Originally Posted by
squeakr
If you're thinking Chinatown . not only is parking nearnigh impossible for many reasons , it's expensive AND a difficult part of town to drive in period.
If you're thinking out of downtown/Chinatown, the Richmond district is hard to park and drive in but not as bad as Chinatown. The Richmond Dist is West of Downtown, in the numbered streets north of GG Park.
With a car your best bet is as others have suggested and go south to Daly City et.c closer to the airport.
And why ARE you driving in SF? I don't even do that
If you need more suggestions let us know.
To add to this a bit, parking downtown is not actually that bad on the weekends as long as you know where to park and you get there early enough. I regularly use five garages down there: 5th and Mission or the one under Union Square (hard to get into late in the day), Sutter & Stockton (almost always open but you might need to park all the way at the top of the garage), the Chinatown garage at Kearny & Clay or any of the Embarcadero Center garages. All of these places can be somewhat expensive for daily parking but they are worth it if you are just going in for a day and don't want to bother with SF's unreliable public transport. You'll pay $30 or so if you leave your car in any one of these garages for an entire day. Embarcadero Center garages are free for a couple of hours if you buy something from one of the shops there (weekends only, minimum purchase required).