Gay Travel Buddy

San Francisco Gay Pride

 

It’s coming up on that time of year again, San Francisco loves Gay Pride and you will see signs of it all over town.  Rainbow flags can be seen on most major street for at least a month before pride.  The festivities are scattered all over the city, you may think that the Castro would be the center of everything.  However, the Castro is no wear near large enough to host the event.  The city is very generous to us and provides the park just across from city hall and ropes off many blocks beyond the common areas.

Entertainment

Throughout pride, there will be a very diverse set of shows, concerts and other fun and very well organized events.  This map is from sfpride.org, it can give you an idea of the size.  The line up of acts are scattered all over, each street has its own stage, some have several.  A very detailed map can be found here.

Pride Parade

The official Pride Parade is held June 26th, it starts at 10:30am.  Still blows me away that they start it so early, especially since so many party till 6am.  The parade starts near the Embarcadero that famous building that says the Port of San Francisco and is in many movies.  Depending if the city changes things, at the moment its scheduled to start at Market at Beale and heads down Market st and ends on 8th St.

This is the 41st pride parade with the theme of “In Pride We Trust”.

Transportation / Parking

This is really important to know if you have not been to SF Pride before.  If you are driving in, Market St is closed for the Parade from the Embarcadero, where Market st starts and will be close all the way to Van Ness.  It will be impossible to drive across Market and when the parade is in motion, you will not be allowed to cross on foot either.  Under the Westfield center, where Nordstroms and Bloomingdales are easy to find, at the basement levels and also on the street, harder to get to when its that crazy.  You can enter the MUNI/BART station and come up on the other side, making it easier to get through.

Be aware, parking will be VERY difficult, even as a local who knows where find parking, I struggle and everyone says I have the ultimate parking Karma.  So just do yourself a favor and try not to drive, if you are coming in from out of town you can always stop at a major BART station just outside of the city and take the train in.  The trains will be packed and uncomfortable, if you are clostrophobic I would suggest not going this route.

I highly suggest arranging for a driver, if you are an iPhone user or an Android user.  Download the free app UberCab, I use this service all the time and so far have had little to no problems.  Get a group to meet in one of the outside of the city parking lots and have a driver pick you up and drop you off.

If you are coming from SFO on the day of the parade, either take BART, which is going to suck.  Or arrange a car service, TRUST ME, the cab drivers here will purposely try to drive through the worst of it just to get that meter up.  Most car services are just a little more expensive than a cab.  Be sure to be VERY specific in your instructions about how to get there.  TRUST me, you will hate life waiting in the car for 3 hours fighting through traffic.  Always double check traffic online, if you don’t have an iphone or another smart phone, you should not be even getting on a plane.  Sorry this is just too basic.

Have the driver take you 101N heading to the Golden Gate Bridge, DO NOT get off on 7th, normally that is the fastest route, just not on any parade day.  The 101 to the bridge is on the left side and you will want to head towards Duboce.  There are 2 lanes, the right lane will force you into Mission St, it moves faster and you will be tempted to take it. DONT!!  Take Duboce to either Pearl or Guerrero St. and turn right.  You will run into Market, turn right on Market and merge left IMMEDIATELY!  Or be stuck in the traffic I am trying to get you out of.  The left lane will push you towards Franklin, you want to turn left on Franklin.  Your best bet, unless you are handicap, is to have the driver drop you at the San Francisco Opera on the Franklin side.  Just walk across Van Ness and you will be right there.  That may be a mess, so here is another option.

If Franklin is too busy here is a local shortcut, taught to me by a vet cab driver.  Same way off the 101 N, head on Duboce and do not turn.  You will hit Market St.  Cross over and head up the hill, the name changes to Buchanan St.  As soon as you see a clear street to turn left, turn left and then take a right on Webster.  Webaster is a hidden, very fast way across the city, its heavily patrolled so don’t drive like I do.  Keep going till you get to at least Eddy and the turn right.  Cross over Van Ness and then turn right at the first available street that does not look like a disaster.  Yes, it is possible to look before turning, most drivers can’t do this, but well learn.  Those are the easiest ways to get dropped off.  You should not get picked up on the East site of Van Ness, its just too crazy.

The best pickup locations are going to be south of Market, way south, like 5 -10 blocks down.  West of Van Ness at least 2-4 blocks.  This event is worth planning a transportation strategy or you will be SO SORRY that you will never want to do this again.  I have been to 6 of these, every year its worse and worse.  Of course if you are staying in Union Square, you can just walk and that saves tons of un wanted stress.

The parking garages will be nearly all full unless you get there at say 6 am.  Let’s face it, you come to SF Pride and are not out late the night before?  The geriatric pride is in another city.

Have a disabled placard?  That’s cool, won’t help you worth a shit.  There is NEVER even close to enough diables spaces to accommodate everyone, maybe 10% at most.  SF is big on helping disabled people, but this is one event that no matter if they made every space around the area for disabled vehicles, it would not help at all.  I am disabled, I rarely use the placard myself unless I am in dire need, so I understand the frustration.

