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SAN FRANCISCO CITY BREAKS > CALIFORNIA
car hire, hotels, tour operators - san francisco tours, city guides, travel to san francisco
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Car Rental San Francisco / Motorcycle Rental
 Holiday Autos -
Holiday Autos offers the best fully inclusive car hire prices. Get cheap car hire quickly and securely online with holidayautos.co.uk, the experts in online car rental.
Sixt -
Pick-Up Station : San Francisco Airport and Francisco Downtown.
Hotels in San Francisco
Booking.com - Hotel Guide San Francisco
- Motel 6 and Red Roof
Ebookers
Centrally located hotels ranging from small family run budget accommodation to world-class five star hotels.
National Parks
GOGA - Golden Gate National Recreation Area
The Golden Gate National Recreation Area (GGNRA) is one of the largest urban national parks in the world.
The park contains numerous historical and cultural resources, including Alcatraz, Marin Headlands, Nike
Missile Site, Fort Mason, as well as Muir Woods National Monument, Fort Point National Historic Site, and the Presidio of San Francisco.
Travel Agents / Tour Operators
British Airways - Holidays in San Francisco
Ride historic cable cars over San Francisco's hills and explore colourful Chinatown on your San Francisco
holidays. Head into SoMa for nightlife from cultured to camp. You'll enjoy good holiday eating at San
Francisco's ethnic and fusion restaurants. Walk off the calories with a bracing walk across iconic Golden Gate Bridge.
Thomas Cook
Responsibletravel.com - West Coast Adventure
- Create your perfect trip to San Francisco
Flight, Hotel and Car
San Francisco Fire Engine Tours & Adventure
Looking for something different and exciting to do ? San Francisco's Fun and Only Spectacular Big Red Shiny Mack Fire Engine. The RED HOT way to tour the Bay !
 Travel Guides San Francisco / Related books
San Francisco: City Guide (Lonely Planet City Guide) - 1741791685
John A Vlahides and Alison Bing
Includes coverage of San Francisco's lesser-known jewels, such as Potrero
Hill, Japantown and Cole Valley. This title offers best dining options for various budgets. It features nine walking and cycling tours that get travellers to the heart of San Francisco's sights.
Paperback: 312 pages; Publisher: Lonely Planet Publications; 7th edition edition (1 Feb 2010); ISBN-10: 1741791685; ISBN-13: 978-1741791686.
Transport / How do I travel to San Francisco
San Francisco Airport [ SFO ] - transfer time to city is around 45 minutes
Metropolitan [ OAK ] - 18.3 km
Norman Y Mineta [ SJC ] - 63.0 km
British Airways - Flight to San Francisco
British Airways has frequent flights to San Francisco International Airport, which is located 13 miles south of
Downtown San Francisco. Flights approach over San Francisco Bay, giving you beautiful views of the city.
After your San Francisco flight lands, choose from minibuses (shuttle vans), taxis and trains. They all speed
you to your hotel or to busy Powell Street for connecting buses and San Francisco's distinctive cable cars.
Virgin Atlantic - flights to San Francisco
Book cheap flights to San Francisco at ebookers and benefit from discounted airfares.
KLM UKg(16896160)a(576231))
KLM Royal Dutch Airlines take you to hundreds of destinations everywhere in the world.
Airline Tickets San Francisco / Bargain Flights
Bay Area Transit Info
511 TakeTransit Trip Planner, Schedules & Route Maps, Popular Destinations, Transit Provider Info, Fare Information, PDA & Wireless, Other info & Links
San Francisco Municipal Railway [ Muni ]
Seventh-largest public transit system in the United States, as measured by ridership.
Its fleet of about 1,000 vehicles, over half of which are electric, consists of subway-surface light-rail
vehicles (Metro streetcars), electric trolley buses, diesel buses, the world-famous cable cars, the only ones in the world still operating, and a unique collection of historic streetcars.
Golden Gate Bridge
Operating the Golden Gate Bridge, Golden Gate Transit and Golden Gate Ferry.
The city is compact, so you can walk or take a ride on the famous street cars.
