Olivia Harden

SFGATE • 2nd May 2024

SFO's newest construction project will reroute United gates

As soon as San Francisco International Airport completes its runway project at the start of July, the airport plans to immediately dive back into construction, but this time, it’s inside the terminal.

United Airlines is slated to begin operational adjustments as the airport embarks on the Terminal 3 West Modernization Project. This initiative, initially slated for 2020 but postponed in 2021, will require six of the gates in Terminal 3 to close.

“The flights that would normally use these gates

SFGATE • 1st May 2024

Only one Calif. spot nominated for best summer travel destination

Home of gorgeous beaches, stunning hikes and great weather, Catalina Island is an unsurprising nominee in USA Today’s contest to choose this year’s best summer travel destinations in the U.S. But what is surprising is that it’s the only California destination to make the list.

Currently, USA Today’s 10Best list features 20 nominations. Catalina Island, a Channel Island destination just off Southern California’s coast, currently sits at second place in the voting, right after Ocean City, New Jer

SFGATE • 30th April 2024

Pain point on California's Highway 101 getting a roundabout

On April 26, the county Public Works Department, Caltrans and others broke ground at what will become the Avila Beach Drive roundabout. The county expects the $13 million project to shorten wait times in the busy area as well as provide a safer road experience for pedestrians and cyclists.

“What we’re going to have here is going to enormously improve and change this area of Highway 101 and the Avila Beach intersection in a way that will be so transformational,” county Supervisor Dawn Ortiz-Legg

SFGATE • 29th April 2024

Overwhelmed by tourists, European city adds fee to enter

Tourists planning to take advantage of available flights for a summer jaunt to Europe should be prepared to pay an additional fee if they plan to visit the floating city. Officials in Venice, Italy, have approved an access fee that will apply on select dates, beginning April 25 through mid-July, in an effort to combat the effects of overtourism.

Venice is a popular European destination for day-trippers, who crowd the destination without contributing as much to the local economy as overnight gue

SFGATE • 26th April 2024

Michelin Guide ranks U.S. hotels — Bay Area snags four top spots

The Michelin Guide, which Bay Area restaurants are no stranger to, has added several Bay Area hotels to the top of its 2024 rankings, which the company has significantly altered to highlight the most luxurious stays available.

Since the 1920s, Michelin, a French tire company, has ranked and been known for its best-of lists. After announcing its new system of ranking hotels in France earlier this month, on Wednesday the company unveiled the revamping of its rankings for U.S. hotels.

Like its st

SFGATE • 25th April 2024

State Parks ordered to pay $2.3M in discrimination lawsuit

A jury has ordered California State Parks to pay a former employee nearly $2.3 million this month for damages in a discrimination lawsuit.

Angel Alba, a former maintenance supervisor for 16 years at several parks within the Malibu sector, sued State Parks for discrimination.

Alba was demoted in 2016 and filed the lawsuit in 2018 in the Superior Court of California in Los Angeles. He left the job a few years ago, the LA Times reported. The decision was handed down last week, and State Parks is

SFGATE • 24th April 2024

Frontier Airlines’s trickery helped inspire new DOT ruling

The Biden administration and the Department of Transportation announced Wednesday a new policy that streamlines the air travel system by requiring airlines to provide automatic cash refunds for flight cancellations, significant delays and other travel inconveniences caused by an airline.

The policy shift comes after the DOT began investigating how airlines reimburse passengers for delays and cancellations in the years following the start of the pandemic. Frontier Airlines, for instance, was iss

SFGATE • 22nd April 2024

Hidden Sierra lake lands on best campsite list

Californians who love camping might want to add this Sierra lake near Placerville to their bucket list.

In time for Earth Day, Hipcamp released its annual list of the best camping spots. The San Francisco-based company, which operates like an Airbnb for campsites, selected dozens of locations across the country, with one in the Sierra landing among the top.

Finnon Lake Recreation Area, which sits beside the 22-acre Finnon Reservoir, took third place on the list — trailing behind a campsite in

SFGATE • 20th April 2024

Someone sabotaged the Sacramento airport

Authorities in Sacramento are searching for a person they said intentionally cut a fiber cable that delivered internet to the Sacramento International Airport.

