Hi,
Could someone enlighten me on the interesting places to visit in San Francisco apart from the Golden Gate Bridge. The points of interest at San Jose too. Thanks in advance.

1.Fishermen's warf by the heart of city
2.Alcatraz...the old jail house
3.hayet hotel's top floor( a restaurant that turns)
4.the clubs
5.Berkley area (hindi pakistani retaurants and shops)
6. Santa Cruz and Capitola by SanJose (my favorite place i am go there every weekend)
7. Fremont a little city between sanfrancisco and sanjose (where i live)

If you are at Golden Gate you want to drive across and go visit the vista point at the North end of the brigde during the early afternoon (I'm talking about the vista point that you reach by taking exit at Alexander Ave, not the one at the North edge of bridge). It gets very foggy late afternoon so you wont be able to see the bridge from there. It's a beautiful site with Pacific on your right and city/bridge on left. Golden Gate park has lots of things to see, if you are a museum lover, do check out the Asian Art museum. Every dollar you pay for ticket is worth it. Queen Wilhelmina park has lovely flowers and windmill which is right by the ocean.

Palace of Fine Arts is worth one visit. As suggested in previous post, Fisherman's wharf and Pier 39 are a must see. For Alcatraz you will have to reserve tickets about a month in advance. You can do this online. It's tough to get them right on spot. If you are a shopping person, China Town on Grant-Columbus streets is a must-visit place and union square - a shopper's paradise. Dont forget Ghirardelli square for chocolates and sundaes. Coit tower and Lombard (most crookedest street) between Hyde and Leavenworth. Sony's dolby theater near Market st. is something exciting and new but I havent been there so dont have much info on it.

If you are a hiker, well let me know I will give you list of hiking trails you can do. How much time have you got to spend in the city?

What do eat? Let me know what cuisines you like and I will suggest accordingly. There's very good Indian restaurants around the area too like Gaylord right off of Ghirardelli Sq. In China town you have world's famous garlic loving restaurant Stinking Rose - I have heard their food is very good and famous.

If you are a music buff who also likes American music, you want to check out Haight st at Ashbury. Better warn you, you will find some weirdos around there too so better just stay alert. Nothing scary sort but good to know of the area before being there. There are some good restaurants on Haight st.

A nice walk along on the walk way along Embarcadero is very pleasant too.

If you want more suggestions for rest of the bay area, just say it I'd love to give more points of interest depending upon what you are interested in seeing.

Chitralekha & Kishoreda, thanks a lot for the information. Chitralekha, thanks again, for the detailed info. I am there only for 3 days this weekend & then I travel to St. Louis & Chicago.

3 days is too less. Any now, let me know if I can give more tips. it'd be a pleasure.

That would be the Metreon (the theaters themselves are now Loews, no longer Sony) and you can find more info on it here:
http://www.metreon.com/ and right across the street from that are the Yerba Buena gardens - home of the Zeum http://www.zeum.org/ (great carousel for the kiddies). The metreon houses an Imax screen, virtual arcades, and Sony Style stores. Also, the California Academy of Scienes have also been relocated to that vicinity while rennovation takes place up near Golden Gate Park. http://www.calacademy.org/ Walking distance from these two places is the famous Italian restaurant http://www.bucadibeppo.com/ and also Chaat Cafe http://www.chaatcafes.com/. You can easily walk to the Union Square shops as well - for dessert, I recommend http://www.thecheesecakefactory.com/ which sits atop the 9 floors or so of the Women's Macy's Building with outdoor seating that overlooks Union Square. (If you decide to go there, go up and get a beeper so you can shop while you wait for a table).

For that area, I highly recommend printing out this detailed map:
http://www.baycityguide.com/images/maps_pd...nion_square.pdf
Also check out that guide for other information, maps and coupons. http://www.baycityguide.com/

I don't remember if the Asian Art museum was mentioned, but its worth checking out too. http://www.asianart.org/ Especially if you are into something like this current exhibit:
http://www.asianart.org/chungtai.htm

San Jose is home of the Tech Museum of Innovation
http://www.thetech.org/

ps I see I have competition for Amoeba's in SF Chitralekha

Good info there JKD thanks for the links. Yes, its the Metreon theater that I wanted to tell about. That carousel is a cute one. I've only walked past it though at night. I love the city hall, it looks so majestic from outside.

I'd recommend the 2.5 hrs city tour specially if you have less time in city. It starts in front of Pier 39 somewhere. This tour includes GGBridge, and other major places of city and they take you around on cable car.

Tech museum is awesome!! went to school right nearby from there so never really saw it as a BIG thing! but its definitely worth visiting. But I thikn a drive of 50 miles one way would be like a waste in such short period of 3 days. But such an inspiring place specially for techies and kids too.

Didnt get that amoeba comment. I guess I need more tea in the morning.