Links
San Francisco Convention & Visitors Bureau
Alcatraz - Alcatraz Island
Alcatraz Island, which operated as an 'escape-proof' prison from 1933 to 1963. Al Capone, 'Machine Gun'
Kelly and Robert Stroud, the 'birdman of Alcatraz,' were among the prison's unsavory residents.
Cable cars - Downtown SF - Sfcablecar.com
Cable cars rumble down the west side of the square; try looking down Hyde St towards Aquatic Park, down Washington St to Chinatown and the Financial District, or down California from Nob Hill.
Castro District - see Webcastro.com
"The Castro" is a term broadly used to describe the area of San Francisco formerly known as Eureka Valley,
and is bordered by Diamond Heights, Noe Valley, the Mission, the Fillmore, and the Haight districts. It has also
come to mean more than a locale. Much of the gay and lesbian community of San Francisco lives and works
in the Castro. It is known world-wide as the "gay mecca." Home to an ever-changing neighborhood of shops,
restaurants, street fairs, and residents, the Castro has continued in its evolution. It is a community and a people rich with history, diversity, tears, and laughter.
Chinatown San Francisco - see Sanfranciscochinatown.com
A few blocks north of Union Square is Chinatown. It's a great place for casual wandering through narrow
alleys, where on quiet afternoons you can hear the clack of mah jongg tiles from behind screen doors. The
most colorful time to visit Chinatown is during the Chinese New Year in late January or early February, with a parade and fireworks and other festivities.
Cliff House - fresh seafood and whale watching
Cliff House, where you can enjoy fresh seafood and whale watching. The dangerous waters of Ocean
Beach are shared with these gentle giants who migrate North from Baja for the summer. From the restaurants
or lounges you can enjoy an assortment of fine food and wine, enjoy the rhythms of the surf and if luck is
with you ...there will be some whales frolicking in the water right below your table. Enjoy one of nature's most impressive shows
Coit Tower - Coit Tower Virtual Tour
One of the city's most famous landmarks, the tower is a prime spot to let loose your postcard-vista voyeurism. The 360° views from here are superb.
Downtown San Francisco - Union Square - see Sfdowntown.com
San Francisco's densely populated downtown is squeezed into the hilly northeastern corner of the peninsula.
Exploratorium - The Exploratorium - museum of science, art and human perception
Housed within the walls of San Francisco's Palace of Fine Arts, the Exploratorium is a collage of hundreds of
science, art, and human perception exhibits. The Exploratorium is a leader in the movement to promote museums as informal education centers.
Financial District San Francisco - see Inetours
The area is marked by the cluster of high-rise towers that lies between Grant Street east of the Union Square
shopping district, Sacramento Street and Columbus Street, south of Chinatown and North Beach, and the Embarcadero that rings the waterfront.
Fisherman's Wharf - Fisherman's Wharf Merchants Association
Directly north of Russian Hill. Packed with shopping centers, hokey museums and countless accommodations,
it's also the gateway for several top attractions (Alcatraz, the Maritime Museum and the Historic Ships Pier).
Pier 39 is the area's focal point - it's become as popular with a colony of sea lions as it is with tourists.
Fort Point National Historic Site - see National Park Service
Fort Point was constructed by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers between 1853 and 1861 to prevent entrance of a hostile fleet into San Francisco Bay. The fort was designed to mount 126 massive cannon.
Golden Gate Bridge
The beautiful Golden Gate Bridge crosses the 2 mile (3km) mouth of the bay. Completed in 1937, the bridge
remains the symbol of the city despite competition from modern constructions. At the time of its completion, it
was the longest suspension bridge in the world and the 746ft (224m) suspension towers were higher than any structure west of New York City.
Golden Gate Park - see San Francisco Recreation & Park Department
Golden Gate Park stretches almost halfway across the 6 mile (10km) wide peninsula, from the Pacific Ocean
to the Haight's Panhandle. Apart from gardens (including a flower conservatory and a charming Japanese tea
garden), lakes (rowboats, pedal boats and motor boats can all be rented), sporting facilities (including horse
riding, archery, softball, golf, lawn bowling, horseshoe pitching and petanque), the park also has a host of
museums and an aquarium, making it a useful escape even when the fog rolls in and the temperature plummets.
