Travel Tips

If you like water sports and activities that involve the water, then San Francisco should be at the very top of your must visit list. There are so many water activities in San Francisco your head will spin. In fact, bring your suit and prepare to spend a great deal of time enjoying the water and the great recreation that the water has to offer.

If you like the water but have little real experience at manning the wheel of a boat or navigating narrow straights, you will probably be best served by chartering the services of experts rather than attempting a go of it on your own. The good news is that there are plenty of ways to do this. One of the most common ways is to take a ferry out to Alcatraz or Angel Island. You get the benefit of time on the water with no work involved whatsoever. You also get the added benefit of a tour of some sort on the other end of your trip. Many visitors each year enjoy this means of water travel and it is both an economical way to travel by water and a low stress way to do so.

You can also elect a sunset or sightseeing cruise around the bay on a chartered sailboat or motor sailor that is fully crewed. Some of the charter companies even offer team-building activities if you are traveling to San Francisco on business. Sailing is a great way to build a team and bond them like nothing else on earth. If you’ve never been sailing before, I highly recommend chartering a boat for an outing even if it’s only for a small period of time. It’s a great way to find out if you have sea legs that’s for sure. In addition to finding out if you have sea legs, a short tour will either leave you knowing this isn’t for you or hungry for more-in which case, you might wish to take sailing lessons and consider purchasing a sailboat of your own someday.

Sailing lessons are a great thing to give yourself while on vacation in San Francisco as well. The bay offers a protected, or at least relatively protected area in which to learn the finer aspects of sailing and there are many schools locally that can offer excellent instruction in the finer points of sailing and navigation. Sailing however requires more than an afternoon of lessons in order to have any degree of competency but a few lessons while on vacation is a great place to begin and an even better excuse to return.

If you have some experience with navigation and sailing, there are some companies that will allow you to rent a boat for a day or even a weekend. This allows you to be your own “Master and Commander” and can make for a great family day for the entire family. I firmly believe there are few things on earth that are better than tasting the salt of the sea while feeling the wind in your face, but I’ve always felt more at home on water than on solid ground so I am more than a little biased towards enjoyment of water based activities.

Which brings me to my next suggestion. Some are not content to merely ride the waves but would rather create waves of their own. For those who prefer a more hands on and muscle powered trek through the water, perhaps a rowboat or paddleboat rental would be in order? There are places in Golden Gate Park where this is easily achieved and the lake is an ideal setting for these kinds of boats. And of course there are kayak rentals that seem to abound in the San Francisco area which offer a whole new level of fun for all involved.

No matter how you look at it, there are some great ways to spend a day on the water in San Francisco. Come found out why so many people have left their hearts here and enjoy the peaceful serenity of a day ‘at sea’.

If you are bringing young ones on your visit to San Francisco, you’ve probably wracked your brain trying to find activities and events that will not only be fun for them but also provide much needed mental stimuli as well. Well, look no further. I have five museums that are guaranteed to be completely kid friendly and fun for the entire family.

Gone are the days of stuffy museums that are cold and unfeeling. These museums of old have been replaced with modern day museums that offer areas that encourage hands on activities and promote learning and education through activities that are well disguised as fun. Your children will have no idea what just happened and you will be able to rest comfortable in the knowledge that this event that they considered so much fun will remain with them for a long time to come. Knowledge is a great gift to pass on to your children, especially when they don’t realize what it is that you are giving them.

The first of these museums is the Cartoon Art Museum. You may wonder what your children can possibly learn from a museum such as this, but as with all art, comics often imitate life and this museum shows how comics have evolved and morphed over time. In addition to that, anything that will encourage your children to read is a good thing in my opinion, even if it is comics that they are reading.

Next, there is the Bay Area Discovery Museum. This museum offers hands on entertainment for children of all ages. While most exhibits are designed with children ages 1-10 in mind, there are plenty of activities and exhibits that will appeal to older children as well as those entertaining the notion of a second childhood. This museum offers many activities and adventures both indoors and out that will appeal to your children while teaching them about other creatures, cultures, technology, and the world at large around them. This is definitely worth having a look. Be sure to check and see if there are any events being offered while you are visiting.

