San Francisco

[MillauFr]

Gotta visit the original Ghirardelli though

Agreed I Like Ghiradelli. Also Gary Danko is just down the block. A great place and we eat there everytime in SF. It is Pier 39 that I avoid.

 

[bcla]

Gotta visit the original Ghirardelli though

Nothing really all that great there. I remember it from 30 years ago when I thought it was a much better representation of San Francisco. Sure there's the ice cream/candy shop, but the location on Market Street serves the same stuff without the lines. The rest is mostly tourist trap businesses and overpriced restaurants.

One great place to just soak in the views is the Randall Museum. It's technically a childrens' museum, but they have some stuff that adults might enjoy. They have a spectacular view of the city from a hill.

 

[bcla]

SF is one of the safest cities in the world second/third to only Seattle and Portland, OR in the US. My wife and I walked through the Tenderloin late at night. Sure their are some sketch characters but they are completely safe.

On what basis? It's a major city with some serious issues. Most tourists won't experience those issues, but there are serious problems with gangs in the Mission and Bayview-Hunters Point neighborhoods. Every once in a while the city does damage control when a tourist is killed during a robbery. I went to the symphony with my wife, and walking to BART at night was frankly pretty scary. Once I walked along SOMA to go to a restaurant, and along the way I saw one drug abuser talking to a counselor on the street, and one guy with a lighter under a spoon. My cousin has a condo in San Francisco, and sometimes she says she has to wake up the homeless sleeping in front of the garage door.

In the Bay Area alone, San Jose has the largest population and is generally considered safer than San Francisco However, it's more like a big suburb. I have no issues going to San Francisco, but realize it's a big city with typical big city problems. I take it as a challenge.

 

[sonnyjane]

SF is one of the safest cities in the world second/third to only Seattle and Portland, OR in the US. My wife and I walked through the Tenderloin late at night. Sure their are some sketch characters but they are completely safe.

How recent are your stats lol?? Seattle is a mess right now - bottom 10% in the country. http://www.areavibes.com/seattle-wa/crime/

 

[Pacolovestacos]

On what basis? It's a major city with some serious issues. Most tourists won't experience those issues, but there are serious problems with gangs in the Mission and Bayview-Hunters Point neighborhoods. Every once in a while the city does damage control when a tourist is killed during a robbery. I went to the symphony with my wife, and walking to BART at night was frankly pretty scary. Once I walked along SOMA to go to a restaurant, and along the way I saw one drug abuser talking to a counselor on the street, and one guy with a lighter under a spoon. My cousin has a condo in San Francisco, and sometimes she says she has to wake up the homeless sleeping in front of the garage door.

In the Bay Area alone, San Jose has the largest population and is generally considered safer than San Francisco However, it's more like a big suburb. I have no issues going to San Francisco, but realize it's a big city with typical big city problems. I take it as a challenge.

Is seeing a guy with a lighter under a spoon that scary?

 

[MillauFr]

How recent are your stats lol?? Seattle is a mess right now - bottom 10% in the country. http://www.areavibes.com/seattle-wa/crime/

Those stats are hogwash. Seattle is so safe the cops have nothing better to do than ticket jaywalkers. Seattle is Mayberry with highrises.

 

[Meriweather]

I'm going with a friend the end of this month.
I love Fisherman's Wharf and that is the area we are staying in.
We plan on Alcatraz and then HoHo to go to Chinatown and the Disney Family Museum.
Weather won't be ideal but we are okay with it.

 

[dclpluto]

Lots of great things to do in San Fran.
I would check out DCL excursions for San Fran or other cruise lines to see some great ideas of what to do.

 

[Pintail]

Alcatraz, Ghiradelli, and Fisherman's Wharf were great. Touristy I know, but we enjoyed them.
We also went on a tour of the city on a 50's Fire Engine that left from Fisherman's Wharf.
It drove over the Golden Gate Bridge, and there was a photo-op stop - very fun.

 

[sonnyjane]

Those stats are hogwash. Seattle is so safe the cops have nothing better to do than ticket jaywalkers. Seattle is Mayberry with highrises.

I don't remember Mayberry having fatal shootouts with police in homeless encampments, but admittedly I haven't seen every episode.

