But ,first,,,about 20 fun things to do in SanFran/Frisco/S.F. ,,,
Ride the $7 ferry from the Ferry Bldg. to Sausalito,,,
And have a nice ,resys ok, dinner at the most famous restaurant,Scoma's,,,
Ride the Hyde St. cable car ,from Union Square, over Russian Hill,past almost crookedest Lombard St., to Aquatic Park,,,
Walk or bicycle across the Golden Gate Bridge,,,
Explore one of the distinctive neighborhoods,like Chinatown or North Beach, with one of the free walking tours from the Main Library,,,
Go to a baseball game,for the view,the beer,and the expensive food,,,
Go to a football game, for the view, the beer, and the not so great food,,,
Rent a bicycle for about $20/day and cruise the Embarcadero waterfront and whereever your eyes lead you,,,
Check out the half-price theatre ticket office in Union Square,,,
Try to get tickets for the longest running live theatre in the usa, Beach Blanket Babylon, at Club Fugazzi, in North Beach,,,by making advance resys, or contacting a connected conscierge,or phoning direct, or waiting on the curb before show time for a tour bus with possibly extra tickets they can not use,,,singing, comedy, big hats,,,great fun!!
Watch the sunset from the Beach Chalet Restaurant at the end of Golden Gate Park,on the second floor, after enjoying the murals and mosaics on the ground floor from the Depression ,but not depressing,,,
Skip the remodeled and too expensive Cliff House,,,
Skip Alcatraz,,,you're not a con,right?,,,so don't be a sheep!,,,NPS set up a lousy slow frustrating monopoly with long lines, poor availability of tickets, and high prices with only one ferry company, instead of competition and multiple ferry companies to come even close to meeting the demand,the American way,,,
Take the new big racing catamaran out of Pier 39 for a fun sail on the Bay,,,
Skip the 2 "bay cruise" companies, as they only go around Alcatraz and under the Golden Gate Bridge, not into the north bay,,,or into the south bay,,,or into the east bay,,,what a rip for over $30.00 !!
Phone or write the Mayor about how you are enjoying your vacation,as tourism is the #1 biz of SF,,,so do you like waiting in line for up to 3 hours for a cable car at the end of the line in peak season summer ??
Shop for 7,,,or 12,,,or 18 postcards for a dollar on Grant St. versus 2 for a dollar in Union Square,,,
Try and find the fortune cookie factory on Ross Alley in Chinatown,as they were invented in SF by a japanese man, in 1894 at the Golden Gate Park ,,,Tea House,,,
Visit the Tea House,on a free day,,,
Visit all the major museums ,,,on free days,,,if you can,,,the Cartoon Museum,,,and the MOMA in SOMA/modern art museum in the south of market area,,,and the new DeYoung in GGPark,,,and the Legion of Honor Museum in the NW's Lincoln Park,,,and the newish Asian Art Museum in the old library at the Civic Center,,,
(more to follow,,,)
One, parking is very very expensive, and your hotel will probably charge you $20-50/night to park your car. Not that i care one bit about the overabundant rich being charged this outrageous price, may i suggest you also park your car where i often do at one of the cheapest downtown parking garages near Union Square, the Sutter St.-Stockton St. Garage for only about $7 per night. Or on the other south side of Union Square, the Ellis-OFarrell Garage.
2,,,also about the many Frisco-if you only knew how S.F. stole it's name from an east bay city---hotels, recently over the last couple years the hotel concierges have been engaged in unethical and excessively greedy price gouging commission kickbacks and strong arm tactics with the various local tour bus companies in town. Some SF concierges are hotel employees and some are independent contractors,but my opinion is the hotel is ultimately responsible for what happens on their property, as some or many of the cities concierges have been forcing the tour bus companies to pay them up to 30-40 % of your city tour or muir woods or monterey-carmel or yosemite tour price !! This is almost high street robbery!! And the latest wrinkle is that the goodly mayor has done little to nothing to stop this abuse,but the courts have told the 2 largest tour bus companies, mediocre w/old dirty dinged and Wyo.license plate Greyline-CoachUSA, and not South Korean megamillionaire Tower Tours, but little starting-over-with-new-less-crazy-owner SuperSightseeingTours, to settle and pay a huge fine to the SF concierges who were price fixing up and all the tour bus companies were also getting together and price fixing down,with little success. Why were the tour bus companies Right and the courts Wrong? Because the SF Concierges were in the divers seat and winning,over powering the tour bus companies that needed ,i think, to pay for a good maintenance mechanics versus postpone regular preventive maintenance as many have done in these terrible US economy and swimming-in-red-ink SF economy times,,,and pay to have the seats steam cleaned after being vomited on/annually ,as only one bus company in the city area used to do,,,
Third,,,i believe it was "60Minutes" that warned us 12 years ago about these "sale sale sale!!" camera stores in NYC and SF that often sell second quality major brand cameras to unsuspecting tourists,,,did the last several mayors do anything to stop this common ripoff at the Union Square area and the Fisherman Wharf area,,,?????,,,"no",,,so BEWARE,,,!!!!!
