San Francisco, California

Top Things to do in San Francisco, California

1. Golden Gate Bridge
2. Alcatraz Island
3. Cable Cars
4. Twin Peaks
5. Mission District
6. Union Square
7. Ghirardelli Square
8. Golden Gate Park
9. Palace of the Fine Arts
10. Lombard Street
11. Explore Fisherman’s Wharf & Pier 39
12. Visit Bakers Beach during sunset

• Golden Gate Bridge
  

San Francisco’s iconic and engineering marvel is the Golden Gate Bridge. This bridge attracts more than 10 million visitors to take in its tremendous 746-foot tall towers.

Facts about the bridge: Its a suspension bridge which is one-mile wide. This huge structure links the City of San Francisco the northern tip of the San Francisco Peninsula to the Marin County carrying both US Route 101 and California State Route 1. Construction of the bridge started in the year 1933 and was completed by 1937.

How to visit: You can walk the 1.7 miles across the bridge to visit the visitor’s center if you are interesting in learning more on the history of the bridge. There is also a small museum which you can visit or you can just take pictures from every angle and enjoy the beauty of the bridge. Welcome center information: https://www.goldengatebridgestore.org/default.asp

There are also free walking tours if you are interested in the history of the bridge and they are conducted twice-weekly (Thursday and Sunday) offered by San Francisco City guides. Visit goldengate.org if you are interested to learn more. You can visit the bridge by taking the Golden Gate Transit. For more information on the public transit schedules, you can visit https://www.goldengate.org/bridge/visiting-the-bridge/public-transit/

Directions & Parking: Golden Gate Bridge is located on US Highway 101 and provides a vital link between City and County of San Francisco and does not have physical address but can be easily navigated through Google or Apple Maps.

There are two visitor areas near the bridge, the northeast and southeast visitor area. It is recommended to use public transit like tour bus or ride sharing apps like Uber or Lyft, rental bike etc as the parking is very limited on both the areas. If you are planning on driving, we recommend to be there as early as possible to find parking spot near the bridge and that’s what we did. We were at the parking spot very early around 7 AM PST and we could already see many people in the parking area. Use navigation app like waze or google maps to get to the bridge.

Parking areas are metered ($0.25 USD per 15 mins) with 37 spaces. During weekends and holidays, there is additional parking available at the nearby satellite parking lot on the southwest side for 5$ USD per day. Below image gives you clear idea on where you can park while visiting the bridge.

• Alcatraz Island

A little Bit About Alcatraz: The famous federal prison on Alcatraz island. Alcatraz island is a small island in SF Bay about 1.25 miles offshore from the San Francisco, California. Developed in the mid 19th century, this island was converted into a Federal prison (Alcatraz Federal Penitentiary). Surrounded by strong currents around the island and cold water temperatures this prison was considered as one of the toughest or nearly impossible prison to escape. This prison became one of the most notorious in American history. This prison was home to some of the most notorious inmates including mobster Al Capone.

There is a famous saying, “If you do wrong, you are sent to prison and if you do wrong in prison, you are sent to Alcatraz”.

How to get to the Island: To get to the island you need to take ferry by Alcatraz Landing at Pier 33 in San Francisco. Pier 33 is on the embarcadero south of the intersection of Bay Street. If you are driving, there is limited accessible parking at Pier 33 which is available on First come, first-served basis.

Be sure to book the ferry as early as possible as they fill up very fast. There are day-tour and night-tour and behind the scenes tour tickets starting from 49$, 59$ and 104$ USD respectively. There is also a self guided audio tour available in English, Spanish, French, German and many other languages.

Reservations: You need to visit https://www.cityexperiences.com/san-francisco/city-cruises/alcatraz/ or https://www.alcatrazislandtickets.com/ or cal them at 415-981-7625 or in person at the departure point at Pier 33. It is recommended to book in advance as they get filled up very fast.

• Cable Cars

Cable cars are world’s last manually operated cable car system and also San Francisco’s icon. Its an unique experience was invented nearly a 150 years ago.

How to ride: It is very easy to ride cable car and there are three cable car lines two of which start from Powell and other one from Market St and continue to the Fisherman’s wharf. You can avoid long lines and prepay using munimobile app or Clipper Card.

