On a Facebook page about San Francisco travel, the top question is some version of “Is San Francisco safe?” Most people respond with an hysterical “Avoid the Tenderloin!”  Usually these posts are from people who have never even seen the Tenderloin.

There are More Dangerous Cities Than San Francisco

First of all, San Francisco is safe. It in not even in the top 20 most dangerous cities.

San Francisco is a city. Cites have problems a suburb doesn’t. A city also has more culture, sites, entertainment, restaurants, museums and general excitement and simulation than the suburbs. That’s why people come to San Francisco on when they travel and not Walnut Creek.

The big crime is San Francisco is breaking into cars, and even that has dropped dramatically. If you don’t have a car, you’re already ahead of the game. The other crime is dipping into your purse or backpack when you’re not looking, so keep it zipped and pay attention. Thieves want your stuff, as easy as possible. If you make it difficult they move on to someone else. No one wants to hurt you to get your stuff. That’s too much trouble, and alerts the cops.

As for The Tenderloin, it has poor people, not dangerous people. There’s a big difference. Many of the residents live in SRO’s or Single Room Occupancy. It is a room, sometimes with a wash basin. The bathroom is down the hall. Think of it as a dorm room, small, and not as nice as most dorm rooms. It’s not enjoyable to have a lot of people inside, so social life is hanging out on the sidewalk. That’s where they meet friends, and they don’t want to bother you. Same with homeless people.

Drug Use in the Tenderloin

True, people buy and use drugs in the Tenderloin. Drug dealers want to keep things quiet, which means keeping things safe for the people who wander into the area. If people get hurt, cops show up and that’s bad for business. 

The Tenderloin is a Family Neighborhood

The Tenderloin has the most children per square block of any neighborhood in San Francisco. It is also an immigrant neighborhood. There are good restaurants to serve the locals.

The Tenderloin is uncomfortable to witness. That is not the same as being dangerous. Of course I don’t suggest you stroll through it late at night not paying attention, but I wouldn’t suggest that for any neighborhood.

Stop listening to the fear mongers, especially the spittletwists and clatterjaws on Fox News. San Francisco is safe.

There are many tour options in San Francisco. You can take a big bus, a minivan, and SUV, even a firetruck. You can also tour the city in a convertible MINI Cooper. Here are the pros can cons of various tour options.
Big bus Tours-Pros. You get to sit up high (unless you have to sit down below). You have the fun of standing around on the sidewalk when you get out to visit a site. Since the busses are banned from many places in San Francisco, you don’t have to worry about making choices or seeing too much. You get exercise by walking several blocks to the sites you really want to see, such as the Painted Ladies and Lombard St. Cons: You may miss a bus at a pickup point, or get lost. Not private a private tour.

Van Tours- Pros: You get to share your vacation time with strangers, who will want to talk about subjects other than the tour so you won’t be bored learning about the city. You don’t have to think about where you’re going or for how long, as you are on a schedule. If you’re lucky enough to sit next to a window, you can pretend you’re watching the city on television. Cons: When you look up you see the roof of the car, not the city. Not a private tour.

Private MINI Cooper Tour: Pros: Door to door pickup and drop off. Stop where you want, as long as you want. Flexible itinerary, time of pickup, and duration. Go anywhere. No sharing tour time with strangers. In the convertible you’re IN the city all the time. Photo ops every moment. Knowledgeable guide with 25 years studying, exploring, and writing about San Francisco. See the big sites and hidden gems. The tour is all about you. Cons: Can only take 3 people.

If you are planning on driving in San Francisco, don’t. Really. Really and Truly. You won’t like it. It will be frustrating and expensive and will waste valuable vacation time. And you’ll be clogging up roads I drive on and be baffled and I may honk at you which will embarrass me if I’ve met you on a private tour the day before. The GPS won’t help, because everyone else unfamiliar with San Francisco will use it too and you will all be clogged on the same road. And the Magical GPS Goddess won’t help. She doesn’t live here and gives half-ass directions because she doesn’t care about being accurate and really doesn’t care about you. And she’s usually drunk.  Plus we have hundreds of Uber and Lyft drivers who don’t know their way around staring at their phones and double parking adding to the already insane congestion.

The Magical GPS Goddess also doesn’t keep track of the many, many sudden and capricious road closures and detours which plague our city. We are both building at a breakneck pace and digging up the street at a snail’s pace. This means at any given time a street will be closed but the Magical GPS Goddess doesn’t know that, and she’ll tell you to drive down one. But you can’t. And neither can anyone else. So you’ll all sit in the intersection baffled as to what to do until someone honks at you (possibly me) and you sudden lurch forward or make a dangerous and idiotic u-turn and be confused until the Magical GPS Goddess slurs her drunk instructions of “Rerouting.”