4,,,beware of the SF Police as most have not had a miss manners civility class,ever,and there is a law that if you pause you car in the slow lane to let some one into your car or out of your car, it is not a parking ticket, but a moving violation that goes on your driving record and against your insurance !! Not very friendly from a city and county that makes its living so easily and carelessly,,,from #1 biz of tourism,,,why are there so few cops walking bad neighborhoods like the Tenderloin and the Western Addition and Third Street and Sunnydale,,,and,,,?????
Fifth,,,the SF city/county public health departments are a joke. I have had access to many/most of the city's restaurants,over 3000, back doors ,,,and have seen a dead rat on one,,,and unimaginable greasy filth on the floors of others,,,the city could and should do much better in protecting the public health . Bars especially,,,
6,,,the chinese restaurant, the "House of Nanking",on Kearny near Columbus must be in a guide book as there is always a long line,,,but it is unclean to my standards and too crowded and not nearly as good as Chef Gia next door,,, or Hunan-they will always make custom mild or medium or hot to your taste-Restaurant on Sansome,near Broadway, nearby. I also recommend for first time visitors the very famous,tho could use new carpets or no carpets as they are expensive to keep clean,the Empress of China Restaurant.
7,,,for italian food ,i would like to recommend(no longer,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,) Ceasar's(oops,dec'06, found the fet w/porcini mushrooms to look and taste like puke for $14) in the Fisherman Wharf area,,,especially on the weekend when the italians eat there as the waiters are very fiendly and speak that lovely italian language,,,and also on Union Street just up hill from Washington Square, the small but popular restaurant,Trattoria
8,,,for american food, can i recommend Moose's ,,,on Washington Square as a formal but reasonably priced place,,,and,,,,Tadich's on California,the oldest restaurant in SF,,,very good and reasonable prices,,,
9,,,which SF tour bus company to choose?? Avoid "TravelSF.com" as for years they have unscruplously cheated their paying customers with the sexiest website on the net but instead of giving them the muir woods ticket ,that says muirwoods on it, they have been passing out generic theater stub tickets,you know the kind you can buy in big rounds of double tickets,,,so that when their guest get to Muirwoods National Monument,they have to come up with the additional cash as generic theatre tickets are worthless,,,amazing that the city of SF has not stopped this flagrant fraud for years and years,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,"Greyline"/"CoachUSA"/SanFranciscoSightseeing/CUSA/Grosvenors goes by several confusing different names and paint jobs,,,but why??!!??,,,and their buses do not pay for California license plates,but rather Wyoming,,,to operate in SF,,,strange,,,and they are mostly old busses over 5 to 10 to 15 years old with nasty dirty seats that have probably never been steam cleaned,just vomit wiped ,,,ugh,,,and the drivers are not happy about the merging of so many companies and the mess it has made of their years of senority,,,,then there is the relatively new "Tower Tours" with all new buses ,quiet gas mini Ford's with lousy rides suspension from Krystals from LA vs Federals from the midwest and German Setra big coaches,,,,but their drivers tend to make stuff up versus read a SF tour book,as one senior driver's tour i rode recently said that "redwood trees near the ocean die because the salty air kills them",,,but they do have all new equipment and i hope none of their minibuses have noisy diesel engines you can not hear the tour over,,,and then there is " Super Sightseeing Tours", which is getting all new busses "this year" they say,,,hopefully none of their drivers make stuff up about SF as there are so many good SF cheap history books available,,,
