[Closed] Things to do in while on holiday in San Francisco

I was there for a week 7 years ago and it was one of my favourite places. These are some of the things I recommend:

Yosemite - a few hours away by car/coach but fantastic scenery
Alcatraz - I found it very interesting, especially as I love the film the Rock!
Golden Gate Bridge - hired a bike after visiting the rock and cycled to and over it
Haight Street - birthplace of hippies

Giant Redwoods - I wished I'd visited the national parks where these trees are, i'll be doing that next time!

Yosemite, drive out the back to Mammoth mountain, head up to Mono lake, hang a right to Bodie ghost town, then on to Lake Tahoe
That should take anything from 3 days to a week.

Alcatraz

Rent bikes from Fishermans wharf, ride over the golden gate and up the moutain for a view, Lunch in Sausalito and a ferry back across the bay.

Just drive north up Highway 101 and see where you end up
Just drive South down Highway 101 and see where you end up

Or road trip to Vegas, back through death valley, Mammoth mountain, Yosemite and back is a good loop of 4 - 7 days.

Head down to the Pier and have some food at Bubba Gumps, up in town there is the Cheesecake factory. We rented bikes and went through the park over the Golden Gate and down to Sausilito [I would live here if had the choice!]

Wear some flowers in your hair.

joe's crab shack is fantastic if not a bit"coyote ugly" but not in a bad way,fantastic place san francisco,if ya wanna do alcatraz book very early as it sells out very very quick

Wear some flowers in your hair.

perhaps we will...i'm going to be humming that song the entire time probably.

Thanks for the advice, my wife's found a halloween fair or something going on in Half Moon Bay (20 miles south), so we'll probably go to that too.

We were thinking of spending a few days in San Francisco then going to another city, but i think we should just stay in one place and get to know the city and the surrounding area.

Our visit to San Fran was only short as we were on a bigger tour of the west coast. We did a helicopter trip over the city, under the Golden Gate bridge and over the other side. Great way of seeing the city. Plenty of other things to do as stated above. Chowder and sour bread from the pier is very nice!!

As above there are plenty of places to see near. Did Mammoth, Death Valley, and Grand Canyon. We rented quads and did a sunset ride round Bryce Canyon, amazing!!

Theres plenty to do, go and enjoy yourself.

Go to Tiburon for breakfast on the waterfront.
Go to Vesuvios and drink like Kerouac.
Take the cable car (Powell - Hyde)
When you get to Hyde - Go to the Buena Vista, birthplace of the Irish coffee.

Slight highjack here...

The sister inlaw has moved there with work for a couple of years and has invited us to visit next summer. While it sounds like an ace place to visit with loads to do, we have a 2 young children (2 and 5) and I'm inclined to think that for the cost of getting us all out there, it's not going to be great for them with a long flight and lots of time sat in cars travelling between attractions.

Any thoughts on this?

Perhaps you should scan the 'child-free flights' thread for an insight into the pleasures your nine hour flight will bring.

I wouldn't have seen it as a particularly child-friendly fun location, but I guess I didn't visit with that in mind. There must be some attractions aimed at the local child population.

Cable car museum is good apparently but I didn't manage. Coit tower (aka the firehose or something - Ooer) has cracking views.. Hired a bike, cycled Past the Presido, over the bridge, first left yhan a good (but busy) road climb up to the top of Hawk hill etc.. Stunning views of the bridge/bay area! There's old forts, gun emplacements and a tunnel through part of the hill with what I'm guessing was an ammo store about the halfway point..
About two thirds of the way up-
[IMG] [/IMG]
Loved San Franscico.. One of my all time fave places to visit..

perhaps we will...i'm going to be humming that song the entire time probably.

🙂

I would be too! It's such a great song.

Anyway, sorry, I had nothing constructive to add as I missed out on SanFran when I used to travel to that part for work and always regretted it. I will visit one day though. Have a grand time. I know I'd be going to see dem big trees and Yosemite if I was out that way though.

Alcatraz a must, spooky but fascinating place.
Hire a car and go over the GG Bridge to Marin County and Napa Valley.
If time allows, Yosemite, Las Vegas, Hoover Dam, Grand Canyon all impressive in utterly different ways.

San Francisco is my all time favourite city.

Go to Le Mar at Pier 1.5 it does awesome Ceviche and the range of alcohol is pretty good too.

If you head over the Golden Gate and up the coast then Santa Rosa is great for wine tasting and less touristy than Nappa.

China town is also pretty cool and the food is well worth going for.

Definitely echo everything about Yosemite, definitely worth the drive.

Enjoy, it's an awesome place.

Used to dock in Oakland, different sort of experience from across the 'bay' 😉

China town is also pretty cool and the food is well worth going for.

That will be must...The Wife being Chinese and all!.

Gonna hire a car...just need to justify a Mustang. I think I'll watch Cannonbal run to learn about US driving.

Hardly Strictly Bluegrass is on at Golden Gate State Park next weekend.

I've just ridden down the Northern California coast from the Redwoods to San Francisco. It was a huge surprise of funky little towns full of charm. Take a look at Fairfax and Point Reyes Station too.

You've got to hire some sort of over the top American car to do the trip in, we had a convertible Camaro to do drive from Vegas to San Fran.

You'll need to watch Bullitt as well for some SF driving tips 🙂

Lombard streets worth a visit if you're passing. Its the really steep zig zaggy hill.

Also never been but apparently Berkeley is really nice and only a short journey away.

The Anchor Steam Brewwrry is worth a visit, great beer.

Hardly Strictly Bluegrass is on at Golden Gate State Park next weekend.

dammit...missing that by one week, would have enjoyed that.

Just walk about the place - one of the few US cities you can do that, the car is not king there!
+1 for Yosemite/Sequoia's/Monterrey/BigSur etc... the region is an embarrassment of riches 😀

Definitely down the Pacific coast highway to Big Sur, maybe Hearst Castle too.

Don't do as my new wife and I did on the first night of our honeymoon, and go to the Stinking Rose restaurant. By morning the wallpaper in our room was peeling off the walls.

Also - have a back up plan - we were there about the same time as you, mid-late Oct and we got the first snows in Tahoe which meant we couldn't get into Yosemite / over the Tioga Pass into Death Valley and had to drive the long way to Vegas.

Lots of good suggestions above. Coit Tower nice, Anchor Steam brewery, the bar in the Trans America building too.

Wander around too and just soak everything in.

Take in a gig. Teenage Fanclub were in town when I was there. Twas a great night.