If the Bay Area Discovery Museum isn’t enough to get your little one’s creative juices flowing and put you all into the supreme spirit of learning, then perhaps you should check out Zeum. Zeum is a multimedia arts and technology museum. By allowing visitors to hands on use of their equipment they are fostering imagination and igniting curiosity in the young minds of their guests. This is definitely unique enough for a closer look. I hope it spikes your inner techno guru as completely as it reached mine.

There are many more places than this that you can visit in San Francisco that offer an equal spark for the minds and imaginations of your little ones. But the fact remains that you know your child’s interests and talents better than anyone else. Find those things that will appeal to each child’s personality and that above anything else will make this trip special for him or her.

I also believe that it is important to allow your children an opinion on what to do and see while on vacation. You may be surprised to find the things that will appeal to them as well as the fact that they really do on occasion think about what you as a parent want for them. By giving choices and a voice you are teaching your children that they are important to you and that their opinion matters.

If you are planning a visit to San Francisco and you love wine, you might seriously wish to consider taking a day trip to one or more of the many vineyards that are only a short drive away. In fact, many of these vineyards offer packages that leave you free to taste all the wine you can handle without worries about drinking and driving.

Even if you’ve never really tried many wines or don’t really find the flavor of the wines you have tried in the past to be pleasant, you may find yourself pleasantly surprised to discover that you do in fact have a great palate for the excellent wines that can be found in California’s Sonoma Valley and Napa Regions. The wines you will taste here are generally great quality wines and are specially selected to showcase the best that these vineyards have to offer. Regardless of whether you find yourself a reformed wine connoisseur or not, you will at least have gained a really good education about both the wine making process and the many varieties of wines that are available.

There are many companies that offer tours to different vineyards. Try one, or try a few. The drive is short if you want to go it alone-just be sure that the vineyard you are planning to visit doesn’t require reservations before making the drive. The drive, should you choose this route, is quite beautiful and there are many things to see along the way. Be sure to have a designated driver for your wine tasting experience if you are going it alone. This detail alone could save one or many lives and is vitally important when planning your wine tasting adventure.

If bus tours aren’t for you but you don’t want to have to drive after visiting and tasting all of the delicious wines that you will be discovering, you should consider one of the smaller SUV tours that are available. These will be a little more costly but for many the personal attention is well worth a little extra money. Another great benefit of the smaller SUV tours is that your smaller group can be accommodated by smaller wineries that aren’t always available for visits from large bus tours. These tours need to be planned a little ahead of time, most requiring at least one week advance notice for reservations so they can’t be as spur of the moment as a larger bus tour which will generally have openings available at the last minute.

Here are a few suggestions to help your wine tasting experience be all that you dare hope for and more. First of all, avoid wearing scents; the scents that you wear will compete with the wine for both fragrance and taste. You want the wine to make its own statement without competition from the perfumes, aftershaves, lotions, and potions that you or other guests on your tour may bring along. Hold your wine glass by the stem to avoid warming the wine. It’s always a good idea to eat something bland like saltine crackers or French bread between wines in order to cleanse your palate.

Even if you’ve never tried a glass of wine before in your life, you will receive and excellent education about the various wines, the regions, the differences between the wines, what makes the wines of different vineyards unique and special, and suggestions on how to pair and serve the wines you’re tasting. You will also receive and education about how to properly store the wines you may elect to purchase. This is very important knowledge in order to best maintain the integrity and flavor of the wines you choose.

From novices to experiences wine connoisseurs and for everyone in between, there is a little something to offer everyone who takes one of these tours. Keep in mind that while all ages are welcome on these tours, only guests that are 21 and over are able to partake of the delectable wines available for tasting. Most importantly, have a day of good fun, good food, and great spirits.