So you are staying in Union Square and are going to walk over?  I do not intend to scare you with this, but just follow these simple rules and you will have no issues.  To get to this area you have to walk through the Tenderloin District, an area with a tremendous amount of homeless and drug addicts.  They prey on tourists.  This is slightly hard to stomach, but just trust me and keep walking, do not make eye contact and say no thanks.  Most of them will not go much further than that, unless you make eye contact.  You can read a little more about how to handle them on our Castro page.

San Francisco Hotels

It’s easy to assume that the gay mecha in the US would have a great selection of hotels in the Castro.  Sadly there are only a few options and only 1 of them is a typical hotel rather than a bed and breakfast.  The only main stream hotel is Beck’s Motor Lodge, I have been unable to get a rate with them yet.  But will post a link if I can get one.

The majority of the bars are located in Union Square, below are hotels that I have personally stayed in.  If you choose to book through the link provided, we receive a tiny commission to help pay the hosting.

Union Square

Hotel Diva – A simple boutique that I used to stay at all the time before moving here.  Great staff, small rooms, very simple amenities.  Great location, plus a StarBucks attached to the lobby for the coffee addicts.

Westin St. Francis – By far my favorite hotel in San Francisco, it is older, but very well maintained.  Some of the views, especially from the newer tower is breath taking.  The elevator is all glass and freaks people out.

There are far more great, gay friendly hotels that we have not had a chance to write up yet.  The Monaco, Adagio, St. Regis, Hyatt, 4 Seasons, Sheraton and a few others are great.  We will get more up soon.  If you are like me and want to not hear screaming children when I am on vacation or a business trip.  Stay away from the Marriott, the lobby is constantly covered in them.  Imagine waking up with a raging hang over and going down to the piercing screams of a miss behaved 10 year old or 30 of them?  I just can’t do it.

SOMA – South of Market Area – Near Union Square

Westin – The Westin is located just half a block from Market St. a wonderfully upgraded hotel and views that are hard to forget in the right rooms.

W Hotel – A great choice for the trendy crowd, the bar is a great place to people watch and is only 2 blocks from Market St.

The Castro

Will be absolutely nuts during the entire event, by no means is this a warning to stay away.  You must visit the Castro, help keep our community strong by eating at places that are gay owned.

Parking is horrible all year round in the Castro, during pride or the Castro Street Fair, just forget about it.  The absolute best way to get in and out is using the underground MUNI train.  They will be very busy during pride, do not go down to BART, you will wind up in another city.  The most common lines are K,L,M or as a very good friend told me tonight.  Just think of Martin Luther King, MLK when getting on a train.  None of those will send you the wrong way.  From the event, you will want to go “Out Bound”, “In Bound” will send you the wrong way.  There is a station directly in the Castro, just wait till you get there.

Security and Self Protection

Even in the most gay friendly town in the US, we still have problems.  Please be aware of your surroundings at all times.  Do not accept a drink from a random stranger, that cute boy may give you something that will make you do what he wants.  Likely just to rob you, but maybe worse.  While in bars, DO NOT ever let you drink out of your hand or site.  Getting drugged is not a common problem, but especially during big events when people from out of town come in, all sorts may show.

San Francisco Police Department is very supportive of Gay Pride and provides a literall army of officers to keep things under control.  Unless you are being dumb, peeing on the street – illegal now, finally.  Or beng out of control, they will be very helpful.

The Castro page has links to every bar and most restaurans in the area, hopefully that will help you find the right bar.

Are you just arriving into SFO “San Francisco Airport”? SFO has many different options for tourists who don’t have a ride to their hotel.

Some hotels may be able to pick you up or may even have a shuttle, this is rare in San Francisco proper. I have seen it for hotels near the airport.

You can always take a taxi, available just outside the baggage pickup at the airport. Be aware of the town car drivers trying to grab a fare, this is illegal and you are likely to be taken for quite a financial ride. A typical cab ride to Union Square should be around $40. You can also ask for a cab that takes credit cards, other than Yellow Cab many of the drivers will bitch and moan over taking a credit card and may actually lie about their machine not working. Ask in advance. Also the route to Union Square is via the 101N, they may switch to the 280 when in the city. If they take you on the 280 from the airport your fare will double in price, make sure they do not do that.

You can also arrange for a shuttle service such as Super Shuttle, I personally hate these services. If you are lucky you will be the first to be dropped off, if not you have to wait through all of the other passengers, I really hate this. But its cheap.

There is also BART “Bay Area Rapid Transit”, it’s our rail system. Take the airport mini train to the International Terminal to get to BART. The prices keep going up so I am not quite sure what you will pay these days, I heard last $10. The train is rather slow, for a new system it should be much better than it is. But it will take you to Powell St. the station that is central to all the hotels in Union Square. San Francisco is not flat, so be aware how far your hotel is from the station. If you plan on dragging your over packed luggage, yes gay guys often take way too much crap, don’t deny it! You will be hounded by homeless asking for money, they see luggage and will jump out and prey on you.