Rideshares and public transit can get Super Bowl and World Cup fans from San Francisco to Santa Clara for as little as $10 each way, or as much as $200 each way. Here’s how to navigate all of the available options.

Super Bowl 60 is at Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara, but San Francisco is where they’re having all of the big parties like the Sting concert, the Benson Boone and Shaboozey show, Shaq’s Fun House, the Chris Stapleton concert, and more. And San Francisco is 45 miles away from Santa Clara and Levi's Stadium, so it’s not exactly walking distance.  

If you're visiting for the Super Bowl or World Cup, regardless of whether you’re staying in SF or Santa Clara, you will probably need to get between these two cities at some point. And you may not have a car. But there are a number of different methods to get back and forth between Santa Clara and San Francisco even if you don’t have a car.

There are the well-known public transportation options like the rapid transit system BART and the commuter rail Caltrain, both of which will also require a brief trip on the Santa Clara light-rail train known as VTA (Valley Transportation Authority) to get to and from Levi’s Stadium itself. These options will cost between $11-$13 each way ($22-$26 round trip), and they’ll get you between SF and Santa Clara in about 90 minutes.

There are also the rideshares Uber and Lyft, and the famous self-driving robotaxis of Waymo. These will cost substantially more, and they may or may not get you there more quickly. After all, game-day and event-night traffic is notoriously bad around Levi’s Stadium.

Here's a rundown of your best options to get between San Francisco and Santa Clara if you don’t have a car.

Uber and Lyft (At Least $65 Each Way, At Least One Hour and Ten Minutes Each Way)

You are surely already familiar with how to use Lyft and Uber. If you’re taking Lyft or Uber between San Francisco and Santa Clara, it’s about a one-hour and fifteen-minute trip at a cost of $65-$70 (before tip) under normal circumstances. But the Super Bowl and the nights of large Super Bowl events are not normal circumstances.

We found Lyft to be more affordable for the same trip. A Lyft trip came in at $65 between Santa Clara and San Francisco, and the trip was just under one hour and 15 minutes. But be aware that surge pricing will likely be in effect during large events, as will the potential for lengthy traffic jams.

Uber was slightly pricier for the same trip as of today. Uber clocked in with the trip at one hour and 11 minutes, with a minimum price of around $70. But again, you may be looking at surge pricing and traffic jams depending on when you travel.

Waymo (Possibly $200 Each Way, Might Not Even Be Available)

You may be keen to ride in the famed self-driving robotaxis of Waymo, and those robot-driven cars do indeed go between San Francisco and Santa Clara. Sometimes.

Using the required Waymo app, we were only able to successfully hail a Waymo between SF and Santa Clara one time out of several attempts. And that ride cost an astonishing $172, and was assessed as taking three hours and eight minutes, because Waymos cannot yet use the freeway for the entire route between the two cities.

And that was the one occasion we could actually hail a Waymo for that trip. Most of our attempts to hail a Waymo between SF and Santa Clara produced a message saying "Pickup Unreachable.” That may be because of Waymo’s relatively small fleet, as NBC Bay Area reported this week that Waymo will only have “about 1,000 Bay Area-based cars” for the weekend, and will not be adding to the fleet size. That said, you might find Waymo to be very trusty for a simple ride to the airport.

An you might also find public transit to be a quicker and more efficient option.  

Caltrain ($11 Each Way, Exactly 90 Minutes)

Caltrain is an electric commuter rail train that goes between San Francisco and San Jose. If you’re heading back and forth between SF and Levi’s Stadium, you’ll want to get on and off at the Mountain View station (not the Santa Clara station!), though your Santa Clara hotel or Airbnb may be closer to the Santa Clara station. The San Francisco station for entering or exiting at Fourth and King streets, though check the Caltrain station map for your best entry and exit points.

Caltrain’s Mountain View station is in the system’s Zone 3, and traveling between three zones costs $8.50 for a one-way trip. For a same-day round trip, you’ll save a couple of dollars buying a Day Pass for $17.

Caltrain won’t take you all the way to Levi’s Stadium, but the VTA Orange Line (located right at the Mountain View Caltrain station) will take you right to the Levi’s Stadium doorstep. That VTA pass will cost $2.50 for the trip. VTA trains synch their schedule with Caltrain, so head right to the VTA stop once you exit the Caltrain. Your Caltrain ride will be one hour long, and the trip between Mountain View VTA and Levi’s Stadium takes about 30 minutes.

Caltrain takes about 12 minutes longer than your other public transit option BART. But we prefer Caltrain, because of its nicer seats, clean restrooms on the train, and they allow outside food and drink on the train. They even allow open containers of alcohol! So game days and event nights definitely have a “party train” feel on Caltrain.

BART ($12.45 Each Way, Exactly 78 Minutes)

BART is your quickest public transit option, though you will also have to take a VTA light-rail train between the BART’s Berryessa/North San Jose station and Levi’s Stadium. The BART fare is $9.95 each way, and the VTA fare is $2.50, for a total round trip of $24.90.

You have many San Francisco options for which BART station to enter or exit, but you’ll want a train heading to Berryessa/North San Jose station. That station (seen above) is pretty nice, with a working pay phone and a clean bathroom. But the BART trains themselves do not have bathrooms, so know that going into your one-hour, eight-minute BART ride.  

Amtrak ($15 Each Way, Not Recommended)

Amtrak trains go to Santa Clara, but we do not recommend this method for a number of reasons. You would need to head to the Oakland suburb of Emeryville on your San Francisco end of the trip, which will add about an hour (each way) onto your trip. But if you’re staying in the East Bay, check the Amtrak trip planner, and plan your trip between that stations “Emeryville, CA” and “Santa Clara, CA - Great America.”

Related: Super Bowl Drone Ban Declared at Several SF Locations, in Addition to Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara [SFist]

Image: Joe Kukura, SFist