Good SF neighborhoods for upper 20's, first time visiting couple (San Francisco: sublet, apartment)

[stealthology]

Hi all-

I'm looking for some advice on what area might be a good place for my girlfriend and I to spend 14 nights in the city (Sept or Oct). Any other tips/recommendations would be much appreciated as well. We're both 27, and have grown up in the DC area our entire lives. I've never been to CA, but I've always envied SF for the low humidity, the tech scene, and the supposedly more relaxed atmosphere. We'll be working remotely only a little, as we want most of our time to be spent relaxing, exploring different parts of the city, and hopefully meeting people.

I don't want to do a hotel since we want a kitchen, so I'm using AirBnB.com and VRBO.com to try and find some solid short term rentals. Budget would be around $300/night or so. I want to make this an experience to remember, and maybe someday we'll relocate out here if we like it and the opportunity presents.

We enjoy going to trendy bars/lounges with good music, and generally being around action. I was thinking living closeby to BART would be smart to cut down on the complexity/time of getting somewhere (especially the airport). We're both entrepreneur types, and we're probably going to seek out networking opportunities/events. Girlfriend is creative, she does web freelancing right now. I sold an online business a few years ago, and I'm trading while I figure out what's next for me.

Any recommendations, advice, etc. would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks,
Dan

[04kL4nD]

Sounds like you're looking to sublet a place. Try craigslist

[pch1013]

Originally Posted by stealthology

We do enjoy going to trendy bars/lounges with good music, and generally being around action. I was thinking it would be smart to live somewhat close to a BART station, since we're flying in.

You've just described the Valencia St./Dolores Park area on the western edge of the Mission. Unfortunately, the area immediately around the BART station that serves the neighborhood (16th Street) is extremely nasty and quite often unsafe.

If you can put up with that -- and you probably won't be taking BART much except from the airport and back, unless you want to go to Berkeley or something -- then that's where you should look.

[Leo.city.data]

The Duboce Triangle area is centrally located and I found it to be a great introduction to San Francisco. All of the MUNI subways stop at Duboce and Market, so it’s easy to get to into the Financial District/Embarcadero if you need to head in that direction (and can easily transfer to BART), and the bus lines on Fillmore can take you to the Pacific Heights and Marina quickly.

It is also at a good cross section of some interesting San Francisco neighborhoods.
You can walk to the Mission, Castro or Upper & Lower Haight and Hayes Valley in minutes and you are also within walking distance of 3 great parks, Buena Vista, Dolores and Alamo Square.

[mayorhaggar]

Japantown has a couple of hotels. Great food in Japantown and it's right next to Lower Pacific Heights which has a lot of cute little restaurants. It's about 15 to 20 minutes to get to downtown or to a lot of other areas.

Otherwise, most hotels are pricey ones around Union Square near downtown, or cheaper-ish ones near Fisherman's Wharf which is a very touristy area. There are a few other hotels scattered around here and there in other neighborhoods but they aren't necessarily very nice. Hayes Valley has a few small bed and breakfast places and it's a decent neighborhood though I always found it catered too much to middle-aged opera-goers. (it's right next to the opera and other major theatres and museums) Could definitely look for a sublet or an airbnb thingy if you want more flexibility in a place to live.

I'd definitely check out Valencia Street and the area around Dolores Park if you want SF's vibe-iest area, though it's probably infested with douchey techies now...might be the scene you want though. Don't have to live there, just spend time around there.

Noe Valley, Nob Hill and North Beach would all be good choices if you went through airbnb and found a nice apartment to stay at.