Lots on Tap for San Francisco Visitors 2012

There's always lots going on in a city like San Francisco but this year seems especially exciting. First on everyone's list is the 75th anniversary celebration of the Golden Gate Bridge. Year-long festivities and revitalization of the plaza areas on the south end are in full gear. The big party will be on Sunday, May 27 when the entire Crissy Field and nearby area (but not on the bridge itself -- no one wants a repeat of the 50th anniversary squishfest) will be transformed into a festival devoted to celebrating the famous and beloved city icon. (Click here for the SF Chronicle's really cool old bridge opening photos).
This week, San Francisco's tourism industry gathered for a day-long forum on the outlook for the city's travel industry. It turned into a bit of a celebration in itself with good news for the industry: San Francisco tourism is up and the forecast is rosy.
Some 16.35 million visitors spent the night in the city in 2011, up 3.1% from 2010. Those figures are not at the same level as the pre-recession and pre-dot-com bubble "glory days" of 1997-2000 when the city drew 16.7 million overnight visitors each year.
But it's close and no one in the room was complaining, especially since hotel occupancies are over 80% and average daily room rates are creeping higher (projected to be $171 this year, a 10% hike from last year -- good news for the industry, not such good news for travelers and their pocketbooks).
Mayor Ed Lee said that the data "shows we are on a very good track for recovery." Tourism is San Francisco's number one industry, with $8.3 billion in economic impact.
Mayor Lee also noted all the excitement in the city this year. Not only is the big bridge celebration planned, but there's 100 years of MUNI to celebrate (April 5 with the relaunch of the historic No. 1 streetcar), the opening of the Lands' End visitors center above the old Sutro Baths and, of course, the start of the America's Cup.
That international sailing race in 2013 has been pared down a bit in its ambitions, he said, but it is still going to be a thrilling event that will put San Francisco in the worldwide spotlight and draw thousands of visitors to the waterfront.
San Franciscans and visitors will get a taste of that excitement Oct. 4-8 when the city's annual Fleet Week festivities will be combined with a sample of the America's Cup so that we'll have the Blue Angels soaring overhead and those sleek multi-million dollar yachts sailing on the bay below.

India's Maharaja at San Francisco's Asian Museum

Jewel-encrusted belt

The throne room

Royal carriage

The Asian Art Museum has emerged from some troubled times with a snazzy new logo and energized strategy for attracting visitors to the world-renowned collection of art treasures at San Francisco Civic Center. The newest exhibit is the spectacular "Maharaja: The Splendor of India's Royal Courts," which runs through April 8.
I got a glimpse of it during a recent press preview and am making plans to go back: the galleries are filled with beautiful objects and descriptions of the fascinating history of Indian kingdoms and their rulers from the 1700s to the mid-20 century when British rule ended and it's worth spending more than just an hour.
The exhibit was organized by the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, where it ran from late 2009 to early 2010 and attracted 160,000 visitors, one of the museum's most popular Asian exhibits ever, according to one of the curators.
The 200 objects include elaborate jewelry, costumes and weaponry of the royal families and the royal courts in diverse Indian kingdoms. The first gallery is devoted to descriptions of the maharaja rulers and their ideal qualities and strict set of behaviors: not only were they diplomats and administrators but they were expected to be patrons of the arts. They were apparently real bon vivants: wine flasks and hookahs are inlaid with jade, rubies, emeralds, turquoise and gold. Their thrones were surrounded by exquisite textiles.
The history of the kingdoms and their evolution over the tumultuous 300-year period covered in the exhibition is well described. The British East India Company, which was drawn to India for its riches in spices and textiles, took over and the maharajas fell under British control by the 1840s. But the maharajas managed to maintain some authority and retain their riches and culture as princes as the British empire for several more generations.
The Asian Art Museum has a full calendar of performances, films, evening events and lectures scheduled to accompany the exhibit. Among them is a Nov. 13 screening of the documentary "Merchant Ivory's India" with a talk by Mills College professor Nalini Gwynne after the 2:30 p.m. screening (free with museum admission). Daily docent-led tours are scheduled from 10:15 a.m. to 3 p.m. each day.

