san francisco car rental Car Rental San Francisco - SFO - San francisco International Airport History of San Francisco Knowing the history of San Francisco can make your vacation come alive. Miwok Indians to the north and the Ohlones to the south lived in peaceful existence before Europeans arrived. Travel to the Bear Valley Visitors Center at Point Reyes National Seashore in Marin County where The Kule Loklo Miwok village has been re-created. It provides an insight into their daily life. Don Gaspar de Portola made an overland expedition when he arrived atSan Francisco Bay in 1770. In March 1776, Captain Juan Bautista de Anza founded the Presidio and Mission of as-yet unnamed San Francisco. The Mission Dolores in San Francisco, completed in 1791, is the oldest building in the city. The Mexican revolution of 1821 led to the Secularization Act of 1833. ending the Mission Period. Mission Dolores fell into disrepair. Conversion and disease had done much to destroy the culture of the Miwoks and Ohlones. By the early 19th century, Native American tribes had effectively ceased to exist. Touring San Francisco Collect your rental car from San francisco International Airport and descover that San Francisco is quite small, yet its hilly terrain and patchwork demographic profile give it distinctly defined neighborhoods. As a result, the sights, sounds and flavors of the community, and even its climate, can change within a single block. SFO - San francisco International Airport is a great place to collect your rental car if you love clothes shopping, your tour will not be complete without checking out Union Streets up-scale boutiques. Union Square is the heart of San Franciscos downtown shopping district.Nieman-Marcus and other posh stores like Saks Fifth Avenue line the one-block square park and a number of other exclusive stores and boutiques fill a three-block radius of the square. It is just off this square that you can go to the business area. From there travel to Chinatown. It has the greatest single concentration of Chinese people outside of Asia. With a population of over 80,000 who live in the approximately 24 square blocks of Chinatown, it is the most densely populated area of San Francisco. As you travel around, youll be richly rewarded by the sights, sounds, smells and tastes of this vibrant community. Grant Avenue is the main artery of Chinatown, being its showcase area. On your vacation, try dim sum for lunch at the many dim sum restaurants. Your drive around San Francisco would not be complete without going to Fishermans Wharf. Ghirardelli Square. and Aquatic Park. You can drive your rental car, or take a cable car across town from the downtown area. Theres nothing like driving the hills of San Francisco! Many fishing boats still dock at the Wharf, but Fishermans Wharf today is now a center of shops and restaurants. Pier 39 is fun thanks to the delightful colony of sea lions which took over its boat marina. Aquatic Park features a beach, of sorts, and a long pier spiraling well out into the Bay. Dont forget the tall ship Balclutha moored at the Hyde Street Pier. Balclutha and other historic ships are docked near the Maritime Museum. Ghirardelli Square. a tasty chocolate factory-turned-shopping and a restaurant complex, features some of the citys better dining with wonderful views. And dont forget, when youre out to try the Irish Coffee . Stately Beaux Arts buildings like the Opera House and the domed, renovated City Hall stand next to the newer Louise M. Davies Symphony Hall and the Public Librarys Main Branch. Rent a car and look at the homes of Cow Hollow, originally the home for actual cows. The next area is The Presidio where Pacific Heights slopes down to the Marina. Stop your rental car anywhere along the San Francisco hills, where spectacular views are the norm. Youll find such eateries as the Balboa Cafe and Sushi Chardonnay, on Fillmore and Union Streets. While traveling around San Francisco, you may want to take time out at an outdoor cafe in Maiden Lane. or relax at one of the many art galleries on Sutter and Geary Streets. Having collected your car from San francisco International Airport drive your rental car out to Golden Gate Park. It offers endless recreational possibilities for tourists and locals. And visitors will enjoy the 1000 acres of gardens, meadows, lakes, golf. archery. and internationally recognized art and science museums. The M.H deYoung Memorial Museum. the Asian Art Museum, and the California Academy of Sciences are the main cultural attractions in the Park. You will also want to include the San Francisco Zoo and the Japanese Tea Garden in your travels. If youre adventurous on your tour, you may want to drive your car the Haight Ashbury area, made famous in the hippie era of the 60s. The area around Haight and Fillmore feels at once more bohemian. Tour the ethnic restaurants, down-home cafes and independent bookstores in this neighborhood. The youthful street life gets going on nights and weekends. And if youre in San Francisco at the right time, catch the Haight Ashbury Street Fair. Youll find on your tour of San Francisco a very different Fillmore Street on the Pacific Heights end. Drive your rental car or van out to the restaurants, epicurean food, and antique shops. Fillmore and Geary has become a popular nightlife destination, thanks to John Lee Hooker s Boom Boom Room. There is the famous Fillmore Auditorium. and the AMC Kabuki 8 Theater multiplex, a favorite for film festivals. The Kabuki 8 Theater and neighboring Kabuki Hot Springs are part of the Japan Center. at the center of Japantown. A sort of miniature Ginza. the Japan Center features a 100-foot pagoda. bonsai gardens, sushi bars and other businesses for the business traveler and tourist. Each spring it holds the Northern California Cherry Blossom Festival. Travel over to Huntington Park where youll find Grace Cathedral, a 3/4 replica of Paris Notre Dame. Adjoining Nob Hill is Russian Hill, where San Franciscos old money has a great view of the Bay. Definitely take your rental car to drive down the Crookedest Street in the World which snakes down Russian Hill for the 1000 block of Lombard Street. The traffic is generally impossible but worth it. North Beach was an area for the Beat Generation writers and poets in the 1950s. City Lights Bookstore and the cafes and shops on upper Grant Avenue still exude Beatnik funkiness. If you take your rental car out to The Mission District youll find it the center of Hispanic culture. This Mission now houses increasing numbers of young professionals and their SUVs. Travel to Mission Street a center for Mexican and Central American businesses. Your tour will not be complete without a visit to the popular La Taqueria restaurant, the wait is worth it. Tourists and students from nearby UCSF Medical School take advantage of the many ethnic restaurants, from Ethiopian to Tha i. Take a trip out to the Sunset District. A quiet and intensely foggy residential district. Having collected a car from San francisco International Airpor there places that you can easily travel to in your rental car that are interesting. Go over the Golden Gate Bridge to Sausalito. Marin County. Mt. Tamalpias. and on up to Bodega Bay made famous by Alfred Hitchcocks The Birds. Or if youre in a mood for student culture drive over to Berkeley to visit the University of California campus area. Take in a Giants baseball game or an Oakland Raiders football game. There is so much to do and see in the San Francisco Bay area. Article Source: ift.tt/1zWtC0p
Posted on: Sat, 30 Aug 2014 09:49:34 +0000
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