San Francisco Travel Tips: 11 Things to Know Before You Go

11 things to know before you go to San Francisco. I'm Chris, this is Yellow Productions. I do travel guides that are fun, informative, and entertaining, and I'm in San Francisco. What is San Francisco famous for? It's famous for the cable cars that just passed by. In addition to being famous for the cable cars, San Francisco is famous for fog, fog all the time. It's also famous for the Golden Gate Bridge, Alcatraz, amazing architecture, and Victorian houses. By the way, this is part of my series on the San Francisco Bay Area. I've got more areas about cities in San Francisco Bay, including Napa and Santa Cruz. You'll find links in the description below or at the end of this video. So the first thing you need to know before you go to San Francisco is just some general information about this city. First of all, San Francisco has a population of 800,000. It is the fourth most populous city in the state of California. It occupies a seven by seven mile peninsula on the northern end of San Francisco Bay. It's kind of like a smaller, more walkable New York City, only with a lot more hills. But it's the closest you're gonna get to an actual real city on the West Coast. And what do I mean by a real city? I mean one that you can actually take public transportation around and you don't need a car. San Francisco was the origin of the hippie movement in the 1960s, as well as the LGBT civil rights movement. The Castro is San Francisco's famously gay neighborhood, and yes, public nudity is a thing here. But I will say, not everything in San Francisco is perfect. San Francisco is plagued by traffic congestion. Traffic is super awful here. Rents and property values are sky high. People pay through the nose to live here. And finally, there's also a pretty significant homeless issue in the city. And if there's one neighborhood you might wanna avoid, it's the Tenderloin neighborhood. It's just next to Union Square. So just make sure you watch where you're going that you don't end up to be someplace you really didn't wanna be. The second thing to know before you go is about the weather. I refer to San Francisco as the foggy city. It's not foggy all the time, but when it is foggy, it's really cold. Mark Twain had this famous quote that he said, the coldest winter I ever spent was summer in San Francisco. And when the fog comes in, it cools down really quick. It can be 70 degrees Fahrenheit in one part of the city, but in the other part of the city where the fog rolled in, it can be 50 degrees Fahrenheit and really humid and wet, which makes it feel even colder. So I will say, if you're coming to San Francisco, make sure you dress in layers so you have jackets that you can put on or you can take off when the sun and the fog come and go. The third thing to know before you go is about food. San Francisco is a foodie city, but what is San Francisco most known for? It's most known for sourdough bread. And the Mecca for sourdough bread is at Boudin Bakery. Here at Fisherman's Wharf, Boudin's been baking up sourdough bread since the 1800s. And I think the quintessential food item in San Francisco is absolutely to get clam chowder in a bread bowl. So clam chowder, really popular here. And don't just get it in a regular bowl, but get it in a sourdough bread bowl. You get your clam chowder and your sourdough bread at the same time. At this particular Boudin, they've got some flagship sandwiches that they don't have at all of them. This one is a Dungeness crab melt. So it's basically like a grilled cheese sandwich with crab. When you're here at Fisherman's Wharf, you'll find a lot more crab things. And San Francisco is really getting into the micro brew scene, a lot of micro breweries. So if you're into beer, pick up a local one while you're here. Anker Steen, this is made in San Francisco. You'll find tons of Boudin bakeries all around the city, but the reason to visit this one at Fisherman's Wharf is for two reasons. One, the bakery museum. They've got this whole museum about how sourdough bread is made and the history of sourdough bread. They show you these cool little sourdough creatures that you make. And if you're wondering why you need to eat sourdough bread when you come to San Francisco, well, it's because of the fog. And they've got this exhibit here about the fog that says the fog actually makes the yeast work better. And so the sourdough bread in San Francisco will taste unlike sourdough bread anywhere else because of the fog. Hey, and if you didn't buy any, well, they've actually got samples right here. So you can sample the sourdough bread as well. When you're in San Francisco, if you've never had In-N-Out Burger, you should definitely check it out. They have a location at Fisherman's Wharf and what's In-N-Out Burger really good for? It's really good for burgers. Cheeseburgers, double doubles, hamburgers, fries, drinks, and shakes, that's it. That's the entire menu. It is the best value for a burger you are going to get anywhere. The menu's simple, but I'll point out because this is the only location in San Francisco it can get quite busy. If you want to beat the crowds, get here for an early lunch. They open at 10.30, so you could get here before 11 a.m. And then you don't have to stand in a long line. The other thing you should check out while you're here, if you