San Francisco
 

I'll be in the area soon and I might have a bit of free time, most likely in the evenings. Any suggestions on what to check out down there would be great. The only thing I know about San Fran is the bridge lol.

Pier 49 is the big touristy pier area with a Bubba Gump and the popular clam chowder in sourdough bowl place, etc... but I actually like the east side piers (on a map, Pier 27 and southward toward the ferry building (which houses a day market -- maybe not useful to you) there are some neat warehouse based taverns and stuff there.

I like the Mission district myself for restaurants and stuff. If you like baseball there's Oracle Park there for a game if the Giants are in town perhaps... it's a cool location on the waterfront... the BART is around for cheap traspo but it can be a bit sketch at night lol

Was there a couple weekends ago:
- spend most our time in the north beach area, seemed to have the best food and 'vibe'. Lots of outdoor seated food spots, mostly Italian. restaurants I liked
https://goo.gl/maps/UXyUXqiBe8xPqjK49
https://goo.gl/maps/P7QGaNxaZUsg25267
https://goo.gl/maps/6Xz21CjbD8cich898
https://goo.gl/maps/i8DZVM8f4R2s6FM67

- dinner at House of Prime Rib was a fun experience
https://goo.gl/maps/gWCiufcmXLJpQ9Nq7

- always enjoy the irish coffee and other drinks here
https://goo.gl/maps/AKcrVk3GrPQs46vi8

- really good view and Birria
https://goo.gl/maps/ETGJqeVbtHyNP9kLA

Rich

Go to Tartine and Arsicault, compare the croissants and decide which is better. As good as France.

Good Good Culture Club is a terrific fun restaurant.

There's a bunch of boat / ferry services in the area.

Always cool the see cities from a unique angle

If you're into tech, I rented a car to go down to San Jose/Silicon Valley area. I went to the Computer History Museum in Mountain View and I thought it was pretty neat

Alcatraz Tours is pretty cool as well. Fisherman's Wharf is a big touristy area like 68Style said.

If you're into sports, could catch a 49ers or Giants game

Second the Alcatraz tour. If you're free at night take the night tour instead as they'll give you a guide that'll tell you all the stories about the escape attempts and famous criminals they had. Otherwise the day tour is just an audioguide.

Also check out the Ferry Bldg on the Embarcadero for restaurants. Golden Gate park is also cool all the way out to Ocean Beach - it's like Tofino out there

You probably won't have enough time but if you can stay the weekend the real attractions of the area is State Highway 1 down to Big Sur and Napa/Sonoma Valleys

Any restaurant recos I have are probably out of date (10+ years old) but I do remember their Chinatown actually having really good Chinese food.

I went on the night Alcatraz VIP tour and it was beyond fantastic, especially being there when its dark out. I'm a massive fan of Sausalito which is on the other side of the Golden Gate, it honestly felt like I was in a different country.

Be careful making the wrong turn in the tenderloin area at night. It's sketch as fuck. People think dtes is bad...

Also dress warm, it's always cold AF there even in summer.

make a reservation here. Prohibition style bar you need a secret code to get in and then you sit at a candle lit table where there is no power. Drinks were fantastic and had such a cool ass vibe.


https://www.bourbonandbranch.com/

Sweet Maple is a breakast/brunch spot which is so good, you need to get the millionaire's bacon which I have been craving to this day. Normally they have big lineups but it moves really fast.

I walked along the water going into random bars for dinks along the way which was a blast as well with some many great and interesting spots and markets along the way.

Crab House on Pier 39 is a must go to spot as well if you like seafood.

https://crabhouse39.com

The hop on/off buses are really nice as well, get a day pass and hop on a off which will save you from taking Ubers all over.

I didn't end up having much free time there, I was staying in San Leandro and I misjudged how long of a drive it is back to San Fran. I did manage to go for a bit of a drive one evening and see a couple things. It's definitely a cool area that I'd like to spend more time in.

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Thanks for mentioning this, I would've just driven past on the highway but instead I went down the waterfront and it really does feel completely different. I'd love to be able to stay there sometime.

