Planning a November trip to San Francisco^^ (Long Beach, Stockton: 2013, to rent)

[Naupaka808]

Aloha! So my sis and I are planning a trip to SF sometime in Nov. 2013 for about a week. It will be the first trip we take together. She's a single mother and I have no kids so we consider this sister bonding time for us^^ We're in our 30s and on a suggestion from a family member they said we should go and visit in November. What I want to know is: should we rent a car? Any suggestions on great places to visit while there? Ohh and how do we dress? I keep hearing layers but wanted to know what would be the bare necessities as we are Island girls from Hawaii LOL I lived in the Midwest so I kinda am familiar with freak weather change but then again, this isn't the Midwest either. My sis, on the other hand, has always been in Hawaii. Any suggestions or advice would be greatly appreciated in helping to make our first trip to San Francisco a memorable one! Thank you very much XD

[phoenixmike11]

you should not need to rent a car-public transit in the Bay area is good.
San Francisco travel guide - Wikitravel

[Naupaka808]

Originally Posted by phoenixmike11

you should not need to rent a car-public transit in the Bay area is good.
San Francisco travel guide - Wikitravel

Only reason why we are renting a car is that my sister wants to take a drive to Redding to visit an aunt of ours.^^ But thank you for your suggestion XD ^__^

[JuniperFruit]

I'm only just moving here, but temperature ranges from 40-60, and it will probably be rainy in November. Bring something waterproof, and whatever layers you need to be comfortable in windy mid-50s weather.

[luau]

Originally Posted by Naupaka808

Aloha! So my sis and I are planning a trip to SF sometime in Nov. 2013 for about a week. It will be the first trip we take together. She's a single mother and I have no kids so we consider this sister bonding time for us^^ We're in our 30s and on a suggestion from a family member they said we should go and visit in November. What I want to know is: should we rent a car? Any suggestions on great places to visit while there? Ohh and how do we dress? I keep hearing layers but wanted to know what would be the bare necessities as we are Island girls from Hawaii LOL I lived in the Midwest so I kinda am familiar with freak weather change but then again, this isn't the Midwest either. My sis, on the other hand, has always been in Hawaii. Any suggestions or advice would be greatly appreciated in helping to make our first trip to San Francisco a memorable one! Thank you very much XD

public transit can take you a lot of places but it is incredibly slow; expect to wait 30 min to 1 hr for each ride. Go see the bakers at Boudin in Fisherman's Wharf. Visit the Sony Metreon.

[mayorhaggar]

Originally Posted by luau

public transit can take you a lot of places but it is incredibly slow; expect to wait 30 min to 1 hr for each ride. Go see the bakers at Boudin in Fisherman's Wharf. Visit the Sony Metreon.

Really, you have to wait an hour on a major street like Van Ness where buses literally come by every 5 minutes all day long? I'm not the biggest fan of Muni but it has good coverage and a lot of lines run very frequently. You really give some bad advice now and then.

Also the Metreon is a joke, not worth going out of your way for. Nearby Yerba Buena park is good for people watching at lunch hour though, and it's near downtown and Union Square.

No, Naupaka, you won't need a car in SF, just take Muni and BART to get where you need to go, here is a map:

http://transit.511.org/static/provid...2201020400.gif

Use nextbus.com or google maps on your smartphone to see when the next bus or train is coming, very useful.

If you leave SF then you will definitely want to rent a car, the rest of the Bay Area is mostly very suburban, and California gets really rural once you head towards somewhere like Redding. But if you have a car with you in SF you will really get tired of fighting for parking spaces, avoiding street cleaning, and paying an arm and a leg to park in garages.

As for when to come, I'd come in October. The first half of October is usually pretty warm, often in the 70's and 80's, but the second half is usually chillier. Really September and the first half of October are the warmest parts of the year usually, August is very foggy and chilly by comparison. So maybe come in September. November is when it starts getting chillier and starts raining, though some years it stays pretty mild and dry until December.