Amoeba's is the name of that music shop at Haight and Ashbury.
I just added the tech museum 'cause catch had asked about places in SJ too. But you would be better to tell about that area.

Aha! I didnt know that. There's a nice restaurant named Cha Cha Cha at Shrader st. very near from the park. Yummy food - their fried bananas and beans taste so good. Good eatery IMO.

SJ - well not really.. I was too busy studying mainly, never had a chance to go places much. Other than tech museum, the Winchester Mystery house is one famous place in South Bay, Lake Cunnigham and Raging waters is a water park people love to go during summer, Great America park in Santa Clara is like six flags park. A nice walk in SJ downtown is fun.. lots of good restaurants and big business buildings that include Adobe, Knight Ridder (which houses mainly the TV news channels offices and other business). San José State Uni. campus and the new Dr. Martin Luther King library (a must visit place if you are in SJ) are also right there. Intel museum in Santa Clara off of Montague and freeway 101 is also place worth visiting with history of computer chips and silicon valley in general. Stanford University campus is also a nice one with very interesting history.

So many big software companies have headquarters in this area - HP(Palo Alto), Sun Microsystems(Santa Clara), Cisco (North San Jose), Intel(Santa Clara), Adobe(SJ), Apple(Cupertino), Network Associates (now McAfee), IBM(SJ), and many more.. list is endless. Cant really think of other attractions in South Bay.

Peninsula also has many places to visit.

While walking along the Port of San Francisco I was surprised to see a statue of Mahatma Gandhi
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As we were walking thru downtown San Frisco, a demonstrator with a microphone & placards was protesting against Bush. One of his placards
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City Hall
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UN Plaza
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China Town
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Golden Gate
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The Underbelly of the Golden Gate
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Breathtaking views
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Bay Bridge
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Al Catraz
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Union Square
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Cable Car
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Sculpture
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I just love SF. There's something for all tastes and preferences. Just want to mention belly dancing in Kan zaman and Hukkahs in Marrakesh. Once my friend asked for hukkahs in Kan Zaman and got a severe look from the waitress (try saying hukkah out loud and you'll get it )

...and final advice, when in San Francisco if you drop a coin, don't bend down to pick it up

Pranav

Neither did i drop a coin, nor waited for the other person to drop his. I was extremely careful about not doing these queer things in SF.

SAN FRANSISCO IS MY FAVOURITE VACATION PLACE! I GO THERE QUITE OFTEN. I WILL BE GOING THERE SOON. IN THE BEGINNING OF AUGUST. I KNOW SO MUCH PEOPLE THERE. IT IS ALWAYS A PLEASURE TO GO TO SAN FRANSISCO BECAUSE THE PEOPLE ARE SO FRIENDLY.

Very nice SF pictures, catch22. I took the liberty of saving the image of the panoramic view of golden gate bridge with the city in the background. Hope you dont mind

And with all these photos, u cud have as well posted yr own picture ... at least we'd get to know who's the guy behind that jumping zombie icon !

Vivek

Thanks for acknowleding vivek, you can save as many as you want. It's a pleasure.

One minor correction Catch22 - I think the picture titled UN Plaza is actually the court house next to the City Hall. UN Plaza is a few blocks down the Market street between 7th and 8th street.

In the Union Square picture, the bright red lights on the top left are of the Starlight room in St. Francis hotel. It's a dance bar with live music in the night and the dance floor is all floor to ceiling glass walls so you get spectacular views of the city in the night.

Pranav

Fisherman's Wharf
A chinese acrobatic performance at the Pier 39
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In the last picture of fisherman's wharf the dark building in the background (right of Trans Am pyramid) is the Bank of Americal building. On the top floor (52nd I think) is the Carnelian Room restaurant. Again, great place to have a few drinks or dinner. Expensive but the view is worth it!

Pranav

Lovely pictures, catch, they make me appreciate that city even more. Glad you found Lombard Street (crookedest street) and the cable cars.

Very nice pics indeed. SF is city you fall in love with. That sculpture is a fountain you can go walk inside of

The stick in Gandhiji's hand used to be broken once - vandalized and glasses missing. I think they have fixed it now. Happy to see that.

Did you get any pics of Coit tower? You can see it from the Port of SF walk way. A friend of mine recently got married there. Actually I see it, its in the second to last pic thats posted above this post. Btw, what kind of camera do you have?

Beautiful place! I fell in love with this place as soon as I stepped into this beautiful city. Out of all the places in the world where I have been, I really enjoyed my life in San Francisco. If I ever in future have a chance, I will definitely book for my vacation in San Francisco and the surrounding cities of it.

I lived in San Francisco for 3 and half years of my life. Its been a wonderful experience, my office was at Howard Street in the downtown.

PIER39, is where I used to have my lunch, as it was very close to my office.

I could see a breathtaking view of ocean from my desk.