Cable cars operate everyday from 8AM to 8PM PST. In order to board cable cars you must purchase your tickets in advance and pay through either muni mobile app or Clipper Cards or if you are paying in cash directly, you will need exact change. For more details on the schedule, fares payment please visit their website at https://www.sfmta.com/getting-around/muni/cable-cars

• Twin Peaks

If you are in San Francisco, you don’t want to miss out an opportunity of having spectacular views of the Bay Area. Twin Peaks, originally called as Breasts of the Maiden by early Spanish settlers, is a world-famous tourist attraction and offers spectacular views of the Bay. As the name indicates, there are two peaks (North Peak also called as Eureka Peak and South Peak also called as Noe Peak).

How to get to the Peak: The best way to see this landscape is by hiking 0.7 miles trail network which ascends the two peaks and here you will also get a 360 degree views which surpasses the overlook at the north peak.

Street Parking is widely available off Crestline Drive. The easiest way to get to the base of the peak is by market st. From downtown, take market southwest till you turn into portola. From portola, you can take right on twin peaks blvd.

Note there is no public buses to get to the top of the Twin Peaks. However you can take 37 Corbett muni bus which goes close to the base of the peak and then you can hike up to the top. Many tour buses also include Twin Peaks in their trip.

• Mission District

Mission District is one of the popular neighborhood of San Francisco and has its own charm and culture. It is located towards the southeastern edge of the city and there’s plenty to do in Mission District. Mission District is known for famous mission burritos and this burrito history goes back to the 1960s.

There are famous mexican taquerias, El Faro, are all great and they are said to have created the first super burrito back in 1960.

Mission Dolores – The building that gave it its name is the oldest standing building in San Francisco. Founded in the year 1776, it has survived many earthquakes and fires.

Mission district is known for Murals and there are many art scenes in the mission and since the 80s, many local and international artists have flocked to the Mission to leave their presence.

You can also relax in Dolores Park which is still seen as main landmark of the mission. If you are looking for a perfect place for picnic on a sunny day and the park also offers great views of the downtown. There are plenty of other things to do like indulging in great ice cream, buy vintage clothing and experiencing the nightlife.

• Union Square

Considered as one of the most iconic destinations of San Francisco, Union Square is a shopper’s paradise and this square offers everything from the upscale department stores to boutiques. There are also many art galleries and theaters. Around the square, there are shops like Tiffany’s, Macy’s, Louis Vuitton, Apple, Sak’s Fifth Avenue and Gucci.

We dined at Cheese Factory in union square on the rooftop of the restaurant and we were able to enjoy great dinner with Spectacular views of the City.

• Ghirardelli Square

Your visit to San Francisco is never complete without visiting Ghirardelli Square. Experience the Ghirardelli handmade hot fudge in the world-famous hot fudge sundae.

Physical Address: 900 N Point St At Polk Street, San Francisco, CA 94109-1192

How to visit: You can take the bart and the closest station is North Point St and Larkin St which is 2 mins walk from Ghirardelli Square. If you are driving, you can enter the parking garage on Larkin St between North Point and Beach or on Beach St between Larkin & Polk St.

Parking fees are 8$ USD for first hour and 4$USD for second and each additional hour 8$ USD.

• Golden Gate Park

Third most visited park in the United States consisting of 1017 acres of public grounds, Golden Gate Park is free to visit. This park is administered by SF Recreation and Parks Department.

Did you know that Golden Gate Park is 20% larger compared to New York’s Central Park. There are bike tours, segway tours and electric scooter tours if you are interested. There are also plenty of attractions in Golden Gate Park and below are our recommendations:

