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Airport and City Information
San Francisco, CA
San Francisco Intl Airport (SFO)


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.

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