 Gay San Francisco
Best Western Civic Center Motor Inn This motel has always been a favorite due to its location near Folsom Street and nightlife - but is even better now that its been given a AAA one-diamond rating and upgraded the rooms. Prices are good value even booking direct. Breakfast in the morning was good with bagels, etc. and decent coffee. 24 Hour staff was always helpful. Not a gay hotel - but lots of gay clientele on weekends and during Folsom Street and Dore Alley events. Compare prices for Best Western Civic Center & read what travelers say at TripAdvisor |
Howard Johnson Express, San Francisco
Recently refurbished rooms are typical motel-style with a window facing an interior courtyard. All rooms have airco, coffee maker, cable TV, phone, refrigerator and microwave. If you want more room - consider one of the deluxe rooms which are much larger with two beds. Rooms fill up quickly on weekends - especially for Dore Alley and Folsom Street Fairs - call Carol in the office and book as far in advance as possible. There's no restaurant at the hotel - but the coffee shop at the Best Western just across the street is good for breakfast and lunch - and you'll have no problem finding great restaurants in San Francisco. The office has a list of near-by restaurants that deliver. If possible, try to book directly with the hotel rather than using the many online reservations systems. Since its a small property - they may have rooms at the hotel even though online inventory has already been sold. If you're staying for a week or more - ask for any special rates that may apply... and let Carol know that you found out about them from Coqui Viajero's Gay Friendly Travel. And if you're there for Folsom Street Fair - you'll probably run into me! Compare prices and read what other travelers have to say at TripAdvisor |
The marvelous city of San Francisco is always very easy to visit – beautiful and full of energy and activities that almost guarantee that a visitor will return time after time. More than any other city in the world, San Francisco is a myth – a mixture of different cultures, unexpected images and finally a place where anything can happen.
The population is 6.6 million which makes it the fifth largest city in the United States. San Francisco has 46 square miles. Like all great cities it has social problems such as many homeless people who live and panhandle in some of the most popular tourist areas, drug dealers in the traditional ‘Tenderloin’ theater district along with too much traffic and air pollution.
Traditional Victorian-style ‘painted ladies’ houses line the hills of San Francisco and look down on the ‘New York style’ skyscrapers that soar above the central business district despite the constant threat of earthquakes. Much of the city is defined by the great 1906 earthquake that registered more than 8 on the Richter Scale. This disaster destroyed most of the city both from the shaking of the earth and the fires that burned for four days after the great quake.
One of the buildings that symbolizes modern San Francisco is the TransAmerica Pyramid that rises 853 feet and you can see its point from almost every point in the city. The Bank of American Building is the highest building in the city with 52 floors. The heart of the city and most important shopping area is the famous ‘Union Square’ whey you can find the most exclusive hotels and best restaurants in the city.
Neighborhoods
San Francisco is perhaps most notable for its
neighborhoods which serve as points of reference, such as Chinatown with
its more than 120,000 inhabitants which makes it the most concentrated
Chinese population outside China. You can also visit the Mission
District with its huge Latino community, the famous ‘Castro Street’
where you find the largest gay neighborhood with restaurants, shops and
cafes. And don’t forget to explore other areas such as Little Tokyo,
‘South of Market’, Polk Street’s ‘Glitter Gulch’, North Beach, Golden
Gate Heights, Richmond or Twin Peaks.
The area of SOMA – ‘South of Market’ is where you’ll find art lovers with the new Museum of Modern art, the Ansel Adams center for Photography and many galleries that have sprung up to compete with those around Union Square.
You’ll also find numerous gay bars and restaurants centered around Folsom Street.
In the ‘Civic Center’ area you’ll find many grand buildings built in the classic style including City hall, the Public Library, the Bill Graham Auditorium, War Memorial Opera House and Symphony Hall. To visit this grand cultural mall, just take the subway on the K, L, or M lines.
Cable Cars
One of the most important landmarks of San Francisco are the famous Cable Car trolleys. These working antiques are always mobbed with tourists who stand in long lines for a chance to ride the open cars and enjoy the views from the city’s foggy, romantic hills. Probably due to the long lines, I had never ridden the cable cars until this trip. The cable cars were introduced in 1873 as a way to navigate the many hills of San Francisco and it was the first such system in the USA. Today’s cable cars use the same system – the cars ‘grab’ onto a constantly moving cable located below street level.
The cable cars have several different routes – the most popular being the Powel and Mason Line which starts near Union Square. After making many stops up and down the hills – with the driver working the brakes by hand, the cable car finally reaches the end near Fisherman’s Wharf where the drivers have to manually turn the car around – pushing it on a ‘turn-table’ to point it in the proper direction for the return trip.
