Budget Travel - SJC-SFO

I just booked a personal mileage run. I am flying YOW-PHL-MCO-DTW on the outbound, and the inbound is DTW-ATL-SJC/SFO-EWR-YOW. It wasn't cheap, but it was the same price as a YOW-EWR-DTW return, so I thought I would earn a lot more ST miles if I had to spend all the money to fly there anyways.

I have a 11 hour stop between arriving in SJC and departing from SFO, what are my budget options from getting between the two, and as a 21 year old student who has never been to either cities, what should I do for the time I have in transit?

Just for those travel buffs, the same day I arrive in YOW on the return, I am leaving later in the evening for a YOW-DTW-LAX-ICN routing....its going to be a busy few days.

From SJC airport, take the 10 bus (free) to the Santa Clara Cal Train station. From there, take the Cal Train to San Fran (7.75). Spend the day in the city; then take BART to SFO.

Just to clarify, if I may, the 'City' to which bdemaria is referring is San Francisco. Don't bother with San Jose unless you want to do the Winchester Mystery House, there's nothing there.

I just booked a personal mileage run.

On behalf of the MR Mods, let me thank you for not posting there :D

SanFran is a wonderful city to visit. Be thankful you don't have to look for lodging though, it's kinda pricy.

May not have enough time to walk Walking directions are in beta.
Use caution – This route may be missing sidewalks or pedestrian paths.

Walking directions to San Francisco Airport

35.7 mi – about 11 hours 41 mins

But the same dropdown menu also has public transit, which seems to confirm bdemaria's suggestion.

EmailKid

Yeah, if you take Caltrain to SF, walk up 4th to Market - there are 4 BART stations on that street. Board a BART train that goes to SFO, bart.gov can give you exact times. With 11 hour layover, check caltrain.com schedules as well, to make sure you're within their timeframe.

Welcome to FlyerTalk gr8 !

Great handle, BTW :D

EmailKid

Try this Google Transit link (http://maps.google.com/maps?daddr=San+Francisco+Caltrain+%4037.776439,-122.394323&geocode=&dirflg=r&saddr=SJC&f=d&sll=37.817243,-122.399368&sspn=0.063871,0.109863&date=1%2F29%2F09&time=9:00am&ttype=dep&noexp=0&noal=0&sort=&ie=UTF8&z=10&start=0) for a sample itinerary from SJC to San Francisco. You can use the interface to change your times and destination (Fisherman's Wharf, the Embarcadero, Golden Gate park, etc.) to see directions to a specific place.

Then use this Google Transit link (http://maps.google.com/maps?f=d&source=s_d&saddr=Powell+St.+BART+%4037.784971,-122.407012&daddr=SFO&hl=en&geocode=FYuNQAIdnDe0-A%3B&mra=ls&dirflg=r&date=1%2F29%2F09&time=5:00pm&ttype=dep&noexp=0&noal=0&sort=&sll=37.700097,-122.42953&sspn=0.255888,0.439453&ie=UTF8&z=11&start=0) to get back to SFO (playing around with your time and departure point to get exact directions).

Try Wikitravel's article on San Francisco (http://wikitravel.org/en/San_Francisco) (and its sub-articles) to do some research to decide what you want to see (you can't see it all in 11 hours; that's for sure!). You can also look around the rest of the Bay Area (http://wikitravel.org/en/Bay_Area_%28California%29), but like Daringdoo said, spend your time in "the City" (the locals' name for San Francisco itself; unless you want to me ridiculed as a tourist, never call it "San Fran"...or especially "Frisco (http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/omni-pr/773638-my-2008-resolution-refer-sf-frisco.html)"!).

(Though I will say it's worth considering a trip on BART to the Rockridge station just east of Oakland for some of the best Chicago deep dish-style pizza (http://www.zacharys.com/) west of the Windy City...)

On behalf of the MR Mods, let me thank you for not posting there :D
EmailKid

For the price I paid for it, believe me, no one will be joining me on the same routing. It just happened that I could make this routing for the same price as a standard YOW-DTW return. Why that short hop is so ungodly expensive (even with a connection in EWR/ORD/YYZ its still prohibitively expensive), I cannot begin to imagine.

Does anyone know where I can store my bag in downtown SFO until I need to make my way to SFO proper in the evening?

For all those who I know don't particularly care, I left my bags at the Intercontinental, and they even gave me a free Wifi PIN so I could check my flights before leaving SFO.