Haight-Ashbury - district of San Francisco - see Haight-Ashbury in the Sixties
Home of flower power in the late 1960s. Today, the Haight is still colorful, with its pretty Victorian houses
Lombard Street - the crookedest [ most winding ] street in the United States
Lombard Street in San Francisco, California is famous for having a section of tight hairpin turns. The steep section, surrounded with flowers, is a tourist attraction.
Mission Dolores
Mission San Francisco de Asís, also known as Mission Dolores, was founded on October 9, 1776. It was the
sixth Alta California mission, founded by Lt. José Joaquin Moraga and Father Francisco Palou [ both members of the de Anza Expedition ].
Nob Hill
Views from the top of the hill [ and especially from the tower of the Fairmont Hotel ] extend in all directions around the San Francisco Bay Area.
The intersection of California and Powell streets is also the home to the fanciest hotels in San Francisco: the
Fairmont Hotel, the Mark Hopkins Intercontinental Hotel, the Stanford Court, and the Huntington Hotel.
North Beach - see San Francisco's Historic North Beach
North Beach is sandwiched between Chinatown and Fisherman's Wharf. It's a lively stretch of strip joints,
bars, cafes and restaurants that started as the city's Italian quarter and gave birth to the Beats in the 1950s.
Pacific Heights - affluent neighborhood of San Francisco, on the north side of the city
Pacific Heights is located in one of the most scenic and park-like settings in Northern California, offering
panoramic views of the Golden Gate Bridge, the San Francisco Bay, Alcatraz and the Presidio. See Pacific Heights Neighborhood Guide
Palace of Fine Arts
Originally the building was constructed for the 1915 Panama-Pacific Exposition [ designed by Bernard
Maybeck, who took his inspiration from Roman and Greek architecture ]. It was the only building from the
Exposition not to be demolished, and in the 1960s it was entirely rebuilt to ensure its longevity.
The Palace of Fine Arts has been a favorite wedding location for brides and grooms throughout the San Francisco Bay Area.
PIER39
There is something for everyone at PIER 39, San Francisco's Premier Bay Attraction, a festival marketplace
with more than 110 stores, 13 Bay view restaurants, and a variety of fun-filled attractions for all ages including, our world-renowned sea lions, street performers and live daily entertainment.
Postcard Row Victorians
Presidio of San Francisco - see National Park Service
The Presidio served as a military post under the flags of Spain (1776-1822), Mexico (1822-48), and the United
States (1848-1994). As a U.S. Army post, the Presidio protected commerce and trade, and played a logistical
role in every major U.S. military conflict from 1848 until closure. World events and those on the home front -
from military campaigns to the rise of aviation, from World Fairs to natural disasters - left their mark here.
San Francisco Bay - see Save The Bay
San Francisco Zoo
SoMa - South of Market Street - neighborhood in San Francisco
A combination of lofty office buildings spilling over from the Financial District, fancy condos along the
Embarcadero, a touristy gallery and museum precinct around Yerba Buena Gardens and the late night entertainment scene along Folsom and 11th Sts.
Union Square - Downtown
Union Square is San Francisco's downtown tourist center. It's a mishmash of glitzy shops and hotels, flower vendors and homeless people.
Yerba Buena Gardens
Public park between Yerba Buena Center for the Arts and the Sony Metreon. "Yerba Buena" is the original name for San Francisco, which was the name later chosen by Spanish missionaries.
Beyond San Francisco
Chabot Space & Science Center [ Oakland ]
Chabot Space & Science Center (CSSC) is an innovative teaching and learning center focusing on astronomy
and the space sciences and the interrelationships of all sciences. Its observatory, planetarium, exhibits, and
natural park setting are a place where a diverse population of students, teachers, and the public can imagine, understand, and learn to shape their future through science.
Carmel - Carmel-by-the-Sea
An enchanting seaside community, Carmel-by-the-Sea is known throughout the world for its pristine white,
sandy beaches, fairy-tale cottage-type architecture, and Mission San Carlos de Borromeo, the jewel of the
California missions and the resting place of its founder, Father Junipero Serra. Local law preserves Carmel's
rustic quaintness by prohibiting stop lights, neon signs, live music in bars, and commercial enterprise on the beach. Even trees may not be cut without special permission.
