Going to SFO on Saturday May 7th until the 8th. Only getting in after 4. We are staying at the Marriott at SFO, but otherwise, we have no plans. What is an absolute MUST for us? Unfortunately, we won't make it early enough to get a guided tour and we won't make Alcatraz, so what is possible to see and get done on our own???

Thanks so much.

Read through this thread - it's a list of mostly Bay Area FTers' favorite places in San Francisco. If that's not enough, help us out with how long you have the day you depart and what kinds of things you enjoy.

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/showthread.php?t=302299

Thanks for linking to my thread, letiole.

And to the OP, I second the motion that if you want specific advice, you have to be specific about what you enjoy. Other than that you're the type of person who posts thread titles that say merely "Help!!" ( ), we don't really know anything about you and your interests.

I thought I knew, I thought it was a reference to a Beatles song.

It might also help to know when your flight on the 8th is leaving.

try gocarsf.com

a unique and fun way to see this great city

We saw these gocarsf things out at Fort Point last a few weeks back and they looked cute, but I just looked at the web site and discovered that a business day rental of one is $130 plus $9 LDW!!!!!! And you still need to PARK them somewhere and pay, just like a regular car, if you want to get out and tour. I'd call this a unique and fun ripoff, but maybe others have a different sense of value.

we did not pay to park them anywhere, they are small and fit into tight spaces....it works out to about $70 per person for a full day guided tour of the city....Value is relative but compare to renting a scooter for the day in rome or a waverunner in the bahamas and it is competitive....and try to pay for taxis to go to everywhere on the guided route (piers to golden gate to presidio to haight ashbury to seaside, etcs) and you will pay as well....anyway our girls and us all had a blast it was almost $300 for our family of four but there was nothing else we did that rivaled the experience....it is almost a year now and the girls are still talking about it

I was comparing renting this $6,000 vehicle at $140 a day to renting a $20,000 car from Hertz for $40 or less a day. Of course there may be emotional factors involved, but it does seem like the company renting the tours could reasonably charge less, especially during less popular times when the demand probably shrinks considerably. Then again, maybe they do that through couponing.

I like 'em! Yes, the gocars are overpriced, but for many the open air novelty of it all will add enough entertainment value to justify the cost.

By the way, regardless of the time of year, have lots of clothing layers available if you plan on renting one of these. Low 50s, foggy and windy could make for a chilly experience. Then again, you might get a sunny, calm day in the 70s.

Edited to add my standard SF advice: if you are in reasonably good shape, rent a bike. There's no better way to tour SF, in my view.

http://www.blazingsaddles.com/

Sorry, when I plan a trip across the country in only a few days, HELP is the only thing that comes to mind...
I think that we are going to end up doing Chinatown, Twin Peaks, check out Lombard Street, Golden Gate Bridge, and then just wander around downtown. We don't have time for much else as our flight only gets into SFO around 4:30 on Saturday and leaves at 6am on Sunday. Plus we are taking another couple with us and they are pretty short on funds at the moment, so I thought these things would be cool and light on the wallet. Now I just have to figure out how to get around and get to these places...

First off, don't sweat your choice of words for the thread topic. The comments above are just teasing. We're a friendly bunch.

As for getting around, given your time constraints, I think you need to have the smallest rental car that will work for your group. Smaller means finding parking spots that larger cars won't fit in. I would suggest more time at fewer locations to avoid the feeling that you are on a fast treadmill.

Unfortunately, we are not renting a car... Just relying on public transportation...

Hmmm, in such a short time frame (and without a car), it really seems like you are trying to do too much in too many different areas.

Something more doable, might be taking BART into the city to the Union Sq./Powell St. stop and then taking the Hyde/Powell cable car. It's the most scenic and it will drop you off at the top of Lombard Street. Along the way, the Hyde/Powell line skirts the outer edge of Chinatown.

There's also the Powell/Mason line which also skirts Chinatown and will take you down into North Beach which is SF's Little Italy.

Both of those lines, btw, terminate at the Wharf. The Hyde line will drop you off at Ghiradelli square. The Mason line, further east. Personally, I avoid the Wharf unless going with someone to Alcatraz.

Well, got to see everything but Twin Peaks... Had the Bart take us from SFO to downtown, walked the Financial District, through Chinatown and Little Italy, walked all the way up Lombard Street where we got to see an excellent view of the GG Bridge and Alcatraz, walked down through the piers and Fisherman's Wharf, and caught a cable car back to the Bart. Good times.

Great to hear!

When I read your post, I thought you wanted to actually go to the GG Bridge and take a walk across. Definitely lots of places, as you discovered, to get great views of it.