CA - Possibly, Maybe, Now Definitely! Day 12 - San Fran, and finally...

tonymc · 18 Sep 17, 07:28 PM

Day 12: Monday 11th September 2017

Trip Index here

...and finally, for one of our non-Florida visits, a Hop-on/Hop-off bus tour!

The day starts extremely early with a 05:45 alarm to allow us to finish off the final packing, get ourselves checked out, and the car returned to the airport.

The packing, breakfast and final check out was all accomplished by 06:45, then just the quick drive to the car rental return centre at McCarron airport, onto a bus from the centre and we were deposited at T1 at 07:15 for our 08:40 Southwest flight to Oakland.

Having checked in late-ish for the flight, our boarding positions were quite a way down the list, so when we boarded there were no seats together, but we managed to get three in close proximity - not a problem for a 90 minute flights.

I was quite impressed with SouthWest - as well as two free checked bags, they also allow a cabin case and one other small bag as carry-on, there were free soft drinks and tea/coffee, and free TV via your devices. Arrival at Oakland had us leaving the place spot on our 10:10 arrival time, and with no customs to deal with, we were reunited with our baggage shortly after.

We then booked our first Uber Which arrived promptly - a BMW X6 no less, costing $35 for the journey (plus a $5 tip). We had a great driver who gave us loads of tips and info about San Francisco. We were also fortunate in that the high temperatures that had greeted us on arrival 12 days ago had now reduced, although the mid-20s was still considered warm for the area.

Arrived at Hilton on Union Square around 11:30 - offered an upgrade to a room with balcony and bay view which Joanne decided we would have. Bit of a shock having been used to quite spacious apartments with separate bedrooms and kitchen to find ourselves in a two bed room, albeit with balcony!

Having unpacked and with all of us starving after a very early breakfast, we made a visit to Burger King for a quick snack, then off on the cable car from Powell Street to Fishermans Wharf. TBH, we handn't realised how far this journey was, and at $7 it was not bad value.

We had a wander around Fishermans Wharf, then after deliberating for a while, decided to get... the Hop-on/off bus tour.

Left at 16:00 to do almost a complete loop, and this gave us a great overview of the city, going along the Embarcado, downtown then Presidio, over to the Golden Gate Bridge (with extremely strong winds) and down to Golden Gate Park (at which point it started spitting - a lot! ), through Ashbury and Haight before depositing us back at the Hilton just before 18:00. And we still have until 16:00 tomorrow to do another lap with a few stops, but will remember to take fleeces with us just in case.

Just as we arrived back at the hotel, a storm arrived and we had some pretty spectacular views of the Lightning over the bay From our high vantage point. With everyone feeling rather jaded, we couldn't face trawling through restaurant recommendations, so we stuck with that good old favourite - Cheesecake Factory - which was a short walk down O'Farrell Street and up on the 8th floor of Maceys.

With it raining, the outside seating was obviously out of use, so there was a 40 minute wait for our table. We had a portion of the fried cheese to tide us over whilst making our entree choices, and eventually ended up with Fettucine for Alex, Eggplant Parmigiana for Jo and a starter Quesedilla for myself. Joanne failed spectacularly with her meal and ended up bringing most of it back in a box to use for lunch tomorrow.

With dinner over, it was a slow stumble back up O'Farrell street for some desperately needed sleep, with a final picture of the night-time view from our balcony.

Pussycat Doll · 18 Sep 17, 08:04 PM

Lovely photos, it's about time we went back to SF! Sounds like a lovely day.

Melbatb · 18 Sep 17, 08:50 PM

You saw a lot on the HOHO! A good way to get an overview!

Great view from the hotel!

I went to SF 26 years ago when I had finished law school! I remember walking - a lot!

tonymc · 18 Sep 17, 10:08 PM

Originally Posted by Pussycat Doll

Lovely photos, it's about time we went back to SF! Sounds like a lovely day.

That was the benefit of the early flight I suspect - we could get quite a lot done with us arriving at the hotel around midday.

Originally Posted by Melbatb

You saw a lot on the HOHO! A good way to get an overview!

Great view from the hotel!

I went to SF 26 years ago when I had finished law school! I remember walking - a lot!

I was surprised at how big the city was, which made the bus tour even better value. For some reason, I had it in my mind that you could walk fairly easily across from Union Square to Fisherman's Wharf, but those hills... !

Disney Wishing · 19 Sep 17, 06:59 AM

Southwest are great and such good value for money with the luggage included.

Great view from the room and you certainly got a lot done in SF.

Animagus · 24 Sep 17, 02:35 PM

San Fran is the place I most want to visit. The hotel looks to be in a good spot. The bus tour sounds like a great way to familiarise yourself with the key sights.
Enjoying your trippie.

tonymc · 24 Sep 17, 04:04 PM

Originally Posted by Disney Wishing

Southwest are great and such good value for money with the luggage included.

Great view from the room and you certainly got a lot done in SF.

Definitely good value. We had originally booked Delta using some spare Delta Miles (plus $25 per checked baggage item), but it was a connecting flight via LAX taking some 4 hours.

Originally Posted by Animagus

San Fran is the place I most want to visit. The hotel looks to be in a good spot. The bus tour sounds like a great way to familiarise yourself with the key sights.
Enjoying your trippie.

Hotel wasn't in a bad spot, but you do need to use the tram, bus or cable car over to Fisherman's Wharf. However, as we paid for the basic room in points, it saved us some �1,200 for the 4 nights - hotels in San Francisco aren't cheap!

Animagus · 27 Sep 17, 07:22 PM

Originally Posted by tonymc

Definitely good value. We had originally booked Delta using some spare Delta Miles (plus $25 per checked baggage item), but it was a connecting flight via LAX taking some 4 hours.

Hotel wasn't in a bad spot, but you do need to use the tram, bus or cable car over to Fisherman's Wharf. However, as we paid for the basic room in points, it saved us some �1,200 for the 4 nights - hotels in San Francisco aren't cheap!

Thanks. We will bear that in mind!

summersun · 3 Apr 18, 11:30 AM

great day x

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