Just " Hotels, Restaurants, Attractions, Flights , Vacation Rentals."
Thus many visitors do not know you can stay at many fine hotels and motels along the Caltrain route, between Hwy 101 and the pre-highway main boulevard south El Camino Real. From SF to San Jose and even south to Gilroy !!
There is also good county bus service on this old major boulevard from many fine and less expensive hotels and motels in southward San Mateo County to SF.
If you are RV-ing, and like a cheaper ocean setting, there are trailer parks in Pacifica. Then you can drive to city of Colma BART crummy train service, with station signs to small to see and station announcements you can't hear,,, to get to SF. Or drive to the much better Caltrain and one of their lots.
For those without or with a car, Caltrain-ing from the south to SF makes sense and is an easy way to get to Stanford U. from SF. Or the new 49er football "Levi" stadium in the south bay's city of Santa Clara.
If you still insist on staying in SF, I recommend all the cheap, free parking motels around Lombard street in the rich and safer Cow Hollow-Marina neighborhood. Versus the Tenderloin, west of Union Square. Best hostel is at Fort Mason and should be bigger. Many cheap national chains like Days Inn, and Super 8 and ABV Inn and many others are there for just over or under $100, depending on Summer-peak season-coldest fog rates or better weather in less crowded and cheaper shoulder seasons of Spring, and second choice Fall, or even slow quiet city-rinsed clean for a change Winter.
So travelers to and from SF, check out CALTRAIN, even tho some big famous travel websites, like Trip Advisor, won't even mention it !!
Other recommendations?
2- Beware of travel middlemen posing as destination operators with tour buses and tour bus driver employees, such as Viator. You should and want to pick the quality and safety level of your actual tour operator, not leave it to a deceptive middlemen company.
3-Beware of over 30 years warning by respected tv news show, 60 minutes, of "sale sale sale" SF camera stores selling defective Nikons and Canons, etc. This is gold rush "wild west" behavior and good camera stores are in SF , if not so obvious in Fisherman's Wharf, Chinatown, and Union Square.
4-Clean public toilets are ,for decades ,very hard to find. Many SF businesses will hid their restroom or make you buy sonething to use it !! Not very civilized for a tiny town of 820,000 that depends on top business of tourism !! So look for the self cleaning, french toilets, green kiosks ,36 of them on the sidewalks. Mayor Willy Brown's "triple cost trajedy".
5- regular taxis are very hard to find in Sf, for decades ,as the City has gone against the visitor and for the few cab owners in allowing only too few cabs. There are a few new internet cab companies , that don't have to payola hotel doormen, so you can look online for those companies trying at least to meet the huge, much larger demand than supply. "Pirate" limos , illegally solicting biz by driver vs office can be cheap and quick, if you agree before on "total price" . Make sure the limo driver actually says "total price of x".
6- Hourly Wage theft and tip theft by employers is rampant in SF. We just lost our good independent paper, the free Bay Guardian. So tip , in cash, and only directly, vs "on my bill". The Governor, State Legislature lawmakers and State Judiciary think it is only massive "white collar crime", to be ignored.
7- Our SF and bay area drinking water, extremely high quality, is piped in over 170 miles from Yosemite National Park. And we are in our 3rd year of drought, in the only state with "Mediterranean weather" where in much of the state it does not rain in the Summer. So respect and enjoy it.
8- Many are renting Mansions or deluxe city condos with fab views on VRBO or AIRBNB, instead of just a very overpriced hotel room. This Summer I met 3 elderly women who rented a Marina, north edge, water front, Luxury mansion with 3 lavish bedrooms, kitchen, dining room, living room , and ample yards "for less than the price of 3 motel6 rooms and just a couple blocks from the Safeway grocery store or popular restaurants of Chestnut street." They were so overjoyed. There are many luxury homes to rent, short or longer term in SF and Pacific Grove and all up and down the coast.like Cayucos artist colony near Morro Bay and the hot wineries of the Santa Inez-Santa Barbara county !!
9- Of about 8 million in the sfbayarea, many, thousands weekend in the Spring Summer and Autumn in Lake Tahoe above 6000' going by car east on 80E or by train to Truckee. Gambing on the nevada, small "n" side , and lots of good restaurants , mtn views, fresh air, outdoor exercise in speedboats or jetskis or horse rides or mtn biking, invented in southbay. Thousands have cabins and condos and go up friday afternoon and come back sunday afternoon and evening. Or drive up North on the Lost Coast to touristy Mendocino town or rental home isoated Sea Ranch. Or they go to Monterey Bay beaches , Pacific Grove and Santa Cruz with its Boardwalk and friday summer free rock beach concerts or uke concerts , to get away from the concentration of great white sharks off the Golden Gate , the "red triangle".
