10 hours at SFO

[Pearl64]

We are taking a cruise in New Zealand. The only direct flight forces us to have a 10 hour layover before our very long flight to Auckland. It will be January. We really don't want to sit at the airport, but we will have our carry ones and only one is on wheels. Need some suggestions as what we can do and what to do with carryons. Someone suggested taking BART, another suggested taking a tour of Alcatraz. Perhaps lunch, breakfast one place? Flight arrives round 9:30 and the NZ flight departs at 7:30 pm.

 

Thanks for any suggestions.

Pearl

[snobunny]

You can store your carry on luggages at The Airpot Travel Agency at the International departure terminal for a fee so you dont have to haul them around town. http://airporttravelagency.org/ Then you can take BART to downtown SF which is around 30-40 min ride. The SFO Bart station is also located at the International terminal:)

 

You will have plenty of time to tour around Pier 39, Alcatraz and the Ferry Building before heading back to SFO.

[Arzeena]

We just returned from San Francisco. BART is an easy way to get into town. We took the BART from SFO to the Embarcadero Station ($8 per person one way trip...about 35 minutes from SFO to Embarcadero)and walked right to the Ferry Building. It is a nice area. Then we took the F Line ($2 per person per trip, cash) to Fisherman's Wharf, walked around a bit, walked from there to Pier 39. Highly recommend Alioto's Waterside Cafe (great service, good food, average cost) at Fisherman's Wharf and Crab House (very long wait, very good food, expensive, but rotten service and very crowded) at Pier 39. We saw the aquarium and wandered around the shopping area of Pier 39. On the way back the F line took an excruiciatngly long time to come, and there were more than 50 people waiting at the stop. We would never have made it, we were getting very late so we took a cab from pier 39 to the Airport Hilton and that cost $62 total. We could not do the Alcatraz tour because it is usually sold out days in advance. But we did a 1 hour bay cruise with Blue and Gold Fleet, that took us around Alcatraz and the Golden Gate Bridge. Very nice bay cruise. You may not have time to do everything at leisure, but you can pick and choose what you want to do. Just leave enough time to get back to the airport. Enjoy!

[DougH]

If you can find a place at the airport to store your luggage BART is the way to go into the city. Either get off at Union Square and catch a cable car down to Fishermans Wharf or take BART down to the Embarcadero/Ferry building. You can walk along here to the Alcatraz tour, then Pier 39 and Fishermans Wharf area. You'd have much more fun than sitting in the airport all day.