Peek at San Francisco's New Exploratorium

The San Francisco waterfront is destined to play an even bigger role in the life of the city in the coming years. The tear-down of the Embarcadero freeway and the renovation of the Ferry Building were just the start of the renaissance. New restaurants, cafes, revamped piers and promenades seem to open each year and, with America's Cup sailing races expected to bring hundreds of thousands of people to the area in 2012 and 2013, more developments and improvements are in the works.
One of the most anticipated is the new Exploratorium, San Francisco's museum of "science, art and human perception," which broke ground last fall on Piers 15 and 17, at Embarcadero and Green Streets, about halfway between the Ferry Building and Pier 39. There's a large crane towering over the piers these days and you can even watch as the new building is constructed.
The first phase of the new Exploratorium is a $220 million project on Pier 15 (Pier 17 is on tap for future expansion) set to open in 2013 in a greatly expanded and more modern space than the museum's current home at the Palace of Fine Arts.
Museum staff said they expect visitor numbers to jump with the new, more accessible location, which is only a 10-minute walk from the Embarcadero BART station and along  major transportation lines (as opposed to the current location which is a cross-town journey for many visitors, particularly from the South and East bays.)

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The historic pier where the new Exploratorium is being built spans the length of almost three football fields. Engineers drove 160 foot piles underneath the bay to replace, repair and seismically upgrade hundreds of dilapidated pilings and the substructure, which date to the early 20^th century. The interior of Pier 15 will be preserved, including its truss structure, which stretches 820 feet — the equivalent of a New York City block.
The Observatory Building, the only new construction, will stand at the eastern end of Pier 15. The sleek, mostly glass structure will house a new gallery, outdoor terrace and a restaurant with panoramic bay views.
You can get a sense of what's coming at nearby Hyatt Regency San Francisco, which is showcasing the Exploratorium during the month of May as part of its "Culture Club" program. Each month, the hotel features a local cultural institution in its huge atrium lobby, North America's largest. (In June, the San Francisco Symphony will be featured; in July, Monterey Bay Aquarium).
Take a wander inside the atrium and check out several interactive exhibits from the Exploratorium that may bring back memories of field trips or afternoons at the Palace of Fine Arts. There's the pendulum snake, circle of waves, spinning eraser and the giant chair, among many others, that are a reminder of why the Exploratorium has been called "a scientific funhouse, art studio and an experimental laboratory all rolled into one."

Spring Northern California Deals

Some tempting San Francisco and northern California packages and deals have appeared recently as hotels and destinations amp up their promotions for the spring and summer. Here are a few of the most interesting:

*In honor of Earth Day April 22 several California wineries are having special events through April.  A sample includes Concannon Vineyards in the Livermore Valley, offering free daily tours of the vineyards and $5 tasting flight of special wines, sourced from its vineyards which were placed in a trust to protect them from urban development. Grgich Hills Estate in the Napa Valley is conducting two-for-one biodynamic estate tours and tastings. Kunde Family Estate in the Sonoma Valley arranged a special “Hike and Taste” tour of its “sustainably certified” vineyards. And, four wineries of the Santa Cruz Mountains Organic Wine Trail are pouring their organic wines. For a complete list of events and deals see www.discovercaliforniawine.com 

*The Sonoma Creek Inn, which is near the Sonoma Mission Inn outside the town of Sonoma, is discounting stays by 40% for the month of April. Room rates begin at $71.40 Sunday through Thursday nights and $107.40 on weekends.  Those rates include tasting passes to local wineries and a complimentary upgrade at check-in if available. Over in Napa Valley, The Mount View Hotel and Spa in Calistoga put together an eco-friendly weekend getaway package called “Relax, Renew and Cycle” starting at $399 per couple, Sunday through Thursday.

 

*Two San Francisco hotels near the bayfront also have come up with new packages. The Hyatt Regency San Francisco, within walking distance to the AT&T Park (home of the World Champ Giants for those who slept through last fall), continues to celebrate the 2010 Giants victory. Its “20 Paces to the Bases” package includes accommodations, a $20 food and beverage credit at the hotel and a $25 gift card to the Giants’ Dugout team store. The price starts at $209 per room. At 15-minute walk north along the waterfront, the Fisherman’s Wharf Hyatt created a package called “Awaken” with rates starting at $219 and including a full breakfast for two people in the hotel’s Knuckles restaurant. And the hotel also has a "Home Run" plan, celebrating the Giants, with two all-day MUNI passes to take the F-Line to the park, appetizers at Knuckles and rates starting at $164 (this package is bookable only through April 30).

