Taking BART is great when you're a single traveler, but multiply the fares by 5 for a family and add the hassle of wrangling 3 young kids and everyone's baggage... not fun.

I'll echo the suggestion from Lost upthread: Consider booking a hotel near Union Square. It's centrally located with lots to do nearby, and well connected to transit within the city. Take a taxi between there and an airport.

If you're determined to use IHG points, the two hotels near Fisherman's Wharf are reasonable places to stay. We locals tend to bad-mouth Fisherman's Wharf because it's so full of tourists and made-for-tourists attractions. But for someone making such a short stay as yours I think it's fine. There's enough to do there.

Renting a car at SFO and driving is reasonable-- but double check what the parking rates will be. You may find that with parking costs plus the extra time spent hiring and returning the car, it works out better to take a taxi both ways.

thanks all-any idea how long it would take to get from san fran downtown to
sfo on a sat around 10.30-11am?

thanks

also,we want to ride on the cable cars down to fish wharf and back....
what time will they start getting busy on a sat morning and any idea how long wait would be?
we dont want to miss our plane!

As far as time to get to the airport from downtown and Union Square, I would plan on 45 minutes. Normally it would be closer to 25 minutes, but the Giants play at 1:05pm on August 16th so I could see you taking a little extra time getting through the city and onto the freeway. Once you're on the freeway and headed south you're going away from the stadium so it should be pretty quick.

thanks-toss up between car and bart...
parking seems to be around 40$ to same as for return trip on bart for a family to airport..
any idea on the cable cars-how early we would have to do the trip on a sat?
is there a huge wait?

Could be as long as an hour or more on a sunny Sat - if it rains, not so much...

wow-will walking a bit further up from fish wharf make it easier to get on?

Instead of changing stops, I would say that if you're going to ride the cable cars do it EARLY, like 7am. Before the tourists get up.

Additionally, I've noticed that the wait for the California St line tends to be shorter than the Powell St lines, so you might see if you can do that (the California St line does not go to Fisherman's Wharf, however).

Rain in the bay area in August is almost unheard of, so I would expect the cable cars to be very popular on the weekends that time of year.

thanks-i was planning to take it early down to fish wharf around that time -but for the coming back it would be later as we would walk around the wharf for a bit(prob around 10am or so) and this is the bit i was worried about...
we definitely want to take the one down to fish wharf on the powell st line at least once..

I would be worried about coming back at that time too. I think starting back from Fisherman's Wharf at 10am is cutting it way to close for a TPAC flight leaving at 1:30. I would be heading back on the cable car closer to 8:30-9, and be ready to jump in a cab back to the hotel if the cable car line is long

And watch out for the bushman

would staying near the airport and driving down to fishermans wharf early morning (6am or so)to do the cable car both ways be a better option?
that way would we miss the queues at fish wharf if we took the cable car from there first rather than other way round?

also,any idea how long it would take to get to the airport from fish wharf by car at around 5pm weekday?will it be very crowded?

I think I would still stay in the city near Union Square. If a weekday, you'll be going with commute traffic from the airport area into the city, though 6am is a little early for the commute to really get bad.

Oh yeah. I would plan an hour plus to be safe. Again, that's commute time. Others that are more familiar with the city streets can chime in on routes through the city, but there are two main freeway options getting from SF to the airport. The most direct route is to take Interstate 80 (which comes from the Bay Bridge) to US 101 south. An alternate option is to take Interstate 280 south to Interstate 380 east to the airport.

US 101 and I-280 cross each other on the south edge of the city, so you can switch from one to the other there if you need to.

Couple resources:
-511.org is a good website for seeing traffic conditions. If you want to play around with it during commute times, the morning rush would be approximately 6am-9:30am (1300-1630GMT), and the afternoon rush is approximately 4pm-7pm (2300-0200GMT) Monday-Friday.

-KCBS AM 740 and FM 106.9 is the local all news radio station which does traffic reports every 10 minutes (:08, :18, :28, :38, :48, :58 past the hour). If you want to stream it live before you start your trip, they're on TuneIn, or click the 'KCBS' link at the top of the homepage and there's a link to listen on your computer.

hi,
just to say thanks for all the advice and on the way back-plan for us to take the bart into san fran and not a rental car and back to ride on the cable cars..
however,what i cant decide is whether to stay at the airport on the fri night ,get up early on sat morning and ck in dump bags then go into san fran on the bart,
or to go into san fran on the fri night stay in union square,and get the cable cars early then make way back to airport earlier next day and ck in then..
any advice-or not much difference..
im worried about the length of time may have to wait in fish wharf for getting a cable car back-even at 10am or so in the morning is the wait an hr?

thanks
again

and one more

arrive sfo 9.25am
flight to anc changed to 7.30pm

want to drive to golden gate first then go down to ano nuevo..and straight to airport on way back.is this the best order to do it ??(ie not going to golden gate on way back after ano nuevo-presume it will be very crowded if try to go back thru san fran late afternoon)

At some point you'll want to process all the info already offered (which are most excellent, btw) and make some decisions.