I was so excited and could barely believe it when I learnt that I had been selected to one of the 151 to attend Connect Live 2018!
Being an overseas solo female traveller to a big city where I was not going to be greeted by a friendly familiar face was going to be a new experience for me. There were so many questions I had about CL2018 as well as how best to prepare for getting about in a city like San Francisco.
Well, having been there and done that now, I thought I’d share a few things which I hope might be helpful for future first time attendees.
- Firstly, Connect Live - it’s very casual. So you can leave your business attire behind (Phew!). T-shirt and jeans kind of affair is how I’d describe it. But if you are not comfortable in such, feel free to dress up as you please. Yes, there was a cocktail event after one of the evenings, even then I felt swapping a t-shirt for a fresh shirt/blouse was quite acceptable.
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Best to be prepared and carry all you need for the day in your backpack - jackets, caps/hats, water bottle, sun screen, hand lotions and your make-up kit. You move from one event to another and change locations without too much time to waste. It is best to carry what you need for the whole day with you.
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Hang on to your program guide etc. Don’t leave it on the table between sessions because it could get packed away when they reconfigure the room for a different type of session - mine did!
- Most of us appear to be selfie mad (!). I reckon front facing phone cameras have revolutionised the way we do events, see our world, interact with our world and travel! I could see how these photos would later evoke so many memorable memories later though - at the time, I just embraced this new experience (!).
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Several more seasoned attendees and moderators were very helpful in creating HangOut groups for helping attendees prepare for the big experience. @KarenVChin was just so knowledgeable she was like a walking encyclopedia for all things San Francisco - anything you want to eat, see, buy she knew the answer to - even where to get a document notarised (Karen, you never cease to amaze me!?). @AdrianLunsong was such a whiz with his spreadsheets which helped us plan our arrivals, departures and activities.
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The Pre-Post Connect Live Activities posts were full of lively ideas by seasoned and new attendees. There was no lack of possible activities to take part in. Only limiting factor was how well this could coincide with your length of stay before and/or after Connect Live.
- A question that many first time attendees had was accommodation pre/post Connect Live. (Those who arrived and left on the 16th and the 19th respectively were well taken of by the travel agency that Google had appointed.) To this issue there was much discussion. One helpful attendee started a list of all the hostels/hotels mentioned where people had booked into. Someone recommended that one should stay as close as possible to Union Square. This being a transport and shopping hub made a lot of sense. One thing that was not mentioned was that south of 6th and Market street was best to be avoided at night. I had booked myself into Aida Plaza Hotel which was a little south of that zone - having been warned of the reputation of the area, it was a no brainer for me to take a vehicle rather than the BART or MUNI to this hotel at 11 pm at night. My flight had been scheduled to arrive at 7 pm but was delayed and didn’t arrive until 8.15 pm but immigration took a further 2 hours to clear so by the time I had found my luggage and found the exit and decided to catch a taxi (that in itself is another story) it was about 11.10 pm. As it turned out, I found out that the signs to the BART was incorrect so if I had tried to look for the BART that late of the evening, I think I’d be hopelessly lost.
Do note that hailing a shared ride vs a taxi is on different levels at SFO.
I had gone all prepared to use UBER or LYFT and even had the app on my phone, but because both of these needed credit card or some other form of acceptable credit implement, and for some unknown reason neither paypal nor my travelling credit card wanted to work with the app, I had no choice but to use a taxi. FYI it cost me $55 from SFO to Aida Plaza Hotel.
I have since found that there is such a thing as Super Shuttle which you can prebook your ride. I had not known about this in my research on transportation earlier but only discovered this during my stay at HI San Francisco Down Town Hostel.
- If you don’t want to struggle with big suitcases on busy crowded public transport (and navigating steps if using BART) between hotels/hostels because you are coming earlier or staying on later, I recommend UBER/LYFT. I did not find the express pool an issue. Am approximately 10 minute ride only cost me about $5.61. The driver picked up and dropped off passengers along my route but that was fine by me.
There is a seamless connection from Google Maps to UBER and LYFT which made both a pleasure to use and transportation a breeze.