The internet outage delayed flights for two airlines throughout the morning on April 18 before it was restored later that day.

“One little cut and you can mess up quite a significant portion of the airport,” Scott Johnston, spokesperson for Sacramento International Airport, told SFGATE.

The outage began around 1:20 a.m. and when Southw

SFGATE • 18th April 2024

Kanye West's barefoot spouse caught breaking Disneyland rule

Spotting celebrities at Disneyland is nothing new — they are humans who get to enjoy the Happiest Place on Earth, too.

Nevertheless, an expected guest showed up to spend time at the park this week, which put social media in a frenzy. Kanye West, who legally changed his name in 2021 to Ye, and his wife Bianca Censori, who married him in 2022, were seen enjoying several rides and attractions, including in Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge, according to multiple Wednesday social media posts.

The most pecu

SFGATE • 17th April 2024

Hawaii airport future uncertain after another runway crack

A major airport in Hawaii was forced to halt all flights last week after authorities discovered another crack in its runway. It’s the latest in a set of ongoing issues at the airport where families resorted to sleeping outside on the lawn earlier this year due to a scheduling error.

The Ellison Onizuka Kona International Airport at Keahole halted operations for two hours April 12 to repair a crack in the asphalt of the single-runway airport, according to a recent news release. The runway reopen

SFGATE • 16th April 2024

How a zoo ended up in the middle of California's desert

Planning takes around a year since the zoo cycles out exhibits to bring in new ones. The giant structures are built off-site and then assembled and painted once they arrive at the zoo.


“The event’s various themes are put together with hundreds of individual lanterns,” Esterbrook said. “Each year, more than 15 semis roll in, loaded with the many structures that will be covered in the colorful silk-like fabric that gives each lantern its imaginative design.”

The animal sculptures look like lan

SFGATE • 11th April 2024

Rattlesnakes are a problem for this sunny stretch of Calif. coast

For anyone who suffers from ophidiophobia, or the fear of snakes, it’s probably unsettling to learn that it’s rattlesnake mating season in California with the warmer weather.

“People used to kill rattlesnakes. Some still do, but more and more people are realizing that the tide has shifted,” Taylor told SFGATE. “We’ve learned enough about rattlesnakes that many people don’t want to do that anymore.”

In the five years that Central Coast Snake Services has been active, Taylor said she’s had an up

SFGATE • 4th April 2024

Airline quietly makes vacation flights pricier with new fee

JetBlue, known as the low-cost carrier with legacy airline perks, is tweaking its business model and joining the likes of Bay Area highways and Uber.

The airline is adopting dynamic pricing for checked bags. For flyers traveling within the U.S., Latin America, the Caribbean or Canada, prices will range from $35 to $50 for their first bag, depending on whether you pay in advance of your flight. Transatlantic flyers can expect to pay between $60 and $70.

“The cost of transporting bags has gone u

SFGATE • 3rd April 2024

An opening day Disneyland ride is getting a huge change

Autopia may be among the oldest operating rides in Disneyland history, but it has a pungent reputation due to gasoline fumes. In fact, SFGATE’s Disneyland editor crowned it as having the worst scent in the parks.

While the cozy feeling of crawling through traffic isn’t coming to a close, the park is preparing to adapt a major feature.

Autopia is ditching its gas-guzzling engines and replacing them with “cleaner sources of energy,” Jessica Good, a Disneyland spokesperson, told SFGATE over email

SFGATE • 29th March 2024

How to avoid Boeing planes

While Airbus has been the world’s largest aircraft manufacturer for the past five years, Boeing, with its 42% share of the market, is still Airbus’ biggest rival, according to Reuters. This means that, while it might be tricky or inconvenient to avoid flying on Boeing planes entirely, it’s not impossible. Travel companies have added dedicated features to their websites and apps, and even created whole websites, to make it easier for travelers to figure out whether they’ll be flying on one.

