walk from the resort down to the water and explore the San Francisco Maritime National Historic Park.
You can walk along the water through various attractions from there east through the Presidio, under the Golden Gate Bridge, Baker Beach to Lands End. The section east of the bridge is more urban and the section to the west is more natural. Do it in multiple sections and use public transportation to start/end in different spots. Lands End has a visitor center and the walk east from there is excellent.

Sue
 

easyrider

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Denise, the moderator, had a link to her page for San Francisco. It would be old information but many things are still the same. We used it for our first trip to SF and it was pretty handy.

I agree with Luanne about renting the car for the day you need it. I drove our suv to SF on our last trip and lack of parking was a bummer. When I did find parking it was always pay to park. Our first trip was car free and with all of the public transportation we were able to go almost anywhere at anytime in SF.

I'm not a big SF fan but my wife is. The first thing that happens as you get off BART is someone will approach you and offer you information. Some of these people have actually offered to carry luggage and then run off with it. They appear very official to first timers.

At Fisherman's Wharf there was a guy that would sneak up on people to scare them. I didn't think it was too funny when he jumped out to our side to scare us.

We hired a limo for an evening drive. This was a blast. She dropped us off at the Oriental Pearl in China Town, picked us up, gave us a tour of the city which looks very different at night. The tour concluded with a drive down Lombard. I think we drove around for about an hour and were dropped off at a Irish Pub.

I read that SF has a huge potty problem so you might want to take some wipes.
https://www.nbcbayarea.com/news/loc...e-sidewalks-than-Ive-ever-seen-488156431.html

Bill
 
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Greg G

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Wow, thanks all for the info on parking and things to watch out for. Looks like renting a car for the days I need it is the way to go

Greg
 

Luanne

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Wow, thanks all for the info on parking and things to watch out for. Looks like renting a car for the days I need it is the way to go

Greg
If you know the day(s) you want the car you can still book it ahead through Costco, or probably AutoSlash. We did this a few years ago when we were in San Francisco and needed to drive to the East Bay for our daughter's wedding. I made the reservation for the day we needed the car and it was a darn good thing I did since cars were going for $100/day or more when we arrived. Turned out there was a LOT going on in town during that time. The World Series was being played there (2014) and San Francisco won! There was also some other large event going on.
 

tashamen

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I will be staying there the week before in May. When I stayed there a few years ago I only used public transport within the city, and BART trains and ferries for day trips. I did write a review with some dining tips. Looking forward to the return trip!

As an aside I just don't understand the appeal of visiting Alcatraz, but it was nice looking at it from the rooftop deck.
 

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I agree with the others about the car. In fact it's never occurred to me to rent a car when we stay there because the public transportation is so easy to use. We usually stay at the Donatello near Union Square and the car rental place was a short walk from the timeshare. We used a car to drive to Muir Woods and Napa. Otherwise we use our feet or bus/train/cable car.

One of our favorite things to do is to take the free walking tours offered by the city library http://www.sfcityguides.org/ They do ask for a donation at the end by passing an envelope. Donate as you wish, or not. The guides are all volunteers with a love of their city and they truly make the tours special. Two that stand out for me were the behind the scenes tour of the Fairmont (very cool place with lots of history) and the Alfred Hitchcock tour (the guide was amazing with his knowledge of the movie locations and the stories that went with them). I could do a different one every day but we usually only have time for one or two during our visit. Even if you don't take a tour, their itineraries give you ideas of things to do in the city. We also took the ferry to Sausalito and then walked back to the city over the bridge. Long walk but a fun way to experience the bridge.
 

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I will be staying there the week before in May. When I stayed there a few years ago I only used public transport within the city, and BART trains and ferries for day trips. I did write a review with some dining tips. Looking forward to the return trip!

As an aside I just don't understand the appeal of visiting Alcatraz, but it was nice looking at it from the rooftop deck.
Alcatraz is a fascinating tour. To each his own though.
 

