Which cable car goes to chinatown

The first couple of stops on the north side of the bridge will have iconic views from Battery Spencer. Then walk down to Kirby Cove for an incredible close up, bay level view. That walk is about a mile however. Ran Bloms Teacher. What street does the trolley run in San Francisco?

Market Street. Dunia Atenciano Teacher. How do you ride a street car in San Francisco? You can pay this fee in cash, with a Muni Farecard, or a Clipper Card. If you're paying with cash, you must board up at the front of the streetcar. Rudesinda Ermida Reviewer. How far is Chinatown from Fisherman's Wharf? The distance between Chinatown and Fishermans Wharf is feet.

Hettie Godall Reviewer. Does Muni pass include cable car? Londa Talhadas Reviewer. Can you walk down Lombard Street? If you google image of Lombard Street , you 'll see pedestrians on the sidewalks along the crocked part.

Both sides of the street have a sidewalk, so you can walk up and down on each side. From Columbus Avenue in North Beach, it's gets steep walking up the hill to reach the crooked part, but it's worth it. There are many laughing characters, like Jolly Jack, below, who is similar to the locally famous Laughing Sal. Museum Jefferson , which is surprisingly elaborate and will add to the old-wharf mood.

It also turns on Jackson, and then goes all the way to Hyde, which then provides a great ride through Russian Hill. The Hyde Street Pier, just steps from the cable car, features historic ships you can explore on and around.

You may also want to walk down the street to the National Maritime Museum , at Beach and Polk, which features ship models, interactive demonstrations, and other seafaring items such as diaries and maps. The museum is open daily, a. Both the museum and the historic ships are part of the National Park Service. More Chinatown activities, below. The California Street line intersects the other two lines at California and Powell.

This line tends to be less crowded than the other two, though no less fun, and as a result, you can usually just stay on at the end of the line and ride back, instead of having to get out and get in line to come back on, as you may on the other two lines during summer. From this line, you can get out at Grant Avenue or other stops and enjoy Chinatown. Chinatown is colorful and fun wherever you walk.

You may want to stop into the Chinatown Kite Shop at Grant. The shop features a wide array of kites of all types. Further up Grant is the Rainbow Station Store Grant , which features all things cute and Japanese — Hello Kitty and other Sanrio plushes, backpacks, mini erasers, food sculptures and stationary. At the Golden Gate Fortune Cookie Factory 56 Ross Alley, between Jackson and Washington you can watch as fortune cookies are baked and bent into their famous shape, and then buy some fresh off the machine.

The factory is open every day, 10 a. We particularly like the House of Dim Sum Jackson, around the corner from the Fortune Cookie Factory, open daily except Tuesdays , where you can get buns stuffed with shrimp, pork, chives, or sweet sesame. A cute map with animation to illustrate the various cable car routes is here. Another source for route descriptions, as well as schedule information, is here. But there's a ticket booth at each of those turnarounds where you can buy the tickets or passes.

Or just get on at a stop further away and pay cash. The California Line doesn't have a ticket booth, so it's cash or passes for those cable cars unless you bought the tickets elsewhere. Tip: for a brief visit to SF, using the MuniMobile app is probably the easiest way to pay fares or get transit passes. You don't need the carry the right amount of cash and the buses and streetcars do require exact change and you can do everything online instantly.

Plus you can buy all the family's tickets on one MuniMobile account. The ticket booth above sells one-way, cable car tickets, as well as adult Clipper Cards, and the 1, 3 and 7-day SF Visitor Passports. But you save money by putting the transit passport on the MuniMobile app or on a Clipper Card instead of getting the paper passes. See below I may earn a small commission if you make a purchase through some of the links on this page, at no extra cost to you. This helps me provide all the free information I post on this website.

Thank you for your support! Cable cars are on the expensive side if you plan to make more than a couple of trips on them, especially if you also plan to get around SF on the buses and trolleys during your stay. One solution is getting a transit pass which gives you unlimited travel on all four of the public transportation modes in San Francisco: buses, street cars, antique F-line trolleys and the cable cars.

SF Visitor Passport. Purchase these at the ticket booths at the cable car turnarounds, the underground Muni ticket machines under Market Street, or at a few retail locations.

Also, you can purchase them online with via the MuniMobile app, or add them to your Clipper Card. Good to know: the Visitor Passports are cheaper if you use them via the MuniMobile app or the Clipper Card, instead of buying paper passes. San Francisco CityPass. You used to be able to get a pass for 3 days of unlimited travel on all the SF buses, trolleys and cable cars, along with entry to four popular SF attractions.