10,,,try in advance to get tickets to "Beach Blanket Babylon",singing dancing comedy and big hats ,,,the longest running theatre in the USA,,,never met anyone who did not enjoy it,,,forget "Theatro Zinzani" as it is not nearly as popular,,,
11,,,be sure to find a free copy in the sidewalk newstands of the "SF Bay Guardian" to learn a lot about everything,dancing clubs and night clubs, restaurant reviews, politics, and all the other info useful to tourists and locals,,,it is the #1 useful info paper in SF,,,
12,,,buy or borrow the hotel concierge's coppy of "Zagat" restaurant guide and night club guide,,,if you go to their website and review a SF restaurant,,,hint hint,,,they will usually sent you a copy of the SF one, before you leave home,,,plan ahead,,
13,,,most travel websites lie about SF hotel and motel locations, calling SF airport locale hotels and motels part of a "SF hotels" search !!! Also, they lie and euphemize the correct name for the neighborhood "the Tenderloin",lots of prostitution,drugs,and possible scams like faked bum and auto accidents to extort money asap from the driver,,,and purse snatching,,,and filthy not-steam-cleaned-in-ages sidewalks,,,as "lower Nob Hill" or "the Western Union Square",,,BIG FAT LIES,,,!!!,,,DO NOT BE DECIEVED BY MOST TRAVEL WEBSITES,,,the Tenderloin is between Union Square and City Hall-Civic Center from Van Ness on the West to Mason Street on the East to south of Market on 6th,7th,and 8th,9th St. and to Post or Geary St. on the North,,,also beware of the West side of Civic Center, the Western Addition,a black poor high crime ghetto project of about 20 square blocks,,,
14,,,SF is 7 miles by 7 miles ,or about 52 square miles,,,you can divide it into 4 quarters to easily understand the layout,,,the NE quarter is the tourist area with Chinatown and FishermansWharf and NobHill,,but avoid at night especially the Tenderloin and the Western Addition,,,the NW is the upper left area with the Golden Gate Bridge,the Marina District for yuppies,the Pacific Heights area for the overabundant rich,the"Cow Hollow" area with" the best bargains of hotels and motels in SF "with prices of $39-49-59-69 such as the lowest price of the Comfort Inn at Lombard and Van Ness with lots of good restaurants on Chestnut St. and Union Street and northern Polk St. and good public transportation,,,and the Golden Gate Park,,,the SE is another poor ,high crime, mostly black,polluted,ugly, quarter with the only attractions being the baseball park and the 49ers football stadium,the old Candlestick,,,only tourists call it 3Com or MonsterPark,,,say "the Stick" to appear local and knowledgeable,,,so forget the SE quarter for sightseeing,,,and for the SW quarter it is mainly the Sunset District,in "the Avenues" ,a rather boring residential neighborhood ,with the only attractions of the Zoo ,with the old poo-throwing monkey, and Stern Grove for summer concerts,,,so forget most of the SW tho it is relatively safe to vist, oh, it also has the only street car transit available ,standard one-roof a/c shopping mall, "Stonestown" with Nordstrom and all the usual $$$$$ shops,,,
15,,,,,,recommend the "DK" travel book series as one of the best guide books on SF,,,also "Dr Weird's SF" paperback to study up and giggle before the trip and learn about the Summer of Love in 1967 and the "human be-in", the flower children,the press called the hippies,,,also the white paperback "Historic San Francisco" sold recently at Costco for about oooh maybe $15,,,
16,,,,,,,there are free walking tours out of the new main public library in the Civic Center,,,beware of the nightime Tenderloin social problems mentioned earlier,,,!!!
17,,,,,,there is a HALF PRICE theatre ticket office in the newly remodeled Union Square,,,check it out,,,
18,,,,,,again "Cow Hollow" is the best bargain neighborhood for inexpensive motels and hotels,,,and even some very expensive motels like the Del Sol,,,find Lombard Street between Lake St. on the West and Van Ness on the east and about Union St. on the south,,,why do none of the major travel websites nor the SF website emphasize this BIG Bargain area ??
