San Francisco travel guide
Where to stay, the best time to visit, what a day costs, and the traps to skip.
Things to do in San Francisco, planned over three days
Best time to visit San Francisco
• a note or something on ✦ an occasion worth the trip
Fall is best, the city's real summer: warmest, clearest, reliable bridge views and peak Dolores Park picnics.
Spring is second best and best value, with clearing skies, blossom and easier bookings.
Summer is peak fog season. Cold marine layer, biting wind on the bridge, pack a puffer and layers.
Winter is quiet and rainy with the lowest hotel prices and easiest restaurant reservations.
What's on
- Fleet Week early Oct
Blue Angels over the bay, and peak hotel prices.
- Hardly Strictly Bluegrass early Oct
Free festival in Golden Gate Park.
- Litquake Oct
Readings and talks across the city for a week, ending in Lit Crawl's one-night bar hop through the Mission.
- Northern California Cherry Blossom Festival Apr
Cherry blossoms in the Japanese Tea Garden and Japantown.
- Bay to Breakers May
Costumed footrace chaos across the city.
- San Francisco Pride late Jun
Huge and joyful, with hotels surging.
- Outside Lands Aug
Golden Gate Park music festival, dress like autumn for the fog.
- Chinese New Year Parade Jan/Feb
Chinatown's biggest night, a lantern-lit parade with the 200-foot Golden Dragon at the end.
- Dungeness crab season opening Nov
Commercial crab season is meant to open in mid November but has often been pushed into December or January to protect whales. Cioppino and cracked crab peak in winter.
Worth the trip for
Best things to do in San Francisco
Alcatraz Island
Former prison island with a gripping cellhouse audio tour and the clearest cold view back to the city.
Golden Gate Bridge
Walk the span itself on the waterfront arc from Fort Mason and Crissy Field for the classic free half day.
Crissy Field
Flat bayfront beach and lawn with straight on bridge views, on the walking route through the Presidio.
Presidio Tunnel Tops
Free 14 acre park built over the highway tunnels, with a big natural playground locals actually use.
California Academy of Sciences
Rainforest dome, aquarium and planetarium under one living roof, the best all weather museum in the park.
de Young Museum
Art museum beside Cal Academy, worth it for the free observation tower even if you skip the galleries.
Japanese Tea Garden
Oldest public Japanese garden in the US, calm and photogenic, with free early entry some weekday mornings.
Ferry Building Marketplace
The 1898 clocktower building is the city pantry, packed with oysters, bread, cheese and local food shops.
Where to stay in San Francisco
Nob Hill / Russian Hill
best all-round base
Elevated, quiet and classic, with cable cars and views, walkable down to North Beach and the Ferry Building.
Hayes Valley
food and local feel
Central and flat-ish with the city's best browsing and dining strip, west of the Tenderloin and Civic Center.
North Beach
first-timers who want charm
Italian cafes, City Lights and Washington Square, lively in the evening and residential enough to sleep.
Marina / Cow Hollow
park, family and quiet
Flat and pretty with Chestnut Street shops and Presidio walks from your door, farthest from downtown museums.
Embarcadero / Financial District
practical transit base
Flat BART and Muni hub with the Ferry Building at your feet and bay views, quiet at night and weekends.
Mission / Castro
repeat visitors, food and nightlife
Best food and nightlife with Dolores Park nearby, but hotel stock is tiny and mostly guesthouses.
Think twice about
- The Tenderloin
Severe concentrated street homelessness and open air drug use day and night. Visit by day for food, do not book a hotel here.
- Mid-Market / Civic Center / western SoMa
Same street conditions spilling from the Tenderloin, with encampments and empty storefronts. Fine to visit museums by day, avoid as a base.
- Union Square
Workable on the east side above Geary, but it thins west into the Tenderloin and feels empty and corporate at night.
- Fisherman's Wharf / Pier 39
Safe but inflated prices, chain restaurants and tour bus crowds, and you transit out for every good meal and museum.
Best restaurants in San Francisco
Swan Oyster Depot
18 stool seafood counter run since 1912, for crab back, oysters and chowder. Arrive early, expect the line.
Zuni Café
Roast chicken for two with bread salad in a civilized Market Street room. Order the chicken when you sit down.
La Taqueria
No rice Mission burrito, crisped dorado style on the griddle, and still the burrito others are judged against.
Tartine Bakery
Morning buns, croissants and the country loaf that launched a sourdough era. Tiny room, go early.
Tartine Manufactory
The bigger Tartine space for a full meal when the original bakery line is too long.
State Bird Provisions
Starred small plates served dim sum style from carts, playful and precise. Book when reservations open.
Mister Jiu's
Starred modern Cantonese banquet cooking in a historic Chinatown building, built for the table.
