San Fran

[ajmuzza]

Planning a trip for April to San Francisco and surrounds. Seemingly no end of beverage related places. Any particular tips from the brotherhood? Doesn't need to be limited to beers. Feel free to just send links

Cheers
Muz

 

[thedragon]

So much to do in San Fran. A great city.

Sausalito. You can get a ferry from fishermans wharf. Nice for a day trip for lunch. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sausalito,_California

Alcatraz. Pay the extra few dollars for the audio tour.

Castro. Lots of cafés and bars.

21st amendment brewery. http://21st-amendment.com/

In n out burger. The greasiest and best tasting burgers around. http://www.in-n-out.com/

Edit: typo

 

[Mardoo]

Don't call it San Fran when you're there. The locals hate it. San Francisco, thanks.

Go for the walk up to Coit Tiwer. Walk across the Golden Gate Bridge. If you're into art see the collection at the Palace of the Legion of Honor. Steinhart Aquarium is awesome. Go to the Exploratorium. Wander around Chinatown and explore the little side streets and alleys. Eat Mexican food every day in the Mission District. Go up to Sutro Tower on a clear night and check out the city lights. Check out the Audium http://www.audium.org. That's a tiny little start.

I lived there five years. It's a totally incredible city.

 

[fletcher]

i just got back from san fran mate. a bunch to do and the beer is simply phenomenal.

two you must go to are:

http://21st-amendment.com/ - 21st amendment

and

http://russianriverbrewing.com/ - russian river. have a pliny the elder if you like IPAs. you won't be disappointed. their sours too are amazing.

there are about 50000 other ones i could name but those were my top two.

 

[Will88]

I would also recommend the Rogue Ales Public House if you like a bar with good variety on tap.

North Beach
673 Union Street
San Francisco, CA 94133

 

[bum]

http://russianriverbrewing.com/ - russian river. have a pliny the elder if you like IPAs. you won't be disappointed. their sours too are amazing.

Just grab their beers elsewhere. If you're only in SF for a little while, the venue itself is not worth burning a day on. The beers are amazing though. Seek them out, for real. The city is a great place but Sonoma? Well...

My tip for SF - don't plan too much. Just walk around and let it happen. Great city. Stay off that bloody cable on Market. Best not to wander south of Market at night on your own. If you do find yourself on Market, go to Rasputin's Music. Amazing.

Get your calves ready.

 

[Maheel]

this place was interesting (and free) down at the wharf (my kid loved it)
$10 in change was a bit of fun

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mus%C3%A9e_M%C3%A9canique
http://www.museemechanique.org/index.html

Exploratorium was good for the kid and adults, if your there like a week there are some "multi place" tickets that might get you into multi venues for less $$

Sausalito i found was a bit of a tourist trap but OK, the wife liked it
we took the hop on off bus there and the SF bridge was in fog so it made a interesting crossing but no view

i like the cable cars when holding on to the outside for a bit of fun

 

[lukiferj]

Ike's Place - Killer sandwiches
Rogue Ales Public House - Lots of beers.
The Castro - The walking tour of gay civil rights was awesome.
Pier 33 - Clam chowder and sea lions
If you do a bus tour of the city you can see the houses from Full House

The Haight - Very dissappointing

Stay out of the tenderloin.

 

[browndog]

If you have time and a car head north over the Golden Gate and head for Lagunitas in Petaluma, then north to Santa Rosa and Russian River. A bit further north you can find Bear Republic at Healsburg. Makes a nice day trip, but if you love your IPAs you need to spend some time at Lagunitas and Russian River.



Check out that beerlist


cheers

Browndog

 

[kalbarluke]

A tour of Anchor Brewery at Potrero Hill is free and you'll walk out pissed. China Town is great for cheap meals. +1 about avoiding anything south of Market Street at night - same with Tenderloin.

 

[lukiferj]

If you want to tour Anchor Brewery, book now. Well worth it though.

