It is better to sit 15 hours on a plane than 8 hours at work, behind your worktable… do you agree? Well, let us first provide you one quick and useful information for everyone who will soon be heading to the city of North California. From airport in San Francisco, you can take a BART train. For a ticket, you will deduct around $ 10 and after 30 minutes, you will find yourself in the city center. Simple!
Regardless of the first impression, public transport is quite bad, so prepare yourself for a few kilometers climbing in the hills. Almost all streets in San Francisco are hellish, long and almost vertical slopes. Of course, you can overcome those hills with few minutes driving with an attractive cable car, but you will pay $ 7 for a one-way ticket, which is not that cheap.
Because of the location of the hotel, we felt we were in Asia and not in the US. San Francisco can boast with the oldest Chinatown in North America and the largest outside the borders of Asia. Its beginnings date back nearly 200 years ago and now more tourists than Golden Gate Bridge, the most famous bridge in the city, visit this town district. So… markets, shops, restaurants and temples, everything a men need to feel at home, a real little China in the middle of the American metropolis. We probably do not need to emphasize where to buy the cheapest souvenirs? 😁
One more thing,… great news for all the enthusiasts of fortune cookies… in this area there is a factory (Golden Gate Fortune Cookie Company), which is a great opportunity to see how the mentioned cookies with a wise message also come up.
The most interesting part of the city? Fisherman’s Wharf, where Pier 39 definitely stands out. You simply cannot miss it – if you do not see it, you will hear it or even smell it! Yeah, you read that right… near the pier, the sea lions found their spot for sun bathing. Well, hundreds of sea lions, sometimes even more than 1000! Very interesting and definitely loud scene 🙂 At Pier 39, you can also enjoy lunch, buy souvenirs or ride a carousel.
Golden Gate Bridge, the most famous landmark of San Francisco, must definitely be on your list. Due to its remoteness, it is best to go there with the local bus (No 28) – you will deduct $ 2,75 for a 90-minute ticket. The bridge has a very long history and was considered as a real engineering miracle when it was built, as it is constantly exposure to the strong winds and sea currents… most of the time it is trapped in a very dense fog. Luckily, we have caught exactly 1 % of the possibilities of sunny weather.
Now the last obligatory matter- Alcatraz, the infamous prison on the island, in which some of the most notorious prisoners served their time. The last criminal was released from prison fifty years ago, as authorities closed the prison for good. It has now been open to the public for the last 30 years, now it is allowed ordinary mortals to walk around prison cells, dining room, yard and buildings used by employees. Due to the huge demand, tickets must be booked as soon as possible. The entrance fee is $ 38 and includes boat transport, guided tour and audio tour inside the main building of the prison. If you want to avoid crowds, we recommend that you go to island in the early morning hours.
S & B