Beautiful shots! I need to make a trip out there :)

I was back in San Leandro, this time with a little more time to kill so on a whim I decided to drive out to Big Basin Redwoods State Park since the roads looked twisty and being the oldest state park in California I assumed it would be quite scenic. I took the route at random and the first part was very pretty but quite tight and with lots of speed warnings so it was more just a casual cruise through a bunch of gorgeous scenery. The north end of the loop past the entry to the park is barely a car and a half wide. There weren't many places to pull over so not a lot of chances to take pictures but I still got a few.

This is the loop I took: https://maps.app.goo.gl/kk5LtNDmupMbJSK68

https://i.imgur.com/5KdjiNQ.jpeg

https://i.imgur.com/upFxsLh.jpeg

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Latest pic of your rental Camry

https://i.imgur.com/wEjcToe.jpeg

Once I joined Highway 9 though, everything was different. The road was wider and clearly it's popular with the locals because I've never seen such a high concentration of sports cars and bikes. Everything from Miatas to Lambos was zipping around and I passed 3 separate car meets in various pullouts.

On the way down Skyline Blvd I did a quick hike up to Summit Rock thinking the view should be pretty good for such a short trail. This is what greeted me at the top:

https://i.imgur.com/99trdSs.jpeg

Ok not a great view but you can peek around and see San Jose (I think) a bit

https://i.imgur.com/IkYHBiY.jpeg

You could see where people had climbed around the rock to the other side but it looked a bit sketchy and being solo I didn't want to end up being a dumbass tourist who got into a pickle because I didn't know the area.

I kept going down the highway to Santa Cruz thinking I could grab dinner there but it was so crowded I gave up after probably 30 mins of trying to find a parking spot downtown. I did snag this before taking the highway back.

https://i.imgur.com/fLUfflY.jpeg

The next day I decided I wanted to check out part of Highway 1 down the coast so I headed over to Half Moon Bay and down to Santa Cruz again. That was an absolutely gorgeous cruise. When the sun was close to setting I stopped at the next beach which happened to be Gazos Creek State Beach just south of Pigeon Point which was completely deserted apart from some birds. I froze my toes off in the ocean but the weather with great otherwise.

https://i.imgur.com/OJM9p9P.jpeg

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I think I have nicer shots of the Camry than of my own car. Rolling into Santa Cruz I didn't want to take the highway again and I had a better idea of how to find the good back roads now so I took Highway 9. Santa Cruz to Felton was a great section of very tight and twisty road, then from Felton to Boulder Creek it was more of a gentle cruise since it's pretty constant residential properties. Once out of Boulder Creek though it was basically deserted and a more spirited drive. A GR WRX and two IS300s caught up to me so I used a pullout as soon as I could and then they were just gone. Rolling into Saratoga was a nice surprise as the first couple blocks as you come in from that direction are all very pretty and nicely lit up at night. Looking on a map it's not something I would've expected since as far as I can tell it's on the edge of a suburb of a suburb of San Jose.

Here's the loop I took that time: https://maps.app.goo.gl/gZwC3TgvGndWzjD48

The last day that I had some time I didn't have as much so I just went for a short loop, the road from Kings Mountain to Tunitas was very tight but extremely pretty. As I came to expect Skyline Blvd had some gorgeous views.

https://i.imgur.com/IGTl2Z6.jpeg

I'd love to spend more time in that area in a better car. The Camry did great for what it was but it's still just an automatic sedan lol. I always thought a trip down the coast sounded neat but this just made it a solid bucket list item. I saw more nice cars than I could shake a stick at, the IS300 seems to be quite popular down there and I saw a lot of Rivians on the highway to/from Santa Cruz.

https://hearstcastle.org/ if you ever get a longer gap to visit.

Chinatown is actually pretty legit.

I loved Alcatraz, totally was not a tourist trap like many other famous historical sites.

underscore - I'm more curious about your experience with the Camry! :D

I reminded me that while I love the look of a lot of mid to large sedans they really aren't my kind of car lol. It was great for the highway/coast cruising, super comfy, enough power, etc but really not the kind of car for hooning on the twisties. It has paddle shifters but I ended up just not using them and it had that weird judder a lot of autos have when you manually downshift to 1st. I did realize later I forgot to put it into Sport mode most of the tjme which may have been part of it.

I'd daily one in a heartbeat though. I found the controls a lot better than the other rentals I've had. The Kias and Hyundais aren't bad but the quality isn't quite as good, Audi was underwhelming, Jeep was annoying and the VW I have this week just sucks.