10- the calously complained about "homeless" are mostly the legally insane kick out of more than adequate state mental hospitals, like Sonoma's, by a 1970 Rep. Governor, a huge mistake costing cities much more in valuable fire and police time, soup kitchens, and Tenderloin flop apartments. A Dem. Gov. then removed the popular , well funtioning home gas and electricity price cap, sending the state crashing to Enron dvd documented ruin, from best public schools and public roads to worst. Get educated and bear to watch 'Enron', 'Gold Fever,2012', and 'wild parrots of sf' dvds. Read Smith's excellent 'SF is burning' about our totally incompetent corrupt Mayor and an illegal incompetent shoot-on-sight Army General during 1906 earthquake and fire.
11-Oh, and don't wait 3 hrs at the end of the cable car line , Summers, at Market street or Aquatic Park; instead use less crowded California street cable car line. So frustrating having the city union cable car drivers take their 30-45min breaks at line ends and shut down All loading, without $90k relief drivers!! So get day pass and get on at Union Square or California st. line. Wait 3hrs in line?!!! No way.
Oh, and book pier 33, Hornblower Cruises (also pier 1 booze dinnner or dance cruises) to go to ALCATRAZ prison, if you must, WEEKS OR MONTHS IN ADVANCE. Beach Blanket Babylon, the longest running usa live theatre 40 years of great song comedy costumes is much more fun.
Walk or bicycle across the art deco Golden Gate,,, and you will never ever forget it. 100th Birthday is 2037 Spring, mid May !! Walking tours? Check out 'donation 'price of excellent SF City Guides, good brochure and website. Foreign language microbus tour? Best is Great Pacific and not that expensive. Movie location tour bus? Craig and his dvd are best but there is an ok copycat company. Red light runners are a big problem so always look both ways crossing streets until the city gets all much safer countdown yellow stop lights and night visible street sign paint.
12-unsafe neighborhoods?
Not nearly enough walking cops.
First, the SE quarter,"3rd st.", is car break-in central, very poor very high crime. Nothing worth risking your life for in entire SE quarter. Don't go south of the ballpark, other than temporary ballpark lots.
Also , west of Union Square is Tenderloin , often not marked on maps, has gangs shooting tourists for fun. The state needs to jail and deport all gang members involved in a single gang murder.
And west of City Hall, behind the Symphony, Opera and Ballet is the remodeled ghetto , the Western Addition. Lots of iPhone sidewalk theft, poverty and high crime. Hayes Valley has been cleaned up and continues to prosper with popular restaurants and daytime shops. Be very careful at night !! Extreme lack of enough on foot patrol police.
13- I like Scoma's at pier 47 for seafood at Fisherman's Wharf, and beautiful Franciscan restaurant at pier 43, and Hard Rock or Bubba Gumps or top left restaurant at pier 39.
I like warm 'extrasour sourdough bread' over cold regular sourdough anyday. Costco sells Alfaro at some stores. I like Pacific Ocean sunsets on the beach with a good beer and calamari at Beach Chalet, upstairs from the famous fab murals and mosaics. I use Zagat red rectangular dining guide to find new places, ask any hotel front desk to see their copy. Also Tablehopper foodie local website. Fun irish bars way out Geary street and good Russian food even further out Geary , try the bakery. A second chinatown on Clement street with lots of good restaurants. And fun Haight , upper and lower, street. Upper Polk and Union st. and Chestnut st. for the neighborhood shopping streets w all the locals. And upper Filmore st. too in Pacific Heights. The overlook at Broadway x Lyon, massive Mansions with yards for miles thru Presidio Heights. Baker beach in classy Sea Cliff hood. Fort Point under GG bridge is better view than small south vista lot!!
Marin headlands road, Hawk Hill stunning car or bike views and super Pt. Bonita ww2 gunsite views, so unknown and under appreciated. Muir Woods only in the morning , early, and walk up right side of creek and back on left as trail is not wide enough for afternoon mob. And signage to education is designed that direction. Too much poison oak? Buy Tecnu soap at CVS / Walgreens to skip the 2 week itchy ugly rash.
Evening views of city from Treasure Island, but watch out for all the anarchists living there! Muni city bus drivers are scary if in car or on foot !
14- Tadich's in the FiDi is oldest restaurant.
The tiny Mama's on Washington Square seems to be most popular for bfast.
And Tony's pizza on Washington Park seems to be the thin crust fav.
I go to Costco for $10 large combo pizza, but counter is inside and not outside like SSF-airport and other locations, so you need to be a member. If I was on sidewalk I would run for you,,, ;)
Four Seas has a good lunch dim sum selection with scads of choices. Will try Empress again.
Like clam chowder at back door of Ferry bldg with "bay" Sacramento River views, average depth 12ft.
Still looking for good cheap sushi in overpriced town.
