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While in a lot of cities you can make to with one or two different types of transport - the Subway in New York, Underground and Bus in London - in San Francisco you really have to mix and match to get where you want to go to with the maximum ease!
The cable car is quite clearly the most romantic method of transport in San Francisco - indeed it is one of the features of the city (along with Alcatraz, fog, the Golden Gate Bridge) that make San Francisco what it is! However, as a practical means of getting around the city cable cars leave a lot to be desired! Don't get me wrong - as a visitor to the city you must take at least one ride on a cable car - just don't expect to use them as your sole means of getting around - mainly because of the limited network, and massive demand! Check out our Cable Cars page for all the details you'll need!
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For various reasons (mainly, I suspect, geographical) the Subway network in San Francisco (BART) is really only useful as a means of getting you from the East Bay into San Francisco. The network currently stretches from Daly City in the South, via Market Street, to Oakland and points beyond. An extension South to SFO has finally been completed and provides a valuable, cheap and quick alternative means of getting to Downtown from the Airport (or indeed from the Airport to Downtown!)
The primary communiction network in San Francisco is therefore the bus. The company that runs the bus network - MUNI also operate the Cable Cars, and the Historic Street Car F-Line that now runs from Fishermans Wharf, round The Embarcedero and down Market Street, but the bus network is obviously the most extensive, providing service across the entire city, for pretty much the whole time. The MUNI website - sfmuni.com has a wealth of information - route maps, schedules etc for it's Diesel & Electric Buses, Light Rail Street Cars and, of course, Cable Cars.
Taxi's are plentiful in San Francisco, in fact some Taxi drivers would suggest that they are too plentiful, pushing wages down to minimum levels. Still, there are a dozen or so separate firms operting authorised taxi services in San Fransisco, so you'll probably not have too much trouble finding one. TMASF (Transport Management Association of San Francisco) have a listing of the Taxi firms with their phone numbers.
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Of course if you're visiting San Francisco, there's a good chance that you won't just be visiting the City, in which case you may well be touring California by car. Driving a car around San Francisco will almost certainly be exhilarating, but may well be exasperating as well - especially when it comes to parking! Like any major City San Francisco has more cars than it can really deal with, and on-street parking is very limited, and then mostly reserved for residents (as it should be!) or fitted with parking meters. Most hotels will charge for parking, and public parking garages are limited in number (and expensive - particularly the ones in tourist areas such as
If you are staying in the city, I would suggest you visit San Francisco at the beginning or end of your trip and pick up your rental car as you leave the city, or drop it off as you arrive! That said, driving around San Francisco is great fun - and there are some streets - Lombard Street for example - that you really need to drive down once in your life! Just remember, if you do find a parking spot the chances are it will be on a hill, so remember to kerb the wheels (so that if the brakes fail the car will just bump roll into the kerb)! Oh yes, and try and avoid the temptation to do a Steve McQueen in Bullitt or Nick Cage in The Rock and canon round the city doing hand-brake turns, jumping intersections and generally causing mayhem. San Francisco might be laid-back, but you're just as likely to get a ticket here as anywhere else - and speaking from experience, it's pretty easy to get distracted and run a red-light driving round the city anyway, let alone if you're on two wheels dodging Cable-Cars and pushing 100mph on Columbus Avenue!
Being surrounded by water means that there are a huge variety of ways you can see the city by boat. Tours run mainly from the Pier 39 area and there are a number of different organisations offering their services. For the best bargain around however, take the Blue and Gold ferry from Pier 41 to Alameda or Oakland. For around $10 return you get a fantastic trip round most of the city, pass under the Oakland Bay Bridge and then travel across the bay to Jack London Square.
By far the best way to soak up San Francisco however is on foot. You'll only really get the feel of the city by walking its streets - and in the region bordered by Van Ness, Market and the bay it's safe and unthreatening. You get to see many of the sites featured on the guidetotheworld pages up close, and you get fit into the bargain! Be warned, it is really, really easy to walk for miles and miles and miles and some of those hills are really, really, really steep!!!
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