We are a small city and have good public transportation. Consider getting a MUNI passport, available at most drugstores. It is a deal, and gets you unlimited rides on all public transportation, (including the cable cars), and if you need to go somewhere a little out of the way, a taxi is great. By the way, if you have kids, riding public transportation, especially the streetcars, is like an amusement park ride. They’ll dig it, especially if you’re on one of the underground trains going through a tunnel and they get to stand in the front near the driver.
Save the money you would spend on a rental car and parking for public transportation and wine bars.

Short version: don’t drive. No one will like it, especially you. Well, maybe especially me, but you a lot.

I’ve had guests tell me they are planning to stay at a hotel outside San Francisco to save money. Unless you’re getting a significant break, say $150 bucks a night, it’s not going to be worth it. And if the difference between a moderately priced room in the city and one near the airport is $150, enjoy the cigarette burns in the carpet, low water pressure, and sharing the mattress with bedbugs. That amount you’ll save to stay in a reasonably decent hotel outside the city is between $50 and $80.

There are many reasons people think staying outside the city at cheaper hotel makes economic sense. All but one reason is wrong, and even that reason which might justify staying near the airport instead of San Francisco proper is suspect. If you have an early morning flight which requires that you’re up before the crows, maybe, maybe it makes sense. Other than that, it’s a bargain as false as a payday loan.

Often the decision will be considered because the travelers have a car. They are on a road trip, and the hotels near the airport have usually free parking, whereas hotels in the city will charge up to $60 a day to park. But if you drive into the city it is going to cost about that much to park in a garage for the day. Because a significant source of the city’s revenue is from parking violations, getting a spot on the street is risky. The signage indicating where and how long you can park is confusing as the fine print on a refi document. Driving in the city is not for the uninitiated, and don’t think “But I have GPS.” The GPS goddess doesn’t live here, doesn’t like you, and is usually drunk.  Getting in and out of San Francisco, and in the city itself, is a nightmare because of the thousands of Uber and Lyft drivers clogging the roads like Paula Deen’s arteries.

What about leaving the car at the hotel, and taking public transportation into the city? If you’re taking an Uber, Lyft, or taxi, a round trip is going to cost as much, if not more, than parking in the city. Public transportation is cheaper, but not significantly so.

Even if the savings in money pencils out, and it won’t, but if you’re willing to justify saving $30 day, you’re going to pay with the time and hassle it costs to commute.

At an outside hotel, the first thing that greets you in the morning is the mediocre breakfast. After that disappointment, instead of being able to walk outside and start having fun in the city, you have to get to the city. That’s going to take 30 minutes, providing you go between 10am and 2pm and after 8pm at night and even then that’s only if the travel angels take pity on you, which they won’t, because they’re getting hammered with the GPS Goddess. So assume at least 45 minutes to an hour each way. That’s a lot of time commuting when you could be relaxing. And if you’ve booked your private tour with me, I charge extra for a pickup outside the city, and the clock starts when at the hotel. That can get pricy, and that money can be spent on better things like food and wine bars.

If getting into the city in the morning isn’t a trial, and it will be, going home at night will give you plenty of time to regret you’re spending the last hour of your vacation day on a freeway instead of in a wine bar. Do you really want to spend the day exploring the city, having a nice dinner, a couple of drinks, and at the end instead of a pleasant walk back to your hotel, you have to somehow schlep back to your airport lodging and all the disappointments it contains and is surrounded by.

Staying outside the city makes no sense. The money you might save is spent on crushing your soul. Save your soul, enjoy yourself on vacation, and stay in San Francisco.

I never visit a city without a map. I rarely use my GPS. I admit this would have been useful in Tokyo, where everyone gets lost, even people who live there. But tracking down locations via the Magical GPS Goddess also means I would have not had the experience of discovering unexpected places. As I always tell my private tour guests, when you use a map, you get a sense of place. You learn how the city is laid out, and where sites are located compared to each other. Look a map, and you can see that Coit Tower is about a 20 minute walk from Chinatown, and Chinatown is on the edge of Union Square. Golden Gate park is on the western side of the city, next to the Haight Ashbury.

You don’t learn this by punching in a location, and having the blue dot direct you. You only learn what is on that path, and not where that path is in relation to the rest of the neighborhood or city. Plus you’ll be staring at your phone and not observing what is around you.

A GPS has its place in travel. If you’re hideously lost, it helps. But unless you find yourself in a strange wilderness (which means you’re probably in the Presidio), use a map. Ask directions of people on the street. Travel is about experience, and you lose some of that adventure by allowing the Magical GPS Goddess to lead you by the nose.

Get a map. Ask directions. Occasionally get lost. That’s how to experience San Francisco.