As part of booking roundtrip flights which depart from US airports, Orbitz is pleased to offer airline tickets on United Airlines, which operates 2 regularly scheduled daily non-stop flights from London, Great Britain (LHR) to San Francisco (SFO), departing between 10:05am and 1:20pm. Usually a Boeing 777 is flown for this route. The average travel time from London, Great Britain to San Francisco, CA is 11 hours and 10 minutes.

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Regularly Scheduled Flights to San Francisco (SFO) from London, Great Britain (LHR)
				Daily Non-Stops		Select Non-Stop		Earliest Flight		Last Flight
	United Airlines			2		-		10:05am		1:20pm
	British Airways			2		-		10:30am		1:45pm
	Continental Airlines			1		-		11:00am		11:00am
	Lufthansa			2		-		10:05am		1:20pm
	Air New Zealand			2		-		10:05am		1:20pm
	SAS			2		-		10:05am		1:20pm
	Singapore Airlines			1		-		11:00am		11:00am
	TAP - Air Portugal			1		-		1:20pm		1:20pm
	Virgin Atlantic Airways			1		-		11:00am		11:00am

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).

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.

Alcatraz Island
Visible from Fisherman's Wharf, Alcatraz Island (aka "The Rock") has seen a checkered history. Juan Manuel Ayala was the first European to discover it in 1775 and named it after the many pelicans that nested on the island. From the 1850s to 1933, when the army vacated the island, it served as a military post, protecting the bay's shoreline. In 1934, the government converted the buildings of the military outpost into a maximum-security prison. Given the sheer cliffs, treacherous tides and currents, and frigid water temperatures, it was believed to be a totally escape-proof prison. Among the famous gangsters who occupied cell blocks A through D were Al Capone, Robert Stroud, the so-called Birdman of Alcatraz (because he was an expert in ornithological diseases), Machine Gun Kelly, and Alvin Karpis. It cost a fortune to keep them imprisoned here because all supplies, including water, had to be shipped in. In 1963, after an apparent escape in which no bodies were recovered, the government closed the prison. In 1969, a group of Native Americans chartered a boat to the island to symbolically reclaim the island for the Indian people. They occupied the island until 1971, the longest occupation of a federal facility by Native Americans to this day, when they were forcibly removed by the U.S. government (see www.nps.gov/alcatraz/indian.html for more information on the Native American occupation of Alcatraz). The next year the island became part of the Golden Gate National Recreation Area. The wildlife that was driven away during the military and prison years has begun to return -- the black-crested night heron and other seabirds are nesting here again -- and a new trail passes through the island's nature areas. Tours, including an audio tour of the prison block and a slide show, are given by the park's rangers, who entertain guests with interesting anecdotes.Allow about 2 1/2 hours for the round-trip boat ride and the tour. Wear comfortable shoes (the National Park Service notes that there are a lot of hills to climb on the tour) and take a heavy sweater or windbreaker, because even when the sun's out, it's cold out there. The excursion is popular and space is limited, so purchase tickets as far in advance as possible. Blue & Gold Fleet (tel. 415/705-5555; www.blueandgoldfleet.com) operates the tour; they accept American Express, MasterCard, and Visa, and there's a $2.25-per-ticket service charge for phone orders. You can also buy tickets in advance from the Blue & Gold ticket office on Pier 41 or online at www.telesales.com. Alcatraz night tours are also available and are a more intimate and wonderfully spooky experience. Check the Blue & Gold Fleet website for updated prices and departure times.For those who want to get a closer look at Alcatraz without going ashore, two boat-tour operators offer short circumnavigations of the island.

Make your reservations for discount hotel rooms in the San Francisco area, including:

Alisa Hotel
The five-story Alisa Hotel is definitely a budget gem. While it has standard characteristics of discount European-style hotels -- small lobby, narrow hallways, cramped rooms -- the owners here have distanced themselves from the competition by including a very pleasing dose of artistry. The lobby, for example, hosts rotating art exhibits and contains groovy furnishings, while the guest rooms are soothingly outfitted with quality Pan-Asian furnishings and tasteful accouterments such as Japanese fans, framed prints, and your very own personal "Moon Frog," the Chinese symbol of peace and harmony. You'll love the lively location as well: right across the street from the entrance to Chinatown and 2 blocks from Union Square. Considering the price (rooms with a very clean shared bathroom start at $49), quality, and location, it's quite possibly the best budget hotel in the city. Don't sweat it if they're booked: Their sister property, The Olympic Hotel (call the 800 number or see www.olympichotelsf.com), acquired in December 2003, is nearby and equally priced and hospitable.

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.

Jackson Court
The Jackson Court, a stately three-story brownstone Victorian mansion, is in one of San Francisco's most exclusive neighborhoods, Pacific Heights. Its only fault -- that it's far from the action -- is also its blessing: If you crave a blissfully quiet vacation in elegant surroundings, this is the place. Each recently renovated room is individually furnished with superior-quality antique furnishings; two have wood-burning fireplaces (whose use is de rigueur in the winter) and two have gas fireplaces. The Blue Room features an inviting window seat; the Garden Suite has handcrafted wood paneling and a large picture window looking onto the private garden patio. After a continental breakfast of muffins, scones, croissants, oatmeal, juice, and fruit, spend the day browsing the shops along nearby Union and Fillmore streets, and return in time for afternoon tea.