Budapest Post

Cum Deo pro Patria et Libertate
Budapest, Europe and world news

San Francisco business trip? How to make the most of those off-duty hours

If you find yourself in San Francisco, here are few ways to make the most of your off-duty hours in the City by the Bay.

The 12-story Grand Hyatt at SFO recently opened at San Francisco International Airport.

It’s an option for business travelers flying in for meetings and conferences, especially when there’s an early flight out the next day.

The 14-mile trip from the airport to downtown takes about 30 minutes via BART.

There are plenty of options for any spare time you have: relax in a park atop Salesforce tower, personalize fortune cookies in Chinatown or grab a treat from the marketplace inside the the landmark Ferry Building.

San Francisco is not only one of the country’s most visited cities, since the days of the Gold Rush, it’s been a major center for innovation.

“This is the city that inspired the creation of television, the Murphy bed and more,” said Joe D’Alessandro, president and CEO, San Francisco Travel. “Known for a time as ‘Wall Street of the West,’ San Francisco was and is also a financial powerhouse.”

Much of that financial power is now wrapped up in technology, with companies such as Twitter, Uber, Airbnb, Pinterest, Dropbox, Salesforce and others calling San Francisco home.

“Medicine and technology also thrive and intertwine in the city’s Mission Bay neighborhood and throughout the region,” D’Alessandro added. “Taking on the biggest challenges to the human condition.”

If you find yourself in town to meet with one of these companies or a tiny start-up poised to disrupt, here are few ways to make the most of your off-duty hours in the City by the Bay.



Fresh fly-in convenience

With the recent opening of the 12-story Grand Hyatt at SFO, San Francisco International Airport joins the ranks of major airports with a luxury hotel on property.

It’s at least a half-hour journey from the airport to downtown SFO, so this new hotel is ideal for fly-in meetings and conferences and those times when you’ve got an in-town meeting and an early flight out the next day.

The 351-room hotel has its own stained glass-adorned stop on the SFO AirTrain and tech-loaded meeting rooms with aviation-inspired names such as Supersonic, Stratocruiser and Astrojet. For on-site dining, Twin Crafts Market & Bar offers casual dining and a 24-hour market, while the Quail & Crane restaurant has a menu blending Northern California and Asian cuisine.

Thanks to San Francisco’s 2% for Art program, the hotel is home to 16 major new works of art, including “Ether” by Japanese artist Kohei Nawa, a 35-foot outdoor sculpture that references weightlessness and the movement of airplanes.

All rooms at the Grand Hyatt at SFO have soundproof, floor-to-ceiling windows. Rooms on one side of the hotel face the airfield of the International Terminal and each of those rooms is equipped with a handy airplane spotting guide and a loaner pair of binoculars. Rates: start at $329/night. Day-use rooms: start at $125 for six hours between 8 a.m. and 8 p.m.


Head to town

It is easy to get from the airport to downtown San Francisco. The 14-mile trip takes about 30 minutes via BART (Bay Area Rapid Transit) and the reloadable plastic Clipper Card you’ll need to board can also be used on city buses, streetcars and cable cars and on the Golden Gate Transit ferries. Due to highway traffic, the trip between SFO and downtown can take longer by car, van or limo.

The San Francisco Travel Association has a handy guide that lists attractions within walking distance from major BART stations in the city. A good place to start is the landmark Ferry Building, which is along the Embarcadero at the foot of Market Street. To get there, get off BART at the Embarcadero Station.

The marketplace inside the Ferry Building has coffee shops and wine bars, shops and restaurants, including Hog Island Oyster Company, Acme Bread Company, Cowgirl Creamery and Humphry Slocombe ice cream, among others.

Grab a table or head outside to watch ferries come and go to Sausalito and other destinations. A farmers’ market operates adjacent to the building three days a week (Tuesdays, Thursdays and Sundays).

Well-known attractions and tourist destinations are further up the Embarcadero, including Pier 39 (the Aquarium of the Bay, sea lions and more) and Fisherman’s Wharf, but less touristly options can be found nearby in the 24-block Chinatown neighborhood and the Sourth of Market/Yerba Buena neighborhood.

Enter Chinatown through the ornate Dragon Gate (at Bush Street and Grant Avenue) and wander through shops, restaurants and the Chinese Historical Society of America Museum as you make your way to Ross Alley, home of the tiny Golden Gate Fortune Cookie Factory.

Here you can watch as one or two cookie-makers snatch freshly baked flat cookie rounds off the cast-iron rotating griddle wheel and quickly fold in a paper fortune for one of the 10,000 hand-assembled fortune cookies made each day. Want a great souvenir? For $1 ($1.50 for 2) you can have your own message folded into a fortune cookie.

In the South of Market/Yerba Buena neighborhood, home to the Moscone Convention Center and Yerba Buena Gardens, you’ll find more than two dozen museums and cultural attractions.

Through Jan. 20, 2020, the 50th anniversary of the Apollo 11 Moon landing is the inspiration for an art, architecture and designed-centered exhibition at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA; admission: $25) titled “Far Out: Suits, Habs, and Labs for Outer Space.”

Nearby, at the California Historical Society (admission $10), “From the Gold Rush to the Earthquake: Selections from the Collection” opens Oct. 26 with paintings, photographs, manuscripts and ephemera, exploring everything from the growth of agriculture and industry in the state to the history of San Francisco’s Chinatown district and the devasting 1906 earthquake and fires.

A few blocks away is one of the San Francisco’s newest public spaces: Salesforce Park. The 5.4-acre fourth-story rooftop oasis sits on top of the Salesforce Transit Center and adjacent to the Salesforce Tower, which is currently San Francisco’s tallest building.

