Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
that. Finding a paid space will hit you for huge amounts of money, tangling with
the cable cars and streetcars is enough to frazzle even the coolest head, and if you
do manage to score a rare free curbside space, you must know how to position
your wheels (turned away if you're pointed uphill, toward the curb if you're going
downhill) to avoid being ticketed. If you need a rental car for trips out to the
Wine Country, pick up your car the morning you leave from a city-based rental
office.
Now, let's say you will have a car and there's no getting around it. My advice
is to book a low-cost room at one of the city's several but little-known motor-
court-style inns; there are several in Cow Hollow and a few more around North
Beach, and they provide free parking in their courtyards. They're listed in the
chapter 3, and believe me, using them will save you tons of cash. You can also save
cash by canvassing the cheapest gas rates using the user-generated site www.san
frangasprices.com, which keeps track of which service stations charge what price
per gallon.
Should you crave a rental car anyway, the usual renters are operating, but go for
the smallest vehicle you can, not just for the sake of parking, but also for the sake
of mileage. The local
Rent-a-Wreck
(
%
800/732-7368; www.rentawreck.com)
out-
fit isn't at either airport, but it's in the industrial part of town in Potrero Hill. Take
a cab there; rates start around $24 a day for a compact, which is low for the city.
However, you're more likely to score an online deal in advance with the major
renters, and for the ease of just picking up your car at the airport, that's my pref-
erence as long as the price quote is reasonable to me.
TRAVEL INSURANCE—DO YOU NEED IT?
Yes, you do, principally because you're spending so much money. If you need to
cancel your trip before you leave, travel insurance can buffer you from a large
financial loss. But does that mean you need to buy some? Not necessarily—you
may already have it.
If you're a domestic tourist, your existing medical coverage, for example, may
include a safety net that will cover you even though you're traveling; ask so you're
sure. The credit card you use to make reservations may cover you for cancellation,
lost luggage, or trip interruption; again, the only way to be sure is to ask your
issuer. Most hotels will issue refunds with enough notice, but a few of the cheap
ones won't; ask what the deadline for cancellation is when you're booking.
So what else may you want to insure? If your medical coverage and credit cards
don't lend a hand, you may want special coverage for
accommodation rentals,
especially if you've plunked down a deposit, and any
valuables,
since airlines are
only required to pay up to $2,500 for lost luggage domestically, and not every
hotel provides in-room safes (and even the ones that do have safes too small to
hold much).
If you do decide on insurance, you can easily compare available policies by vis-
iting
InsureMyTrip.com
. Or contact one of the following reputable companies:
Access America
(
%
866/807-3982;
www.accessamerica.com)
CSA Travel Protection
(
%
800/873-9844;
www.csatravelprotection.com)
MEDEX
(
%
800/732-5309;
www.medexassist.com)
AIG Travel Guard
(
%
800/807-3982;
www.travelguard.com)
Travelex
(
%
800/228 9792;
www.travelex-insurance.com)
