Once Upon a Time Travel to…San Francisco

Travel to San Francisco and feel the city’s past and present history of freedom and futurism.

I traveled to San Francisco in search of my soul with Big Boss and Blondie Bear while Junior was in the middle of nowhere with the Cadets, poor thing. This was my #5 from Turning 40 doing 40 list. As it would turn out, my soul was not in San Francisco but elsewhere. Despite that, I still absolutely loved San Francisco. Luckily, I had been exercising for weeks, or else my back would have never held up from all the walking we did, ouch!

A LITTLE BIT OF HISTORY

San Francisco has a bundle of nicknames; the most notable ones are SF or The City by the Bay.

On June 29th, 1776 the first Spanish settlement was established in San Francisco, and was named Mission San Francisco de Asis.  Today, it is known as Mission Dolores.

In 1846, San Francisco was conquered by the United States followed by an invasion of gold prospectors.  Thus, began in 1848 the period known as The Gold Rush.

Fun fact: In 1849 San Francisco’s harbor was filled with abandoned ships, whose crews had deserted to head for the gold fields. Many of the vessels were used as raw materials for the city’s harborside expansion.

Unfortunately, in 1906, what is known as The Great Earthquake destroyed much of San Francisco due to intense fires.  At the time, most of the housing was made of wood.

During World War II, San Francisco was the main point of embarkation for the Pacific side of the war and the hub for war industries.

To this day, San Francisco has maintained its reputation as a center of cultural bohemianism. In the earlier years it had drawn writers from Mark Twain to Jack London, became a center for the 1950s beat poets and for the Haight-Ashbury hippie counterculture that peaked with the 1967 “Summer of Love.”

HOW TO GET THERE & AROUND

To travel to San Francisco from Montreal, we flew. For once, it was a smooth airline ride.  Our flight was not only on time, but we arrived 30 minutes early! Of course, our gate wasn’t ready upon our arrival but hey, we can’t have it all.

We took our first Uber ride to the airport in Montreal and it only cost us $25, AMAZING! The cab fare it costs around $40 + tip.  Luckily, I slept during most of the flight as there was not much of a movie selection. Also, we had gotten up at 5:15 a.m.  I did however get to watch Purple Rain.  Apparently, it’s a “classic movie” alongside black and white films such as Some like it hot with Marilyn Monroe…odd.

By Air

San Francisco is a very big city, hence its international airport. You pretty much can get to it by plane from wherever you live. Other than that, it’s accessible by car or by train.  However, if you are getting there by car, finding parking will be complicated and most likely cost a small fortune.

There is free WIFI at the San Francisco airport which is strange for the U.S. since you pretty much have to pay for everything there.  Big Boss and Blondie Bear thought it would be a good idea to catch Pokemons in the men’s bathroom while Mama Bird waited patiently for them outside! grrr….

To get to where we were staying in Berkeley from the airport, we took the Bart.  It’s San Francisco’s public transit name.  The ride from the airport to North Berkeley station was about 1 hour long.  Despite the wagons being a bit old, they were spacious and the seats comfortable. The Bart ride cost us $30, way cheaper than a Uber or a cab.

Getting around

The best way to get around San Francisco city is on foot or by using the Bart.  However, we came to the same conclusion as in NYC. If you can’t read and don’t understand English well, you are kinda screwed.  You really need to pay attention to everything to figure out how to get from point A to point B when you travel to San Francisco.  

It is imperative that you wear really comfortable shoes as you will be doing a lot of walking and San Francisco ain’t all flat.

If you are traveling with young kids, a baby wrap and a light stroller will come in really handy. As a general tip, try to focus on one area of the city at a time.  Therefore, it will be a lot less tiresome for everyone.  It’s also a good way to save money on transportation.  By doing it so that way, all you need is a roundtrip ticket for the day. However, if you are a family of 4, riding Uber or Lyft as a roundtrip might cost you less than Bart tickets.

WHERE WE STAYED

It will be hard not to notice when you travel to San Francisco how is expensive it is there.  In fact, San Francisco is one of the wealthiest and most expensive cities to live in America. The high cost of living is due to its booming tech industry and proximity to Silicon Valley.

Therefore, sleeping in San Francisco is extremely expensive.  When you travel to San Francisco, especially for a couple of days, you could consider sleeping outside of the city.  Even though you will lose time commuting, you’ll save money for your lodging.  Also, if traveling with kids, sleeping outside San Francisco might not be a bad thing. It will be quieter, and you’ll discover a new area.

We opted to stay in the area called Northwest Berkeley and rented a little place through Airbnb not too far of a walk from North Berkeley train station.  It was our very first time using the Airbnb platform.

Berkeley

Discover North Berkeley, only 30 minutes away from some of the most popular districts of San Francisco

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DAY TRIPS OUTSIDE SAN FRANCISCO

When you travel to San Francisco, you’ll be tempted to venture outside the city. It wasn’t too much our case as we were only there for 5 short days during a long layover before heading out to Hawaii.  Believe it or not, it only cost 100$ extra each to be able to do this planned layover.

That being said, we stayed in Berkeley so that got us out of the city every day we were there.  If you don’t want to have to rent a car but still want to do something different when you travel to San Francisco, check out our Day Trip from San Francisco.

Day Trip from San Francisco

Who needs a car when you have Uber, Bart and your own feet? Discover our fun day outside of Sasn Francisco.

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SAN FRANCISCO ITINERARIES

When you travel to San Francisco and start walking around, you’ll realize how spread out the city really is. Actually, there are 36 neighborhoods in San Francisco, some of them divided into smaller districts.

If you are spending a few days there, it will be easier if you concentrate on a different area each day.  This way, you won’t wear yourself out too much.  That being said, we still ended up walking 20km on average per day. Call us crazy!

San Francisco Tip: If you plan to travel to San Francisco during the Summer and want to visit Alcatraz, you’ll need to book your tickets at least 2 months in advance.  I had looked at the tickets and decided to purchase them 1 month prior to our trip. Unfortunately, everything was booked for the whole 5 days we were there.  You can learn more about where to purchase tickets HERE. Blondie Bear was so disappointed that we couldn’t go to visit it.  However, you can somewhat make up for it.  Find out how in our article Day trip from San Francisco.

If you have three full days in San Francisco, here are some areas that you could check out.

DAY 1 in San Francisco

Details of our first day in San Francisco:
* Chinatown
* Coit Tower
* Fisherman’s Wharf

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San Francisco DAY 2

What we did on our second day in San Francisco:
* Mission
* The Castro
* Haight

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DAY 3 in San Francisco

* The Golden Gate Bridge
* The Golden Gate Park

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FINAL THOUGHTS ABOUT SAN FRANCISCO

All and all, we really enjoyed our time travel to San Francisco.  It’s a city part retro and part modern.  If you are ever in the U.S, this should definitely be on your travel bucket list.  

San Francisco weather tip:  Plan for every scenario.  There is a microclimate in San Francisco.  The weather can drastically vary from one District to another.  Therefore, pending on the season, always bring an extra layer of clothing with you.

We don’t recommend going there with small kids or if you are ‘elderly’ and unfit. That is if you are like us and like to explore cities by walking and are on a budget. At the time, I had been experiencing back pains. Luckily, I had been doing my back exercises up to the trip.  Three months ago, I would have never been able to walk the 92km that we walked in 5 days.  Sadly, no weight loss to report.