San Francisco & Yosemite - Part I

I thought I would take a break from my international expeditions to spend some time sharing some great tips for travel right within the USA. As exciting as foreign travel can be, it can also be very exhausting. All of the planning, the worry, the jet lag, the stress, etc. can really take its toll. Sometimes, there are adventures to be had in your own backyard.

Having only been to southern California before, I was very amenable when my husband suggested the San Francisco region for a vacation. After planning a two week trip to Europe, planning a week vacation in the USA was a cake-walk. Everything was easier and we spent WAY less money. I've mentioned before that I always budget $10,000 a 2-week international trip. Since we were only going to California for a week, I could easily chop that budget right in half. (And looking back at my trip notes, we spent almost exactly $4,000 on the trip.)

If I haven't already said this before, the best way to get good airfare is to plan early and be flexible with your dates. By flexible, I mean within a few days give or take. This will help you shop around for the best times, airlines, prices, etc. Also, try to watch airfares at different times of the day. Airlines know that people generally book vacations on the weekends or at night. So don't fall into their master trap by booking your tickets during peak (and most expensive) times. And check tickets multiple times (from multiple computers, if possible). Don't just watch them over 2-3 days and freak out if you see ticket prices rising. If you're at least 3-4 months out from your trip and the plane still looks relatively empty, the price will most likely come back down. Check on a random Tuesday at 3:00 in the afternoon or a Thursday at 10AM. You'll see the difference. How do you know if a plane is selling out seats? Don't believe those discount sights that say, "only 2 seats left at this price". They're lying! If you go through the airline's actual website, and keep clicking through the booking process, you'll come to the seat selection page. That's a great way to see how many seats are still open. If the plane looks like it's filling up, then you can expect the prices to go up. If the plane is wide open, don't fall for any lousy price hike tricks.

Why am I going into all of this now? Because tickets within the United States vary so much depending on destination, time of year, and time of booking. At my job I've seen airfares from a major city on the East Coast to a major city near the West Coast range from $400 to $1400. That's a huge range! It just all depends on the specifics.

But back to my San Fran trip.

We really lucked out with our airfare. We were searching around for the best prices on all of the major airlines, and then something wonderful happened. Virgin America started offering nonstop flights from Washington to San Francisco, and we booked TWO nonstop, round trip tickets, for $638.00!! Crazy right?! And the airline was awesome! If you've never flown Virgin before, I highly recommend it. Sadly, this was the only time we've flown them because for future trip we were able to get better rates through other airlines.

With plane tickets booked, I started the major planning. We stayed in 2 different hotels for the week we were there. We started in San Francisco at the Embassy Suites (because it was 4-stars, under $200/night [and San Fran hotels are expensive!], and it included breakfast), stayed for a few nights, then drove out to Yosemite for a couple of days staying at the Tenaya Lodge, before heading back to the Embassy Suites in San Fran for the end of our trip. Also because we were vacationing within the USA, rental cars were a breeze. We used Enterprise because they were the cheapest and had no problems. Now, on to the trip...

**Note: my trip photos are all grainy and strange because my digital pics were all lost. The pictures you see are ones from my photo album that I've taken with my smart phone and uploaded. Huzzah for technology!**

When you travel from the East to the West in the USA, time is on your side. Although the flight took 5-6 hours, the 3 hour time difference still gave us a full day. And we had a full day's worth of activities. The first stop of the day was the Golden Gate Park. Figuring that we would be stiff from the flight and want to walk around a bit, this was a great first stop. I should note that we traveled to San Francisco in October. San Fran is notorious for questionable weather especially in the summertime. What people don't realize is that in October, the days are sunny and lovely. We had great weather the entire week.

Golden Gate park is huge, so we limited our activities to a few specific things. First was the Japanese Tea Garden. Little did we know the foreshadowing that was taking place. We loved the Japanese Tea Garden and our trip to Japan is most certainly one of our favorites to date. If you've never been to Japan before and are curious if you'd enjoy that culture, this is worth a visit. The small temples, koi fish ponds, sculpted trees and bonsai trees are so neat. You don't have to drink tea and the whole garden isn't all that big. We spent a pleasurable hour here, and then moved on.

Japanese Tea Garden

After the tea garden, we enjoyed a nice stroll through the park itself as we made our way to the Conservatory of Flowers (and butterfly garden). Both the tea garden and the conservatory had nominal fees to get in ($5.00/per person). The conservatory, I honestly don't remember too much about. If I hadn't dedicated a page to it in my photo album, I probably would have forgotten we went. That being said, the pictures of the flowers are lovely. If you're into flora (and butterflies), it's worth a visit.

We ate an early lunch on the plane, so after a quick ice cream fix, we were ready to continue our afternoon. We made our way back to the Golden Gate Park parking garage, and set out across the famous bridge itself in our attempt to find Muir Woods. Unfortunately, we never found Muir Woods. We did, however, find Muir Beach. Not that it was warm enough to swim (I said the weather was beautiful, which it was, but it was more like jeans and a light jacket beautiful than beach beautiful) but the water and rocks were still very scenic. We enjoyed strolling along the beach and decided to skip trying to find Muir Woods. It was already late afternoon/early evening and the October sunset was imminent.

Muir Beach

We hopped back in our car and headed toward the city stopping at the Golden Gate lookout for that classic golden gate photo op. It wasn't something we necessarily planned, but when you're driving across the bridge, the pull off is right there to grab this iconic view of the bridge.

The one negative thing I will say about our otherwise pretty perfect hotel (Embassy Suites in case you forgot) was that the location was not central. We were a good 20 minutes outside of the city. This didn't bother us at all because downtown hotels were insanely expensive, and having a rental car allowed us the freedom to explore more things. But just a heads up if you ever consider staying there.

For dinner we found a quirky but delicious Vietnamese restaurant near the hotel and called it a night. You know...jet lag and all. Not because we're 100 years old and have no interest in nightlife. :-)

Tomorrow we explore some famous San Fran sites like Chinatown, Ghirardelli Square, Coit Tower, and I realize now just how timid of a traveler I was back then. Read that blog HERE.

Thanks for reading!

- Foxy the Traveler