Unfortunate circumstances bring us to your fair city.
We%26#39;re pulling this trip together in a hurry and I would welcome any advice!
We%26#39;re flying in to Oakland on Wednesday around 5 p.m. and plan to stay at Hotel Diva near Union Square. The funeral is Saturday in the Mission District. The family is staying in Berekley.
Right now, we%26#39;re hoping we can pull this off with public transportation. We%26#39;re from Chicago and used to mass transit. I would welcome any pointers about getting around.
Also, any advice on something to take in the days leading up. We%26#39;ve both been to SF in years past, and we%26#39;re not feeling too too touristy, but we would like to bomb around a bit. Remember, we%26#39;re on foot.
Thanks so much!
San Francisco for FuneralI%26#39;m sorry for your loss, and hope that your time here provides some comfort in some small measure.
From OAK, you can easily take BART (Bay Area Rapid Transit) to get over to SF if your luggage is not too heavy to lift onto buses, etc. BART will cost you in the area of $5 per person. You would exit at the Powell Street station and either walk or take a cab up. It%26#39;s only a few blocks to go up Mason St. then over to Geary St., so if you have rolling luggage it%26#39;s fine.
If your party is large, you should consider a cab, which will cost in the range of $60. You might also consider a van shuttle.
Once in SF, you can rely on Muni and BART to go to the Mission, depending on where the funeral is. Muni is the city%26#39;s transit system and costs $1.50 per ride. BART is the regional transit system and costs depends on the distance traveled. BART goes to Mission District locations such as 16th Street (at Mission Street), 24th Street (and Mission Street). Inside the city (from Powell Street station to . The fares for one station to another inside the city will be about comparable to Muni. If you use it to go to Berkeley, it will be more.
You can buy Muni Passports, which are 1-day, 3-day and 7-day passes for all Muni rides including cable cars (If you ride the cable car twice at $5 a ride and take the bus once, the $11 one-day Muni Pass just about pays for itself). BART has no flat-rate pass.
Just about anything you want to see is accessible by public transit. Go to the ';Know San Francisco? Contribute!'; link just to the left of this post and you will see what is available, plus there are detailed instructions about getting from the airport, using public transit, and the ever-popular ';The One Thing You Must Do...'; post.
San Francisco for FuneralWednesday%26#39;s forecast is for rain but Thurs and Fri are supposed to be clear and sunny. A nice trip to soothe your soul would be to walk over to California St and take the cable car down the hill....walk thru the lovely Justin Hermann Plaza and check out the odd fountains(did they rename this park?) then cross the street to the Ferry Bldg. Browse a bit or have lunch then take a ferry boat ride (about 30 min) to Sausalito. Enjoy the views and clear cold air, have coffee and dessert, browse the art galleries and ferry back to SF. Take the F-Line from the Ferry Bldg. to Fisherman%26#39;s Wharf where you can take another cable car ride back to Union Sq. (or go back to the base of California St. to the cable car for a quicker return to your hotel).
Thanks very much for kinid words and your replies .
The funeral is at Driscoll%26#39;s Valencia Street Serra Mortuary at 1465 Valencia St. I%26#39;m going to check out some transportation maps and of course, we can confirm at the hotel, too.
Just getting there is a whirlwhind and just have a feeling that once we arrive we are going to look at each other and go...now what?
The 24th and Mission BART station is 2.5 blocks from the Valencia Mortuary
How many days are you going to be in SF? We might be able to give you an idea off what to do within the time you have.
Depending on the time you are going to be at the funeral, you could walk about the neighborhood a bit.
It%26#39;s a little bit of a schlep from where you are, but Joseph Schmidt Confections is heaven and might be a welcome treat. Local chocolatier-made-good: 3489 16th St. (at Sanchez Street)
…aol.com/sanfrancisco/untourist/main.adp…
The gift boxes that come out at Christmas and Easter are little works of art. (meant strictly as an aside, since I realize it is neither Christmas nor Easter).
