Holiday Inn Express and Suites Fisherman's Wharf San FranciscoWe left the Stamford Plaza Hotel in Sydney at 11:30am in the airport shuttle heading off to Terminal 1 to catch the plane to San Francisco.

Check in was quick and easy and I changed some dollars at Thomas Cook, making sure I had plenty of one dollar bills for tips once we arrive in the US.

I vow this is the last time I travel in cattle class. Val had the window seat, I was in the middle and an American lady who lives in Canberra and was traveling to Portland to meet up with her partner, had the aisle seat. The seating is cramped as usual in economy class. I just wish there was a little more leg room. Its awkward to move when the person in front puts their seat back, but one thing the staff do on Qantas is ask people to put their seats up during food service so that everyone has sufficient room to move when eating. Service is excellent and the staff are polite and obliging.

I love the constant ‘busy time’ with Qantas, food, snacks and drinks come out on a regular basis and I especially love the hot chocolate with marshmallows served late in the evening.

There is an entertainment unit in each seat so that you can watch movies or play games. Unfortunately my handset was faulty so I was unable to play any games so I watched movies until it was time to try and sleep.

Just before we settled for the night, the attendant brought around orange juice and as he reached across to hand Val his cup, it upended and I wore half a cup of oj. He immediately went to get paper towels for me to mop up the mess and then he brought a wet towel so I could try and get the stain out of my top.  However, I arrived in San Francisco wearing a white top with a bright orange stain down the front – not a good look.

We traveled on a Boeing 747-400 and the trip took around 15 hours plus we picked up a day for traveling over the international date line. So we arrived at 10:30am on the same day as we had left Australia at 2pm.

The whole trip including the landing was smooth and pleasant, and we disembarked with minimum fuss.

Then it was on to customs to have finger prints and photos taken by the pleasant young customs man.

Everything is always easier the second time around so finding the hotel shuttle was a breeze and after dropping off a couple of other people at their hotels we arrived at the Holiday Inn Express in Fishermans Wharf. Check in was a delight as the receptionist was funny and efficient. I love staying at Holiday Inn hotels . Apart from the terrific staff, breakfast and free internet connection is included in the room cost. Plus they always have a laundry handy, in this case there are two nearby in other Holiday Inn Hotels Hotels.

Normally I would have headed straight out to  go sightseeing but neither of us had slept well on the plane so we decided to have a kip so that we were refreshed later in the day when we did head out to Pier 39 to see the sea lions.

The Holiday Inn Express and Suites Fisherman’s Wharf is so close to everything from the hop on hop off bus, Pier 39 to the MUNI transport system and the cable car and you can read our review from when Paula and I stayed here previously.


Filed under: America & Canada • San Francisco

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