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Comment by lukasm | Hacker News Reader

I'm going to SF next week. What's the best way to get to the centre? I have a Uber account for London.

If you are going downtown, take the BART. It costs about USD $9 to take from the airport, runs frequently, picks up inside the airport, and takes you straight in to downtown.

great. apart from that taxi or uber? and to Alcatraz?

If you're planning on a trip to Alcatraz over the weekend, check for tickets now. Weekend tickets typically sell out before weekend.

Its been my experience they sell out 1-2 weeks in advance. Definitely buy as soon as possible!

BART station is directly next to the terminal. Exit at Embarcadero station. Most of the BART stations in SF are walking distance of each other. You can actually walk from there to the pier with the Alcatraz ferry if you feel like it. Make sure you get a ticket for Alcatraz ahead of time as it runs out fast. Another option is stop at Montgomery station and taking a cable car to the piers. Also get a city pass you if want to visit multiple things in a day and save some money. http://www.citypass.com/san-francisco

Lyft and Uber tend to have better prices than cabs. I keep both apps around because the difference in price can jump around quite a bit - sometimes up to 2-3x.

However, the ideal transportation if you're visiting is to simply walk around. It's amazing how easy it is to walk everywhere in SF.

For Alcatraz, just grab a lyft/uber to the pier and take the ferry. By the way, if you have time the longer, late evening tours are quite interesting.

> late evening tours are quite interesting.

And also sold out months in advance.

If you're going to use a taxi, use the Flywheel app -- it gives you the hail-without-talking-to-someone, see-where-your-car-is-on-a-map, and pay-through-the-app features of Uber/Lyft without surge pricing. Availability is fairly dependent on what part of the city you're in, though.

Might want to be careful with Flywheel. I only used it once, and it defaulted to a 20% gratuity on top of the taxi rate which is usually already higher than Uber/Lyft/Sidecar (unless there's a large surge price). I heard from a friend that the gratuity is adjustable, but the entire experience of Sidecar (the one I almost always use) is far superior in my opinion.

Yup, good call. It's generally cheaper during surge, but more expensive if not. I have a ton of credits still so I'm less price-sensitive for it.

Lyft Line blows my mind. It's like a Lyft, but half price. Works great within the city.

Land at SFO. Get on the BART subway. That's it. You are done, it goes right from SFO to the center of the city. Some people are too lazy to walk around the circle of the airport and use the AirBART train to get to the BART stop at the airport, although personally I find it easier and quicker to just walk.

FYI, what you call AirBART is actually AirTrain (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AirTrain_(San_Francisco_Interna..., which you can also use to get a rental car or to go to the parking garage.

AirBART is the shuttle bus service between OAK and BART. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AirBART

AirTrain does not go to the parking garage. It was supposed to, but they ran out of money.

It goes to the short-term garages attached to the International Terminal, just not the new long-term garage way out yonder.

If you're flying into the international terminal (which sounds like the case here), it's right next to the BART station anyway.

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