Four blocks long, the park has a lush walking path, tables and benches, play areas and a dancing fountain with 247 geysers triggered by the transit center’s bus traffic below. You can get to the park by stairs, escalators or elevators, but it’s far more entertaining to take the free gondola from the street.


Eat and drink

Want a great meal before leaving this area and heading back to the airport? You’re in luck. San Francisco is home to more than 60 Michelin-starred restaurants and a handful of them are located near Salesforce Park.

If you’ve got at least three hours to spend, an expense account (the fixed menu is $310 per person), an adventurous palate and can get a reservation, you can’t go wrong at Corey Lee’s Benu (3 Michelin stars).

Saison (Modern American, locally-sourced) and Campton Place (California-Indian cuisine) each have two Michelin stars. Mourad (modern Moroccan) and In Situ (seasonal menu of global dishes; at SFMoma) are just two of the city’s 46 one-star Michelin restaurants.

AI Disclaimer: An advanced artificial intelligence (AI) system generated the content of this page on its own. This innovative technology conducts extensive research from a variety of reliable sources, performs rigorous fact-checking and verification, cleans up and balances biased or manipulated content, and presents a minimal factual summary that is just enough yet essential for you to function as an informed and educated citizen. Please keep in mind, however, that this system is an evolving technology, and as a result, the article may contain accidental inaccuracies or errors. We urge you to help us improve our site by reporting any inaccuracies you find using the "Contact Us" link at the bottom of this page. Your helpful feedback helps us improve our system and deliver more precise content. When you find an article of interest here, please look for the full and extensive coverage of this topic in traditional news sources, as they are written by professional journalists that we try to support, not replace. We appreciate your understanding and assistance.
Newsletter

Related Articles

0:00
0:00
Close
France Faces New Political Crisis, again, as Prime Minister Bayrou Pushed Out
Nayib Bukele Points Out Belgian Hypocrisy as Brussels Considers Sending Army into the Streets
France, at an Impasse, Heads Toward Another Government Collapse
The Country That Got Too Rich? Public Spending Dominates Norway Election
EU Proposes Phasing Out Russian Oil and Gas by End of 2027 to End Energy Dependence
More Than 150,000 Followers for a Fictional Character: The New Influencers Are AI Creations
EU Prepares for War
Trump Threatens Retaliatory Tariffs After EU Imposes €2.95 Billion Fine on Google
Tesla Board Proposes Unprecedented One-Trillion-Dollar Performance Package for Elon Musk
Gold Could Reach Nearly $5,000 if Fed Independence Is Undermined, Goldman Sachs Warns
Uruguay, Colombia and Paraguay Secure Places at 2026 World Cup
Trump Administration Advances Plans to Rebrand Pentagon as Department of War Instead of the Fake Term Department of Defense
Big Tech Executives Laud Trump at White House Dinner, Unveil Massive U.S. Investments
Tether Expands into Gold Sector with Profit-Driven Diversification
‘Looks Like a Wig’: Online Users Express Concern Over Kate Middleton
Florida’s Vaccine Revolution: DeSantis Declares War on Mandates
Trump’s New War – and the ‘Drug Tyrant’ Fearing Invasion: ‘1,200 Missiles Aimed at Us’
"The Situation Has Never Been This Bad": The Fall of PepsiCo
At the Parade in China: Laser Weapons, 'Eagle Strike,' and a Missile Capable of 'Striking Anywhere in the World'
The Fashion Designer Who Became an Italian Symbol: Giorgio Armani Has Died at 91
Putin Celebrates ‘Unprecedentedly High’ Ties with China as Gazprom Seals Power of Siberia-2 Deal
China Unveils New Weapons in Grand Military Parade as Xi Hosts Putin and Kim
Rapper Cardi B Cleared of Liability in Los Angeles Civil Assault Trial
Google Avoids Break-Up in U.S. Antitrust Case as Stocks Rise
Couple celebrates 80th wedding anniversary at assisted living facility in Lancaster
Information Warfare in the Age of AI: How Language Models Become Targets and Tools
The White House on LinkedIn Has Changed Their Profile Picture to Donald Trump
"Insulted the Prophet Muhammad": Woman Burned Alive by Angry Mob in Niger State, Nigeria
Trump Responds to Death Rumors – Announces 'Missile City'
Druzhba Pipeline Incident Sparks Geopolitical Tensions
Cost of Opposition Leader Péter Magyar's Economic Plan Revealed
Germany in Turmoil: Ukrainian Teenage Girl Pushed to Death by Illegal Iraqi Migrant
United Krack down on human rights: Graham Linehan Arrested at Heathrow Over Three X Posts, Hospitalised, Released on Bail with Posting Ban
Asian and Middle Eastern Investors Avoid US Markets
Ray Dalio Warns of US Shift to Autocracy
Eurozone Inflation Rises to 2.1% in August
Russia and China Sign New Gas Pipeline Deal
Von der Leyen's Plane Hit by Suspected Russian GPS Interference in an Incident Believed to Be Caused by Russia or by Pro-Peace or by Anti-Corruption European Activists
China's Robotics Industry Fuels Export Surge
Suntory Chairman Resigns After Police Probe
Gold Price Hits New All-Time Record
UK Fintechs Explore Buying US Banks
Greece Suspends 5% of Schools as Birth Rate Drops
Apollo to Launch $5 Billion Sports Investment Vehicle
Bolsonaro Trial Nears Close Amid US-Brazil Tension
European Banks Push for Lower Cross-Border Barriers
Poland's Offshore Wind Sector Attracts Investors
Budapest Central European Fashion Week Kicks Off
U.S. Celebrates Labor Day
Hungarian National Team Captain Scores Epic Goal
×