San Francisco Bay Area: Your favorite things to do or places to go

[The DaveR]

[ QUOTE ]
quick question: I am thinking of taking my wife to sf for her birthday weekend in july. many of the hotels on expedia are 2-3 blocks from union square, is this an ok area to stay? I'm mainly interested in easy public transportation access, and not a super ghetto area.

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East of Union Square is good, as is south. As you move north (assuming it's not Nob Hill, which will often be separately designated as its own neighborhood) you'll start hitting Chinatown. 2-3 blocks west isn't a particularly good neighborhood. Lots of homeless but if that doesn't bother you it's perfectly safe.

[MoBetta]

In SF there's transportation all over, but Union Square is a nice area, right by the piers and not far from Market Street.

[KurtSF]

Union Square is a great place for tourists to stay, near shopping, public transportation, cable cars, China Town, North Beach, etc.

It of course depends on the final hotel. There's nothing outright bad I don't think, but there are places that are better than others.

[turnipmonster]

the hotel is the francis drake. we're not planning on spending much time in the hotel at all so mainly I was looking for a good location and fair to decent conditions.

anyone have any thoughts on this hotel in general, or alternatives I should consider? there were some nicer hotels earlier in the thread, but I don't think they'd be worth it for us.

also, anyone have any recommendations for a really nice mexican restaurant. I know there are tons of great taquerias recommended in this thread that we plan on hitting, but something for a nice sit down dinner. ideas?

[gusmahler]

[ QUOTE ]
the hotel is the francis drake. we're not planning on spending much time in the hotel at all so mainly I was looking for a good location and fair to decent conditions.

anyone have any thoughts on this hotel in general, or alternatives I should consider? there were some nicer hotels earlier in the thread, but I don't think they'd be worth it for us.

[/ QUOTE ]

That's a decent hotel. Also look at Hotel Nikko, about 3 blocks away. Friend of mine stayed there when he visited and he thought it was really nice. They also have a pretty good Japanese steakhouse there.

[JaBlue]

turnip, there's a great mexican place in San Bruno called Don Pico's. Hard to get to by public transit from SF though. There is a BART station in SB but it is nowhere near Don Pico's, maybe arrange a cab from there? This is all probably too much work but hope it helps anyway.

[proell]

On the top floor of the Drake is Harry Denton's Starlight Room... kind of a cool place to chill and have a drink with a nice view of the city.

Hopefully the fog clears for you.
It's been pretty awful recently.
Definitely bring a coat.

[Jon1000]

[ QUOTE ]
1015 - still going - completely different crowd - somone got shot there not too long ago - sucks - but running

DNA - still going strong with live stuff - Friday is the night to go - used to be really good - now it's pretty unremarkable

End Up - new ownership I believe - never been a fan tho - still going

Never heard about White Tiger.

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anybody have any other dance recs outside of dna, 1015, and mighty? Prefer hiphop but doesn't have to be. Could be club or lounge. just no yuppie 80s dance offs please.

[turnipmonster]

couple questions. is the farmer's market open on friday as well as saturday, and if so is it as good? I'm thinking of getting us a picnic lunch there then going to angel island to walk around, but it seems like this might be a better friday activity than saturday because of crowds, is this the case or no?

btw, this thread has been a gold mine for finding great recommendations for ideas.

[KurtSF]

Try a Tuesday.

http://www.ferrybuildingmarketplace....ers_market.php

P.S. The days and hours of operation for the Farmer's Market vary by season.