The largest freeways are outside of SF, not within it. Sal's Oakland idea is a good one. Sounds crazy and very time consuming to go to Davis, dropping in Oakland will save about 2 hours.

Do you know which rental car company you'll be using? The big clusters of all rental companies right next to transit hubs tend to be at airports.

Getting all the way from Sacramento or Davis into San Francisco will involve making a transfer or two and might include taxi, train, Bart or bus depending on how you do it.

The Oakland airport isn't bad, but you will need to take the airbart bus from the airport to the Bart station. As I recall there is also a shuttle from the rental agencies to the main airport where airbart has its stop.

There are an Avis and an Enterprise rental agency near the downtown Berkeley Bart station if you're using one of those agencies. Those may be a little more direct than Oakland airport for getting on Bart.

Bart is probably your fastest direct transit connection from the other side of the bay directly into San Francisco, but there are not that many car rental company locations right near a Bart station that I'm aware of.

Knowing the freeways outside of SF, and the streets on which you reach SF south of the Golden Gate Bridge on Highway 101, I think there's not that much stress just driving over the Bridge, getting onto Lombard St and then right on Van Ness Blvd, and a left into the Union Square area to return your car after you've dropped off passengers and luggage at your hotel. You won't touch a freeway in SF, and traffic goes only up to 25 to 35 miles/hour at most. All you need is a map. We can tell you how to get to your hotel, too.

The fooling around with trains from other cities just makes for something that will have the opposite effect -- stress and extra time for no reason.

Driving through Oakland to get to the Oakland Airport on freeway 880 -- now that's stressful.

Thanks for your thoughts! Actually driving within SF and finding the way to the rental agency or our hotel sounds even more stressful than driving freeways, where everything is signposted. I'll check out the Oakland option.

How about driving to SFO?

If you are driving down the California coast from Oregon, why would you drive out to Davis or Fairfield? If you really don't want to drive through the city or to one of the major airports, you could possibly drop the car in San Rafael which is right on Hwy 101. The major companies have offices there and they could drive you to the transit center to catch a Golden Gate bus or maybe even drive you to the ferry terminal in Larkspur.

SFO is south of San Francisco, so it either involves driving through San Francisco to get there or going the long way around through the East Bay and across the San Mateo Bridge. It will not be any easier than the options already mentioned since it's even more out of the way from the north or east.

If your coming from the north, maybe there is a rental agency to return the car to somewhere near a ferry stop on that end. I'm not sure.

If you really want to avoid traffic confusion, I'd go with the Golden Gate Bridge for your route, rather than the East Bay.

It's a pretty straight shot, avoiding the heart of the city - and easy to reach SFO.

Having said that, traveling with a GPS should relieve any stress.

I think a lot depends on when you'd hit the city. I have a feeling after you've driven all the way from Oregon, you'll be over any worrisome anticipation.

Oh no., not the freeway. To the SF Airport..!. Stay away from 101 from SF to SFO, too. The elevated freeway out of The City is usually a traffic mess.

Really, going over the G G Bridge and to your hotel will be less stressful than driving to either airport...that is where the big but incredibly crowded freeways come in.

I think you have misunderstood the advice about driving in SF. What is to be avoided is 1) high parking fees at your hotel --$40/night is typical.

2) driving around seeing the sights in the city, and trying to find parking spots which are in high demand and require many 25 cent pieces per hour.

3) figuring put how to get to the variety of sights, which are mostly walking or bus or cable car accessible.

I agree with NorthernCalif. While you do not want to drive around sightseeing in a car, it will be much easier to drive into the city and get to your hotel, or go through the city and drop it off at the airport and then take BART back in than any of the alternatives you are considering, which sound like nightmares to me :~)

While there are one way streets in the city, a GPS will easily avoid them and take you right where you want to go.