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Alaska Airlines Flights from Chicago (ORD) to San Francisco (SFO)
Orbitz is pleased to offer airline tickets on Alaska Airlines, which operates 4 regularly scheduled daily non-stop flights from Chicago (ORD) to San Francisco (SFO), departing between 7:30am and 6:35pm, and one additional non-stop flight regularly scheduled to depart at 3:35pm and arrive at 6:15pm, everyday except Saturday. Usually a McDonnell Douglas MD80 or Boeing 767-300 is flown for this route. The average travel time from Chicago, IL to San Francisco, CA is 4 hours and 41 minutes.
During your San Francisco vacation, don't miss these great establishments and attractions:
Cable Cars
Although they may not be San Francisco's most practical means of transportation, cable cars are certainly the best loved and are a must-experience when visiting the city. Designated official historic landmarks by the National Park Service in 1964, they clank up and down the city's steep hills like mobile museum pieces, tirelessly hauling thousands of tourists each day to nowhere in particular.London-born engineer Andrew Hallidie invented San Francisco's cable cars in 1869. He got the idea by serendipity. As the story goes, Hallidie was watching a team of overworked horses haul a heavily laden carriage up a steep San Francisco slope. As he watched, one horse slipped and the car rolled back, dragging the other tired beasts with it. At that moment, Hallidie resolved that he would invent a mechanical contraption to replace such horses, and just 4 years later, in 1873, the first cable car made its maiden run from the top of Clay Street. Promptly ridiculed as "Hallidie's Folly," the cars were slow to gain acceptance. One early onlooker voiced the general opinion by exclaiming, "I don't believe it -- the damned thing works!"Even today, many visitors have difficulty believing that these vehicles, which have no engines, actually work. The cars, each weighing about 6 tons, run along a steel cable, enclosed under the street in a center rail. You can't see the cable unless you peer straight down into the crack, but you'll hear its characteristic clickity-clanking sound whenever you're nearby. The cars move when the gripper (not the driver) pulls back a lever that closes a pincerlike "grip" on the cable. The speed of the car, therefore, is determined by the speed of the cable, which is a constant 9 1/2 mph -- never more, never less.The two types of cable cars in use hold a maximum of 90 and 100 passengers, and the limits are rigidly enforced. The best views are from the outer running boards, where you have to hold on tightly when taking curves.Hallidie's cable cars have been imitated and used throughout the world, but all have been replaced by more efficient means of transportation. San Francisco planned to do so, too, but the proposal met with so much opposition that the cable cars' perpetuation was actually written into the city charter in 1955. The mandate cannot be revoked without the approval of a majority of the city's voters -- a distant and doubtful prospect.San Francisco's three existing cable car lines form the world's only surviving system of cable cars, which you can experience for yourself should you choose to wait in the endless boarding line (up to a 2-hr. wait in summer).
The Cannery
The Cannery was built in 1907 as a fruit-canning plant and was converted into a mall in the 1960s. It contains 30-plus shops, a ceramic studio and gallery, and several restaurants, including Jack's Cannery Bar (tel. 415/931-6400). Vendors' stalls and sidewalk cafes occupy the courtyard amid a grove of century-old olive trees and, weather permitting, street performers are usually out in force, entertaining tourists. Note: This is a tourist destination that many locals avoid.
Yerba Buena Center for the Arts/Yerba Buena Gardens
The Yerba Buena Center, which opened in 1993, is the city's cultural facility, similar to New York's Lincoln Center but far more fun on the outside. It stands on top of the northern extension of the underground Moscone Convention Center. The center's two buildings present music, theater, dance, and visual arts. James Stewart Polshek designed the 755-seat theater, and Fumihiko Maki designed the Galleries and Arts Forum, which features three galleries and a space designed especially for dance. Cutting-edge computer art, multimedia shows, traditional exhibitions, and performances occupy the center's high-tech galleries.More commonly explored is the 5-acre Yerba Buena Gardens, a great place to relax in the grass on a sunny day and check out several artworks. The most dramatic outdoor piece is an emotional mixed-media memorial to Martin Luther King, Jr. Created by sculptor Houston Conwill, poet Estella Majozo, and architect Joseph de Pace, it features 12 panels, each inscribed with quotations from King, sheltered behind a 50-foot-high waterfall. For most, this pastoral patch is a brief stopover to the surrounding attractions. New to the gardens in 2004 are seasonal free outdoor festivals held on varied dates from May through October. It's definitely worth discovering whether you can catch one of these, as performances include dance, music, poetry, and more by the San Francisco Ballet, Opera, and Symphony and others; see www.ybgf.org for details.On the periphery of Yerba Buena Gardens are a number of worthy individually operated excursions. In the Children's Center, Zeum (tel. 415/777-2800) includes a cafe, interactive cultural center, bowling lanes, ice-skating rink, fabulous 1906 carousel, and interactive play and learning garden. Sony's Metreon Entertainment Center (tel. 415/369-6000; www.metreon.com) is a 350,000-square-foot complex housing great movie theaters, an IMAX theater, a bountiful gourmet food court, interactive attractions (including one that features Maurice Sendak's Where the Wild Things Are and surprisingly exciting virtual bowling), and shops. As part of the plan to develop this area as the city's cultural hub, the California Historical Society opened at 678 Mission St. in 1995 and is home to a research library and a publicly accessible California photography and fine arts collection.
Make your reservations for discount hotel rooms in the
San Francisco area, including:
The Washington Square Inn
Reminiscent of a traditional European inn -- right down to the afternoon tea, wine, and cheese hour -- this small, comely bed-and-breakfast is ideal for older couples who prefer a quieter, more subdued environment than the commotion of downtown San Francisco. It's across from Washington Square in North Beach -- a coffee-craver's haven -- and within walking distance of Fisherman's Wharf and Chinatown. Each room is decorated in English floral fabrics with quality European antique furnishings and plenty of fresh flowers.
Renoir Hotel
Housed in a majestic 1909 Flatiron-style brick building, the Renoir is one of the few low-priced hotels in the downtown area whose guest rooms actually have pleasing views and direct sunlight. Located within walking distance to most of the city's main attractions, this privately owned and family-run hotel was completely renovated in 2001 with a pseudo European turn-of-the-20th-century theme -- the high-ceiling lobby is replete with ornate columns, gilded elevators doors, large chandeliers, antique furnishings, and spiffily dressed staff. Ostentation comes to a screeching halt once you enter your guest room, however, each of which is simply furnished with modern dark-wood furnishings, flower-patterned bedspreads and matching drapes, and those ubiquitous awful prints screwed into the wall above the bed. No matter: The hotel is in such a great location that you'll probably spend very little time supine. The hotel's restaurant, Café do Brasil, is San Francisco's first (and only) Brazilian "Churrasco Rodizio," the classic eat-until-you-say-uncle Brazilian style of barbecue. Tip: Request a room overlooking Market Street, since they receive the morning sun.
Hotel Milano
Neoclassical Italian design, elegantly streamlined rooms (with double-paned soundproof windows), moderate prices, and a central location next to the San Francisco Centre make Hotel Milano a popular choice for tourists and businesspeople alike. The hotel also has a film-production facility and private screening room to entice media types. Corporate travelers come for the spacious guest rooms, which feature everything an executive could want, from fax/computer modem hookups to Nintendo game systems. Some rooms have spa tubs, bidets, and two bathrooms.
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