United Airlines Flights from Hong Kong, Hong Kong (HKG) to San Francisco (SFO)
As part of booking roundtrip flights which depart from US airports,
Orbitz is pleased to offer airline tickets on United Airlines, which operates a daily non-stop flight from Hong Kong, Hong Kong (HKG) to San Francisco (SFO) regularly scheduled to depart at 12:50pm and arrive at 8:31am. Usually a Boeing 747-400 is flown for this route. Generally, a movie is offered on this route. The average travel time from Hong Kong, Hong Kong to San Francisco, CA is 11 hours and 41 minutes.
During your San Francisco vacation, don't miss these great establishments and attractions:
San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (MOMA)
Swiss architect Mario Botta, in association with Hellmuth, Obata, and Kassabaum, designed this $65-million museum, which has made SoMa one of the more popular areas to visit, for tourists and residents alike. The museum's permanent collection consists of more than 23,000 works, including close to 5,000 paintings and sculptures by artists such as Henri Matisse, Jackson Pollock, and Willem de Kooning. Other artists represented are Diego Rivera, Georgia O'Keeffe, Paul Klee, the Fauvists, and exceptional holdings of Richard Diebenkorn. MOMA was one of the first museums to recognize photography as a major art form; its extensive collection includes more than 12,000 photographs by such notables as Ansel Adams, Alfred Stieglitz, Edward Weston, and Henri Cartier-Bresson. Unfortunately, few works are on display at one time, and for the money the experience can be disappointing -- especially compared to the finer museums of New York. Docent-led tours take place daily. Times are posted at the admission desk. Phone for current details of upcoming special events and exhibitions or check MOMA's website.The Caffé Museo, to the right of the museum entrance, offers very good-quality fresh soups, sandwiches, and salads.No matter what, don't miss the MuseumStore, which carries a wonderful array of architectural gifts, books, and trinkets. It's one of the best shops in town.
Glide Memorial United Methodist Church
There would be nothing special about this Tenderloin-area church if it weren't for its exhilarating lively sermons and accompanying gospel choir. Reverend Cecil Williams's enthusiastic and uplifting preaching and singing with homeless and poor people of the neighborhood attracted nationwide fame over the past 30-plus years. In 1994, during the pastor's 30th-anniversary celebration, singers Angela Bofill and Bobby McFerrin joined comedian Robin Williams, author Maya Angelou, and talk-show queen Oprah Winfrey to honor him publicly. Cecil Williams now shares pastor duties with Douglas Fitch, alternating presiding over the nondogmatic, fun Sunday services in front of a diverse audience that crosses all socioeconomic boundaries. Go for an uplifting experience and some hand-clapping gospel choir music.
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).
Villa Florence
Located 1/2 block south of Union Square, fronting the Powell Street cable car line, the seven-story Villa Florence is in one of the liveliest sections of the city (no need to drive, 'cause you're already here). In 2004, a renovation brightened up the reasonably affordable rooms considerably. In its newest reincarnation, Villa Florence provides guests a taste of contemporary Italian flare with all new cherrywood furniture and luxury perks such as 27-inch flatscreen TVs with DVD players (with DVDs upon request) and CD players. You'll like the large, comfortable beds draped in down comforters with Frette duvets, as well as such frivolities as Aveda bath products, Frette bathrobes, and umbrellas. The hotel's ground-floor restaurant helps make it a worthy contender among Union Square's medium-priced inns -- as if the location alone weren't reason enough to book a room. Adjacent to the hotel is Kuleto's, one of downtown's most bustling and stylish Italian restaurants.
The Hotel Majestic
Both tourists and business travelers adore the all-nonsmoking Majestic because it covers every professional need while retaining the ambience of a luxurious old-world hotel. It was built in 1902, and the lobby alone sweeps guests into another era, with an overabundance of tapestries, tasseled brocades, Corinthian columns, and intricate, lavish detail. Guest rooms are just as opulent, with French and English antiques; the centerpiece of many rooms is a large four-poster canopy bed. You'll also find custom-made, mirrored armoires and antique reproductions. All drapes, fabrics, and carpets were replaced in 1997. Beds got new spreads in 2002, and half the bathrooms and guest rooms underwent a $2-million renovation in 1999.Perks go beyond the usual. As well as bathrobes, two phones (one of which is portable), and umbrellas, the hotel offers complimentary faxes sent and received by the office (a nice touch!), fresh-baked cookies with turndown service, and well-lit desks. Some rooms have fireplaces. Their intimate and very atmospheric Avalon cocktail lounge has a beautiful French mahogany bar topped with marble and a collection of African butterflies.
The Inn at Union Square
As narrow as an Amsterdam canal house, the Inn at Union Square is the antithesis of the big, impersonal hotels that surround Union Square. If you need plenty of elbowroom, skip this one. But if you're looking for an inn whose staff knows each guest's name, read on. One-half block west of the square, this seven-story inn makes up for its small stature by spoiling guests with a pile of perks. Mornings start with breakfast served in lounges stocked with the New York Times, and evening hors d'oeuvres are served in sweet little fireplace lounges at the end of each hall. The handsome rooms, which were renovated in 2003, are individually decorated with Georgian reproductions and floral fabrics, and they are smaller than average but infinitely more appreciated than the cookie-cutter rooms of most larger hotels. Smoking is not allowed in the rooms.