19,,,,,,alot of the wealthy SF neighborhoods are closed to tour buses and "tourists looking in our windows!!", like the Marina, Russian Hill, Telegaph Hill with the Coit Tower, part of Pacific Heights, the Sea Cliff neighborhood formerly of Sharon Stone,,,and in a city whose number one business is tourism,,,also the city will not allow tour buses to stop at some of the most famous tourist attractions,like the Alamo Square most famous Victorian houses,the postcard row of painted ladies !!,,,and Civic Center!!near the new library,,,!!,,,crazy eh ?
20,,,,,,only the Haas victorian house on Franklin west of Van Ness is open to most tourists during the day,,,groups with cash can get into several others of more interest,,,
21,,,,,,"shareholders beware!!",,,companies on convention are blowing your dividends on extravagant spending for travel agencies called DMCs that book tour buses,charter buses, dinner reservations,etc.,,,for from 33%-50% NET PROFIT,,,this is exhorbitant and a total ripoff/giveaway of money that could be spent on an inhouse secretary doing the same job for FREE ,,,but what do most if not all American or multinational corporations care about fiscal responsibility to their shareholders ??? If a major corporation like IBM can spend 10$million in a week in SF,imagine how much is wasted on these travel agencies that could go directly to shareholders !?!?!? Contact Lucha(only) ,the very best manager in sf, at Compass, for a very competent SF charter bus secretary who can help you plan your trip,a charter bus company with old reliable MCI buses ,,,that probably need their seats steam cleaned,,, like Mercury use to do every year,,,now that is quality service,,,,
22,,,,,,some hotels do not keep their white curbs clear,but rather let cars park there all day it seems,,,like the Nikko,on Mason,,,what is up with that,,,???,,,and the Grand Hyatt at Union Square blocking a busy lane of traffic at a very busy corner,,,???,,,
23,,,,,,taxis,,,are very hard to find,,,doing the gravy run,like in seattle, between the airport and downtown,,,slide some green to a hotel doorman,like the most famous in town,tom at the sir francis Drake, and they will get you a cab faster,,,also great service at the nob hill Ritz,,,or try a restaurant host to call a cab for you,,,unless you are gorgeous or hot to a gay driver or near union square, your chances are slim of gettng a cab by waving on the corner,,,and beware of these terrorists in training as the sf taxi drivers usually find the slowest,most costly way to your destination, the one with the most red lights,,,there are way too few cabs in the city,,,and the cabbies,not the city is in control, so that is wacked,,,
24,,,,,,many of the city's most famous tourist sites do not have tour bus white curbs,,,like alamo square's postcard row of 7 painted lady victorians,,,what is up with that major industry handicap,,,??!!
25,,,,,,why is the city and county of sf allowing the airport minibus companies to force the drivers to buy or lease their formerly just employee operated minivans,,,??!!what a terrible show of capitalism at it's worst,,,try to help these low wage working poor drivers and only use companies that do not force the driver to assume what is traditionally the company's rightful overhead cost built into the usual high profit sturcture,,,drivers should not be forced to lease or buy minis and coaches ,,,and pay for the mechanic ,,,and insurance,,,and gas,,,this is a huge social injustice!!,,,but sf is asleep at the city hall,again,,,,
26,,,,,,NPS has created a monopoly monster at Alcatraz by allowing only one ferry boat operator, so prices are too high,,,and the lines are too long,,,and there should be at least 2 or 3 different ferry boat companies,,,and it is too hard to get tickets,,,sometimes sold out for 2 weeks,,,plus many people regularly swim from alcatraz to sf, children and grandmothers and grandfathers, and even jack lalane use to swim as a senior citizen yearly from alcatraz ,hand-cuffed and pulling many boats,,,handcuffed!!,,,so do not believe the common myth that" is was impossible to escape from alcatraz",,,
27,,,,,,many myths,,,to S.F.,,,is has snowed in the past in town ,with ground accumulation ,in the 1950s and 1960s,,,also ,,,lombard street is not,,,not,,,not,,,the "crookedest street in town",,,it is Vermont street, of dirty harry -clint eastwood fame, in a poor bad neighborhood called potrero hill south,,,
