I'm coning to the US!!!

G

Giunta

Joined
Aug 8, 2006
Messages
46
Hey folks,
Work is sending me to San Jose for around two weeks. I'll have about 3-4 days to myself where I'll pretty much be alone. It's a bit scary, it's my first time out of Australia so I'm trying to get everything organised. The plan is to stay in San Francisco from Friday to Monday night when I'll be flying out. I also want to avoid hiring a car at any cost. Is it possible to get a place in the middle of the city so I can walk everywhere? My number one priority is to surround myself with as many shops as possible, I have to cash in on the awesome price of the aussie dollar. :D And of course, if there's a knife place somewhere near it'd be up the top of my list.

Feel free to post any advice or places to stay. Or even central places that are surrounded with shops and I'll find a suitable hotel near it. :)


Thanks for the help. :)
 
No idea where to stay, but make sure you make it to Pier 39, and the knife shop there. I can't remember the name of it at the moment, but I'm sure folks will chime in with it.
 
If you like garlic, you have to eat at "The Stinking Rose" in the North Beach area. Pier 39 is legendary but is also a bit of a tourist trap. Don't bother with a car; SF has decent public transit, parking is outrageous ($$$$), and you will waste knife-shopping time trying to find the $$$$ parking. But watch out for the trolley car drivers and their scheduled breaks. Haven't been there in years but love it everytime I go, I'm sure others will have better recommendations. Have a great time!
 
That shops pretty pricey, the pier is nice though if you're into tourist stuff. :) I live here and I still like to go get my clam chowder in a bread bowl every once in a while.

TAD gears warehouse is there, its a bit out of the way, you'd probably have to get a bus close and then walk a ways, but it'll be worth it. If you like the shops, try to get a place fairly close to union square its walkable to the piers and central with lots of the big stores and theater right there, but there are buses, trams, and trains all throughout the bay area so its not too big of a deal.

If you're a botanist, or into cool flowers, check out the conservatory of flowers in golden gate park one day, its awesome. Its near the beach, and Haight street, which is where the hippies were in the 60s, its a fun tourist place now, lots of hippy shops, I pretty much only go there for the record store at the end, Amoeba records is absolutely huge.

I hope you have a good trip,
Matt
 
The knife shop at Pier 39 is called, of all things, "We be Knives". Their inventory is pretty standard, and prices are a bit steep. I've seen a few places in Chinatown that sold really cheap Swiss army knives, but don't Know if they're originals or copies.

Definately find a place near Union Square, since all the shops are nearby. By shops, I mean the department store variety. Just don't walk too far west on Market Street. You'll end up in the Tenderloin district, and altho there's been a lot of improvement its really not a place a tourist would want to be. There's nothing really much to see further west of Powell Street, where the cable car turntable is.

If you have the time, take a ferry from Fisherman's Wharf (pier 39 area) across the bay to Sausolito. Its a really great day excursion.

Another great place to visit on Fisherman's wharf is the USS Pampanito, which is a decommed US Navy Diesel Submarine that fought during WWII in the Pacific. They have a great audio tour, and its really amazing how men fought and died in those steel coffins. Whats even amazing is that US subs of that type were 30% bigger than the German U-boats. I can't imagine the claustrophobic interiors of those things. Definately make time to see it, if you're into this sort of thing.

One final warning. If you want to eat the great Dungeness crab in San Francisco, don't bother to eat it in a restaurant. They'll over charge you. Just bring a packet of wet towlettes, buy a crab from any street vendor, stake out a couple of square feet of sidewak and chow down. You may have to fight off the obnoxious seagulls, tho.
 
If you're going to Northern California you should see the redwoods. You don't have to rent a car and drive up to Humboldt - you can take a fairly affordable tour to Muir Woods which isn't too far from SF. Just a quick google found this tour for $75 which includes Muir Woods and the wine country.
 
Don't forget to see China town. It is somewhat of a tourist trap, but still good to visit.
 
California cities are huge and so you can't expect to walk everywhere. Fortunately San Francisco is the only city in California with a good public transportation system, including a subway. Here's what my brother says about places to stay:

"There's scads of hotels and almost all of them are relatively close to
market street (shopping) and the public transit thereof.

Some of the bigger ones are the Hyatt Regency, the Westin St. Francis,
the Sheraton Palace and the Four Seasons. One boutique hotel that I love
is called the Hotel Monaco...another is the Hotel Vitale, near the
water.

The Mark Hopkins and Fairmont, being on top of Nob Hill, are a bit more
of a pain to get there."

Compliments of Don Clark, WSJ.
 
Beer! Beer! The Toronado Bar on Haight St. Around 50 beers on draught including a few handpumped lambics and real ales, and around 100 or so beers in the bottle. Order a sausage sandwich from the sausage shop next door and ask the guy to deliver it to you at the bar.

'Nuff said.
 
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