A few final thoughts on San Francisco:

We left Wednesday, and had an easy and comfortable $5.00 BART ride to the airport. The BART train from the airport had been like Chicago El trains – plastic seats and standing room; what I expected. The BART train back was like a commuter train – plush seats, lots of room – very nice! It took about 30 minutes to get from our hotel BART station to the airport. Thumbs up for BART!

San Francisco is beautiful and unique. Mer kept commenting on how she had never seen anywhere like it, and she has traveled quite a lot. The buildings (on the vast whole) are well kept and pretty, and the streets are clean (they have street cleaning three times/week in some places!). The natural beauty of the bay and the many hills make for a fantastically interesting city.

San Fran is a nice city to walk in – the city is small, and most places are within a three-mile walk. There are always quiet side streets to walk down, and the people are very friendly.

San Fran has steep hills. Lots of steep hills. I’m really not kidding! I have never seen cars parked on a 45-degree incline before. The hills really take your breath away!

San Fran is an expensive place. Eating out, even for two teetotalers, routinely ran $30 or more, and we never ate for less than $20, even at cafes and diners. Our hotel had a great location, but you pay for that.  Our hotel was listed as “inexpensive” in our tour book, but was $170/night (including tax).

While there is much to do and see in SF, I feel as if you can hit the major sights in a 7-10 day vacation. We were in SF for 3 days, and we could have seen the last three major sights (Golden Gate Park, Alcatraz, and the market) if we had been there for 3 more days. Note – Alcatraz is booked up several days in advance; if you want to tour the island, call ahead and make reservations before you go. While you can make SF a meaningful vacation for 7 days, I think you could easily do 12-14 days if you wanted to have a car for part of that time – the coastal scenery and state park system near SF are breathtaking, and wine country is close at hand as well.

San Fran is only about 750,000 people, which helps it feel manageable, but it is still a very cosmopolitan city. It has the world-famous SF Chinatown, plus a very good Little Italy, and everywhere you go you hear people speaking in foreign languages. The French and Germans seem especially fond of San Fran.

The weather is perfect for touring (my sunburn aside). With a light jacket in hand, you can walk all day and never be uncomfortable. The temperatures at night were always in the 50s, which makes for sound sleeping, and I’m not sure we hit 70 during the day. If we did, it was just into the 70s – it was perfect for wandering around (probably a bit cool for swimming in the frigid bay, but that was all right by me).

All-in-all, I give San Francisco two big thumbs up. We both had a great time, and felt as if we crammed a lot into 3 days in the city. We are even thinking of going back next summer to visit our friends and to see the things we missed. I highly recommend a trip out that way if you get a chance.