like T-shirts, In-N-Out Burger, this location sells a special Fisherman's Wharf T-shirt you can pick up that's only available at this In-N-Out Burger location. San Francisco also has a lot of really good Italian food. And if you're looking for the mecca for Italian food in San Francisco, it is in the North Beach neighborhood, which is kinda known as the Little Italy of San Francisco. It's roughly along Columbus Avenue, kinda where that bumps into Chinatown. But around here, the lampposts, they've all got the green, white, and red for the Italian flag. So eat some delicious pizza and pasta. You know, I could probably talk about food for like two hours in this video. There's so much to eat in San Francisco. But instead of putting it all in this number, I'm gonna put it in some of the future numbers so when we hit up Chinatown and Fisherman's Wharf, more about food, you'll see them in those numbers. Hotels in San Francisco can be quite expensive. San Francisco is a business-oriented city, so there's a lot of business travelers that drive the hotel rates way up. What I'll tell you is if you're coming for vacation or leisure, your best bet might be to come on the weekends because the weekends don't have any business travelers, and so you'll find the room rates to be a bit cheaper on the weekends than they are on weekdays. My favorite place to stay in San Francisco, neighborhood-wise, is this neighborhood right here. This is Union Square. It's essentially the heart of San Francisco. There's the West End right over there. There's a Marriott just in that direction. What I like about Union Square is if you fly into San Francisco Airport, you can take the BART here, the Bay Area Rapid Transit. We'll talk more about that a bit in the airports and the getting around section. But it's really well-connected, this area, to the cable cars, to the trolley, everything's super walkable from here. And so this is just a really convenient location. My second and third favorite locations are the Embarcadero or the Financial District. I know a lot of people might suggest Fisherman's Wharf. I do not recommend Fisherman's Wharf to stay in. It just feels too touristy for me, and the hotels really aren't that nice over there. We'll talk more about Fisherman's Wharf in one of these follow-on numbers. The fifth thing to know is about getting into San Francisco. San Francisco has three major airports, San Francisco Airport, Oakland Airport, and San Jose Airport, and we're going to take them in that order. San Francisco Airport, also known as SFO, is probably the airport that most people fly into San Francisco. It is the major airport. It's 15 miles south of downtown San Francisco. It's essentially a strip of tarmac or runway right along the San Francisco Bay. The reason why most people fly into SFO Airport is because this is where all the big carriers fly, the big international carriers fly. It's a big United Hub, Star Alliance, American Delta, international ones. The problem with San Francisco Airport, it is prone to fog being right on San Francisco Bay, so there are often a lot of fog delays. But what I like about flying into San Francisco Airport is you can take the BART from there, the Bay Area Rapid Transit. It's kind of the subway or the rail. It'll bring you right into the city center. It costs less than 10 bucks, and it takes about 45 minutes. The second major airport is Oakland Airport. Oakland Airport is 25 miles across San Francisco Bay from downtown San Francisco. Oakland is a really good option if you're flying Southwest Airlines coming domestically from the US. It's also a good option if you want to avoid the fog because it's on the other side of San Francisco Bay. It is not as foggy, so Oakland has a lot less delays. Also, Oakland is pretty good if you're gonna be connecting your San Francisco trip to Napa or Sonoma, wine country, because it's the closest to Napa and Sonoma of the Bay Area airports. And the third major airport in the area is San Jose Airport, SJC. San Jose Airport is 60 miles south of San Francisco in the city of San Jose. San Jose Airport's another good one if you're flying domestically. They do a lot of Southwest flights, but also a lot of international carriers have been adding service into San Jose for all the people going down to Silicon Valley and those high-tech companies. San Jose is really great if you're connecting San Francisco to trips to Monterey or Carmel, because that's down south. And by the way, if you are renting a car, you could pick up a rental car at one of these airports and generally drop it off at the other one because most of these three airports are considered co-terminals, and so you typically won't be charged a one-way rental fee if you're picking it up from one of these three and dropping it off at the other two. The sixth thing to know before you go to San Francisco is about getting around the city. And the most classical way to get around San Francisco is to ride the San Francisco cable car. These cable cars have been running the streets of San Francisco since 1873, and they still run pretty much the same way they did before. They cost $7 one way to ride them. You can also get daily, three-day, weekly passes, which might be a good deal if you're gonna ride them quite a bit. But if you are going to ride one of these cable cars, and you should if you're here in San