San Francisco Trip Report
DAY 1
Welcome to my San Francisco trip review! After a great time in New York and Napa Valley, it was time to visit my favourite city on the West Coast; San Francisco.
We took a bit of a detour on the drive from Napa to San Francisco, via Livermore, to shop and grab a few bargains at San Francisco Premium Outlets. After shopping we drove into San Francisco, straight into The W Hotel where we dropped our bags off and the rental car back to Hertz, just off Union Square.
The evening began with some drinks at The View Lounge inside the Marriott Marquis hotel, with some friends of VP’s from Australia. We then moved onto a restaurant in the Ferry Building called The Slanted Door, serving modern Vietnamese fare in a stunning location with great views of the Bay Bridge. Dinner was excellent, despite being in a touristy area the food was definitely a restaurant I’d recommend. Good pick by VP! We then headed onto Novela bar not too far from our hotels for a few post dinner drinks, San Francisco sure does get cold out at night, so do remember to wrap up!
DAY 2
We had a relatively relaxed day 2 in San Francisco, opting to have a late breakfast followed by a little shopping at Macy’s and Nike. As the Euro’s were on at the time both VP and I went to a sports bar, to watch the Germany vs Italy quarter final. Golden Gate Tap Room, was your typical sports bar – but what I was surprised was by the vast amounts of craft beers available on tap. If I had more time and money, I think I’d love to spend a few days sampling all they had to offer.
The relaxing day continued, with a dinner at Little Star on Valencia in Mission District. This was my first time trying an authentic pizza pie, and boy was it a challenge to eat! I could understand why it was one of the best rated Pizza restaurants in San Francisco.
Post dinner VP and I then went to Nihon Whisky Lounge, which we had no real expectations for, it was in quite a run-down area – but when we went in I was surprised by the Whisky bottles piled up high, it probably took 20 minutes for us to choose our first drink. The barman was happy to talk us through our Whisky tastes and suggest some options at all price ranges. We had a few more drinks at Nihon then moved back to the hotel for a few drinks at the bar there.
DAY 3
DAY 4 – 4th July Celebrations
Monday was 4th July, in true American fashion there was only one thing to do today, and that was to head down to AT&T Park home of the San Francisco Giants, Baseball has been a game that’s never appealed to me but both VP and I thought we’d give it a try. The game was interesting, but what was even better was the food options! Tons of them, both VP and I opted to have some chicken and garlic fries (these were better than the ones I had in Napa), we stayed away from the alcohol mainly due to the prices at $12 for a beer it was just overpriced for us. The game was interesting and over a lot quicker than we expected – we picked up the rules as it went along and as it was 4th of July it was Military day so everything was focussed on that. They really know how to make a sporting event a great day out!
DAY 5 – Time to go home…. 🙁
Tuesday AM we checked out of our hotel room and left the bags behind to head to Tartine Bakery, where on a Tuesday morning at 11am we were queueing for the bakery. I opted for a toasted sandwich and a sweet treat alongside a a few treats to take back to London. After picking up the bags from hotel we headed to the airport and parted ways. It was a fantastic two weeks in the USA and there is no doubt I’ll be visiting all 3 locations again.