The murals on Balmy Alley might also ge worthwhile:
…aol.com/sanfrancisco/untourist/main.adp…
We arrive tomorrow evening and the funeral is Saturday.
We figure we%26#39;ll have all day Thursday and Friday to bomb around.
May or not meet up with the family for dinner those night but we think Saturday will be pretty much dedicated to the funeral events.
We%26#39;d like to get a run/jog in all mornings.
Depending on how ambitious you%26#39;re feeling on Thursday, you can either buy a one-day Muni pass that day or for Friday.
One day you can mosey around on foot close by, take it easy a bit, and get a feel for things, the other day you can use the pass to its maximum and ride the cable cars, run around on the F-line and other buses and see the sights.
You can buy a one-day Muni pass at the Hallidie Plaza Visitors Center just below the Powell Street cable car turnaround. If you%26#39;re feeling ambitious, you can buy a three-day pass, but it seems like you%26#39;ll be pretty busy Saturday and the pass will probably not be used much except to go to the Mission, come back, perhaps go out to dinner with the family. You can pay fares as you go, in that event, and it would be more cost effective.
Near your hotel, besides the obvious Union Square shopping and hanging out stuff, you can head to the Metreon and the Yerba Buena Gardens to see the Martin Luther King Jr. memorial underneath the waterfall, walk around the park, the YB Center ice rink, carousel, etc. and into the Metreon. To get there, just ask the hotel. Basically you walk south on Stockton Street, which will turn into 4th Street when it crosses Market. Also, there are some large and small museums surrounding YB Gardens. The SF Museum of Modern Art, the Museum of the African Diaspora (inside the St Regis Hotel), the California Society of Pioneers, and the Museum of Craft and Folk Art are all within a block.
Back on Market Street, you could probably take the F-line streetcar to the Ferry Building and mosey around there. The Muni Railway museum is over in that neighborhood and worth a look. We%26#39;ve got all kinds of modes of transit and it would be interesting to see.
You can walk up and down the Embarcadero a bit, as well.
The following day, you can do a little more of the same along the Embarcadero, walk up to Coit Tower perhaps, up the Filbert Steps, and down through North Beach. Meander your way to Fisherman%26#39;s Wharf, using transit and your feet. Head to the bridge, if the weather is good, and take a good, bracing walk. The view is good for the spirits.
BTW, this is how you get from Oakland Airport to SF:
1. Buy a airport shuttle ticket to BART for $2 using the machine that is near the exit door of the airport.
2. Go out to the middle island to catch the BART shuttle.
3. Take BART shuttle to the Coliseum station (it%26#39;s the only place the shuttle goes) and buy a BART ticket to SF (Look at the map and buy the fare for the Powell Street station in SF, or double it so that you will have the right fare for the return trip this weekend).
4. Take the escalator up, and find the right platform to catch a SF-bound train. Depending on the hour, you may need to make a connection at 12th Street station, or there could be direct trains running.
See www.bart.gov
Use the ';Quick Planner'; to see what trains you can catch at the approximate time you are traveling.
5. Exit at the Powell Street station. Walk straight up Powell street three blocks to Geary, then two more blocks on Geary to Hotel Diva. If it%26#39;s late, and you don%26#39;t want to do that, you can find a cab easily at the Parc 55 Hotel, which is just across the street from the BART station. Just walk outside the BART station into Hallidie Plaza, come up the escalators and make a 180-degree turn over your left shoulder and walk a short distance to the street. The hotel will be right there. Cabs are usually waiting. The ride shouldn%26#39;t cost you more than $5, just %26#39;cuz of the one way streets.
BTB:
Thank you thank you for the directions - definitely saved us from looking it up and gave us a sense of confidence to know what we were doing.
We arrived last night and will set out to explore today!
Maria
I%26#39;m glad to hear you were able to navigate BART easily and got ensconced in your hotel. That%26#39;s always the most important thing: Get to the hotel without any major hassles, then everything falls into place.
The weather just started warming up a bit, so you don%26#39;t have to deal with very un-California like cold now.
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