- If you plan to also do some sightseeing using public transport, I do recommend the flexibility of purchasing a Clipper card. I am hopeless with foreign currency and especially coins. It costs $3 to get one of these cards (available at the BART stations and Walgreens) and then you load however much you want onto it for use on the train, bus, ferry and I believe also the cable car. (Singaporeans and Australians would be familiar with a similar system.) The bus is generally $2.75 per ride, the BART (underground train) about $2.50 for the few stops I took, and the cable car is the $7.50 mark.
Incidentally, Walgreens which is marked as a pharmacy, is more like a mini supermarket than what I’d imagine a pharmacy to look like in Australia. They even sell sushi!
I was pretty proud of myself for working out how to use the bus and train this time round - credit has to be given to Google Maps (what else) for this. Google Maps gave me the courage and equipped me with the information I needed to get around in the most efficient manner to most of San Francisco’s sights with confidence. And if all else fails, there was always UBER (!).
If you intend to use Google Maps outside of San Fran, I do suggest downloading it before your flight though.
- Yes, while most places give you free Wifi, not all free WiFi could guarantee their security. I felt it was quite important to me to be able to have free Wifi - especially as I was going to be using it for getting around the place. So, yes, you can get yourself a SIM card at a number of places at Union Square after you arrive. I purchased a 6G data with unlimited calls within USA (and international calls as well) from Arieli Mobile for around AUD40 a few months before my departure. This would have lasted me 30 days if I needed it, but I was happy to use it for the 9 days I was in San Fran and have the security of being able to use my phone the moment I hit the tarmac so to speak. You do need to allow several weeks for delivery to your selected destination (your home for example) and at least 24 hours before you travel to activate it online. I was fortunate to have a dual SIM phone so I activated mine a few days before travelling - I’m prone to forgetting things if I leave it until the last minute, so I decided to play safe.
Do keep your printout instructions on how to reset/reconnect to your network, if it doesn’t do it automatically, on you for easy access.
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If you want to streamline your document filling prior to landing and not have to bother fellow passengers because you need to get into the overhead compartment for details about your trip, do keep your hotel address and phone number on you along with your passport (and ETSA) details and of course a ball-point pen.
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Another travelling essential for the flight that you might want to consider including is a water bottle. This needs to be empty before security checks but you can usually refill after security check. Do keep your fluid levels up when you spend long hours on a plane. (While free alcohol on some flights is tempting, I wouldn’t recommend it.) Moisturiser wouldn’t go astray as well as eye drops, face/eye mask, ear plugs, headset/ear buds (I don’t like the bulky ones that the airline usually supplies, I bring my own ear buds), compression socks, tissue and even a spectacle case to keep your spectacles safe while you try to sleep.
Another essential item is a battery pack with sufficient ‘juice’ for your trip. I did swap my smaller capacity home battery for a much larger one for this trip.
- Are there particular documents, information one should keep in an easy to find place if needed? Yes, these would be what I’d recommend:
a. Travel insurance
b. hotels/hotels address, phone, email
c. credit card numbers and emergency contact number if it is stolen
d. passport details if you need to get a replacement
e. emergency contact number for yourself
f. Google’s emergency email for things related to CL
I actually sent an email to myself with some of these details - back up plan, in case the paper version gets stolen. To extend this idea further, you might want to create a separate folder for such emergency details in your email.
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Lists on Google Maps is such a helpful feature for compiling your ‘to do’ or your ‘to see’ list of sights in and around San Fran. Make use of it. Google Trips is another app that you might find a useful supplement for pointing out the key highlights.
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While on the topic of getting about in San Fran. I must add a note about security especially if you’re a solo traveller. Apparently mobile phone snatches and laptop thefts are quite common. Do hang on tightly to your mobile phone, use it in public with caution, avoid holding it loosely in your hand near crowded places and especially near train exit/entry points as these make for quick get-aways, and also keep your handbags in front of you or under your arm. Do keep an eye on your surroundings because the homeless situation is quite apparent and some can be quite vocal and intimidating and you don’t have to do anything out of the ordinary to provoke them (I had two such encounters of the verbally abusive variety - one in the street in the Mission District and another on a bus).
