Hitting the big thousand is supposed to feel like a milestone, but it just feels like another weekend catching up to my photos. I’m writing this in summer 2023 just after my long-weekend trip to San Francisco knowing that none of this will be published until 2026 with the huge backlog of all the places I’ve been to. The trip to California yielded 24 locations and experiences in 71.5 hours.
It takes a lot of preparation and research to figure out what to do, when to do it, how to get places, and how to make it fit inside a budget. I was actually just telling my friends about the scheduling and showed them what my holiday calendar looked liked. There’s no secret, it’s just booking everything early for a cheap rate, saving up points for the flight, and being flexible when a good deal comes up.
Scheduling is tricky. I managed to use the heritage trams as transportation to get from one place to the next so I’m experiencing something new while on my way. I also had to leave enough travel time to deal with bus delays, getting lost, and make sure attractions were open the right day of the week. I usually have a pretty good record of coming out an hour or so ahead on my daily schedule, so I even got to visit a couple of extra spots.
On the first day, my flight was delayed and I arrived late at SFO airport. I got to the hotel at about 22:30 and got to bed by 23:00. The next morning, I got up at 6:30, figured out how to buy and load a Clipper card for public transportation, and headed out to see the city’s famous buildings on my way to the Legion of Honor art museum. I swung by the Painted Ladies, neoclassical city hall and houses along Ocean Beach. The Legion of Honor only took about an hour, so I headed to the de Young Museum 30 minutes ahead of schedule to look at contemporary and modern art. Then, I took the famous cable tram to the famous squiggly Lombard Street, Cable Car Museum, and the Chinese Historical Society. I grabbed a bite to eat in Chinatown before visiting the San Francisco MoMA and its neighbouring African Diaspora Museum. I spent the evening at Coit Tower and walked down to the Ferry Building for dinner.
Day three’s wake-up call was also at 6:30 to catch the first ferry to Alcatraz at 8:30. I spent less time than recommended at the prison because it wasn’t hard to make my way around in the cool morning fog, I pitied tourists who couldn’t get themselves up early enough to avoid the afternoon heat. I ate a packed sandwich on the return ferry at 11:00 and saw the SS Jeremiah O’Brien WWII Liberty Ship and the Maritime Museum along the shore. I trekked back into the city to see the Antique Vibrator Museum and Pacific War Memorial Hall in the late afternoon before spending two hours at the Walt Disney Family Museum. It was very foggy up in Predisio, so I didn’t get any good pictures of the Golden Gate Bridge as I walked around the historic battery.
I spent the final morning taking a commuter ferry to Oakland to see the USS Hornet aircraft carrier. The ferry passed under the Bay Bridge giving me a good view. I took an Uber to Oakland for brunch before taking BART back to San Francisco to see the under-renovation Transamerica Pyramid and the iconic mail carriage at the Wells Fargo Museum. I collected my luggage from the downtown hotel, headed off to the airport at 17:00, breezed through security in the Trusted Traveller lane, and relaxed in the Centurion Lounge with a flight of Californian wines before my 21:30 flight to Toronto.
The hotel, predictably, cost C$650 for three nights, which was over half my trip budget. I paid for the flight from Ottawa with points so it only cost me C$150 out of pocket. The public transportation fare and museum admission cost C$250 and I spent another C$150 on two Ubers and meals. At the end of the trip, C$1200 for 71.5 hours doing 24 things in San Francisco isn’t bad at all.
Start traveling like a pro.
0 Comments