1. Young Museum – To visit, you need to make advanced reservations by buying tickets online in advance. Tickets are 15$ for adults and non-members. More information https://deyoung.famsf.org/visit-us
2. Japanese Tea Garden – We visited Japanese Tea Garden recently and we felt that the location was overpriced for the visit.
   To visit Japanese Tea Garden, you can either buy ticket in advance or buy in person once at the location. Tickets are 13$ USD for Non Residents and free for the residents. https://www.sfjapaneseteagarden.org/
3. Visiting California Academy of Sciences – The tickets to visit California Academy of Sciences can be purchase in advance and the tickets are more expensive for this one. 43$ USD Per adult if you are non resident. More details: https://www.calacademy.org/
4. Conservatory of Flowers – Tickets are 13$ USD per person if you non-resident. You can buy tickets here: https://conservatory-of-flowers.square.site/product/non-resident-ticket/232?cp=true&sa=true&sbp=false&q=false
5. San Francisco Botanical Garden – To visit Botanical Garden, you will need to pay 13$ USD if you are non resident. We recommend doing this instead of Japanese Tea Garden if you have more time. More details on tickets and pricing, https://www.sfbg.org/
6. Windmills – Unfortunately there are very few attractions which are free to visit in the park and windmills are one of them. There are north or Dutch and South or Murphy windmills in the park. Unfortunately for us when we went there were no tulips to see.

How to get here: There are free park shuttles which runs Saturdays, Sundays and Holidays 9AM to 6PM every 15 mins and Monday through Friday 12PM – 6PM every 20-25 mins. More details on the schedule and stops, visit https://sfrecpark.org/1617/Golden-Gate-Park-Free-Shuttle

If you are driving to the park, park your car at Music Concourse Garage which is open 7AM – 7PM year round. You need to get familiarized with the car-free route and which streets are open for cars and which are not. For more details, visit https://sfrecpark.org/1618/Getting-to-Golden-Gate-Park-by-Car.

If you plan on taking public transit, SFMTA offers Golden Gate Park Lines and you can utilize SFMTA’s trip planner to get to the park. For more details, visit https://sfrecpark.org/1619/Public-Transportation-to-Golden-Gate-Par

• Palace of Fine Arts

Palace of fine arts is a monumental structure located in Marina district of San Francisco. It was originally constructed in 1915 to exhibit works of art and was completely rebuilt from 1964 to 1974.

How to Visit: Palace of Fine Arts is free to visit and open everyday 10AM to 5PM PST except its closed on Monday. If you are planning on driving the physical address is: 3601 Lyon St, San Francisco, CA 94123. Usually takes about 30 mins to complete your visit. You can also take Hop on Hop Off bus tour which stops at Palace of Fine Arts.

Tips to visit: Go early as soon as it opens to avoid crowd and to take some amazing instagram pictures.

• Lombard Street

A visit to San Francisco’s crooked street/lombard street is very quick. This street is famous for a steep, one-block section with eight hairpin turns. You can either walk or drive down this steep hill.

How to get here: To drive lombard, you will need to set your navigation to 1099 Lombard Street. If you are driving, you will need to drive at speed limit of 5mph and the whole trip will be over in less than 2 minutes tops. You can also walk down the steep which gives you more time to take in everything.

You can also get here by taking Powell/Hyde cable car line which stops at the top of Lombard Street.

Quick Tip: Come here as early as possible to take pictures and drive down the steep. if you come later in the day or in the evening, you will end up waiting for at least 20 mins before your drive down the steep.

• Explore Fisherman’s Wharf & Pier 39

Fisherman’s wharf and Pier 39 are considered as one of the City’s busiest tourist areas. They are open daily 365 days a year and free to visit. You will see lot of Souvenir shops and stalls selling crab and clam chowder in sourdough bread bowls appear at every turn. You can also tour historic ships and watch sea lions.

Pier 39 also has great shops to get some souvenirs. Try coffee at Biscoff Coffee Corner, you can also try some delicious homemade chocolates from Trish’s chocolate and some nice French Crepes from the Crepes.

How to get here: If you are driving, you can get to Fisherman’s wharf from  North, South and East parts of the Bay Area. 100 Jefferson Street is the closest address that navigates to the center of the Fisherman’s Wharf District. You can also take SFMTA, Bart or Street Cars to get to the fisherman’s wharf. The F line streetcar runs between the Castro neighborhood and Fisherman’s Wharf. More information, visit https://www.fishermanswharf.org/plan-your-visit/getting-around/streetcars-transit/

You can also take Powell-Hyde Cable Car or the Powell-Mason Cable Car from Powell and Market Streets to travel to The Wharf. It is important to know that Pier 39 is one part of much larger Fisherman’s wharf. Pier 39 to fisherman’s wharf is just 3 mins walk.