Francisco, there's two ways to ride. One, you can ride inside the cable car, but two, you can stand on the outside, and standing on the outside, that is the way to ride them. These cable cars run 6 a.m. to midnight seven days a week, but I will tell you, if you wanna beat the crowds, come early because the lines can get pretty long on this line. The other classic way to get around San Francisco are on these historic streetcars. The best route for tourists is the F line. It runs down Market Street. It'll take you from the Castro to Fisherman's Wharf. In addition to the historic streetcars, Muni also operates a network of light rail. There are six light rail lines. They're known as Muni Metro. This, unlike BART, isn't distance-based. It's ride-based. It's $2.75 per ride. By the way, if you're wondering where that music is coming from, I'm actually being serenaded right back here by this guy playing the accordion. Another way to get around the city is to take the BART, the Bay Area Rapid Transit. It has five stops in the city of San Francisco. Most of them run kinda through the center around Union Square and Market Street. BART being Bay Area, that'll take you to the other parts of the Bay Area. So if you're going across the Bay down to the airport, BART is the way you're gonna get there. Fares on the BART, they are basically per distance. The cheapest ride is two bucks, and the most expensive ride can be 15 bucks. The regular BART riders say, unfortunately, they don't run often enough, and they are often delayed. Though one of the best ways to get around San Francisco is to use your own two feet. San Francisco is a very walkable city, though the biggest problem is that you can go from flat land to hills very, very quickly. And that route that Google Maps gives you, well, what looks like a straight line might really not be. And by the way, these hills, as you can see, it's actually a staircase here. I'm gonna turn this around so you can see what I see. This hill is so steep, they've actually turned the sidewalk into a staircase. The seventh thing to know is about popos. What's a popo? It is a privately owned publicly open space. This is one of them right here, but actually there's a law in San Francisco that causes all major developments to create these privately owned public open spaces. They are not well signed, they are not well marked, but the developers and the people who operate these buildings need to create these spaces to be open to the public. This is one of the best ones. This is the one right next to the Apple Store by Union Square and the Grand Hyatt Hotel. It's got this neat love sign, it's got tables. The Apple Store employees, they come out and clean them and keep the tables set up. Why is this great? This one's open 24 seven. It's got free wifi as well. One of the other cool popos is the Transamerica Redwood Forest. Right behind the Transamerica building, there's this redwood forest in the center of San Francisco. This one closes at 5.30, so right now it's closed. That is why it's empty. You should definitely check out the popos while you're in San Francisco. Something pretty unique to this city. The eighth thing to know is about Chinatown. San Francisco's Chinatown is the oldest Chinatown in North America and the largest Chinatown outside of Asia. It's about a mile long and half a mile wide. It takes up 24 city blocks. There are 100,000 people that live in Chinatown and Chinatown, San Francisco, is the most densely populated neighborhood west of Manhattan in New York City. Chinatown, San Francisco, it's kind of like a city within a city. When you're here in Chinatown, Chinatown has its own culture, its own languages, two of its own hospitals. I mean, Chinatown is so impressive in San Francisco that there are actually more visitors come to visit Chinatown than visit the Golden Gate Bridge. When you're in Chinatown, make sure to get some delicious Chinese food. The Chinese food here is really good. It is said that San Francisco Chinatown is what essentially introduced the U.S. to dim sum, so you'll find lots of dim sum restaurants, tea houses, bakeries, and one place you definitely have to visit in Chinatown is down this little alley. This is Ross Alley, and on this alley is the Golden Gate Fortune Cookie Company. This is where the fortune cookie in the U.S. was invented. They've been here since 1962, making fortune cookies fresh off that factory line. You can get them in multiple colors. You can get them with chocolate. You can get custom names on the box. Definitely stop by here. If you take a picture or you take some video, make sure to give them 50 cents, because otherwise they don't make any money, and they've said they might have to go out of business because their rent's too high, and people aren't buying enough fortune cookies, so make sure to support them. Other little interesting Chinatown fact, world-renowned actor Bruce Lee was actually born in one of the hospitals here in San Francisco, Chinatown. If you're looking for some tasty dim sum while you're in Chinatown, check out Golden Saba Seafood. Why do I say so? I just ate there and had some pretty good dim sum. What do I like about this place? Dim sum all day, so you can get dim sum for dinner, too. This is not the cheapest dim sum, but it was pretty tasty. The ninth thing to know before you go to San Francisco is about Fisherman's