eleven things to know before you go to
San Francisco I'm Chris the scale of
production
we're entertaining at I'm in San
Francisco what is San Francisco famous
for its famous for the cable cars they
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 the links
description below or at the end of this
video so the first thing you need to
know before you go to San Francisco it's
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 hippy 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 want to 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 want to 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 human
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 its most
known for sourdough bread and the mecca
for sourdough bread is at Budin bakery
here at Fisherman's Wharf doo-deens and
bacon 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
you get in a regular bowl but did it in
a sourdough bread bowl you get your clam
chowder and your sourdough bread at the
same time at this particular Budin
they've got some flagship sandwiches
they don't have it 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 Fisherman's
Wharf you'll find a lot more crab things
and San Francisco's really getting into
the microbrew seen a lot of micro
breweries so if you're in the beer pick
up a local one while you're here Anchor
Steam this is made in San Francisco
you'll find tons of butene 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 in 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 the yeast
work better and so the sourdough bread
in San Francisco will taste some like
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 say -
boy looks out of the world well when
you're in San Francisco if you've never
had in-and-out burger you should
definitely check it out
they have a location at Fisherman's
Wharf and what's in and out burger
really good for it's really good for
burgers cheese burgers 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 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 the long line the other
thing you should check out while you're
here if you like t-shirts in and out
burger this location sells a special
Fisherman's Wharf t-shirt you can pick
up that's only available at this
in-and-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
kind of known as a little italy of san
francisco it's roughly along Columbus
Avenue kind of 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 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 Westin right over
there there's a Marriott just in that
direction what I like about Union Square
is if you fly in the 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
section but it's really well connected
this area to the cable cars to the
trolley everything 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 SSI 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 starline's 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 a the subway or the
rail it'll bring you right into the city
center it costs less than ten 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 airports 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 in the 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 two 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 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
six 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
that 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
six a.m. to midnight seven days a week
but I will tell you if you want to 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
known as Muni Metro this unlike BART
isn't distance based is ride based it's
two dollars and seventy five cents per
ride by the way if you wonder 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 kind of 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 their
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 off enough
and they are often delayed so 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 flatland 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 going to
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 seven thing to know is
about popo's what's a po po 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 has 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 24/7 it's got free
Wi-Fi as well one of the other cools po
PO's is the Transamerica redwood forest
right behind the Transamerica building
there's this redwood
in the center of San Francisco this one
closes at 5:30 so right now is closed
that is why it's empty you should
definitely check out the popos while
you're in San Francisco something pretty
unique to the city the 8 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 a hundred thousand
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 2 of its own
hospitals I mean Chinatown is so
impressive in San Francisco that they're
actually more visitors come to visit
Chinatown then 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 us 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 it's 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
US 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 Cent's
otherwise they don't make any money then
they've said they might have to go out
of business because their rents too high
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 has some pretty good
dim sum what do I like about this place
dim sum all days
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 Budin
earlier there's also an outpost of
in-n-out burger I mentioned that earlier
- what did I not mention earlier well
the gear a deli chocolate factory this
place been in San Cisco for a long time
they make some delicious chocolates and
actually 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
warf is on historic pier 45 it's the
museum Mack
meek 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 help
braid 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 dish the 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 Budin this
is where all the crab stands hangout
that's what they call them pretty much
all these places when crab is in season
selling 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 altogether
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 up
here
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 pier 39 are the sea lions
that are at the end of their pier
they're sort of on the left side of the
pier there's been recorded as many as
seven
ten hundred different sea lines that
live here 1700 sea line come and see
them hear them smell them bask in all
the sea lion glory the ten 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 11:00 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 other videos on
those destinations you can find links
the description below and I won't say
goodbye because I'll see you in one of
those videos