Land at SFO. Get on the BART subway. That's it. You are done, it goes right from SFO to the center of the city. Some people are too lazy to walk around the circle of the airport and use the AirBART train to get to the BART stop at the airport, although personally I find it easier and quicker to just walk.
If you are going downtown, take the BART. It costs about USD $9 to take from the airport, runs frequently, picks up inside the airport, and takes you straight in to downtown.
Lyft and Uber tend to have better prices than cabs. I keep both apps around because the difference in price can jump around quite a bit - sometimes up to 2-3x.
However, the ideal transportation if you're visiting is to simply walk around. It's amazing how easy it is to walk everywhere in SF.
For Alcatraz, just grab a lyft/uber to the pier and take the ferry. By the way, if you have time the longer, late evening tours are quite interesting.
If you're going to use a taxi, use the Flywheel app -- it gives you the hail-without-talking-to-someone, see-where-your-car-is-on-a-map, and pay-through-the-app features of Uber/Lyft without surge pricing. Availability is fairly dependent on what part of the city you're in, though.
Might want to be careful with Flywheel. I only used it once, and it defaulted to a 20% gratuity on top of the taxi rate which is usually already higher than Uber/Lyft/Sidecar (unless there's a large surge price). I heard from a friend that the gratuity is adjustable, but the entire experience of Sidecar (the one I almost always use) is far superior in my opinion.
BART station is directly next to the terminal. Exit at Embarcadero station. Most of the BART stations in SF are walking distance of each other. You can actually walk from there to the pier with the Alcatraz ferry if you feel like it. Make sure you get a ticket for Alcatraz ahead of time as it runs out fast. Another option is stop at Montgomery station and taking a cable car to the piers. Also get a city pass you if want to visit multiple things in a day and save some money. http://www.citypass.com/san-francisco
And they were the first to ban and harass the companies too. Kind of silly they are trying to sound friendly now when other places have always just let them be.
What a scam. The airports should be providing car access as a service to their customers, not double dipping and charging drivers for the privilege of driving over their land.
This is great! Now these companies can become the new government-granted oligopoly that tries to use regulation to block future "disruptive" competition, and the complaint cycle can start anew!
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[ 5.7 ms ] story [ 54.4 ms ] threadAirBART is the shuttle bus service between OAK and BART. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AirBART
However, the ideal transportation if you're visiting is to simply walk around. It's amazing how easy it is to walk everywhere in SF.
For Alcatraz, just grab a lyft/uber to the pier and take the ferry. By the way, if you have time the longer, late evening tours are quite interesting.
And also sold out months in advance.
Nashville airport was the first in September. They even proactively created a ride share symbol.