• Bakers Beach

Bakers Beach is a public beach on the peninsula of San Francisco. The beach lies on the shore of the Pacific Ocean in the northwest of the city. It is roughly a 0.5 mi (800 m) long, beginning just south of Golden Gate Point (where the Golden Gate Bridge connects with the peninsula), extending southward toward the Seacliff peninsula, the Palace of the Legion of Honor and the Sutro Baths. The northern section of Baker Beach is “frequented by clothing-optional sunbathers”, and as such it is considered a nude beach.

Go here during sunset and you will experience a great view of the Golden Gate Bridge with an amazing sunset in the background. There are restrooms and picnic tables available. To get here, you can directly navigate to Bakers beach on google/apple maps. Baker Beach is easy to access by car, bike, bus, or Presidio GO Shuttle.

Golden Gate Bridge view at Bakers Beach & during sunset

How to get In & Around San Francisco

Flying into San Francisco: Fly into SFO (San Francisco International Airport) to visit San Francisco. If you are coming from different state and if you are local to Bay area, you can just drive to San Francisco through Interstate I-880N and I-80W and US-101N.

Getting Around San Francisco: Getting around San Francisco is very easy and below are the different options:

BART – Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) is a rapid transit system serving the entire San Francisco Bay Area in California. To pay for the BART trains, you can either use ash ticket or a Clipper card to tap in and tap out. Clipper cards cost about 3$ (USD) to purchase whereas regular ticket comes with surcharge of 0.50$. Plan your trip through trip planner on the bart website, select your source and destination and then pay for the trip and you are all set. More information on how to plan, where to park your car and train schedule and stations can be found on the website. https://www.bart.gov/

Buses – San Francisco has extensive bus system for commuting in the city. Travelling by bus is much easier and more cheaper option. You can save money by downloading clipper card or muni mobile app. One way rides are usually 2.50$ (USD) or 3$ (USD) with a clipper card. More information on how to ride, fares, routes and stops on the website: sfmta.com/muni-transit

Cable Cars – Another fun way to travel in the city is by cable cars. Single rides usually cost about 8$ (USD) and if you have a visitor passport, you can get unlimited rides. More information on the schedule, stops and fares is on their website https://www.sfmta.com/getting-around/muni/cable-cars You can also download muni mobile app to plan your trip. Powell/Hyde and Powell/Mason are the popular cable car maps which runs through powell and mason st and powell and hyde st.

Ridesharing Apps – Uber and Lyft are much cheaper than the taxis and they are also considered as one of the most convenient ways to get around the city and you can chose this option if you don’t want to take bus or pay for a cab.

Car Rental – Car rentals on an average starts at around 35$ (USD) per day with additional for insurance if you want to buy. I usually prefer having credit card which I can use for the insurance as well so that I don’t have to pay separately for rental insurance. If you are within the city, i prefer using public transport than renting a car unless you want to drive outside the city.

Bicycle – If you are up for it, you can also check out Bay wheels which is operated by lyft and you can get around the city for 3$ (USD) per ride. You can ride bicycle just by using lyft app, where you will see a bicycle icon on your app’s home screen. You can just return your bicycle to the nearest bay wheels station once you are done.

Off course if you are local to the bay area, driving in your own car is another good option. However you will have to pay more for the hourly and daily parking. There are plenty of street parking and garage parking options available however, parking on the streets are more challenging during peak hours than the garage parking. Parking spots on the streets fill up quickly and we recommend using spotangels.com or parkme.com or parkwhiz to check for available parking spots near you.

Best time to visit

September-November are considered as the best time to visit San Francisco. These months offer warm temperatures and much fewer crowds than compared to the summer.

Summer is considered as most busiest time of the year as people come to California for having some fun in the sun.

Winters are good but can be chilly during this time but added advantage is low accommodation prices and least number of visitors.

Best Places to Eat

There are plenty of dine-in and quick bite options available in the city. Below are some of our recommendations:

Indian – There are plenty of indian restaurants in San Francisco, our favorites are ROOH SF (https://www.roohrestaurants.com/) located at 333 Brannan St #150, San Francisco, CA 94107, Udupi Palace (1007 Valencia St, San Francisco, CA 94110) https://udupipalacesanfranciscoca.com/17208 and for quick bites Chaat Corner located at  320 3rd St, San Francisco, CA 94107 https://chaatcornersf.com/

We had our dinner at ROOH SF. Food and ambience was great. However, it was pricey and the quantity was not sufficient especially the curries and there is a lot of waiting time before you get a table. If you are in a time crunch and looking for a quick bite, this is not the place.

