Bay to Breakers Race Day 2024 is on Saturday, May 18, 2024: One day in San Fran - 49 mile drive?

Saturday, May 18, 2024 is Bay to Breakers Race Day 2024. Bay to Breakers - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia 2010 05 16 Bay 2 Breakers pink

One day in San Fran - 49 mile drive???

Honestly, I wouldn't do the 49 mile drive at all. It's not that spectacular. It would probably be more enjoyable just to hang out at a couple places of interest (that don't involve much walking) during the day.

If you want to do the drive, Monday is definitely better. Weekday driving is MUCH easier/less traffic than weekend driving, especially throughout much of the 49 mile drive route. Particularly for the downtown, Wharf, and Golden Gate Park stretches. GG Park has very little traffic on weekdays, but TONS on the weekend. Same with the entire Western stretch of the route. Weekdays have lots of traffic during rush hours, but are otherwise fairly mellow. And the 49 mile drive will only take a few hours at most... so if you fit it between rush hours... yeah. Much better than the weekend.

But yeah... best to avoid Bay to Breakers. The entire city is a huge mess and quite miserable.

We’ll be in San Francisco 5/17, the day of Bay to Breakers

We'll be in San Francisco 5/17, the day of Bay to Breakers. Bad day to visit Pier 39 and surrounding sites?

The race starts at the Embarcadero (a bit beyond Pier 39) at 8:00 AM, and most runners should be gone by 9:00. After that, the area will be no more crowded than on a regular day, except you may have trouble finding parking.

The route goes nowhere near that area, so biking to the bridge should be fine.

Here's the route:

What’s my best option from Napa to the SF Airport on Bay to Breakers day?

What's my best option from Napa to the SF Airport on Bay to Breakers day?

GG Bridge would require that you either go all the way around the northern then eastern border of the city, or straight through the course. I don't think straight through the course is even allowed until the race ends, and the rest of the city is gonna be a mess, anyway. So, the GG would be a horrible idea. 80 to the Bay Bridge would be quicker, I imagine, but still runs you through SF.

Probably best to avoid SF entirely. I'd take 80 to 880, then 880 all the way to the San Mateo Bridge (92), then 101 north to SFO. Obviously it's a longer - in distance - route and takes you out of the way, but it completely avoids San Francisco which, during Bay to Breakers, is probably a good idea.

Not sure how long it would take... Mapquest says 1 1/2 hours. Honestly, just to be safe, I'd add an extra hour at least (I don't know if the East Bay gets run-off traffic during BtoB - perhaps someone else can provide their experience with that - but I imagine it does, especially around the 80/580/880 cluster****). Not a good day to travel if you need to get somewhere on time.

Holidays also on this date Saturday, May 18, 2024...