Updated San Francisco Travel Apps Released

In time for San Francisco Chinatown's annual big event -- New Year's -- my Chinatown travel guide app for iPads, iPhones and iPod Touches has been updated and released by Sutro Media with more photos and information on places to see, where to eat and shop in this most historic of the city's neighborhoods.

This year's festivities -- celebrating the Year of the Rabbit -- kick off on Saturday, Jan. 29 at 10:30 a.m. with a procession of lion dancers, bands and local dignitaries starting at St. Mary's Square and following the original parade route -- down Grant Avenue -- first established in the 1860s.

Of course, the big deal comes a few weeks later -- this year on the evening of Feb. 19 -- when the Chinese New Year's parade, sponsored by Southwest Airlines, makes its way from downtown to Chinatown, a brightly-colored 250-foot-long Golden Dragon capping it all.  It's the largest celebration of Asian culture outside of Asia, and hundreds of thousands watch the spectacle (even in chilly, rainy weather).

My second San Francisco travel guide app, North Beach and Fisherman's Wharf  was also just updated and rereleased with more entries and photos, including the newish bar and restaurant, Comstock Saloon, which combines a taste of the city's old Barbary Coast (it's named after Henry Comstock and the famous Comstock Lode) and today's trendy "mixologist"  cocktail culture in one swell place (my favorite spots are the booths along the wood-paneled bar's walls). Check out the apps by clicking on the links above or searching on iTunes (under Travel and San Francisco). Enjoy them on your iPhone, iPad or iPod Touch.

Impressionism Exhibit Opens at de Young

The Impressionism exhibition that opened at San Francisco's de Young Museum this weekend has all the makings of a blockbuster event: nearly 100 paintings from the Musee d'Orsay's permanent collection that will never be loaned out for an exhibition as a group again, according to the French government.
Through Sept. 6, the first of two exhibitions is on view: Birth of Impressionism: Masterpieces from the Musee d'Orsay.
Eleven galleries are filled with art by Bouguereau, Manet, Renoir, Sisley, Caillebotte, Monet, Pissaro, Cezanne and Degas.
On a media tour on Wednesday, it was clear that this is the kind of exhibit you want to linger over and return to again if possible. The paintings are indeed masterpieces, the ones that people travel to Paris to view -- or only see in an art history book.
The works include The Fifer and Woman with Fans by Manet, The Magpie by Monet and The Floor Scrapers by Caillebotte. A famous American work is in the mix: Whistler's Mother by Whistler.
The exhibition breaks down the evolution of Impressionism in engaging and understandable pieces for a layperson.
It traces the origins of Impressionism and how it grew in the late 19th century when the political and social turmoil in France was reflected in the art produced by the greatest painters of the time.
Some art lovers may look at this exhibit, however, as a warm-up act: the de Young's second Musee d'Orsay exhibit this fall will be devoted to Post-Impressionism, with the works of Van Gogh, Gauguin and Cezanne.
The two back-to-back exhibitions are the only such exhibitions anywhere in the world. How did San Francisco get so lucky? The city was in the fortunate position to take advantage of the closure of the Musee d'Orsay as it undergoes a major renovation for its 25th anniversary in 2011. Besides a sister-city partnership between San Francisco and Paris, there is a close relationship between board members and the directors of the two museums that led to the mounting of the two exhibitions.
The de Young has instituted the timed-viewing arrangement that works well for these types of blockbuster exhibits. But there's also something new.
In addition to the regular hours and Friday Nights at the de Young series, the museum scheduled extended viewing hours -- until 8:45 p.m. (last ticket: 7:30 p.m.) -- on Thursday evenings from June 17 until Sept. 2. Called "Impressionism at Twilight," the Thursdays offer reduced admission and a special fixed price menu at the de Young Cafe. Also, the tower, usually closed in the evenings, will be open so that visitors will be able to watch the sunset from high above the museum.