House of Prime Rib
Prime rib carved tableside from silver carts since 1949, with spinning salad and icy martinis. Book weeks ahead.
Outdoor things to do in San Francisco
Muir Woods National Monument
Closest old growth redwoods to the city, with an easy boardwalk trail and quieter loops climbing out.
Golden Gate Bridge
Rent a bike, cross the bridge, drop into Sausalito for lunch and ferry back instead of riding both ways.
Adventure Cat Sailing Cruises
A real sail on a big catamaran under the bridge and around Alcatraz, with the sunset sailing the fall pick.
Sea Trek
Paddle calm Richardson Bay past houseboats and harbor seals, guided or by rental, calmest in the morning.
TPC Harding Park
Championship public course among cypress trees that has hosted majors, plus the casual Fleming 9.
Presidio Golf Course
Hilly, fog swept 1895 course inside the national park, the scenic everyday round close to most bases.
Mount Tamalpais State Park
Locals loop from Stinson Beach up Matt Davis and down Steep Ravine, or an easy East Peak summit walk.
Point Reyes National Seashore
Full day of windswept headlands, tule elk, elephant seals in winter and the lighthouse steps.
Best hotels in San Francisco
Fairmont San Francisco
The 1907 original Fairmont atop Nob Hill, grand hotel splurge with the Tonga Room tiki bar inside.
InterContinental Mark Hopkins San Francisco
Nob Hill landmark hotel known for the Top of the Mark sky lounge and its views.
The Ritz-Carlton, San Francisco
Neoclassical landmark on Nob Hill offering quieter, formal luxury.
Hayes Valley Inn
Simple budget inn with shared baths in a perfect Hayes Valley location, a few blocks west of Civic Center.
Parsonage
Luxury bed and breakfast in a Victorian mansion, the splurge option in Hayes Valley.
Kimpton Buchanan Hotel
Larger reliable hotel in adjacent Japantown, an easy walk to Hayes Valley.
Hotel Boheme
Small Beat era boutique on Columbus, the most characterful bed in North Beach.
Washington Square Inn
Bed and breakfast facing Washington Square, lively by day and residential enough to sleep.
Is San Francisco expensive? What a day costs
| Budget | $140 a person |
|---|---|
| Classic | $275 a person |
| Splurge | $550 a person |
A day of food, drink, sights and getting around, before the room
What to book ahead
- Alcatraz Island: weeks ahead
- California Academy of Sciences: a few days ahead
- San Francisco Museum of Modern Art: a few days ahead
- Angel Island State Park: a few days ahead
- Exploratorium: a few days ahead
- Oracle Park: a few days ahead
- Golden Gate Helicopter Adventure: weeks ahead
- Muir Woods National Monument: weeks ahead
- Alcatraz books out 2 to 4 weeks ahead in summer and fall, official site only. Night tours go first.
- Reserve Zuni, State Bird, Mister Jiu's, House of Prime Rib and La Ciccia as soon as dates are fixed.
- Muir Woods parking or shuttle reservation is required, with no walk ups.
- Hotels spike during Dreamforce in September, Fleet Week in October and Pride in June.
Is San Francisco safe?
- Leave nothing visible in a parked car, not even in the trunk at a viewpoint. Rental cars are targeted.
- Keep walking past street crises in the Tenderloin and Mid-Market and do not engage.
- Normal big city awareness for phones and bags on crowded Muni and at the Wharf.
- At night, rideshare long empty Financial District and SoMa blocks rather than walking them.
San Francisco travel tips: tourist traps to skip
- Fisherman's Wharf as a destination beyond ten minutes with the sea lions.
- Driving Lombard Street crooked block instead of looking from the bottom and walking the steps.
- Chinatown on Grant Avenue only, when Stockton Street is the locals shopping street.
- Golden Gate Bridge in summer fog with no backup plan. Check the bridge cams that morning.
- Hop on hop off buses in a city this compact with good Muni service.
Getting around San Francisco: public transport and more
- No car. Walk plus Muni and occasional rideshare, with a Clipper card on your phone.
- BART is for the airport, East Bay and downtown spine trips. Muni is for within the city.
- Ride the California cable car line for the same cars and views with almost no line, not the Powell turnaround.
- Check elevation before walking. A short walk up Russian Hill is a workout.
Who San Francisco suits
| Solo travellers | Good |
|---|---|
| Groups of friends | Good |
| Couples | Great |
| Bachelor parties | OK |
| Families | Good |
| Bachelorette parties | OK |
Make San Francisco your trip
Swearby drafts the days from places people swear by. Swap any stop, then invite the crew by text, even friends without the app. Vote on dates, track costs as you go, and everyone gets one number at the end.
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