STYLETHREAD -- LET'S TALK SHOP!

Grace · Dooney & Bourke

San Fran (area) must dos/sees?

luckylily · Gucci

Wine, lots of yummy wine. I went to SF last fall and my favorite thing was driving around Sanoma. The area is really beautiful, the wine is delicious, and the people at the wineries (I especially liked the teeny tiny mom and pop operations) were so nice and hospitable.

I also really enjoyed walking around the Mission in the evening. Great bars and so much yummy mexican food.

I also think it is fun to walk across the Golden Gate bridge. And, since I'm a huge dork, I love the night tour of Alcatraz.

If your time is limited, skip the Wharf. In fact, if you are planning on going to the Wharf, cut your time there in 1/2. The whole thing can really be done in about an hour, IMO.

Grace · Dooney & Bourke

Wine is at the top of my list....I've got a question. Which is better (and maybe it's not really a question of better..) Napa Or Sanoma. I've heard from people who have been to one or the other but not both so I haven't heard a comparison. I think we were planning on Napa but maybe we should do Sanoma too??

Alikat · Kate Spade

Golden Gate park is fabulous - there are several museums and gardens... its a great place to visit. You can also walk down Haight street from there - where there are some cute restaurants and boutiques. Ignore the skater kids that hang out closer to the park

North Beach is good for restaurants and bars - especially if you just want to wander around and walk into a place that looks good. The better bars are a bit hidden, so I'd suggest asking the wait staff at the restaurants about the bars nearby if you are interested.

http://sanfrancisco.citysearch.com/ is pretty good for looking up restaurants and bars.

As for wine - Napa is more commercial and Sonoma is a bit more country. Here is a SFGate article on Napa vs Sonoma

Hermes

I was there in June. I liked the wharf, but I like history - we really enjoyed touring the ships there. The wharf is also where you catch the boat to Alcatraz (a definite must see).

other must sees:

- Haight Ashbury
- Lombard Street
- China Town

We also went to the Asian art museum, and visited Vesuvius and the Bookstore next to it where Kerouac and other beat poets hung out. There's also a really old bar around the corner that brews its own beer - that was good. The Diego Rivera inspired murals in the Coit Tower were cool. It really depends on what you get into.

I found Sausalito boring, but other people like it.

Sonoma and Napa different in that Sonoma is more on the down to Earth side, and Napa is huge ass wineries and a lot of pretentious acting people. I much preferred Sonoma. We stayed in Petaluma and toured wineries during the day.

halleybird · Hermes

The art museum -- legion of honor or something like that -- is beautiful.

edit: also, I love the Alcatraz tour and watching the seals from Pier 39. And you simply MUST shop Union Square!

-- Edited by halleybird at 20:16, 2006-09-22

scarlett · Marc Jacobs

My brother and his wife used to live in San Fran and I loved visiting them there; now they live about an hour outside, but I've been there four times in the past two years. If I could live anywhere else besides NYC, that's where I'd go!

Definitely check out the shopping at Union Square: if you like cooking, there's a big Williams-Sonoma there; huge Levi's store; a shoe store we always went to called Arthur Beren because they carry lots of narrow widths that fit my mom and me with our problematic feet; a beautiful Neiman Marcus with a restaurant on the top which gives you a great view of the square -- fun to stop for lunch. Sometimes models walk through the restaurant to display clothing from various departments. You can see the citysearch profile here:
http://sanfrancisco.citysearch.com/profile/882461/san_francisco_ca/neiman_marcus_the_rotunda_restaurant.html

I also loved the Haight Ashbury area -- one store in particular, Ambiance, I dream of returning to. Here's the citysearch profile, with address and phone number:
http://sanfrancisco.citysearch.com/profile/903919/san_francisco_ca/ambiance.html#profile.
They had a really nice selection and reasonable prices. Also, if you like the Grateful Dead, you can see the house where they used to live back during the Summer of Love. It's a private home now so there's no tour of it or anything, but my BF loves that band so I looked this up the last time I was there.
http://sanfrancisco.citysearch.com/profile/41940084/san_francisco_ca/the_grateful_dead_house.html

Another restaurant I really loved is The Fog City Diner. Classy ambiance, dark leather booths, great food. They also filmed a scene from one of Mike Meyers' early movies, "So I Married An Axe Murderer" here, which my brother and I used to quote to each other all the time.
http://www.fogcitydiner.com/

If you go to wine country, personally I like Napa more. My favorite restaurant there is called Bistro Don Giovanni -- incredible food, an absolutely beautiful setting, and they grow much of their produce right there in their garden.
http://www.bistrodongiovanni.com/

Francis Ford Coppola has a vineyard out there -- it's one of the most beautiful ones with a really nice gift shop (his movies, his daughter's movies, even pasta bowls) -- but I don't know if you can really go wrong with any vineyard.

Last summer I saw him walking down the street in St. Helena.

Have a fantastic time!

-- Edited by scarlett at 08:33, 2006-09-23