Archive for the 'Northern California' Category
Central Valley and S.F. Bay area: Wild-salmon-viewing made easy, with new Bay Institute map
November 9, 2009 5:00pm
For a unique wildlife-watching experience, travel up to some of our state’s streams. In certain areas of the Central Valley and the San Francisco Bay region in the next few months, you may get the chance to watch wild salmon and/or steelhead spawn (deposit their eggs) — a valuable opportunity, especially given the depletion of the species’ population in the West.
A new interactive map and calendar, released by the Bay Institute, a nonprofit conservation organization, gives the scoop on best viewing spots, along with best months for fish-spotting at each location. On the pdf map, you can click on your desired location to see a Google map pop up. The maps and other information on the spawning fish are also found in print brochures newly available at the Aquarium of the Bay in San Francisco.
“Salmon spawning is the salmon’s grand-finale act of swimming upstream, most of the time to the exact stream where they were born, to lay their eggs,” said Kati Schmidt, public relations manager for Aquarium of the Bay.
Lucky visitors might also see male salmon battling one another “for the opportunity to fertilize the eggs,” said Schmidt, or female salmon creating gravel nests, called redds, where they deposit their eggs. Read the rest of this entry »
Enjoy a free day at national parks, forests on Veterans Day, Nov. 11
November 4, 2009 8:52am
Next week, national parks and forests will waive entrance fees for one day, Wednesday, Nov. 11, to honor servicemen and women. Unlike past years, when only U.S. veterans, active members of the U.S. armed forces and their families got a free pass, this year’s Veterans Day observance will allow everyone in for free, according to a news release Tuesday, Nov. 3, from the U.S. Department of the Interior.
If the deal otherwise works like it did in past years, you’ll still owe fees for camping, permits and other activities. But you can save a lot anyway because some popular parks, including California’s Yosemite National Park, normally charge entrance fees of $20 or so per car.
The Interior Department earlier this year expanded the number of free days on federal lands, offering three fee-free weekends over the summer. At that time, Interior Secretary Ken Salazar noted that parks provide affordable family vacations “during these tough economic times.”
For a sane holiday, consider Hotels.com’s Thanksgiving sale
October 31, 2009 6:51pm
If bunking up with Cousin Lenny sounds like the worst way to spend your Thanksgiving holiday away, why not treat yourself to your own peaceful quarters this year? Booking a room close to (but not with) the family doesn’t have to break the bank, thanks in part to promotions like Hotels.com’s Thanksgiving sale. Through it, you can find a range of properties for up to 30% off in 100 cities.
One of those is Denver, where 30%-off rooms at the Burnsley All-Suite Hotel are attainable. In Orlando, Fla. — where, it must be said, accommodations bargains are never rare — you can get a room for $41 per night, pretax, at the Seralago Hotel, a few miles from Disney World. Up in New York, stay for 20% off at the Time Hotel, close to Broadway shows; rates here around Thanksgiving start at $183 per night (the usual average is $229).
But there are lots of options closer to home too, for instance:
Palm Springs
I stopped into Riviera Resort & Spa’s reservation system for a stay Wednesday through Friday of that week, and got a total of about $600, after taxes and fees, for the two nights. The total price I found via Hotels.com was $478. Read the rest of this entry »
San Francisco: Savings for the unfussy with Inn at the Opera’s ‘Think Green’ deal
October 30, 2009 5:54am
The Inn at the Opera doesn’t sit on the most glamorous strip of San Francisco, but when I stayed here last year, I appreciated its proximity to Hayes Valley restaurants and its central location amid a mecca of transportation options. It’s a stone’s throw from the Civic Center and a few short blocks to Market Street, one of city’s main arteries.
The hotel usually has reasonable rates, and now, aided by a truly unusual promotion, you can save even more on a stay.
Deal: If you don’t need a spic-and-span room and don’t mind picking up after yourself, the “Think Green” promotion, valid for stays of two or more nights, may work for you. With this offer, during your stay, your room will get “limited housekeeping,” which includes only trash removal and an optional towel service. In exchange, you get $20 off per night.
So you’ll save a little cash, but what’s the eco-incentive alluded to in the promo’s title? Read the rest of this entry »
Pacifica Hotels: 25% off, plus bring a toy for a bigger discount
October 29, 2009 5:51am
For a getaway up or down the coast, or in popular destinations inland, you might look into a stay with Pacifica Hotels. The company, largely rooted in California but with locations in Florida and Hawaii as well, has a great promotion going for late fall and early winter. See below for the scoop.
Deal: Under its current online winter promotion, receive 25% off regular rates at Pacifica Hotels properties over the next couple of months. Plus, if you bring along a new, unwrapped toy valued at $10 or more, you get an additional $10 per night off your bill at checkout. The hotel participates in the Toys for Tots program, so your gift will go to children in need.
The deal is good only in California, where Pacifica runs hotels in in Sonoma, San Francisco, Cambria, Pismo Beach, Santa Barbara, Marina del Rey, Redondo Beach, Laguna Beach and San Diego, among other locations. [Corrected at 10:15 a.m. Oct. 29: An earlier version of this post did not make it clear that this deal is good only at Pacifica hotels in California, not in Florida or Hawaii.] Read the rest of this entry »
Bay Bridge closure travel guide: Detour routes, traffic and current info for getting to SFO and OAK
October 28, 2009 3:46pm
The San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge is closed in both directions—indefinitely—after two rods and a 5,000-pound crossbeam fell during rush hour traffic at 5:30 p.m. Tuesday, as reported on L.A. Now. Traffic was backed up during the morning rush hour on Wednesday and is expected to add delays to the evening commute Wednesday as well. Here are some resources for Bay Bridge updates and alternative travel means, plus maps for traffic statuses on routes to San Francisco International Airport (SFO) and Oakland International Airport (OAK).