28,,,,,,weather,,,,,,also the worst weather is during the peak tourist season of summer with fog, cold,wind,cold, damp, cold ,poor visibility 50-60 degree days,,,and the south bay in summer,silicon valley,has brown layer and green layer smog on top days,,,ugh,,,Tower Tours says we can not say that "negative" to the tourists,,,ha,,,,"scare away biz",,,ha,,,in summer,,,PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE,,,EXPECT LOUSY COLD WINDY FOGGY OVERCAST POOR-VISIBILITY WEATHER IN SUMMER,,,AND NOW IF YOU DO COME IN SUMMER TO SAN FRAN,,,YOU CAN NOT NOT NOT COMPLAIN ABOUT THE WEATHER!!!,,,there is a clockwise warm moist air circulation over the n.pacific and it pushes the warm coastal water away,clockwise,,,this coastal water is replaced by colder deep oxygenated and nutrient rich water,,,so that when the warm moist air of summer central northern pacific hits cal.coast, it is like blowing on a mirror in the morning,,,you create "fog",,,also it can be 100-110f in the state capitol what with all that politician hot air rising,,,and that just sucks in the fog more thru the wind funnel of the low ,mouth of the biggest river in the state, the golden gate (the bridge is red),,,the best weather is in autumn or our indian summer with temps in the 80s and 90s,,,one year,acouple years ago, there were 3 days in a row over 100f and one day it was 103f in SF,,,winter is the best visibility and with only 15 inches of rain a very nice uncrowded season to visit SF,,,spring is my favorite when the hills are green,,, versus brown in summer,,, and there are lots of flowers and the city is also uncrowded,,,
29,,,,,,Scoma's is the most famous seafood restaurant in SF,,,no resys ,and not fancy,,,also Scoma's in sausalito is fancy but very price competitive reasonable and right on the water,,,and does take resys,,,may i suggest you take the $7 commuter ferry over from the sf ferry building to sausalito,with a frequency of 45-90 minutes,but not past midnight in summer and especially the other slower seasons,,,forget,ok,it is getting better,but "Spinnaker" eating- the- view mediocre food and service category restaurants in sausalito ,,,
30,,,...forget about the 2 "bay cruise " boat companies,,,red and white,,,and blue and gold,,,as they only go around alcatraz and under the golden gate bridge,,,not into the south bay or the north bay or 80% of the bay, what a ripoff for over $30,,,take the more modern,more stable,commuter ferrys to sausalito and tiburon from the ferry building near the sf bay bridge for about only $7,,,what a steal of a deal,,,!!
31,,,...Presidio,,,beware of poison oak all over and also rattlesnakes,,,as there are not any warning signs,,,so stay out of the bushes,,,!!,,,also ,go down to the fort point area versus the south bridge parking lot, as there is a new toilet set, tho without enough holes, only 2 per side,,,typical NPS incompetence,,,over 20 years without flushing toilets and when we get them, NPS spends all this money and time in slow construction yet only puts in 2 holes per mens or womens,,,what bureauocraps,,,
32,,,...stay out of the water at ocean beach on the pacific at the end of golden gate park,,,as there are very dangerous rip currents and holes near the beach,so that 6-7 people drowned each year wading at a seemingly popular ,but too small warning sign and too few life guards, beach,,,horse back riding probably should be allowed to keep all but the surfers from going into the ocean at the dangerous "red triangle" of highest stat great white shark attack area,,,go to baker beach in the presidio or to the rich neighborhood of sea cliff's beach and don't spoil the rich spoiled selfish residents,but treat them like the rest of sf,,,
33,,,...a private for-profit biz is in control,at least on paper, in the Presidio,tho you will see NPS personnel there,,,the P.Trust has a 15 year contract to do what they said and boasted and pledged to do,make a profit in the old military base since the military left in the early 1990s,until 2013,,,and have yet to show a yearly profit,,,so typical for corporate america to lie ,and get away with it,year after year,,,there is no law protecting this 1500 acres and 1000 buildings of very very very valuable land ,in the public ownership,forever,like a national monument that only takes a president's signature,,,so there is a considerable risk that the P.Trust will sell off some or all of this former huge valuable public land asset,,,beware,,,
