Thanks a lot for those ideas. I will definitely look at those. Exploratorium seems like it's located most conveniently. My daughter's sort of neutral on museums, but she may like it a lot if it's interactive. I think she likes museum shops more than museums (I hate both). But if it sounds like my daughter really wants to go to Japantown, then maybe we do Golden Gate Park attractions instead. We don't have a lot of time. I'm thinking it's going to have to be either eastern/central area (Union Sq / Embarcadero / North Beach) or western area (Japantown, Golden Gate Park)... not both. Isn't that right? I just don't think my daughter is going to like having to walk a lot or drive from here to there all the time.

With regards to taxis, sorry I'm really ignorant (have only taken taxis from home/hotel/airport in US). Can you flag it down anywhere you see it (like in Hong Kong)? Or do you have to go to taxi stands or hotels to catch them?

I appreciate the tip on the cable car. I looked at the map of the cable car, and it seems the "California line" is the one that goes east-west. The one that you see on pictures all the time that's going up a steep hill with ocean/Alcatraz in the backdrop... that's the Powell cable car, correct? If so, is there any tip for riding that one without having to wait much? Or is the CA one just as fun (for kids) as the Powell one in your opinion? Last year we tried to catch the cable car near that chocolate factory up north, and they told us it was an hour wait. This was the middle of the week too, in October.

Also, if anyone has recs on dining as per above (ie, very good but child-friendly seafood or Chinese with nice view), I'd appreciate it. Something like Cliff House, except ideally it would be more conveniently located. Places people have taken me to on my work trips are types of places where there's a bunch of expensive and esoteric small plate items. Sort of want a place with more standard menu items. My daughter really liked the sourdough chowder at Boudin, but I don't think we can fit in a trip to the Wharf with our limited time.

The Exploratorium is totally interactive -- not really a museum in the traditional sense. The Cal. Academy of Science is something of a science museum, but a really good one. There's a huge tropical rain forest structure with scores of butterflies, and aquarium, and a giant planetarium. Kids your girl's age tend of love it.

I'd go to the Japanese Tea Garden rather than Japantown. I don't think much of the latter, and it's not near anything else of interest.

You can hail a taxi anywhere, but I would favor Uber or Lyft as they will likely come faster than you can hail a taxi.

For the cable car, yes, the California line is not as popular as the Powell lines, but it also has great views and you'll go between the famous Fairmont and Marc Hopkins hotels. The key is that you wouldn't have any wait at all at Van Ness and California. You have limited time.

Skip the Wharf. It's to San Francisco what Times Square is to New York.

Thanks again. I'll map out my schedule, talk to my daughter and decide on Exploratorium or CA Academy of Science. She likes Jpntown because she wants to check out Kinokuniya. But we go to Jpn few times a year, so... I'll see again what she really wants to do.

Btw, is it more difficult to board the CA line cable car heading the other way (ie, Market and Drumm)?

Probably not much. I've never seen a long line there. Two or three times a year I'll board the cc there to use it as real transportation up the very steep hill on California Street. Never had to wait in any line.

BART / MUNI - Clipper? cash? paper ticket?
 

I'm totally confused about public transport in SF. Sorry for the short notice, but I need immediate answers since I'm flying out in hours.

I understand that, to take cable car & street car & everything, a day visitor's option is to either pay with exact-change cash or use Clipper card. No credit card!

Even though I live in US, I don't ever use cash and in fact I literally have no US currency on me right now. I could withdraw $ at an ATM, but then everything will come out in $20's. But then streetcar is like $2.75 / $1.25, cablecar is $7. Omg do they seriously not take credit card?!! If I walk into any bank in America, will they break a large bill into small ones / change (even though I'm not their customer) or do they frown upon such request?

And if I get this Clipper card, the info on this is very vague/inadequate. So there is an Info Booth on arrival level of T3 at SFO where I can buy this for $3 (doesn't say anywhere about whether/not Youth version of Clipper card is available... just says you can preorder them online, but obviously there's no time for that now). Is it possible to get this Clipper Card, both adult and child versions, at SFO with values added, AND pay for it all using credit card? Or can you only get the card there and then you have to figure out other ways to add values to this thing?

No sharing clipper cards - they have fare checkers on the trains sometimes. Also you can stop at Walgreens which are everywhere downtown - sometimes within blocks of each other and add money that way (or buy a clipper card there). There's one basically across the street (+ a few doorfronts to the left) from the Cable Car at Powell. There's another one 3-4 blocks up on Powell. The Muni/Bart at Powell station always has homeless people trying to sell clipper cards to tourists (Don't - they probably have a negative value so you just end up putting more money in it or just don't work.) Walgreens is also a good place to get cash back - buy a bottle of water and get $5 back. That's what I do instead of an ATM or going in a branch if I need a smaller bills. Over at the California Street cable car - there's a Walgreens near it too.

Guys, thanks for all the advice. We had good time overall, but I have to say the public transport situation for us (as a 6-7hr visitor) was incredibly difficult. I just can't understand why they can't make it easier, like HKG.

