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Northwest Airlines Flights from Palm Springs (PSP) to San Francisco (SFO)
Orbitz is pleased to offer airline tickets on Northwest Airlines, which operates 2 regularly scheduled daily non-stop flights from Palm Springs (PSP) to San Francisco (SFO), departing between 7:00am and 1:09pm. Usually a Boeing 737-400 is flown for this route. The average travel time from Palm Springs, CA to San Francisco, CA is 1 hour and 33 minutes.*
* Some flights must connect with additional service on this airline.
During your San Francisco vacation, don't miss these great establishments and attractions:
California Palace of the Legion of Honor
Designed as a memorial to California's World War I casualties, this neoclassical structure is an exact replica of the Legion of Honor Palace in Paris, right down to the inscription HONNEUR ET PATRIE above the portal.The Legion of Honor reopened in late 1995, after a 2-year, $35-million renovation and seismic upgrading. The exterior's grassy expanses, cliff-side paths, and incredible view of the Golden Gate and downtown make this an absolute must-visit attraction before you even get in the door. The inside is equally impressive. The museum's permanent collection covers 4,000 years of art and includes paintings, sculpture, and decorative arts from Europe, as well as international tapestries, prints, and drawings. The chronological display of 4,000 years of ancient and European art includes one of the world's finest collections of Rodin's sculptures. The sunlight Legion Café offers indoor and outdoor seating at moderate prices. Plan to spend 2 or 3 hours here.
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.
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).
Make your reservations for discount hotel rooms in the
San Francisco area, including:
The Archbishop's Mansion
One thing is certain, the archbishop who built this 1904 Belle Epoque beauty was no Puritan. Though the hotel isn't world-class, it is drippingly romantic, tucked away in a very residential but central neighborhood, and likely to be the most opulently decorated B&B you could possibly imagine. Here, within the uniquely adorned rooms, it's all about whimsy and drama. The Don Giovanni suite -- larger than many San Francisco houses -- holds a huge, French four-poster bed with cherubs carved into it, a grand fireplace, elaborate linens, and a shower with seven heads that you'll never want to leave. Slightly closer to Earth is the Carmen suite, which has a deadly romantic combination of a claw-foot bathtub fronting a wood-burning fireplace. In the morning, breakfast is delivered to the guest rooms, and in the evening, wine is served in the elegant parlor. With a CD player in every room and a video and CD library accessible to every guest, this is one hotel that is enticing enough to make you linger in your room.
The Park Hyatt San Francisco
If you're looking for a small luxury business hotel in the heart of the Financial District -- especially if you're billing it to the boss -- stay at The Park Hyatt San Francisco. About half the size of Hyatt's typical mega-hotels, the 24-story Park Hyatt has a rather plain exterior, but it is a pleasure to behold from within. The lobby is lavishly appointed with Australian lacewood paneling, polished Italian granite, handmade custom carpets from China, and opalescent Spanish alabaster chandeliers. A magnificent spiral staircase leads to the upper-level restaurant, The Park Grill. Guest rooms are more understated, with Italian wood furnishings, large bathrooms, and exceedingly comfortable beds. They also have extraordinary views of the city, particularly from the corner suites on the upper floors, which also come with outdoor balconies or a Jacuzzi tub (a tough choice).
The Maxwell
Its location, 1 block from Union Square, and chic-boutique surroundings make this 13-story 1908 hotel a favorite with business travelers, families, die-hard shoppers, and even Eminem (who stayed here in 2003). Rooms show their age, but rather than wrinkles, you're more likely to look at the imperfections as laugh lines thanks to the rooms' surprising spaciousness (though bathrooms are small) and "Theatre Deco" meets Victorian decor (a sort of smoking club/study atmosphere). Expect velvets, brocades, stripes, plaids, rich color, handcrafted artistic accents, upholstered chairs, hand-painted bedside lamps, luxurious pillows, writing desks, and boldly tiled vanities. The hotel's roomy junior suites offer excellent value, but best of all are the pair of one-bedroom suites on the 13th floor, both of which offer separate living rooms and exceptional views of the city (one has a private rooftop deck and kitchenette). Perks at The Maxwell include a foot masseuse on request for weary shoppers, discount coupons for the local department stores, and a "Kids are VIPs" program that lets parents rent an adjoining room for their kids at half the regular rate and tosses in some kid-friendly extras.
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