34,,,...scary-looking bus companies,,,ACE,,,MAJESTIC,,,NEW WEST,,,MAJIC,,,(and many more,,,to list later,,,)
35,,,...cable cars,,,only one woman spoke up to keep cable cars,yet they are a big part of the sf image,,,prices just went up to $5 per ride and $10 for a day pass,,,there are only 3 lines left,,,and the california street line ,from drum street near the ferry building to van ness street ,is the easiest one to ride,,,tho the most popular, the hyde street and mason street lines run perpendicular and north-south,from either aquatic park thru union square to powell street and market street or from fisherman's wharf thru union square to the same end of line at powell street and market street,,,so there is a huge line at market and powell by nordstrom's,,,beware,,,and do what the locals do,,,it is not end to end service,,,but continuous to the end of the line ,where you must get off,,,and pay again,,,so just walk up a block or 2 and wait for the cable car to stop,,,and hop on the rail on the right side and hang out with a firm grip on the vertical pole,,,so much fun,,,but a bit dangerous for kids and klutzes,,,so take a seat if one is available,,,my big gripe is that the price went from $3 to $5 with talk of $10 and yet the unionized drivers take terribly long breaks,like 55minutes of every hour,right in front of our #1 biz guests, reading the paper bs and such,,,so rude,,,!!!,,,the goodly mayor should insist on continuous service to our valued quests with the use of relief drivers on the cable car system,,,and tax the way too many rich in the way too many rich neighborhoods to pay for it if the union squalks,or not,,,do not ,do not, do not stand in line for up to 3 hours and get very upset at SF,as it has alway been corrupt,,,always,,,(acouple years ago after a big election, voting boxes full of ballots were found floating in the bay on the day after election),,,(sf public school district mgmt misappripriated $$$ millions,,,and did all monies get reclaimed and all put in jail for long terms=no),,,
36,,,...some hotels have changed names 3 xs in 10 years, like the Argent,,,and why do they have sf cops kicking cars and buses out of their white curb ??,,,during the day,,,
37,,,...CalTrain down the Peninsula,is sooo much better than BART,,,it goes to the cheaper hotels near SFO and down past palo alto and stanfud,,,to silly-con valley and stuped san josey,,,and even down to morgan hill and the outlet malls of 100s in gilroy,,,BART IS SUCH A TECH-NO-LOGICAL WASTE OF TAXPAYERS MONEY,,,LIKE DIAMOND LANES THAT THE FEDS REQUIRE,,,(more later on history,start-stumble to bumble-present, of farty BART,,,),,,
38,,,...use the new CalTrain station at 4th x King street,near the baseball park,,,to get to lots of cheap motels in Millbrae on ElCaminoRealBlvd near SFO and san mateo and burlingame,,,and SuperSightSeeingTours will pick you up for city tours or muirwoods tours or monterey-carmel tours or wine country tours or other tours,,,as they were the first of the sf tour bus companies to go down out of sf county and into san mateo county to pick up these stranded out of town tourists,,,
39,,,...sooo many complaints about the HOMELESS,,,hey, if it were not for a certain coldhearted slick governor shutting down the 2 huge mental hospitals in the north bay,Sonoma, and the south bay, Agnews,,,there would not be so many crazy people making bad choices to sleep in doorways and on the sidewalk,,,and wait in long lines in the Tenderloin for the soup kitchens,,,and beg for $40-50,000 /yr of sf huge generosity of tourists,,,just a couple years ago the city had "general assistance" where it gave out $300-400/mo to the homeless,,,but so many got phoney DMV ids that some had 10-20 false accounts ,so the program was stopped,and now there is something like $7/hr street sweeping program,that is not very popular,,,also, avoid Golden Gate Park at night,as 100s of homeless might be sleeping there at night ,after dark,,,when the sun goes down,,,
39,,,...one temperature for SF,,,makes about as much sense as,,,one cop for all the poor neighborhoods,,,there should be a temp for the beach chalet at ocean beach on the west side or pacific ocean coast and one for twin peaks in the geographic center and one for the golden gate bridge and one for downtown-financial district and one for the mission district or candlestick area,,,at least,,,hey, wx people, do your job better !!