For stuff to do:

- shopping: Union Square, the Mission, etc. Just about any neighborhood has a lot of small shops and boutiques.
- independent bookstores: walk down Valencia in the Mission, or go to City Lights in North Beach
- checking out street scenes: walk down Valencia, the Castro, Stockton north of the tunnel in Chinatown
- parks: Dolores Park in the Mission, Washington Square Park in North Beach, Golden Gate Park, Lands End in the Outer Richmond
- where to eat and drink: the Mission and Japantown are my two favorite places to go out to eat, but you can find good food anywhere in SF.

[luau]

Originally Posted by mayorhaggar

Really, you have to wait an hour on a major street like Van Ness where buses literally come by every 5 minutes all day long? I'm not the biggest fan of Muni but it has good coverage and a lot of lines run very frequently. You really give some bad advice now and then.

Also the Metreon is a joke, not worth going out of your way for. Nearby Yerba Buena park is good for people watching at lunch hour though, and it's near downtown and Union Square.

No, Naupaka, you won't need a car in SF, just take Muni and BART to get where you need to go, here is a map:

http://transit.511.org/static/provid...2201020400.gif

Use nextbus.com or google maps on your smartphone to see when the next bus or train is coming, very useful.

If you leave SF then you will definitely want to rent a car, the rest of the Bay Area is mostly very suburban, and California gets really rural once you head towards somewhere like Redding. But if you have a car with you in SF you will really get tired of fighting for parking spaces, avoiding street cleaning, and paying an arm and a leg to park in garages.

As for when to come, I'd come in October. The first half of October is usually pretty warm, often in the 70's and 80's, but the second half is usually chillier. Really September and the first half of October are the warmest parts of the year usually, August is very foggy and chilly by comparison. So maybe come in September. November is when it starts getting chillier and starts raining, though some years it stays pretty mild and dry until December.

For stuff to do:

- shopping: Union Square, the Mission, etc. Just about any neighborhood has a lot of small shops and boutiques.
- independent bookstores: walk down Valencia in the Mission, or go to City Lights in North Beach
- checking out street scenes: walk down Valencia, the Castro, Stockton north of the tunnel in Chinatown
- parks: Dolores Park in the Mission, Washington Square Park in North Beach, Golden Gate Park, Lands End in the Outer Richmond
- where to eat and drink: the Mission and Japantown are my two favorite places to go out to eat, but you can find good food anywhere in SF.

I give some really bad advice? How about virtually all your posts regarding the tech industry? Engineers work as much on average as investment bankers! LOL As for Muni, go to a random stop and ask the people how long they've been waiting and what they think of the wait times in general. Looking at your location I guess a guy from Long Beach doesn't have his facts straight about how things in SF currently are. And the Metreon is a great, althogh overpriced attraction in SF! The theatre, store are all fun to check out if you like technology.

[mayorhaggar]

I lived in SF for 7 years and took Muni every day. Yes some lines suck and only run every 30 minutes, but those are the weird neighborhood buses that nobody but decrepit old people use. Any major line runs about every 3 to 10 minutes even outside of rush hour. There are some lines like the 48 and 33 and 28 that can get a bit flaky but usually they're fairly reliable and you can always check online to see when the next one is coming. The main frustration with Muni is how crowded the buses and trains get and how slow they go. Not so much how frequent they are.

[luau]

Originally Posted by mayorhaggar

I lived in SF for 7 years and took Muni every day. Yes some lines suck and only run every 30 minutes, but those are the weird neighborhood buses that nobody but decrepit old people use. Any major line runs about every 3 to 10 minutes even outside of rush hour. There are some lines like the 48 and 33 and 28 that can get a bit flaky but usually they're fairly reliable and you can always check online to see when the next one is coming. The main frustration with Muni is how crowded the buses and trains get and how slow they go. Not so much how frequent they are.

A big concern now is how late they are too. I take the muni everyday and it usually takes at least 30 minutes to get here. Maybe it wasn't like this when you were here but it is now.

[Nineties Flava]

Sony Metreon? LOL that doesn't even exist anymore. It's mainly a Target and movie theater/food court now.