A Rough Guide to San Francisco's fetish fair

Autonomous cars have come a long way since Google's self-driving car project started back in 2009. 

When San Francisco is in a period of transition, which it often is, it’s the foundational places that ensure the city never strays too far from itself. The city is known for its pioneering spirit, be that modern tech innovations or progressive politics, but what keeps the engine running is the steady energy pulsing through old school places like John’s Grill, where the people of San Francisco have long come to dine.

How much should you expect to spend to visit each of the largest 100 U.S. cities?

What to wear in San Francisco can be a bit of a conundrum: The city’s weather changes quickly, so definitely bring layers and be prepared to go from glorious sunshine to chilly ocean winds and fog—and back again—over the course of a day.

The winner of the Super Bowl usually says they’re going to Disney World. But even the Magic Kingdom would have a hard time competing with the pomp and circumstance in the Bay Area during the week leading up to this year’s big game.

As travel times between major metro areas go, the flying time between Los Angeles and San Francisco is about as short as it gets: less than an hour in the air, and a bit longer gate-to-gate. Getting to the airport probably takes longer than the flight itself.

Wondering which airports are most likely to put you behind schedule during the busy summer travel season? If you’re flying to the Boston, Chicago, New York, or San Francisco areas this summer—or even worse, connecting to another flight there—be especially wary.

In 2014, when JetBlue launched Mint, its premium lie-flat service, between New York and Los Angeles and San Francisco, it was mostly seen as a limited response to the premium services offered by the full-service carriers on those especially competitive routes.

Paine Field, 30 miles north of downtown Seattle, is known by aviation enthusiasts as the site of Boeing’s B747 assembly plant, where for decades the iconic jumbo jets rumbled down the tarmac on their delivery flights to airlines representing every corner of the world. Otherwise, Paine Field was just another sleepy little civilian airport, known to few and relevant to fewer.

“Best airport” rankings aren’t typically the most helpful in terms of travel planning: If I want to go to Boston, I’m not going to head for Las Vegas instead because its airport is better. But those best airport lists do come in handy in two cases—when you have a choice of airport for your connecting flight, and when you can choose between multiple airports within a single metro area.

If you’re looking to find the least expensive accommodations in a destination regardless of what kind of accommodation it is, you might be surprised to learn that Airbnb isn’t always the cheapest. A new study from Compare the Market shows that hotels can sometimes beat Airbnb prices. The study covered the average Airbnb vs. hotel rates (per night) in 52 important destinations around the world.

It might be too late to do anything other than just arrive as early as possible—but when it comes to fast-approaching Thanksgiving travel, try to avoid flying through Chicago (O’Hare), Atlanta, and San Francisco’s airports.