Four hours in central San Francisco with luggage - what to do?

July 8, 2008 1:51 PM

Four hours in central San Francisco with luggage - what to do? I'm arriving in SF at noon on Thursday, and I have about four or five hours to kill in the middle of town before I head over to a friend's place. Is there anywhere I can safely stow some luggage during this time, and then go around for a wander?
posted by adrianhon to Travel & Transportation (6 answers total)

Assuming you're already in San Francisco proper, you can find a nice hotel, run in and ask the bell boy to hold your luggage for a couple of hours because you need to run to a meeting before you check in tonight (a little white lie, so be it). Tip well.

Wander around town.

Come back to the hotel, pick up the luggage, tip well, run outside, grab a taxi, and go to your friend's place.
posted by HeyAllie at 2:03 PM on July 8, 2008

Where in San Francisco? Some of the larger hotels may let you leave for bags (for a small fee, or even maybe free) for a few hours. Off the top of my head, hotels include the W (near the convention center), the Palace Hotel (on Market). Here are some more hotels, and their locations.
posted by rtha at 2:04 PM on July 8, 2008

SFMOMA, on third street, has a coat/bag/umbrella check in the lobby, for which a ticket is not required to enter. But you might buy a ticket and enjoy the museum anyways - it's stellar.
posted by gyusan at 2:10 PM on July 8, 2008

The middle of town is Twin Peaks or so, but if you meant the Union Square area, the Westin is convenient to public transit and easy to check luggage at, plus that's about the right amount of time to spend in Union Square. Moscone and SOMA aren't as interesting to spend a few hours.

How and where you're arriving has a lot to do with the answer.

In my experience I've never needed to actually ever give a reason why I'm checking luggage, especially in larger cities.
posted by kcm at 3:01 PM on July 8, 2008

Response by poster: Thanks for the tips everyone - I was worried that I might have a problem checking luggage at hotels, but it sounds like that would be fine. Barring that, the SFMOMA sounds like an excellent option as well.
posted by adrianhon at 3:27 PM on July 8, 2008

Where exactly is "central SF?"
posted by rhizome at 6:40 PM on July 8, 2008