East Bay
The East Bay communities of Oakland, Berkeley and Alameda spring up across the eight-mile San Francisco
-Oakland Bay Bridge, offering a fascinating mix of culture and history. Jack London Square and Village is a
captivating collection of shops and restaurants on Oakland's western waterfront. Lake Merritt in The City's
downtown corridor is ideal for jogging enthusiasts and midday daydreamers. Berkeley, a well-known liberal
stronghold, is home to the University of California, offers unique shopping, trend-setting restaurants and world-renowned cultural and performing arts.
Eastbay Cities include : Alameda, Albany, Antioch, Bay Point, Berkeley, Brentwood, Castro Valley, Concord,
Danville, Dublin, El Cerrito, Emeryville, Fremont, Hayward, Kensington, Lafayette, Livermore, Martinez, Moraga,
Mount Eden, Newark, North Richmond, Oakland, Orinda, Piedmont, Pittsburg, Pinole, Pleasant Hill, Pleasanton, Richmond, San Leandro, San Lorenzo, San Ramon, Sunol, Union City and Walnut Creek
Jack London Square [ Oakland ]
Bay Area's most beloved destinations. The beautiful, vibrant waterfront enchants visitors. It defines the
space. And it is the essential element of everything it is - a dynamic destination buzzing with restaurants, shops, hotels, entertainment, recreation, outdoor markets and special events.
Lawrence Hall of Science [ Berkeley ]
Lawrence Hall of Science (LHS) is a singular resource center for preschool through high school science and
mathematics education, and a public science center with exciting hands-on experiences for learners of all ages.
Marin County - north of SF
Just across the world-famous Golden Gate Bridge lies Marin County, a hill-coated haven combining the quaint
and alluring with the mighty and majestic. The Alexander Avenue exit off Highway 101 leads to Sausalito, a
charming Mediterranean look-alike nestled along an inviting shoreline eight miles north of San Francisco.
Rustic houses cascade down deep slopes to the bay, overlooking shops and open-air restaurants. Ferries
from San Francisco make frequent crossings to Sausalito, as well as the nearby towns of Tiburon and Larkspur.
Monterey Bay Aquarium
The mission of this award-winning web site is to inspire, enrich and extend a visit to the aquarium, while fostering a deeper commitment and connection to the institution and ocean conservation.
Monterey Peninsula - south of SF - see Monterey.com
The magnificent Monterey Peninsula has been called the greatest meeting of land, sea and sky and is
recognized as an ideal vacation and business destination. This beautiful seaside community combines all the
charm of small town America with an endless variety of recreational and cultural activities. Monterey's rich
history, the saga of California's Mission Trail, historic Fisherman's Wharf and Cannery Row, 20 world-class
golf courses, the world's best aquarium, a unique variety of shops and galleries and a spectacular
assortment of parks and natural areas combine to provide a truly unrivaled place for your next getaway. Monterey.com brings the peninsula to you!.
Oakland Zoo [ Oakland ] - Conservation & Education
The Oakland Zoo is a non-profit organization, managed by the East Bay Zoological Society. Founded in 1922
by Henry Snow, the Zoo has been located in its current Knowland Park location since 1936.
Old Oakland District [ Oakland ] - see Oldoakland.org
The Old Oakland Historic District is the 1870s downtown of Oakland, California. Carefully restored, it stands
as a fine mainstreet of Victorian brick and glass, alive again with shops, restaurants and offices in a setting that evokes the era of the Railroad.
Paramount's Great America [ Santa Clara ] - family fun and adventure
Pebble Beach Monterey
Some of the most spectacular scenery on the Monterey Peninsula is found along Pebble Beach's 17-Mile
Drive, a route that meanders through tall pine forests and along the rocky coast. Pebble Beach is indeed a
tourist mecca, and is probably best known for its world-class resort hotels and championship golf courses. See County of Monterey.