Anec

SFGATE • 28th March 2024

California park warns of illegal trails near 'unexploded' grenades

The Bureau of Land Management has a clear message for visitors to Fort Ord National Monument: Stay on the designated trails.

Fort Ord National Monument in Marina on the Central Coast served as a military base for the U.S. Army between 1917 and 1994, and 1.5 million soldiers trained there over the years. But recently, U.S. Army safety officials said visitors have built illegal trails and bike jumps west of Barloy Canyon Road. Visitors could be in danger of running into “munitions and explosives

SFGATE • 27th March 2024

Rail deaths spike near Calif. county’s popular beaches

California has a growing problem with train-related deaths, and one coastal county in particular is seeing a recent uptick in fatalities, especially near its popular beaches.

Between 2020 and 2023, California accounted for 24% of the nation's rail-related trespassing deaths, totaling 593 people over the four years, according to the Federal Railroad Administration. Warren Flatau, spokesperson for the FRA, told SFGATE in a statement that a vast majority of rail fatalities are due to illegal tresp

SFGATE • 25th March 2024

Is LAX Calif.'s worst airport? Maybe not anymore.

There is an inside joke among locals in Los Angeles — their airport is always under construction.


With over 75 million passengers last year, Los Angeles International Airport is one of the busiest airports in the country. With nine passenger terminals it holds the record for most terminals in the world, according to travel deal platform Going.

In 2017, LAX began an ambitious $30 billion renovation to redesign the airport experience. Although the upgrades aren’t entirely finished — the airpor

SFGATE • 20th March 2024

These Calif. workers may earn the highest minimum wage in the country

Following a “hot labor summer” that saw some California hotel works arrested for protesting near Los Angeles International Airport, a coastal city is on its way to offer certain hospitality workers the best starting wage in the country.


A majority of Long Beach residents appear to have supported Measure RW in the March 5 election, which will raise the minimum wage for hotel workers from $17.55 per hour to $23 an hour for both union and nonunion workers. Beginning in July, hourly pay rates wil

SFGATE • 18th March 2024

Passengers on infamous Boeing flight share what the media got wrong

The California resident is one of seven passengers who filed a lawsuit against Alaska Airlines, Spirit AeroSystems and the Boeing Company alleging their negligence lead to the now-infamous flight from Portland International Airport to Ontario International Airport on Jan. 5.

The plaintiffs argue in the lawsuit that it was negligence that caused the door plug on the 737 Max 9 aircraft to rip away from the plane once it passed 10,000 feet in altitude.

Los Angeles law firm Wisner Baum filed the l

SFGATE • 13th March 2024

Two parks could beat Golden Gate Park in national contest

A San Franciscan treasure that is so beautiful fact checkers once had to prove it’s real is in the running for the best park in America.

Golden Gate Park at the time of writing is in the lead for the Best City Park award from USA Today. It’s the only California nomination, and was previously lagging behind Forest Park in St. Louis and Ala Moana Regional Park in Honolulu.

The nominating panel for USA Today’s 10 Best Award defined the best city park as a “space to connect with nature and the com

SFGATE • 8th March 2024

Las Vegas' newest corporate overlord consolidates power on the Strip

For loyal members of one national chain looking to visit Vegas, the hotel giant’s portfolio is opening a new world of properties on the Strip.

Marriott International announced a partnership March 6 with MGM Resorts International to allow 40,000 rooms at 16 MGM resort properties to be booked under the new Marriott Bonvoy program. The partnership follows a breakup between Hyatt and MGM that happened last year.

The resort stacking, dubbed MGM Collection with Marriott Bonvoy, spells good news for

SFGATE • 7th March 2024

Tahoe battens down for weekend rush thanks to clear roads, fresh snow

A tumultuous blizzard struck the Sierra last weekend, stranding drivers and blocking the road to Tahoe for days. This week it’s a different story and Bay Area travelers can expect an easier effort to drive up to the mountains to enjoy what the blizzard left behind.

“Even though it’s not going to be totally dry, we’re not expecting any heavy snowfalls between now and Sunday afternoon,” Justin Collins, a meteorologist from the National Weather Service, told SFGATE.

The forecast is expected to be