Hi all! I’ll be visiting with my family soon. I go to San Jose/Santa Clara often for work, but this will be my first time in the area as a tourist in 20 years. Were have 3 days planned for San Francisco on the trip, from a hotel near SFO. We have a rental car, and are 5 people, so it may make sense to drive. The hotel isn’t walkable to BART or Caltrain, so if we were going to take those into the city we’d have to park at the station anyway. (South San Francisco would probably be the closest station).
I’m planning to park the car for the day and take the MUNI most places, since it’s free for teens. Any suggestions on safe garages? I don’t mind paying to make sure the car is secure. If there’s a good garage around Union Station, that may be the best bet because we can get anywhere. But it might be nice to park closer to the Presidio for the day we do things there.
Any suggestions? My coworkers who live in the Bay Area think I’m crazy to take a car into SF at all, but surely there are some safe places to park?
We’re a bunch of nerds, and will hit up the Exploratorium. (We have a fourth day planned at the Chabot Center and Berkeley, and other days further afield). Any other suggestions for nerdy things to see would be appreciated. (We already have the Wave Organ on the list…)
Thanks!
Near Union Station, there’s a paid parking lot under Union Square. The area can be a bit rough, but the cops are constantly patrolling due to the tourists. If you keep everything out of sight, you should be okay.
Land’s End also has a parking lot that’s free, which you can walk into the Presidio. Land’s End by itself is pretty cool and worth checking out.
If you’re going to be in Fisherman’s Wharf anyways, I can recommend the Ghirardelli Square parking lot. It’s pretty close via Muni to Exploratorium.
If you don’t plan on having your car anyways, one thing you can do is park in the Daly City BART parking lot, and BART into the city.