Wharf. Fisherman's Wharf is probably the most touristy neighborhood in San Francisco. I mean, I did mention Chinatown has a lot of tourists that go there, more there than the Golden Gate Bridge, but people live in Chinatown. Fisherman's Wharf, this is all a manufactured tourist destination. It didn't used to be. This used to be the center for fishermen in San Francisco, and actually, you can still find a little spot in the middle of it where fishermen unload their boats and actually work here in the middle of this manufactured touristy place. But what's so cool about Fisherman's Wharf, it's just one of San Francisco's iconic neighborhoods. It has this vibe. There's street performers, there's lots of good food, so I do think you have to make it down here. Just don't expect it to feel super authentic because there are a lot of tacky souvenir shops. What are the places you have to go see? Well, I mentioned Boudin earlier. There's also an outpost of In-N-Out Burger. I mentioned that earlier, too. What did I not mention earlier? Well, the Ghirardelli Chocolate Factory. This place has been in San Francisco for a long time. They make some delicious chocolates, and actually, if you just go in the store, they'll give you a sample for free for just walking in. Definitely try their hot fudge sundaes. Their fudge is to die for. One of my favorite places in Fisherman's Wharf is on historic Pier 45. It's the Musee Mecanique, and you could call this an arcade, but that really wouldn't be doing it justice. This place is operated by the Museum of San Francisco, and it's actually a museum of old coin-operated games through history. They have over 200 coin-operated games dating as early as the 1800s. This is a really impressive place, and you will find coin-operated games, pianos, and things like that that you won't find anywhere else. And yes, they still operate on quarters, so bring your dollars, get your change, put your quarters in some of these things. Some of them you play. Some of them are just a show, kind of like the piano. In addition to clam chowder, actually all manner of seafood is popular in San Francisco, but the mecca of seafood is here at Fisherman's Wharf, just across the street from Boudin. This is where all the crab stands hang out. That's what they call them. Pretty much all these places when crab is in season sell it. You can see some crab right here, and they've all got these big boiling pots where you can get one fresh cooked just for you. Crab, lobster, shellfish, lobster rolls, and you can tell they like seafood because this stand says, if it swims, we sell it. Right across the street from the Fisherman's Wharf cable car stop is the Buena Vista. The Buena Vista is the place that's famous for inventing the Irish coffee. Coffee, whiskey, sugar, and heavy cream all together, a tasty drink. And if you don't believe me, believe the plaque. America's first Irish coffee was made here in 1952. So Fisherman's Wharf is the most touristy part of San Francisco, although the most touristy part of Fisherman's Wharf is this place right here, Pier 39, kind of the centerpiece of Fisherman's Wharf, at least the touristy part of it. It is a two-story shopping center on a pier. There's shops, there's restaurants, there's an arcade, there's an aquarium down at the end. There's kind of a neat two-story carousel. But the really cool thing here at Pier 39 are the sea lions that are at the end of the pier. They're sort of on the left side of the pier. There's been recorded as many as 1,700 different sea lions that live here, 1,700 sea lions. Come and see them, hear them, smell them, bask in all the sea lion glory. The 10th thing to know is about Alcatraz, probably the most famous prison in all of the United States. It's also been nicknamed the rock. You can see it there behind me, why the rock? Because it looks like this prison that's been built on a rock. There's only one way to get to Alcatraz, and that's on a ferry operated by the Alcatraz Cruises Company. Other companies advertise Alcatraz Cruises, but they just float by the island. If you take one of them, you can't actually go on the island. You'll see it here when they say things like view Alcatraz. You're gonna be viewing it just from the boat. So if you actually want to go on the island, you need to book tickets in advance. They often sell out a week or more, so book early, you can book them online. The 11th thing to know is about day trips from San Francisco. So if you come to San Francisco, there's some other great places to go around the area. The first one is Napa, the famous wine country in California. There's this neat beach town called Monterey. It has a world famous aquarium. And then kind of in the middle, there's this beach town called Santa Cruz. It's a really classic California beach town. So how long should you spend in San Francisco? I'd probably say about three nights in San Francisco, and then you could do two days in Napa. You could do two days down in Carmel or Monterey. He just wanted to say hey, so thank you very much. And so about a week, nine days, something like that, would cover, I think, the whole region. And so if you wanted to go to Santa Cruz or to Napa, you can click here to watch some of my other videos on those destinations. You can find links in the description below, and I won't say goodbye because I'll see you in one of those videos.