Walking/Transportation tips

I%26#39;ll be staying at the Chancellor in Union Square from Friday 9/22 to Tue 9/26, and have plans to visit the following:

Friday early afternoon - Fisherman%26#39;s Wharf and Bay Cruise

Friday night - Oakland A%26#39;s game

Saturday day - Wine country

Saturday night - North Beach

Sunday morning - Golden Gate Bridge

Sunday early afternoon - Fisherman%26#39;s Wharf and Aquarium

Sunday evening - Alcatraz tour

Monday day - San Francisco (open)

Monday night - Giants game

Looking for suggestions on walking, trolley, MUNI, BART to get around. We prefer and could handle quite a bit of walking, but obviously we%26#39;ll need to fill in with some other forms of transportation. We%26#39;ll definitely take at least 1 ride (probably a few) on the trolley, but don%26#39;t want to rely on it completely. It sounds like BART will work best from Union Square to the A%26#39;s game, and we have a car for wine country. Other than that I%26#39;m trying to figure out if we could walk or need to find another way around.

Just looking for some tips on what the experts think is the best routes (taking into account hills, safety, etc) and times for walking (for the most part to and from the hotel), and when would be better not to. Is it ok walking to and from North Beach at night (late maybe)? Same with the Giants game, etc. When might the best time be to take the trolley? Is MUNI easy to get around on? (Is MUNI buses only, or subway too?)

Anyway, whatever help I could get would be appreciated. I%26#39;m picking up tremendous amounts of info from other posts (you guys are great!), so I%26#39;m just trying to finish off the details as best I can get.

Walking/Transportation tips

Hiya, i was in san fran back in February and we bought a 3 day pass, you could use that on the cable cars, buses, etc, it cost us about 18 dollars for the 3 days, and got our moneys worth in one day, a single trip on cable car is 5 dollars, def well worth the money

Walking/Transportation tips

Here are some thoughts in response to your questions:

1. BART is really the only way to get to the A%26#39;s game via public transit.

2. You%26#39;ll want to take public transit (Muni bus or cable car) to Fisherman%26#39;s Wharf and the bay cruise. Feel free to ask the staff at the Chancellor what they%26#39;d recommend. Fare is $1.50 for a bus and $5 for the cable car (each way). There are some strenuous hills getting here via Powell Street. There are longer routes that take flatter terrain. Don%26#39;t attempt to follow the route of the cable cars unless you%26#39;re in the mood for uphill street hiking. (T-shirts used to be sold here that said ';Go climb a street.';).

3. You can walk to North Beach, or if you feel tired partway, pick up a bus. You%26#39;ll encounter hills.

4. Take a bus to the Golden Gate Bridge. It%26#39;s a loooong walk. But others on TA will tell you I%26#39;m a bit lazy.

5. Giants game. You can walk or take a bus (30 Stockton, 45 Union) or Muni Metro (light rail) N-Judah line. You can take a bus one way and walk the other way.... your call. By the time the game is over, you%26#39;ll have no safety issues walking back to your hotel. Follow the crowds walking back toward the downtown area. It%26#39;s all flat, so no worries about hills.

Some nomenclature issues: We have no trolleys. We have a) cable cars, b) streetcars and c) trolley buses, which look like buses, but they run on electric overhead lines.

Sounds like I won%26#39;t be doing as much walking as usual, so I%26#39;ll get the 3-day pass...

I%26#39;ll plan on the cable car for Fisherman%26#39;s Wharf, and the bus (when you say bus, are you talking about the trolley buses, or is there buses and trolley buses?) to the bridge. I%26#39;ll get some walking in going to and/or from the Giants game, and take BART to Oakland.

Just a couple more questions if you don%26#39;t mind:

Any suggestions on getting to North Beach (early Saturday evening), and back to the hotel (late evening/early morning)?

Is it a reasonable walk from the bridge to Fisherman%26#39;s Wharf? I imagine there%26#39;s buses otherwise, but I%26#39;m just looking for areas that we might be able to enjoy walking.

Your help is very much appreciated, and thanks for setting me straight on my cable car/trolley confusion.

Buses: There are 2 types, diesel and electric (with trolley poles that get power from overhead wires.

LRV: light rail vehicle, often referred to as a ';train';, or by natives as the ';streetcar';. This runs under Market St., in the subway, and on surface streets in the neighborhoods. They are relatively new, compared to the F line cars.

Streetcars: old, and some foreign streetcars that run on the surface of Market St. and along the Embarcadero. This is the F line. It goes from Market/Castro to Fisherman%26#39;s Wharf. These are sometimes called ';trolleys';

Cable cars: 3 lines powered by underground cables. Totally unique.

streetcar.org/mim/…route-map-1024p.gif

North Beach: You can take the Powell/Mason cable car to Union/Mason or Green/Mason. Walk couple of blocks east. You could take the 30 Stockton

…berkeley.edu/MuniMap/…

You could take a cab, pretty cheap fare.

Or WALK! Yes it is walkable. Maybe go along Grant, through Chinatown, to Columbus. Cross the street and you%26#39;re in North Beach. The hills are pretty mild along this path.

Bridge to Wharf

Yes! about 4 of the prettiest miles you%26#39;ll ever see, along the bay front. Be sure to explore Ft Point, under the bridge. It is open Fri, Sat, Sun. It%26#39;s free as well.

See, you can walk while here!

This is great...It gives me a real good idea of how I can get around...

This might be a strange question, but is there a site (or even a map or something) that gives a description of where and how the hills run...Seems farfetched but I%26#39;m just wondering...I saw this on one of the links that SwingCha always posts and it got me thinking...

sean420 reports that “According to the San Francisco Chronicle, our STEEPEST STREETS, Twenty-second between Vicksburg and Church and Filbert between Hyde and Leavenworth, have a 31½% grade”.

The hills are such a unique aspect of the city that it might be cool to know before I came.

swearengen writes%26gt;%26gt;...This might be a strange question, but is there a site (or even a map or something) that gives a description of where and how the hills run...Seems farfetched but I%26#39;m just wondering...%26lt;%26lt;

Betterthanbings posted this link to a very nice San Francisco street map with a topographic base a few weeks ago which is exactly what you%26#39;re looking for:

%26lt;http://www.sfbike.org/download/map.pdf%26gt;

One thing to remember is that your Muni Passport (i.e., 3-day pass), is NOT good for BART, which is a different transit agency. The pass is a great value, however, and visitors swear by it.

As for the map question. Here is a topo map distributed by the SF Bike Coalition. As you might imagine, bike riders (and there are many commuters) need to know where the hills are, too!

www.sfbike.org/download/map.pdf

That map is perfect...Now I can strategically map out some walking paths!!!

I did see that the BART fee was not included in the 3-day pass...Like you said the pass does seem worth it anyway.

I%26#39;ve still got a few weeks to go and I%26#39;m getting obsessed with this site and the boundless amounts of info you have to offer, so you%26#39;re bound to hear from me a few more times...

Thanks again to all of you for your help

Thanks for the topo map link! I was wishing I had one on my last trip to determine whether we wanted to walk or take motorized transportation!

One of my favorite things to do, and I rarely see it mentioned here is Angel Island. You can take a ferry there either from SF or from Tiburon and either walk around the island or up to the top, Mt Livermore, where there are picnic tables with a 360 degree view of the bay. The Indian summer weather of Sept in SF is ideal for this.