As of March 1, , the SF CityPass no longer includes the 3-day transit pass, but you can still purchase the two passes separately. See the SF CityPass for more info and booking.

The cable cars run about every 10 minutes, on average. A little closer together in the morning and a bit farther apart in the evening, but generally within an 8 to 12 minute time span. There's a handy app, NextBus , that tells you the arrival times of upcoming buses and streetcars, but unfortunately it doesn't work with the cable cars.

Visitors will notice that when the cable cars arrive at the end points, they can stack up three or more deep sometimes, even though there's a long line of people waiting for them. They kind of look like they're just lounging around, but they have to keep to the schedule and coordinate with the cars on the other lines that are sharing the same track, so they're doing what they need to do. When it's your turn to get on, you can sit anywhere there are seats available or stand and hold onto a pole at the designated standing spots.

You can also walk around to the other side of the car to access the seats and standing spots on that side. If you are one of the last to get on, the best spots outside seats and pole hanging will probably be taken and only the inside seats will be available. Given the long lines, people are often surprised that they don't fill the cars, and leave quite a few seats empty mainly inside the car.

That's so people at subsequent stops have a chance to get on the cars, and that leads to the secret for avoiding the lines! If you're not towards the front of the next group to get on, you can still maneuver to get a "good" seat. You can let some of the people behind you get on, and wait for the next car. Or when the boarding begins, go immediately around to the other side of the car and get on there. All along the route, about every block or two, there are cable car stops marked with a purple sign.

If there's room, and there almost always is, they will stop and let you board. Wait at the curb and wave at the car when it's about half a block away. When it stops, get on and find a place. Then you'll pay the fare or show your pass. Depending on how busy the season is, or the time of day, or who has just gotten off, you may or not get one of the coveted outside seats.

There is a pretty good chance of getting one of the pole-hanging spots, though. And this was in April, not the busiest season. The line above had probably over an hour wait time.

I was standing here for only ten minutes, just watching, and the sound of the erhu player squeaking the same four notes almost sent me round the bend! The cable car routes come in three flavors, but they all go up and down steep hills and give you an exhilarating ride! The two lines leaving from Powell and Market Streets both take you to Fisherman's Wharf, but take different routes to get there. This is the most popular line, largely because it takes you directly to Fisherman's Wharf and you get great views of Lombard Street , Coit Tower, and Alcatraz.

The cable car stops at the top of the crooked block of Lombard Street, where you can get a great picture of the city and bay, with Coit Tower in the distance. If you get off here, you can walk down Lombard and take photos of the cars coming down the eight switchbacks among the blooming hydrangeas. If you don't want to walk back up Lombard to catch the cable car again, you can walk over to Fisherman's Wharf.

Go left on Leavenworth Street at the bottom of Lombard and walk three blocks to the wharf. If you continue on with the cable car to Fisherman's Wharf, you'll go down a nice steep hill where you get a great view of Alcatraz. Where to sit: for the best views, sit on the right side on the way to Fisherman's Wharf, and on the left side heading back to Union Square. I think this is a somewhat under-appreciated cable car line. The Powell-Mason line is a good line to take to Fisherman's Wharf if you don't want to fight the crowds.

The Powell-Hyde cars run through the colorful neighborhood of Russian Hill, passing restaurants, shops, venerable apartment buildings, and homes along the way. One block straight ahead is the Hyde Street Pier, where automobile ferries operated to Marin County before the Golden Gate Bridge opened in one of those ferries is preserved there along with other historic vessels as part of San Francisco Maritime National Historic Park.

One block west is the famous Ghirardelli Square. The return trip on Hyde departs from the turntable tucked inside Victorian Park, now part of the larger Aquatic Park. The park around the turntable came later. The entire turntable area was reconstructed and somewhat altered when the cable car system was rebuilt in The California Street cable car line provides a genteel counterpoint to the bustling Powell Street lines.

For the first five blocks, Cal cars take you through the deep canyon of lower California Street, where the cable car looks out of place against the high-rises of the Financial District. Even here, though, there are pieces of the past, such as the Tadich Grill on California near Battery—the oldest restaurant in California, and still a hopping experience. The street is flat until the Cal cars reach Montgomery in the shadow of the story Bank of America building.

Up to this point, the ride is relatively tame some might say boring , but beginning at Kearny Street, things get interesting.