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I just wanted to add that we absolutely loved Suites at Fisherman's Wharf. We always buy the Muni pass that includes the cable cars, and we didn't really use the cable cars much. We didn't need to go up the hill but once.

I hope to stay there again after my new hip heals. I am on a waiting list for a second hip replacement. I had a heck of time walking last time we stayed there. I cannot see us staying anywhere else, and we own Shell points by the bucket-load.
 

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Alcatraz is a fascinating tour. To each his own though.
I agree.

We have been three times. I loved it each and every time. Once we had one of the CityPass deals with Costco and took a boat out there to just circle the island. The boat was fun, one of those big companies that takes hundreds of people at once. Anyway, that is another way to look at it, but the real history is inside.

Highly recommend the Disney museum at The Presidio, but only if you are a Disney fan. We love Walt, so it was a no-brainer for us. The buses are great in getting us to/from all of the sights.

The hop-on/hop-off bus was a wonderful experience. We did this 3 of 7 days, different routes around town. They have a deal if you want to go more than one day, and it was a deal we couldn't refuse. I loved every second, out in the wind, sitting above the fray. Very reasonable and so much history. The people are so good at telling the stories of the earthquake and the rebuilding of the city. These were exhausting days, but I loved every second.

Don't miss the cable car museum. It's on the cable car line. It's free. We also went the fire department museum, which is part of a working firehouse. Rick retired 3 years ago from Denver after 40 years of service, so we loved that museum, seeing all of the old equipment and reading about the fires after the Big One.
 

Greg G

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Thx for more suggestions. One day I thought we'd go to the Winchester house or drive down along PCH to the Monterey area, or visit Muir woods (that's when I would rent a car)

Greg
 

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Personally, I would skip the Winchester house and the entire southbay area. To most people I would recommend Santa Cruz and Monterey for a day visit, but for a Maui afficianado it might be a disappointment.
 

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Personally, I would skip the Winchester house and the entire southbay area. To most people I would recommend Santa Cruz and Monterey for a day visit, but for a Maui afficianado it might be a disappointment.
I would still recommend Carmel. Such a charming little village with some beautiful scenery. Just south is Point Lobos which is wonderful.
 

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Such great ideas in this thread! I sent it to my dd who is planning a few days in San Francisco. We lived in the area for years, but there are things on the list for the city itself that we've never done.
 

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The Hop On/Hop Off buses will take you to the GG bridge and to Sausalito, which we especially enjoyed, since Rick's brother lived there early in his music career. He was a hippie of the 1970's, and a lot of hippies lived there. Too bad he didn't buy that little house back then. He had no foresight to ever buy a house in CA, and he had so many wonderful opportunities.

The real estate values in Sausalito are crazy high now. The area looks so different from our visit with him in 1976.

We also walked Lombardi Street and went all the way to Coit Tower, walked down the side of Telegraph Hill back to the main drag and took a street car to Fisherman's Wharf our first trip.

By the way, Trader Joe's is like 2 blocks from Suites at FW. We bought all of our groceries there. The kitchens at Suites are great for cooking.
 

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The Hop On/Hop Off buses will take you to the GG bridge and to Sausalito, which we especially enjoyed, since Rick's brother lived there early in his music career. He was a hippie of the 1970's, and a lot of hippies lived there. Too bad he didn't buy that little house back then. He had no foresight to ever buy a house in CA, and he had so many wonderful opportunities.

The real estate values in Sausalito are crazy high now. The area looks so different from our visit with him in 1976.

We also walked Lombardi Street and went all the way to Coit Tower, walked down the side of Telegraph Hill back to the main drag and took a street car to Fisherman's Wharf our first trip.

By the way, Trader Joe's is like 2 blocks from Suites at FW. We bought all of our groceries there. The kitchens at Suites are great for cooking.
Another fun way to get to Sausalito is by ferry. We did that last May.

Real estate values EVERYWHERE in the San Francisco Bay Area are crazy.
 
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