Six Flags Marine World [ Vallejo ]
Six Flags Marine World is America's only combination wildlife park, oceanarium and theme park. From world
-class rides and up-close animal encounters to sensational live shows and special events, there's something for every member of the family to enjoy!
Tri Valley - east of SF
In the Tri-Valley area near Dublin, Livermore and Pleasanton, 15 award-winning wineries make this one of the most accessible areas for wine adventures.
San Francisco Chronicle
Cuisine - San Francisco Foods
History City of San Francisco
Chinese Historical Society of America - Museum & Learning Center
Oldest and largest organization dedicated tothe study, documentation, and dissemination of Chinese American history.
Virtual Museum of the City of San Francisco
San Francisco Cable Car Museum
Music, Arts & Culture, Events & Entertainment
Asian Art Museum of San Francisco
One of the largest museums in the Western world devoted exclusively to Asian art. But it's more than just an
art museum - it can be your ticket to Asia. Here, travel through 6,000 years of history, trek across seven major regions, and sample the cultures of numerous countries.
M.H. de Young Memorial Museum - fine arts museum located in Golden Gate Park
San Francisco Museum of Modern Art
This site delves into new terrain not only by providing timely and relevant information about visiting and
enjoying the physical museum itself - exhibitions, collections, educational activities, and public programs - but also as home for a special online gallery they call e.space.
Yerba Buena Center for the Arts
Can you imagine a whole new way to see? Is it possible to break old habits and discover a new perspective on art and the world?
Off the Wall: Psychedelic Rock Posters from San Francisco
Jean-Pierre Criqui, Jean-Marc Bel, Amelie Gastaut
In the mid-1960s, San Francisco rock, or psychedelic rock, emerged in Haight Ashbury, fueled by the use of
hallucinogenic drugs like LSD. Groups and musicians such as the Grateful Dead, Jefferson Airplane, Big
Brother and the Holding Company, Santana and others rose to prominence and in turn influenced musical
groups around the USA and in other parts of the world, from the Velvet Underground to Sly and the Family
Stone to The Beatles and the Rolling Stones. The posters announcing the concerts that were held at places
such as the fabled Fillmore and the Avalon Ballroom matched the revolutionary music with their brilliant,
swirling colours and hallucinogenic imagery. Created by some of the most inventive graphic designers of the
era, including the 'Big Five' of psychedelic poster design - Wes Wilson, Victor Moscoso, Rick Griffin, Alton
Kelley and Stanley 'Mouse' Miller - these groundbreaking posters reflect a singular moment in the history of
American culture. This book showcases well over a hundred of the most striking, original and unconventional
posters from this memorable period, stunningly printed in five colours to best reproduce the rich hues and
dizzying patterns of the originals. The accompanying texts explain the influences ranging from Art Nouveau and Op Art on psychedelic poster design, and discuss the contributions of dozens of artists.
Paperback 144 pages (March 2005); Publisher: Thames and Hudson Ltd; Language: English; ISBN: 0500285543
Web Portals / San Francisco Directories
San Francisco Bay Guardian
Comprehensive guide to the bay area's best food, entertainment, outdoors, shopping, and more.
SanFrancisco.com - The Complete Guide to San Francisco, California
San Francisco City Guides
Non-profit organization that offers an extensive array of free walking tours of San Francisco and its neighborhoods.
San Francisco Insider
Covers San Francisco's top sights and museums, and includes dozens of original photos. From world-class
attractions to the hidden treasures often overlooked by other guide books, The Insider has it all.
Things to do in San Francisco
One of the USA's most attractive cities, San Francisco's hilly streets provide some gorgeous glimpses of the
San Francisco Bay and its famous bridges. This is a mosaic of a city, a big picture made from the colorful tiles
of bustling Chinatown, the gentrifying Mission, gay Castro, clubby SoMa, hippie Haight-Ashbury and faux-hemian North Beach.
San Francisco has an atmosphere of genteel chic mixed with offbeat innovation, and a self-effacing flutter-of
-the-eyelids quality so blatantly missing from brassy New York and plastic LA. This is a place that breeds
alternatives: it's the home of the Beat Generation, flower power, Critical Mass direct action bike rides and gay pride
Yahoo San Francisco Bay
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