 

[ajmuzza]

Sweet. Thanks for the responses. Basically a bit fluid with how much time we'll spend there but probably a week to ten days and then maybe to napa. There's certainly no end of cool shit to do and keep the kids happy as well. Any tips on locations for accom? Looking to try and get an apartment through airbnb but need to find a cool area that's well placed.

 

[lukiferj]

Hey man, missed that you had kids. I have three and we stayed at this place in Noe Valley for 10 days. About 15 mins on the muni from the city centre but a really nice area. Walking distance to The Castro and the Mission district.

Make sure you take the kids to the Exploratorium and the garden tour of Alcatraz. The redwoods at Muir Woods are amazing.

http://www.homeaway.com/vacation-rental/p378494

 

[Maheel]

we stayed here 4 nights (2 adults 1 child)

was reasonable, location was a 1.5 block walk to the wharf or 1 block to cable car to city
not 5 star but reasonable rates for the location, room was "small" but clean
free wine hour every day for pissed aussies and a super market just round the corner
their pizza at the resturant was the worst i had in the USA (be warned)

http://www.tripadvisor.com.au/Hotel_Review-g60713-d80780-Reviews-BEST_WESTERN_PLUS_Tuscan_Inn_at_Fisherman_s_Wharf-San_Francisco_California.html

it's a Kimpton Hotel and we stayed in a few Kimptons while in the USA in June / July
they were all good especially Boston and Philly
http://www.kimptonhotels.com/hotels/hotels-sanfrancisco.aspx

if your in RACQ / NRMA etc use your USA AAA affiliation to book hotels
it's often the same as cheapest rate but you don't need to pre-pay and can cancel 24hours prior to staying (i hate prepaying.....)

 

[Mardoo]

Inner Sunset and Inner Richmond are both nice family areas that are close in to the city. As previous poster said, Noe Valley is also good. There are lots of nice neighborhoods (as opposed to rich ones) all over San Francisco.

 

[jaypes]

Goldclubsf.com

 

[gilmoreous]

Take a walk down Haight St for the hippy experience. Toronado and Magnolia are along there. Toronado is a hole and if you have a missus she will hate you for it. Good sausages next door, plenty of Belgian beers on tap and soothing heavy metal over the sound system. Minnies across the road has some good BBQ. Further down Magnolia's is full of English beers.
City Beer is worth a look. 21st Amendment is a top place, there's a bar across the road too (Iron Springs maybe).
I stayed on Mission St, it's full of bums, strip bars and smells of weed but I walked around at all times of the night and never even got bothered. Again not woman friendly though.
Definately do Alcatraz. Walk thru China town aswell even if it's just to see how low down the ATM's are. There's Buffalo in the park. The museums in the park were good.
Just north of SF - Lagunitas is a fun place, Santa Rosa is worth a look too, Russian River and 3rd St Alehouse are there. I got absolutely stonkered at RR and I dont like Belgians or wine barrelled aged beers.

 

[OzPaleAle]

Boudin bakery - Sourdough fishermans wharf area.
Mel Drive-In - Classic American Style Diner
Alcatraz is cool
Worlds crookedest road, at the top of a killer hill though, like walking up 60 deg slope.

 

[bum]

The Haight - Very dissappointing

You didn't go to Amoeba?!

Right. Kids. This place: http://826valencia.org/store/

The webpage makes it look really stupid but it is awesome. Dave Eggers wanted to build some poor-kid literacy school thing in the city but he couldn't get it zoned because it's all commercial. So he built a bat-shit-insane shop out the front and kids learn crap accidentally out the back. Not your kids. They'll just play in the shop. I don't recall seeing much to actually buy when I was there. I wanted to move in.

 

[lukiferj]

Yep went to Amoeba. Great record store. Just found the whole place very unkidfriendly and more junkiefriendly.

Going to the Haight was actually one of the things I was really looking forward to but found it really depressing. Heaps of cool stores though and if you didn't have kids with you, might be a different story when you're not as concerned by the unpleasantness around you.