If you are interested in taking some aerial photos or just  on want a very unique sightseeing adventure, there is a relatively new option in San Francisco from a company named Airship Ventures. It's a Zeppelin ride, which presents some great photography opportunites. I won't go into detail of the differences between a blimp and Zeppelin, visit their site for that but it is the first one to fly in the U.S. since the Hindenberg (but it's non-flamable now, which was a wise enhancement..).

They have regular flights during the day taking off from Oakland and flying right over all the favorite sites around San Francisco. There is a one hour or two hour flight  including new sunset and Monterey options, plus charters are available. They seem very open to trying new routes, and tend to mix them up quite a bit so keep an eye on their website. They are discussing a possible Sunrise tour, which will be a popular choice with photographers. The flight is incredibly comfortable (the bathroom actually has a great view). You can walk around through the entire flight,  there are huge windows for each seat and best of all a couple of windows that open to stick the camera out on. If you are afraid of flying, don't worry this is better. It's like a safer version of a giant hot ballon which seats 12. I plan to fly again and will cover the other flights Two of the ladies on the flight I was on were there for a birthday celebration (one was 90 and one was 80), and they stood up the entire flight. I'm dying to do the Monterey flight.  I was very impressed with the service, nice people and a unique service. For anyone in Europe I believe they also have flights in Germany. Below are a few shots from a great trip.  CLICK HERE TO VISIT AIRSHIP VENTURES SITE. Below are some shots I took:


Zeppelin2 - Images by Ed Puskas