Airport Information
Information and help desks:
Airport information booths are located in all Terminals on the lower
floor, and can translate over 166 languages. Traveler's Aid booths
are located on the upper level of all Terminals, open daily 0900-2100
in the international Terminal and from 0900-1700 elsewhere.
Airport Facilities:
ATMs and foreign currency tellers are available in all Terminals and
boarding lounges and there are full service banks in the north and
international Terminals. Facilities also include post boxes, a
medical clinic on the lower floor of the international Terminal,
shops, duty-free outlets, restaurants and bars.
Disabled Facilities:
The airport is physically accessible and airline employees are happy
to assist passengers with disabilities and/or senior passengers
travelling through the Terminals. If you need assistance, notify your
airline in advance of your departure or arrival time. There are TDD
phones throughout the airport for hearing-impaired travelers.
Business Facilities:
The Airport Travel Agency (tel: 650 877 0422), located in upper level
exhibition gallery, provides fax, notary, photocopying, and courier
services. Credit-card paid internet services are provided at the
QuickAid Kiosk.
Car Rental:
All major rental companies are based at the airport, including Alamo,
Avis, Budget, Dollar, Hertz and National.
Car Parking:
Short term car parks with disabled spaces and direct access to
Terminals are available (tel: 650 877 0227 (from any USA location)
for 24 hour information on availability of parking in all areas). A
long term parking lot is 3.5km (2 m) north of the airport Terminals.
The free bus service takes six to ten minutes between long term
parking and the Terminals.
Lowest International Airfares
Visit ParkSleepFly's TravelMall for car rentals, calling cards, dining and other travel accessories.
City Information
San Francisco is served by two airports, SFO (San Francisco
International) and Oakland. Many frequent visitors prefer to go in
and out of Oakland because they can use BART (Bay Area Rapid Transit)
to get to town. SFO has been recently remodeled and talk is now
centered on extending the runway farther out into the bay to try and
minimize the too-frequent fog delays. SFO is roughly 20 minutes from
downtown by car or taxi and is now serviced (thankfully) by BART.
Many people prefer to fly in and out of Oakland across the bay; this
is about 45 minutes from downtown via BART and about a half-hour by
car.
Once in the city, it's easy to lose the sense of direction. That's
because there is water on three sides and it's hard for first-timers
to get directional bearings . The water you see only has a
one-in-three chance of being adjacent to Fisherman's Wharf.
Most of the streets are in a grid pattern, which is nice, but some
(most notably Columbus) go in a diagonal direction. Without getting
too complicated, use these streets as boundaries: Van Ness to the
North, Market to the West and The Embarcadero to the South and East
(it curves around the land). This will at least keep you centered in
the heart of the city.
San Francisco is only seven miles wide, but it can take 45 minutes to
get from one side of it to the other because of the traffic.