San Fran in Two Days

[Axeman]

Hi Everyone,

Heading home via San Fran to Sydney. Will be there for two days, and am picking up a new camera and would obviously like to take some shots. Has anyone got any suggestions or tips?

Cheers,

[peter1892]

Lots of places to see - obvious ones like the Golden Gate bridge, Chinatown, North Beach/Coit Tower and Alcatraz. Twin Peaks is a good location for views over the city & towards the bay, and you can get some shots from Marin County, noth of the Golden Gate bridge. But you might need a car to get to some locations.

If you've only got 2 days then Chinatown, Coit tower & Fisherman's wharf would be good tourist spots to hit & get some photos from.

[merckcrl]

As a San Franciscan, I'm going to have to veto the Fisherman's Wharf thing, unless you've got a thing for sea lions or tourist tack. Other than that, you can't really go wrong elsewhere in the City.

[green]

I agree with Christina, Fisherman's Wharf is a total waste of time.

If you like street photography, I'll suggest Haight Ashbury, very colourful. And not far from there, the Golden Gate park especially on Sunday when some of the road are close to traffic. In the park, you'll find the Botanic gardens and the Japanese Tea garden which must absolutely fantastic in spring. To my opinion, walking down the park is the best way to reach for the Pacific Ocean. Down there, you'll find a Dutch Windmill. I think this windmill was given to San Francisco be the Queen of Netherlands (but I'm not sure). When in front of the Ocean, if you look north, you'll see the road that bord the beach, climbing up the cliff. On the top you'll see a restaurant, but expensive and very touristy. If you a little further, you'll find a dinner (cheaper to eat there) looking over the cliff and over the ruins of some kind of Spa that was build in the 20's or 30's. Beside those ruins you'll find some path that almost all the way to the Golden Gate Bridge through the cliffs, woods and hidden beaches of the Presidio. Almost every turns in this path will give an opportunity to take a picture of the bridge. From the Golden Gate Bridge either you can cross the bridge or keep following the path that will take you to Marina Green. From there, you'll be able to take a Tram, a Cable Car or a bus to anywhere in town. I've done this trek starting from Haight street and back there all by feet and it took me the whole day. I left at 7:30am (I was jet lagged, so up early) and came back after some 25 rolls of films and around 7:30pm. You definitively need good shoes and a map.

By the way Cable cars are nice but there's always a long queue to get in (but still, one need to ride at least once in is life). Tram are great because they are all vintage Tram from all around the world. Actually the Tram lines that take from the Embarcadero to Castro is a Tram museum. Castro is a real nice spot, lot's of colourful people.

Anyway all of the above is from the top of my head, so I might be wrong but sure San Franciscans or a good guidebook and map will correct me.

Cheers,

Romain.

[ckuhn55]

So your buying a camera here in SF? Let me know, I live here and being a 10d or digital owner, I may be able to save you some money. Tell me what you are planning to purchase and where?

[peter1892]

Well, I've just gotten home from a trip to SF. Fisherman's Wharf is indeed awful (maybe when I was there 10 years ago it didn't seem so bad) but the rest of the city is superb, so many nice places to take photographs & also to relax.

I don't think I'd realised just how good the public transport system is there, buses are frequent & cheap.