How do I get from the airport to San Francisco?

From SFO, take BART. The station sits inside the International Terminal. If you land at Terminal 1 or 3, follow signs to the free AirTrain, which loops every 4 minutes and drops you at the BART platform in about 10 minutes. A one-way ticket to Powell Street in Union Square costs $10.20, and the ride takes 29 minutes. Trains run every 15-20 minutes, roughly 5am to midnight on weekdays, 6am Saturdays, 8am Sundays. Buy a Clipper card from the vending machines on the platform for $3. It works on BART, Muni buses, and the cable cars, saving you from feeding bills into fareboxes for the rest of your trip. That $10.20 gets you to the middle of downtown with zero traffic exposure. No freeway, no bridge toll, no driver taking the scenic route on your dime.

After midnight, you're looking at Uber or Lyft. Expect $35-55 to Union Square or the Financial District depending on surge pricing, which tends to spike between 11pm and 1am on Fridays and Saturdays. The pickup point is on the 5th level of the parking garage, not curbside. Follow the purple 'Ride App' signs. Taxis queue at the center island outside each terminal and run on the meter. A metered ride to downtown typically lands between $45-60 before tip, and the driver will take US-101 north. That stretch of freeway can add 20 minutes during weekday rush hours, roughly 7-9am and 4-7pm. If your flight lands during those windows and you're heading to a hotel near Union Square or SoMa, BART is still faster even with a rolling suitcase.

Some budget carriers, mainly Southwest, fly into Oakland International (OAK) across the Bay. BART connects OAK to San Francisco too, but the fare is higher at $11.25 to Powell Street and the ride takes about 50 minutes with a transfer at the Coliseum station to the OAK connector shuttle. If your flight lands at OAK, BART still beats a ride-share. The drive from Oakland to SF crosses the Bay Bridge, which charges a $7 toll and can sit in gridlock for 45 minutes during commute hours. Skip the shared-van shuttle services that approach you at baggage claim. They fill the van before leaving, which means you could wait on the curb for 30-40 minutes, and the door-to-door routing adds stops across the city.

Nobody mentions the temperature at SFO. Fog rolls through this stretch of the Peninsula most summer mornings, and the terminal steps out cooler than you'd expect in June, currently around 13°C with 98% humidity. The air outside smells like salt and wet concrete. On the BART platform you'll hear the trains announce themselves with a low electronic hum before the doors slide open with a pneumatic hiss. The cars are clean but utilitarian. Grab a seat on the right side heading north for brief glimpses of the Bay past South San Francisco and Daly City. You emerge at Powell Street station into the noise of Market Street. Cable car bells clang half a block away, and the F-Market vintage streetcar rattles on the surface tracks overhead. Union Square is a 2-minute walk uphill from the station exit.