I went to get the Clipper card at the airport info booth. They said I should just do single-ride tickets for my situation and told me to buy it from the BART station vending machine. So off we went. I'm trying to figure out the machine at the SFO BART station... it gave me weird options like 'buy a $20 ticket,' 'add value,' 'deduct value.' I wanted to buy a ticket for $9-something to head downtown, but I couldn't figure it out. So I went to the manned booth to buy it from him, but he tells me I have to buy it from the vending machine. When I told him I couldn't figure out how to use it, he gave me a total attitude. I eventually talked to someone else and figured it out, but then I also found out that the kid's ticket had to be bought at that previous info booth. Somehow the adult ticket is only available at the BART station vending machine while the child ticket is only available at the airport info booth.

After we did a couple things in the city, we headed to the California St cablecar. Once we got there, we found out it was closed for maintenance! I did a lot of reading up on the cable car beforehand, but nowhere did I see any notice that the California St cable car wouldn't be operating for a few days. That completely unraveled our plans, as we then were ready to scrap the remaining plans in order to instead go ride the Powell St cablecar.

We caught the Powell St cable car at its starting point at Powell & Market. Luckily we only had to wait 30min for the Powell St cablecar. The website I saw seemed to indicate one may not be able to get on the cable car at non-start/end points, since they often get full right from the beginning. So we just went to the starting station and waited in line. However, they weren't letting enough people each time so that each train was leaving with lots of space still available. Then they'd pick up other folks 2, 4 blocks later, and they get to get on without waiting at all.

Heading back to the airport on BART, we got on the southbound train at Powell St. You can hardly make out anything they say on the PA system, so I didn't even know where our train's final destination was. But I figured all the southbound trains were going to Daly City (based on the BART map), so we would just get on it and at least ride to Daly City and then see what happened there. Well it turned out the train went another few stations (like 16th or 24th? station or something), then suddenly made a U-turn and began heading back towards where we came from. We then had to get off, figure things out by talking to people, etc.

There was also one puzzling thing that worked to our advantage. I read that you should keep your MUNI transfer slips, because they can be used for 90min. However, the transfer slip indicated a time that was more like 5 hours after my boarding time. I was skeptical that the transfer slip would let me ride another bus ~3 hours later, but indeed I showed the driver when getting on and he waved us through.

Hi all
Will be arriving on an international flight into SFO (QF 73 arr 0905 7/26) , then a 5hr Connection before a Alaskan Airlines flight to SNA.
Now assuming once I clear Customs/Immigration , I can get my bags transferred to the AS flight as it will be all on One Ticket?
Then the question what to do in the remaining time? I was thinking BART to Union Sq , then Cable Car to Fishermans Wharf , a quick look around then back to Union Sq , then BART to the airport?
Any suggestions or advice, would be much appreciated. Thanks. :cool:

Unfortunately, 5 hours between international arrival and departure is not ideal. It might be as much as an hour between when your plane arrives at the gate and you re-check your bag after Customs (you need to retrieve the bag from carousel, take it through Customs, and then hand it off to Alaska right outside of Customs). You should arrive at SFO security Terminal 2 at least an hour before your Alaska flight. So that leaves you with three hours. You should budget for maybe 45 minutes each way from SFO to your destination in S.F. (could be less, but don't count on it). That leaves you with about 90 minutes to actually do something in S.F. I'm not sure it's worth the effort.

I should add, Blackadder1402, that if you have to be stuck at an airport for a few hours, SFO is not a bad place to be. There are threads in this forum about the art displays, museum and other facilities at SFO. The restaurants are mostly local and better than average. You can shower over at Freshen Up! in the International Terminal, landside, for a fee (not sure how much). Were I in your shoes, I'd stay at SFO.

Thanks for that, will be departing the International Terminal (Alaska Sky West operated flight) , so looking at Lounge options I am limited to the Air France lounge (flight booked with a QF flight number) , if I am reading it correctly.

Yes, that's the only Skyteam lounge in International-A. It's a fairly nice lounge. If you have the Amex Platinum card you can go over to Terminal 3-F and use the Centurion Lounge.

Just for completeness, in terms of SkyTeam there is also the CI lounge upstairs from the AF/KL lounge, but if I had a choice, I'd pick AF/KL also.

However OP is inbound on QF and outbound on AS so I'm guessing the mention of the AF lounge is because it has some agreement with QF, and is also Priority Pass (though the desk agent there told me sometimes PP is capacity-limited)

And I know dhuey knows this but also for completeness going from IntlA to 3-F requires exiting and reclearing security.

Although...

... in checking it seems like today's SFO-SNA flights on Alaska/SkyWest left from T2 (59B) with an outlier scheduled this evening from T1C (gate 47) (T2 and T1C are connected airside)

Yes. Complete! Note, however, that the CI lounge opens at about 9:00 PM (it seasonally adjusts, but approximately at that time).

I have a 13 hour layover at SFO. No bags. Arriving around noon and leaving around 1AM. I also want to lounge hop a bit (Polaris, Centurion) -- not sure if I'll hang out there at the beginning or end of the layover.

I previously did the bus tour around San Fran and walked around all of the Piers / Ferry Building. What should I do this time? Preferably public transit accessible.

I like urban vibes, maybe walk around downtown and subway to a few interesting areas?