Bay Area transit info: 511.org is the best place to find alternative transit options in the Bay Area.
The page on transit options shows a full grid of status updates for Bay Area transportation services such as BART, MUNI, SF and East Bay ferry service and more. Use this 511.org “Detour Routes” page for alternative routes that use the Dumbarton Bridge, San Mateo Bridge and other options.
Airport commute: 511.org offers these directions to San Francisco International Airport from the East Bay: “Take Interstate 880, the San Mateo Bridge, and U.S. 101 north. Or, use the 511 Transit Trip planner to plan your trip to the airport on BART.” However, the trip planner does not account for adjusted schedules due to the bridge closure. If you are in San Francisco trying to get to the Oakland airport, MapQuest asks that you drag your route map down to the San Mateo bridge due to the closure. Here is a map link for travel between San Francisco and the Oakland airport.
SuperShuttle: If you are using the Super Shuttle 800 BLUE-VAN (258-3826), note that officials say that driving time is about 1 hour, 45 minutes between downtown San Francisco and OAK. They ask that you allow three hours from your departure time for domestic flights and four hours for international flights.
San Francisco: Exhibition planned for Golden Gate Bridge, recipient of $3 million grant
October 22, 2009 4:29pm
Sure, the Golden Gate Bridge is awe-inspiring, but what is it really all about? If you’re interested in the inner and outer works of the bridge, as well as its past, you will soon—well, in a couple years or so—be able to indulge your curiosities through an outdoor exhibit planned for the tourist landmark.
Earlier this week, the National Science Foundation granted the Golden Gate Bridge, Highway and Transportation District $3 million to build educational exhibits related to the San Francisco icon’s history and engineering.
At the south side visitor area, which sees over 10 million annual visitors, a central feature of the exhibit will be a 92-foot-long scale model of the bridge. Next to that will be 24 interactive satellite exhibits, where you might learn, among other facts and figures, that 250 pairs of vertical suspender ropes hold up the roadway that you see. Read the rest of this entry »
Get a third night for free at 35 California hotels
October 21, 2009 5:59am
Buy two, get one free. That’s the idea behind the Third Night Free offer at 35 California hotels run by Joie de Vivre, a boutique chain based in San Francisco. Launched to promote the company’s new “Joie of Life” micro-site that focuses on social networking, the deal isn’t being advertised on the chain’s main website. But you can book it there anyway — if you know the code.
The deal is worth hunting up because Joie de Vivre runs a lot of fun and well-located hotels in a range of prices, such as San Francisco’s Hotel Rex and Hotel Vitale, Hotel Angeleno in Los Angeles and Hotel Erwin at Venice Beach. The 411:
Deal: Pretty straightforward. You book a room for three nights in a row, and the third night is free. There are two ways to get the deal: You can book it through the Third Night Free section of the Joie of Life micro-site or go to the regular Joie de Vivre website and enter the code “JOIE” in the “Promo Code” window when making a reservation. The micro-site lists the participating hotels, with nightly rates that start at $79 to $459, depending on the hotel.
Sonoma: Visit wine country after grape crush rush for $75 rooms
October 19, 2009 8:27am
Yes, fall is the season for grape-picking, grape-crushing and festival-hopping in Napa Valley and nearby Sonoma. But lag a little and you may find yourself with better bargains on accommodations. At Sonoma Creek Inn, a budget hotel a couple miles northeast of downtown Sonoma, prices decrease come November.
Deal: The “Stay Longer, Dream More” package at this hotel includes, for $75 per night (pre-tax and based on double occupancy), a queen room and wine-tasting passes for local wineries. Plus, if a better room is available upon check in, you can get an upgrade to the best available room.
That must at least partly cover the “dream more” component of the package title because guests who “stay longer” — as in, stay two nights instead of one — get a package rate of $72.50 per night.
Rooms under a “last minute” special, on right now for stays this week, cost $99 per night, so this late-fall/winter rate is over 20% less than that current offer. The wineries for which you’ll receive tasting passes vary, and tasting fees vary by winery. But you might get passes to, for example, Ravenswood, where tastings run $10-$15, and Paradise Ridge, which charges a $10 fee. Read the rest of this entry »
San Francisco is top U.S. city to visit, says Condé Nast survey
October 18, 2009 7:10am
What’s your favorite city in the U.S. to visit? If you picked San Francisco, you’d be in line with Condé Nast Traveler readers who voted the City by the Bay as the No. 1 U.S. city in the publication’s 2009 Readers’ Choice Awards.
Cities were rated on these criteria: atmosphere and ambiance; culture and sites; friendliness; lodging; restaurants; and shopping. San Francisco fared especially well in — you guessed it — restaurants. But the city boasts many lures, and they are apparently consistent. This is the 17th consecutive year that it has won this category in the annual survey.
Following San Francisco in the top U.S. cities category were Charleston, S.C.; Santa Fe, N.M.; New York; and Chicago, in that order. Ubud, Indonesia, ranked as the best city to visit in Asia, and Sydney, Australia, earned the top slot of all cities internationally. Read the rest of this entry »
