Sutter St, Downtown

If you love shopping this is a great street to visit. The street is lined with shops. What I specifically liked about this street was the hint of Asian influence and culture. There was one store that I remember that was really charming and had a lot of authentic interesting pieces from Asia. The street is right next to Union Street, so I advice those coming to wear comfortable shoes and to bring the credit card because there are so many shops on this street and neighboring.

This street is noisy and has a few tall, narrow "boutique" hotels on it. Don't be lured by the hotels on this street that brag about being "walking distance" to Union Square shops and restaurants. Well, they are walking distance, but it's a grimy, dirty walk and you could die of thirst or starvation with only a couple of shops on the way that could serve you a drink - no "known" names and their hours are short. The neighborhood is busy with trucks loading/unloading at all hours of the day/night, causing double parking traffic jams, plus sirens that echo off the tall buildings on this narrow street.

Sutter Street between Fillmore Street and Van Ness Avenue is a very calm, mostly residential neighborhood with many senior homes. There is very little traffic except for Van Ness Ave., Gough Street (which leads to the highway) and Fillmore Street. Overall it is pretty quite for those who do not like loud noises in the morning. It is also located a twenty minute walk form downtown, far enough to escape the traffic and rush but close enough for a nice walk. The 2 Clement, 3 Jackson, and 4 Sutter bus lines all run on this street, providing easy transportation from downtown San Francisco to the other end of the city. It is also very safe, although at night there are occasional drunks walking by since it is at the border of Pacific Heights (a very well-off neighborhood) and the Western Addition (a not-very clean neighborhood).