The best way to buy a ticket is for a single or multi-day pass that lets you jump on and off the cable cars and the rest of the excellent mass transit system as you explore the city.
The local transportation system is known as MUNI and combines all of the cable cars, trolleys, trains and buses – some of which still work with overhead electric lines like old-style trolleys. They have routes throughout the city – but you may need a map to figure out the fairly complicated routes of some lines.
Fisherman’s Wharf
The area known as Fisherman’s Wharf is a mecca for tourists, and considered one of the most scenic ports in the world. Here you can enjoy the fantastic view, smell the aromas and taste all types of fresh seafood prepared in every imaginable fashion. Here you can also take many excursions including the boat out to the famous Alcatraz Island where you’ll find the legendary Federal Prison. Other trips explore the bay and go beneath the Golden Gate Bridge or take you on fishing expeditions. You can also visit the Maritime Museum and visit historic ships.
Of course, I used my trip to concentrate on food – and started with 18 raw oysters – the freshest and tastiest that I’ve every had along with two beers. This was a bit shocking to my friend that never trusts any food – especially shellfish that hasn’t been cooked – but I loved it!
Golden Gate Bridge
The famous Golden Gate Bridge can be seen from almost any part of the city, has become the symbol of San Francisco. This bridge is to San Francisco what the Eiffel Tower is to Paris or the Statue of Liberty is to New York.
The graceful design and beauty of the golden-orange towers seems like something out of a dream with the bridge suspended in mid-air between the sky, the ocean and the fog that wraps around the city. The bridge was constructed from 1933 to 1937 and connects the San Francisco peninsula with Marin County to the north. During its construction 11 people died. You can cross the bridge by foot – but be prepared to hike across the 4,200 foot length.
Yosemite Park
This park is considered one of the world’s natural wonders. I’ve never visited one of the National Parks of the USA and I wanted to make sure that I made the long day-trip from San Francisco during this visit. It’s about 3 hours on the bus in both directions – so you have to plan for a full day from 6am – 9pm for the excursion. We went prepared with bottles of water, bananas to maintain our potassium levels and got on the bus with lots of elderly tourists who were planning to stay at the park for a couple of days for a more relaxing tour.
On the way to Yosemite, you have to pass through the town of Mariposa which was very famous during the ‘Gold Rush’ fever of 1849 when more than 16,000 people flocked to this remote region to look for gold. This was an enormous flood of people – especially if you consider that there was no electricity, no refrigeration, no housing, no food, no roads – only a frenzy to ‘strike it rich’. Today, the town has only about 3,500 people.
Once you get to Yosemite, you have about 3 hours to tour the park if you only go for the day. Its not much time, but worth every minute to see the enormous rock formations, the fantastic waterfalls, rivers and forests. This park definitely makes an impact on everyone that visits. If you can – plan to spend a few days here in one of the lodges right inside the park.
Urinetown – The Musical
The musical event of the moment when we visited San Francisco was Urinetown. The touring version of the Broadway show had been extended and we were lucky enough to get the last two tickets for a Friday night performance. The author, Greg Kotis, wrote the lyrics for this musical on a trip to Europe with an experimental theatre group from Chicago. After the tour, he planned to extend his trip as a vacation and quickly ran out of money – leaving him to sleep in train stations rather than hotels. It was here that he discovered that in Europe you have to pay to use a public restroom. This gave him the inspiration to create the concept of Urinetown – a very non-conventional musical based on the concept that government and big business have conspired to control all bathrooms in the country demanding high payments every time a citizen needs to answer nature’s call. This opens the door to all sorts of vulgarity and neo-Brechtian satire of government, business and social norms (including Broadway musicals).
Its hard to believe that a musical with such a name won three Tony Awards. Here in Puerto Rico, we don’t have very many musicals – so I don’t have that much experience with the genre – but I enjoyed it a lot. I also enjoyed the architecture of the Geary Theater that is an old elaborate theatre right in the center of San Francisco just off of Union Square. I enjoyed watching the crowd at the sold-out performance and noticed that there were no cell-phones going off during the show…. something that always annoys me when I go to a performance at ‘Centro de Bellas Artes’ here in San Juan. However, some things never change from city to city – and my American friend was annoyed for much of the first act by a couple eating M&M’s in the row behind him while constantly ‘crunching’ the package in his ear until he had to turn around and scold them. I loved that almost as much as the show.
Until next time. Remember to send any comments, questions or suggestions to me at info@coquiviajero.com
