Travel Options To and From San Francisco Airport:
There are many ways and options to go to SFO (San Francico Airport) in Bay Area California. I have put together a list of methods I used in the past and continue to use presently to get me to SFO.
1. Use Public Transit to San Francisco Airport:
Use BART ( Bay Area Rapid Transport) train or Cal Train to get to San Francisco Airport. Get off at Milbrae stop, using either BART train service and take a SAMTRAN SFO bus paying 2.25$ to the San Francisco airport. If you are lucky sometimes the drivers give complimentary rides to the airport, as I had personally got some myself. With COVID travel restrictions, this bus service has cut back their frequency and hours of operation. For now this service runs 17 minutes after hour, every hour.
The other choice of take a BART service train transfer at Milbrae station as well which would cost 4.50$. The BART train from Milbrae station takes you directly into San Francisco international terminal at G gates.
There are SAM TRANS buses to various parts of San Francisco like Hillsdale, Palo Alto, Redwood City. Marin Transporter is best way for you to get form North Bay locations to SFO Airport. It cost 23$ for a ride one way.
2. Ride Share to SFO:
Use either UBER or LYFT. Both the ride share services would cost you more than using public transit service though to get you to San Francisco Airport. They are easily bookable by their respective apps. The pickup location is on Departures level between zones 14-17.
3. Park and Ride at San Francisco Airport:
This is very straight forward if you are have a car and would like to park your car for short term. The catch here not to use Airport parking lot to park your car, but instead you are going to park your car at a hotel parking lot, which provides a complimentary shuttle service that would drop you off at Airport Terminal gate.
Airport Park and Fly service would charge you around 17.25$ per day of parking, while hotel parking would cost around 7$ or less per day depending on which hotel you choose to park your car. You would save more with putting in a coupon code. Look for Global Parking Coupon code on Google, will definitely find one easily. I would do this when going on a quick weekend trip. Global Parking is a great resource for you to look for affordable hotel parking lots not only in San Francisco but also close to the airport location of your choice, that provides FREE shuttle drop off service
4. Request A Friend or Family member for a Ride:
It’s great if your friend or family can give you a quick ride to the airport. That is awesome if it works, and would be my first preference over the first 3 ways to get to and from the SFO airport. But, you know your ways if your first preference is not an option.
Summary:
When Traveling from East Bay Cities like Milpitas, Fremont, Hayward, Oakland, Berkeley travelling by BART train is more convenient to reach SFO Airport. When Traveling from South Bay cities like Sanjose, SantaClara, Sunnyvale, Mountain View, Palo Alto CAL TRAIN is a better choice to reach SFO Airport by getting off at Millbrae station and finding your way to the airport by using rideshare, SAMTRAN bus or BART train. If you are coming from North Bay cities of Sausalito, San Rafael, Novato, Mill Valley Marin Airporter bus is the best choice to get you to and from SFO.
Hi