 

[mnrose]

Gotta visit the original Ghirardelli though

Yes, but they haven't made chocolate there for decades.

 

[mnrose]

I honestly hated SF. I've never been to a city anywhere in the world where I felt more unsafe. I stayed in Union Square and wouldn't recommend that area to anyone. Initially I booked an apartment on AirBnB in the Mission and everyone on TripAdvisor chastised me, saying that was no place for a young woman to stay alone. Believe me, Union Square wasn't either.
The one SF experience I enjoyed was hiking the Golden Gate Bridge. Truly life-affirming. Will never forget it. Everything else, including seeing people defecate and shoot up drugs on the sidewalks in the middle of the day--I'll take a hard pass on.

Union Square is very safe. You were probably in one of those hotels that aren't really in Union Square but say they are. There ARE unsafe areas in the City, much like any big City, but Union Square is not one of them. However, there are a TON of hotels which are pretty "generous" in their interpretation of where they are located. And the Mission is also a wonderful place. Areas that skirt the Mission? Not so much.

 

[Pacolovestacos]

Yes, but they haven't made chocolate there for decades.

It's all about da cream

 

[bcla]

Is seeing a guy with a lighter under a spoon that scary?

It can be if the guy is prepping heroin.

 

[Pacolovestacos]

It can be if the guy is prepping heroin.

Just walk right by him. He's obviously preoccupied and won't bother you.

 

[Erzengel]

It's been almost 9 years since we've been to San Francisco.

We stayed at a boutique hotel, which was quite nice. I forgot the name of it.

But on our list of things to do:
We walked across the Golden Gate Bridge.
We did a tour to see Muir Woods.
We did a tour of Alcatraz.
We discovered In N Out.
Took a ride on the trolley.

We were there for 4 days but we had a good time.

 

[xlxo]

Thoughts....

• plan your Alcatraz visit.... during tourist season, I'm told tickets can be sold out several weeks in advance.
• love the tram.... get the day pass... after a few rides it's cheaper with the day pass. The tram day pass is also good for public transit (not the subway)
• love the Golden Gate Fortune Cookie factory. My carry-on is full of cookies for gifts at home.

 

[bcla]

It's all about da cream

Why go there? We drove by there and saw a line all the way to the sidewalk. Never quite understood why anyone would wait that long. The one on Market at New Montgomery typically has no line.

https://www.ghirardelli.com/locator/palace-hotel-san-francisco-ca

The ice cream is just Dreyer's. Kind of ironic, I'd think. Ghirardelli is owned by Lindt, and Dreyer's is owned by Nestle.

 

[Hikergirl]

Why go there? We drove by there and saw a line all the way to the sidewalk. Never quite understood why anyone would wait that long. The one on Market at New Montgomery typically has no line.

https://www.ghirardelli.com/locator/palace-hotel-san-francisco-ca

The ice cream is just Dreyer's. Kind of ironic, I'd think. Ghirardelli is owned by Lindt, and Dreyer's is owned by Nestle.

Maybe people like going to tourist destinations for their own reasons. We get it, you are a local and you don't find it worth your time but lets not continue to disparage others for liking that place.

Personally I loved sitting there enjoying my ice cream. I was a short distance from my hotel, it was a nice little place to visit, and regardless of who made the ice cream and where the chocolate was made it was darn good.

 

[bcla]

Maybe people like going to tourist destinations for their own reasons. We get it, you are a local and you don't find it worth your time but lets not continue to disparage others for liking that place.

Personally I loved sitting there enjoying my ice cream. I was a short distance from my hotel, it was a nice little place to visit, and regardless of who made the ice cream and where the chocolate was made it was darn good.

If you like it, fine. I think it's OK, but worth an hour of time just to see a stone wheel crushing chocolate? If you have to have it, there's another location right at Ghirardelli Square with the same menu, but the one next to the street is the one with lines up to an hour to get in.

There's a ton of really good ice cream places in San Francisco or elsewhere in the Bay Area. Humphrey Slocombe at the Ferry Building is excellent. Bi-Rite Creamery has lines out the door. Now Fentons Creamery is special, but you'll have to go to Oakland (or the new location in Vacaville) for that.