40,,,...what is with all this cottonseed oil coming into SF in double tanker gasoline-type trucks,every few days,to the 3rd x Army-Chavez st. area ??,,,are all or many of the expensive sf restaurants using such cheap and inferior cooking oil, the most toxic crop in california,,,without telling their dining customers ?,,,well, do not expect the cowardly american press to investigate that one,,,
41,,,...the Golden Gate Bridge District,that owns the golden gate bridge,not the state of california,,,has already gone in autumn to winter reduced hours on the $7 ferry from sf-sausalito-sf,,,??,,,and it stops at 620pm,,,??,,,what a Stupid thing to do, when people want to go to sausalito by ferry for dinner,or sf,,,and the g.g.bridge takes in about $500,000 per day, so the ggbd can certainly afford to run the ferries until midnight,on the hour,,,where are our public servants??,,,out to lunch,on the taxpayers,again ??
42,,,...most modern western European cities have Central Hotel Reservations Offices,,,but not SF,,,
43,,,...a central taxi dispatch would be helpful,too,at the taxis are circling the gravy run at SFO by the score,,,instead of covering SF,,,so have a hotel dorman or restaurant host call you a cab,,,unless you are a babe or gay darling,,,beware , the cabbies are rude,slobs in dirty cabs,and usually go the long ,full of redlights,slow,way,,,
44,,,...why can't SF regularly steam clean the sidewalks downtown,as some are constantly filthy,with bum pee,,,???,,,maybe at least monthly,,,???
45,,,...ok, here is (going to be) a list of all the "secret bargain neighborhood" motels and hotels in Cow Hollow, that SF and all the travel websites are cluck-cluck-cluck chicken to tell you about,,,
,,,,,ch,1,,,the Comfort Inn,on Van Ness x Lombard,sometimes as low as $69/double in peak season summer(last year),,,!!
(more latter when i have time,,,)
46,,,...about tour bus operators,,the biggest,by far,in size, is Greyline/CoachUSA/FranciscanLines/PacificCoast/,or,,,SanFranciscoSightseeingandTours/
GrosvenorLines,,,they have gobbled up sooo many companies, that they are definitely the biggest, just not the best, as most of the sf buses have Wyoming plates, and are old and dirty, especially the never before steam cleaned seats,,,if you slap them ,a huge dust cloud of disease dust forms,,,tho they are getting new double deckers,still packing people in like sardines,to max profit,,,the second biggest tour bus company is probably Tower Tours, with all new $3-400,000 German Setra big buses and many minis,,,try to get a gasoline mini so you can hear the tour and not just the diesel noisy unsoundproofed engine,,,they seem to operate on a "ignorance is bliss" tour guide theory as they are not allowed to talk about how bad the summer peak-season weather can be,,,but the all new equipment is a big big big safety plus,,,the third largest sf tour bus company is probably SuperSightseeingTours,that is just now replacing with the new big German Setra buses,,,they seem to have a "knowledge is power" tour philosophy as the drivers are allowed to tell the truth from the myths,like Lombard is not really the crookedest street but Vermont is, and the summer fog can be very cold,,,the 4th largest tour bus company in sf ,with actual tour buses, is probably TravelSF,but they have been very naughty with the sexiest website and selling generic theatre tickets as official Muirwoods entrance tickets for years,,,bad bad bad,,,most of the other "sf sightseeing tour companies" you may Google on the web are just travel agencies or booking agencies,taking a cut ,with no actual buses of their own, so BEWARE !!
47,,,...guidebooks,,,i prefer the DK series,available at Costco membership warehouse stores for cheap,,,
(but will compare all the others like LonelyPlanet ,etc. with my max sf knowledge,,,soon,,,)
48,,,...clean public toilets,,,this has always been a problem in sf,,,in the past some stores were kind and public-minded enough to let the public and customers use their toilets, as in merry old England is the rule,,,but the last mayor, Sac-a-tomatoes Cal. legislature-slick Willie Brown thot he could get the best of the french by negotiating for about 35 green kiosk automatic coin operated 25cent self-cleaning modern toilets,,,but the french got the best of the mayor,and sf,by charging 3xs the best retail price, in a sloppy ad space for toilet swap,,,so much for slick Willie,,,who left the city swimming in red ink,,,remember , these dark green oval units are on a timer,so don't plan to take your sweet time,,,ladies,,,
49,,,...there is a new street car line on market st. from the castro district down to the ferry building and all along the embarcadero/waterfront from the baseball park to fisherman's wharf,,,cost is about $1.50 and of course the city bus co/muni wants exact change,,,natch,,,
,,,more to follow ,as time allows
,,,best of luck !!
