Reuters Business Traveller

San Francisco – Overview

Often celebrated in films and song, city-by-the-bay San Francisco is a beautiful, fog-prone conurbation in northern California. It is also the second most densely populated city in the U.S., surrounded as it is by water on three sides.

With a population of 800,000, San Francisco is a major financial centre with huge banks, a thriving biotech sector and, in the Bay Area, a massive aeronautic research base. Much of the city’s economy is dependent on Silicon Valley, just south of San Francisco Bay, and Palo Alto, where venture capital once again flows freely. In these strip-mall towns-turned-urban hubs, everyone harks from somewhere else — but works, once worked, or will work, for Google, Apple, Facebook or Intel.

Business travellers visiting these high-tech giants will find headquarters-cum-campuses that are villages in themselves.

Laid out in a grid, the famously steep streets of San Francisco proper crisscross the city’s 43 hills, providing striking views of the bay and the Golden Gate Bridge. The central business district is in the northeast, along with the gold-domed City Hall and the department stores of Union Square. The best attractions, eateries and nightlife are all within walking distance of a huge convention and exhibition complex, the Moscone Center.

Chinatown’s bustling lanes, independent bookstores and galleries, museums (like the famous Moma, which serves organic Blue Bottle coffee at its rooftop sculpture garden) and indie designer boutiques — much of what is worth experiencing in San Francisco lies a short walk or ride away from downtown. The city’s top hotels are also here, clustered in the buzzing South of Market (SoMa) area.

America’s boho capital, the city’s alternative lifestyle is reflected in its love for organic foods, the slow-food movement, farmers markets and the culinary cornucopia that is the Ferry Building which houses some of the best restaurants in the country.

The big drawback to travelling in San Francisco is the traffic: locals spend much of their time stuck in their cars, generally on bridges. Once you’re out of the city proper, however, it’s a different story. If you get the chance, explore the surrounding coast. Ten miles south of the city, it is just you, your steed, James-Bond-car-chase coastline roads and, far below, the surging Pacific Ocean.

Another way to escape the traffic and acquaint yourself with the area is on a 30-minute San Francisco Seaplane Tour, which soars over the Financial District and above the red pillars of the Golden Gate Bridge. Alternatively, go for a run at Crissy Field on East Beach; jog along the promenade and gaze at the Golden Gate Bridge from below.

-Money: US Dollars (US$)

Hotels do not, as a rule, exchange currency and only a few major banks offer the service so it is advisable to arrive with dollars, or exchange foreign currency at the airport upon arrival. Try not to land yourself with $100 notes because taxi drivers won’t change them. Credit cards are widely used.