mntbikedude

Looking at possible tour this summer that would start in SF. Just wondering which airport would be best to start such a trip?

ken cummings

Some Airline, Alaska I think, has started flights into the Sonoma County Airport. Your tour can start as soon as you walk your bike out of the little terminal. Other then that I would prefer the Oakland terminal. It is much easier to deal with then the SFO terminal. Only Escher could love tha place. Both SFO and OAK have shuttle buses that take you north to Wine Country. If you want to go south or west toss your bike in one of the Super Shuttle vans. They have discount rates to many areas around the bay.

valygrl

Where are you going after you leave the airport?

axolotl

San Francisco International (SFO) has a BART link which takes you right into the city, and bikes are allowed on BART much of the time. Google BART and check their website for more information. It's also the closest airport to the city (or should I say, the City?). You could also get into the city on BART from Oakland airport (OAK), but the nearest BART station is a mile or two away from the terminal. There's a shuttle bus from the terminal to BART, but I have no idea if you can take a bike on it. It would be a fairly easy bike ride. It is often much cheaper to fly into OAK than SFO, depending on where you're coming from. I once biked into SF from SFO, but it wasn't very enjoyable.

balsingh

well, as valygrl said, it does depend heavily on where to you want to go upon leaving the airport. there's san jose in the south, san francisco (actually in south sf), and oakland as well, all in different parts of the bay. if you really have no concrete plans or initial desires, i would go where to either SFO or OAK, which ever is cheapest. however, SFO is strategically advantageous as it puts you quite close to the city, where you can bike to the golden gate bridge and across to marin county, or south off the peninsula. either way, good luck and have fun.

bal

mntbikedude

Probably we would want to head over to Marin Headlands or to Lombard Street as I am familiar with the hotels over there. And then head down highway one to LA.

valygrl

OK, you are southbounding the coast (good idea!) and you want to go to the city itself - probably SFO is the best. As another person posted, you can take BART from the airport. Bikes are allowed on the train during non-rush-hour times (see BART's web site for times/details). If you are using a BOB trailer, this might be a pain, because the elevators and such are too small. Pannier-bikes are fine, I've done that on BART. Or, depending on funds, you can get an airporter service (Bayporter, for example) to bring you to your motel, then assemble bikes there. That option is nice if you arrive later in the day.

Uh.. Lombard street, that's pretty funny. If you ride up it, post a trip report.

If you don't care about the city itself, you can work your way over to the coast by heading south on the bay side of the peninsula (many good route options), then up and over the mountains, I would recommend Hwy 84 / Old La Honda Road out of Woodside. But it's steep.

Haschen

Lombard's a lot longer than the section that's squiggly. It's actually the 101 for a few miles.

Out of all the airports mentioned, SFO is the closest to the 1.

CTAC

+1
Hwy 1 in Pacifica around Devil's slide is horrible. We rode it two weeks ago and I would not recommend that route to anyone.

Old La Honda Road is not that steep, maybe 4-5%.