Flights from San Francisco: Best Side of Plane

SFO sits on a peninsula jutting into San Francisco Bay — almost every departure is over water within seconds, and the city skyline, the Bay Bridge, and Alcatraz are visible before you've reached 2,000 feet. Northbound departures to Seattle hug the Pacific coast, with the Marin Headlands, Point Reyes, and the Oregon coastline all passing below on the correct side. The scenery on this corridor — one of the Pacific Coast's great geographic features — is consistently underrated by travellers who don't know which side to sit on. The Hong Kong trans-Pacific route is one of aviation's longest over-ocean crossings: 14+ hours across the North Pacific, clipping the Aleutians and descending over the South China Sea. The LA hop is short and domestically famous — the Channel Islands off the Santa Barbara coast are the reward for the correct window side. All three have a clear recommendation.

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