San Francisco & Yosemite

[Curlybrunette]

Hey,

We have just booked 9 nights in San Francisco next May, DS's will be 11 & 13 by then. I've done a fair bit of research on touristy stuff to do in SF but if any of you have been with children around the same age please do let me know if there are any attractions you'd particularly recommend.

My main question is about Yosemite. I want to go to Yosemite and stay there for a couple of nights. I've been looking on Tripadvisor and saw some people recommend staying right in the park, for example Half Moon Village, where as others say one of the towns outside of the park is fine, for example Oakhurst, which is then over an hours drive to Yosemite Valley.
I also don't quite know what to do once we are at Yosemite, I know there are loads of hikes, and we might hire bikes. I'd planned a night or 2 there, but I don't really know what we'll do to fill the time...Have any of you been, what did you do there?

Do you think it would be better to stay right in Yosemite rather than the outskirts of it?

Thanks

In Yosemite we stayed here www.tenayalodge.com/ at fish camp - it was a short drive to the Central Valley but the hotel was ace with lots to do eg flashlight night hike.

In San Fran, we had an open topped bus tour which flew across the Golden Gate Bridge, was v funny. Then just jumped off at the other side for some photos and then we came back to the city. I would second trying Monterey bay aquarium though what are you doing about having a car? All the hotels charge for parking

I've now booked a couple of nights in Monterey too, thanks for the suggestion, the whale watching trips look great.

We are a bit stuck as we originally booked SF as we have seen a music festival we'd love to go to. The festival is Fri-Mon, every year the tickets sell out almost immediately, so the chance of us getting tickets are slim, but it totally affects what accommodation we book, where and when. There are also day tickets as well as the full weekend tickets we have more of a chance of getting. The festival tickets aren't out until January, so we won't know for sure until then

At the moment I have got 5 different itineraries going on (no festival, full weekend, just Fri, just Sat, just Sun) so with that I also have lots of different accommodation booked, on the same dates via booking.com, and as soon as we know in January I can set it firmly and cancel what we don't need.

This makes it more tricky with the Yosemite lodges/tent as they aren't on free cancellation, so picking a date isn't possible at the moment, and by January they'll be sold out.

Hmmm decisions decisions!!!

Watch out for all the shit and needles in SF.

We have also stayed at Tenaya Lodge - highly recommended

I do keep reading about shits and needles in SF, there's a particularly heated tripadvisor thread going on where someone has said about it. There are many angry people replying to it saying there is nothing of the sort.

I shall keep an eye out for it!!!

The panhandlers are a serious problem in SF. They are very aggressive and the city does nothing to discourage them. One actually followed me into a restaurant when I wouldn't give him any money out on the sidewalk. And one night there was a guy playing African drums outside my room until about midnight. The hotel told me that they police would do nothing about that either.

There is a certain "inmates running the asylum" aspect to SF. I can assure you that in NYC the police would have both the panhandler and the drum player sorted in no time.

We spent 5 days in San Francisco, stayed in the Westin in Union square and I can say, we never saw needles or shit anywhere, while there are quite a few homeless throughout the city, (London is far worse in my opinion) we were never harassed or felt unsafe or intimidated at all.

We stayed in the Hilton in Union Square and although we did see homeless people, like every US city, we never felt threatened or intimidated. Never saw needles etc. We were careful about where we went, to be fair, it was clear that even one block from the hotel in the “wrong” direction there were huge numbers of homeless people, but we were in taxis going to and from the airport at that point.

Just back from SF - a few homeless about but that was it.

Go to Becker beach to get a fantastic view of Golden Gate Bridge. We ubered and then walked to the bridge and got the muniy bus back.

Cable cars good fun but expensive.

My brother loved the go car experience if I’d been with my partner I’d have done it.

It’s expensive. Enjoy.

Thank you.

I decided to book Half Dome Village but that is full, as is Tenaya Lodge. Oh well, I undecided about whether to stay right in Yosemite, I guess that's made the decision for me!

Curlybrunette, call them regularly for availability / cancellations, I think they have a 7 or 14 day cancellation policy, so lots of people book well in advance and then cancel closer to the time.

We booked our whole trip very last minute and all the park hotels were full, but I kept calling and eventually we got a room for 2 nights in The Majestic / Ahwahneee about 2 weeks before our dates.

I think hotels outside the park have similar cancellation policies, so reserve a back up and then when you do find a cancellation in the park, you can cancel your back up hotel.

Oh that's great thanks carnitine I wouldn't have thought to do that
x

Never seen 'shits and needles' in SF - my favourite US city. We stayed clear of the 'Tenderloin' as suggested on all tourist sites and felt very safe. The homeless do start to set up on eg Market Street as the shops close.

In case you didn't see this mentioned anywhere, I saw the Musee Mechanique at Fisherman's Wharf recommended on MN and on a rainy day we popped in for an hour - it was cheap and good fun, your DSs might enjoy it, loads of old fashioned slot machines to play on for small coins (change machines inside).

The chocolate shop at Ghirardelli Square nearby gives out small free chocolate samples.

One more thing - there's a FREE shuttle bus (an interesting ride in itself) from central SF up to the Presidio, where there's an interesting visitor centre set in the old military jail. There's a park there much used for picnics on a Sunday. From the Visitor Centre, get another FREE shuttle bus to Crissy Fields and the Golden Gate Bridge. This was one of our favourite and best discoveries - I like FREE as you can tell. PresidiGo Free Shuttle Bus

Have a wonderful trip!