Mexican – If you are in the city, do not forget to try mexican food. San Francisco’s mission district is famous for mexican cuisine with many options to choose from local mexican restaurants. Do not forget to try burritos as Mission district is known for its large mexican community. La Taqueria, Taqueria Cancun, El Farolito are some of our recommendations.

American – Some of our top recommendations for American cuisines are Lazy Bear (3416 19th st) and requires reservations. Honestly we haven’t tried much of american cuisines and whenever we are in the city we like to prefer more vegetarian options like Subway & Chipotle.

If you want to save money and if you are local to the bay area, you can pack something for the road like quick sandwiches or tacos or burritos or some salad. If you are going for a day, we recommend packing something so that you can focus more on paying for things like tours or rides rather than spending money on dining. There are also plenty of street food options available as well.

Where to Stay

If you are not local to the bay area and if you are looking for accomodations, our recommendation is plan ahead and use any discounts you might have like Corporate discounts, or book accommodations during off season and you can save lot of money. Some of our recommendations are

• Hotel G
• Edwardian Hotel (For cheaper options)
• Union Square Plaza Hotel
• Travelodge by Wyndham by Fisherman’s wharf (if you want to stay around Fisherman wharf’s area)
• Green Tortoise Hostel (Much cheaper option to stay and they also have free breakfast daily. However these are more like hostel options)
• Hyatt Regency San Francisco (4 star hotel near San Francisco Airport)

Did You Know

• Parking is a tedious task in San Francisco. Parking is not free and this includes parking in the hotel you stay. Some hotels charge 90$ for overnight parking. Try to take public transport wherever possible.
• Parking in the public parking garages is more safer than open streets due to recent increase of break-ins and theft crimes.
• San Francisco is famous tourist location for New Years Eve. Every year thousands of tourists come to San Francisco to witness NYE fireworks near Pier 39, Embarcadero Streets, or Twin Peaks. Popular location to view fireworks is near Embarcadero. But do not drive during this time. You will spend hours in traffic and you wont be able to even find parking space. Public transport is highly recommended. Barts, trains run late nights during NYE.
• If you are staying in hotels near San Francisco Airports, most of them offer free shuttle services to pick up and drop from the airport. Please make sure to check this with your hotel before you arrive.

Additional Resources

How do we book our travel/ how do we plan? Well, there are certain companies we search when we are making any reservations for hotels or flights or cars. We are on the constant lookout for deals or discounts. Below are some of the websites we check while making reservations.

• Booking.com – This is one of the best all rounder kind of site that offers cheap and low rates for travel booking. You can search for budgeted accommodations here.
• Hotels.com – Another website to search for cheaper hotel accommodations.
• Agoda.com – Sometimes when we don’t find good deals on booking.com or hotels.com, we come here.
• Google.com – You might not believe this. Google.com search provides you one of the best ways of searching for good deals for hotel accommodations. We search based on our travel dates, and filter based on price and rating and amenities like free breakfast options to shortlist the best rated and cheaper accommodations. More tips on this is available on our website.
• Skyscanner – Skyscanner has one of the best flight search engine. If your dates are flexible we recommend using this for budget airlines and this site covers those which are actually missed on larger sites.
• kayak – kayak is another option to search for flights/stays if your dates are more flexible. Search by keeping your travel dates flexible lets say +-3 days and this gives you more clarity on when you can get best price.
• Tripadvisor – Tripadvisor is another good resource. Especially if you create an account, you can gather points and use that for your next travel.
• Expedia – Expedia and tripadvisor works the same way and we recommend creating an account here and if you have been using tripadvisor or expedia and gained points, you can use that to save some on your next booking.

Some helpful tips while making your reservation: Travel light, plan well in advance, search for amenities like free breakfast options so that you can avoid spending extra money on your breakfast. Majority of the hotels in United States offer free breakfast options. Create accounts to gain points, travel during weekdays and if possible do red eye flights. Following these tips, you can actually save a lot.