I also found myself ducking right into stores to use my phone whenever I needed to consult Google Maps or other information for any length of time rather than standing out in the street to use my phone.
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Travel adaptors and power boards. Not sure what the official line is on this, but I discovered the power of carrying power boards along with my travel adaptor recently and I wonder now how I travelled without it before - well the answer probably lie in the fact that previously there was just one camera to charge - now we have such a plethora of accessories which we take with us that I reckon one adaptor isn’t sufficient. We probably all have at least one camera (if not several), phone, electric toothbrush, tablet and perhaps a laptop just for starters. (I did find though that my Australian electric toothbrush did not manage to reach optimum performing charge.)
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SFO and facilities. I was sadly disappointed with SFO international airport. There were very very few power outlets and very limited shopping. (Or perhaps I was at a different section of SFO?) I had fancied myself doing some last minute shopping at duty free and whiling the time away window shopping (as well as what LGs do best!), well there was only one duty free that was open and barely a handful of retail outlets. Then I went on a hunt of power points and I only saw 2 at the gate lounge I was assigned to. But thankfully I had arrived so terribly early I bagged one of them and stayed there until my bladder wouldn’t let me. By then, my phone was fully charged and ready for my return trip.
If you intend to recharge your phone, keep your American socket adaptor on you on your return flight.
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Sleep! You’ll be so busy with official and unofficial connect live activities that you really do need to get as much sleep as you can before you travel. It also helps you bounce back when you are sleep deprived during your long flight (my flight was 14 hours from Melbourne, the return via Sydney took 18 hours). But the trip itself is of course much longer than your flight given airport security measures these days, so door to door, the journey itself is often much longer. Staying up to make full use of in-flight entertainment is surely not a good idea. But perhaps if I had started my travel during what would be my waking hours to arrive in a time zone most conducive for sleep that might be different…
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Connecting flights - from international to domestic. On my return flight I had to go via Sydney to Melbourne. I did not know this before but I had to disembark, collect my luggage, go through immigration, catch a shuttle bus, drop off my luggage, get to my departure gate in less than 2 hours because even though I was still on the same carrier, it changed from international to domestic. Thankfully there were free airport shuttles connecting the two terminals but there is still the wait time for the shuttle to fill up before the bus got going, and then there was all that traffic on the tarmac (who would have thought) and of course, the queue at immigration as well as luggage drop off. And of course, if you happen to carry items that might cause immigration to be interested in you … then with less than 2 hours to spare, that could make a difference between getting on your flight or missing it. As it was, my flight was 10 minutes delayed and that gave me just the breathing room I needed. Now, if you happen to be changing from an international flight to domestic in Brisbane and Perth, just be aware that the terminals are quite a distance away and the taxi ride could cost you another $20+. The Melbourne airport is more conveniently organised as the domestic and international terminals are walking distance to each other. If you have international to domestic connections, make sure you do your homework as well.
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Luggage size was such a major discussion point for those wanting to take public transport pre-Connect Live. As it turned out, taxi, Uber and shuttle made that worry a non issue. My only regret was that I didn’t take Qantas’ 2 x 23 kg allowance offer up (!). Only thing though is whether your pre- and post-Connect Live accommodation and extra USA domestic trips can handle that. Perhaps a larger expandable bag would have been my solution. (Yes, these were readily available for purchase at many places but I didn’t want to clutter my cupboard with yet another one.When I’ve travelled with the family I’ve usually been able to ‘borrow’ extra space from someone!)
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If you don’t have a travel credit card and tend to use your regular credit card with all its associated fees, we came across 28 Degrees international travel credit card recently. It’s great for overseas travel.
That’s all I can think of that I thought might be helpful for future attendees …
In the meantime, keep smiling, and contributing to making the world more accessible to other people!
Maria
PS If you want to read about my photo walk experience pre-Connect Live, you can do so here: https://www.localguidesconnect.com/t5/General-Discussion/San-Francisco-Fire-Escapes/m-p/1126445#M208594
And if you want to view the official Google YouTube post of Connect Live, here’s the link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bFRjG8DlxgU
PPS In response to a reader comment, I’ve added photos to this updated version of my post! (LOL)
#letsguide #localguides #localguidesconnect
