Where to meet up in Union Square

Union Square is San Francisco's main shopping district, with department stores, hotels and theaters around a plaza between Geary, Powell, Post and Stockton Streets. It suits plans that mix errands and food, like lunch between shops, drinks before a show in the Theater District or a weekend meetup with friends from out of town who are staying at a nearby hotel.

Two rail stations serve the square. BART and Muni Metro stop at Powell St under Market Street, a few blocks south, and the T Third has its own Union Square/Market Street station. That gives riders from the East Bay, the Peninsula and the western neighborhoods a train without a transfer.

Spots that are easy to name in a plan:

• the steps on the Powell Street side of the plaza
• the cable car turnaround at Powell and Market Streets
• Maiden Lane, the short street that runs east from the square to Kearny Street
• the Market Street entrance of the Powell St station

Getting around

• Powell St has four BART lines, as its station page shows. The J, K, L, M and N Muni Metro lines stop on the level above, as the N Judah page and the other line pages list.
• Union Square/Market Street is the T Third's station in the Central Subway. The T runs from 6 a.m. to midnight on weekdays and from 8 a.m. to midnight on weekends, as its route page says.
• The Powell-Hyde and Powell-Mason cable cars start at Powell and Market and run from 7 a.m. to 11 p.m. daily, as the Powell-Hyde page says.
• The 38 Geary stops at Geary and Powell and runs 24 hours a day, as its route page says.

Some of these change at night and on weekends:

• BART starts at 6 a.m. on Saturdays and 8 a.m. on Sundays, and it stops around midnight every day, as its schedules page says. After 9 p.m. it runs three lines instead of five.
• From 12 a.m. to 5 a.m., Muni's Owl buses run every half hour. The 91 Owl covers the T Third's route at night, as the 91 Owl page shows, and the 38 Geary keeps running.