New Year's Eve in San Francisco: Best last-minute events and free rides

It's real easy to drop a few hundred dollars on New Year's Eve in San Francisco.

Over-the-top hotel parties scattered around the city offer expensive (but sometimes all-inclusive) tickets for well over the price of a monthly Muni pass, and unfortunately, the best deals for early admission to glittery soirées are long gone.

So what to do if you don't want to brave the January temperatures to watch free fireworks over the Ferry Building clocktower?

You're not out of luck if you didn't buy tickets to a big party in advance. In the above gallery are a handful of our favorite remaining NYE shindigs, with options for every price range.

And — even better — the city of San Francisco wants to help you get around town a little easier, if you're hoping to avoid higher fares from Lyft and Uber.

For starters, Muni will be free and is ramping up service by adding more buses to oft-traveled lines, like the 38-Geary, 22-Fillmore, 22-Divisadero, 5-Fulton, 14-Mission, 91 Owl, N Owl, L Owl and more. Lines between West Portal and the Embarcadero will run until 5 a.m., and all the buses and trains will be free between 8 p.m. Sunday and 5 a.m. Monday.

Additionally, BART will stay open for service to and from the East Bay (with some exceptions) until 3 a.m. so revelers need not worry about leaving the party early to catch the last train home. As in previous years, AAA will offer their "tipsy tow" service if needed, but the company advises partiers to first try to "have a plan to get home safely."

See the above gallery for some last-minute New Year's Eve ideas in San Francisco.

Alyssa Pereira is an SFGATE staff writer. Email her at apereira@sfchronicle.com or find her on Twitter at @alyspereira.

