J2TravelGuide: Downtown San Francisco

I never got to visit San Francisco as often as San Diego and Las Vegas due to its distance from Los Angeles. But during those few visits, I always got to take some nice photos of the city by the bay, which admittedly is one of the most picturesque in the US.

A friend who is a resident there told me that one major reason why houses and apartments are so outrageously expensive in SF is that wherever you look, the views are always spectacular. And here are some images (5/2010) to support her statement.

Note that the places featured here are within walking distance of the BART Market Station stop. BART (Bay Area Ride Transit) is the high speed rail transit serving San Francisco and other cities of the Bay Area. Like New York, taking public transportation in San Francisco is usually suggested due to traffic and lack of sufficient parking space.

Yerba Buena Gardens

Moscone Center below hosts most of the major tech events in the Bay area such Macworld and Oracleworld. It was named after the San Francisco mayor assassinated in the late 1970's.

I'm sure you were expecting certain San Francisco icons when you started reading this post, so here is one: the cable car!

If you want to experience riding the cable car, be prepared to wait as long lines are the norm especially during the peak season. Even when it was raining, we still had to wait for almost an hour to ride one,.

You can hop on the cable car at the Market and Powell street intersection.

The Market/Powell cable car travels north and takes you all the way to Fisherman's Wharf. The return trip to Market is southward via Mason street, which is parallel to Powell.

Not as popular as popular as the cable car, the muni bus pictured below ferries more passengers though and reaches more areas.