Similar experience but more like 10 years ago. Hotel was quite near the Tenderloin district and we were a bit shocked by the number of hobbos and pan handler beggers on the streets, however just walk past them swiftly and nothing worse than Sheff Utd away in the 80's. A few reports of stabbings and murders on the local news, oakland Bay Bridge closed for a murder whilst there but SF was actually great in the main tourist areas, do alcatraz, cable cars etc. We hit the road trip after a few days headed over the Golden Gate to the Napa Valley which was fantastic then on to Yosemite etc.
To be honest I wouldn't do SF in isolation but as part of a California road trip it gave us access to Napa, Yosemite and a fantastic ghost town called Bodie, then the classic Pacific coast highway down to LA. The crab chowder is good.
Alcatraz is well worth the visit, and if you do the City bus tour that’s good cos you get time at Candlestick Park and the Golden Gate Bridge, we went in 2005 and there was loads of beggars then, and it’s as noisy as **** with police and fire truck sirens going off all day and night, I wouldn’t go back.
13 years ago since I was last there, but loved it then. Felt like a proper city, but with fantastic surroundings too Tenderloin was fine then. In fact I got a car from near there and left a mobile ion it, but the lad cleaning it found it and popped it round to my hotel for me! Napa wine tour, biking across Golden Gate Bridge for lunch outside at Trident (when it was Horizons) looking back over the Bay to SF, with lots of yachts mooring up for lunch (probably @SW3 Chelsea Tiger !) Alcatraz, hanging off cable cars, drive down the coast to Monterrey for whale watching, visiting iconic places like City Lights Bookstore...loved it.
yesss 1000s of times. I lived around the corner for years. It tried to become a private members club for a while… it bombed…back to a normal pub again. I was there about 2 weeks ago Edit…. I was thinking about the chelsea pig…I was in Chelsea ram tonight! It’s just next to Chelsea waterfront.
My mate’s sister had a flat in Chelsea, a few of us stayed there for a weekend back in 2004. When a black cab driver, who was a proper arsey, cockney toss pot, said he didn’t know where the Chelsea Ram was my made( who was mullered) came out with his immortal line…… ‘Where’s your knowledge, you ****?’. We were promptly ejected from his taxi. Same mate then decided to climb into a chest freezer in a local Tesco Express, which prompted the OB to be called. It was absolute carnage that weekend. We ended up in some bar called Bardot I think? I’m going to Lisbon with the same blokes in October. Should be fun.
Salt Spring Island ! The Southern West coast of BC in Canada is spectacular. Went on a few football/golf tournaments centered around Victoria on Vancouver Island - The Sticky Wicket Hotel with it's British styled bars and music was the team's base next to the harbour. Visited friends in WhistlerBC a number of times over the years (not for skiing, but for hiking and climbing around Blackcomb Peaks). Great memories. We went with our wives tagging along some trips. Great memories. https://www.google.com/search?q=nic...XcV9DWXJ4dW4tdXRVT1p3Y0x5dkh2OS11M1FIaE9uNFBa
Was in Thetis Island, just north of Salt Spring in 2019. Went to the island’s Xmas ‘do’ in the Community Hall. Walked in and heard a Hull accent, absolutely unmistakeable. Turns out the owner of it, a lady in her 70’s, had lived there for 30-odd years. She was born in Boulevard, Hull, 200m from where I was brought up. I asked her if she ever went back, she said she’d been back a few years earlier, thought Hessle Road was **** and full of P***s. Conversation didn’t last long after that…
