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11.06.2023

10 Things To Do In San Francisco

I know many of you have probably already been to San Francisco, and have done the usual touristy things (Fisherman's Wharf, Ghirardelli Square, Golden Gate...etc.) but thought it would be fun to provide you with a few of the lesser known things to do on your next trip that are a bit less touristy! Or, if you have never been, perhaps you can do a bit of both. This is obviously not an all encompassing list, but just a small slice of the many fun things to do! Everything on this list can be reached by public transportation or on foot, or there are many public bikes and scooters if your feet need a break (link to below map here). 

                   

1) Twin Peaks / Sutro Tower: My family has always called the tower Godzilla, and I am not sure why because I Googled it and can only find reference to it being called the Space Claw... It is kind of a monstrosity either way, and was built in 1973 (it recently had its 50th birthday) to help improve the television signal in the city. However, the real reason to go up there is the fun drive (or hike if you are feeling athletic; it is only a couple of miles depending on where you start) up and down and the great view you get from the top! 

View of downtown from Twin Peaks

(2) Golden Gate Park: This is a lot of ground to cover, but a favorite loop of mine is to go and ogle the bison in their paddock (2a), walk past the Dutch windmills and tulips (2b) (in bloom in February) and then end up at Ocean Beach (2c), where you can watch the (kind of scary) waves of the Pacific beat on the shore. If you like walking a lot, you can keep going and head over to the Cliff House (2d), an icon of the city, and the Sutro Baths (2e), where people used to bathe with a view of the ocean! For these places basically being in the middle of the city, they can all be surprisingly quiet. Tip from a local: bring a jacket, no matter what month it is. It gets chilly on that side of the city! 

Dutch windmills & tulips

(3) Land's End: If you keep walking after the Sutro Baths, you will get to Lands End, a dirt walking trail along the coast, which has some good views of the ocean and the Marin Headlands to the north. Also, this is right near the Legion of Honor (3a), which is worth a look-see (and if you don't want to walk so much, you can split the park and these two places into two groups). 

(4) Irving Street: Since we are already down near the park, we may as well go to Irving Street for something to eat! There is pretty much anything you could want between 19th St. and 24th St., but some of my favorite things to get are either pho, dim sum or Thai food (Marnee Thai  (4a) is a must and if you go, you have to try the kanom krok - even if you don't see it on the menu, ask for it). You also can't go wrong if you just wander, or stop when you are hungry (after your GG park walk you will be!) This guy has a fun map with restaurant names and notes. Oh, and if you feel like straying a bit for a good pizza or bread, check out Arizmendi Bakery (4b) on 9th and Irving. 

(5) Chinatown: Pick up some dim sum to-go from Delicious Dim Sum (5a) and sit in Portsmouth Square (5b) where you will have a view of the Transamerica tower, and watch the locals play their daily board games. They really get into it and it is fun to watch the competitions arise! Plus the area is just so vibrant; it is a great place to people watch. 

Delicious dim sum!

After that, if you feel like being a tourist, you can walk down Grant Street, or if you want to see how the locals shop, take a stroll down Stockton Street (5c). Local tip: You can get great prices on fruit and vegetables here. If you want to buy anything from the shops, there are not really proper lines. Just walk in, put your item on the scale next to the register and get your dollars out quick. It is a dog eat dog world out there and you need to be quick to win your right to pay for your goods! Also, I have never paid with a card, so I can't confirm whether they take them, but I would have cash on hand just in case. 

(6) Filbert Steps: These go from Sansome Street up to Coit Tower, so they are a little touristy, but it is also  fun to go up or down them. It is a stairway within a neighborhood and it is fun to check out everyone's gardens and at the same time you get a glimpse of the Bay Bridge and the San Francisco bay. If you feel like doing a loop, I like to go up (or down) Vallejo Street (6a) which is also steep but provides a nice view. If you like hidden staircases like I do, San Francisco has over 600 public stairways (map here) for you to explore; here is an article about 11 of them to get you started. 



(7) The Murals in the Mission: Head down to Clarion Alley (7a) and scope out the cool murals, and afterward, go and get a burrito. There are so many places to choose from, and you can't go wrong with most of them, but I often end up at either El Farolito (7b) on Mission & 24th or El Toro Taqueria (7c). And don't forget to eat the burrito properly, which I describe in this post. You can also find more mural locations in this article


(8) Crissy Field/Fort Point: If you feel like taking a nice walk along the water, you can go from Crissy Field down to Hopper's Hands (Fort Point) (8a), which is about 1.5 miles each way. If this is too much, there are options: you can park in the Warming hut lot (8b), which makes the walk only about half a mile, or you can drive all the way to Fort Point if the gate is open. Either way, it is a great way to get outside and get some fresh air, plus you have the added bonus of a view of the Golden Gate Bridge, Alcatraz, the water, the Marin Headlands and the city! Basically you can't go wrong. Don't forget to touch Hopper's Hands for good luck when you get to Fort Point! 

Fort Point

View from Crissy Field

(9) Fort Mason: You can go and watch the sea lions at Fisherman's wharf, or you can go to Fort Mason instead and watch them at the marina, swimming around and sunning themselves on the docks. Also, if you are looking for love, supposedly the Safeway (9a) across the street is frequently listed as one of the city's best pick-up spots and is affectionately known as the "Dateway." 

Fort Mason / Marina

(10) Biking the Embarcadero: Most people talk about San Francisco's hills and how scary they are when running or biking, but despite the rumors, there are a lot of flat options! The simplest one is to bike along the Embarcadero where you will have to climb a small hill to get to Fort Mason, but after that, you will go back down towards the Marina and Crissy Field where it is flat again. Of course, you can make this a multi-mile trip pretty easily: the Mission is also flat, Ocean Beach/Great Highway are gorgeous, you can even bike to Sausalito (and beyond)! Really the city is your oyster. 

Bay Bridge / Embarcadero

Well there you have it folks, a handful of fun things to pick from next time you are in San Francisco! Of course feel free to ask questions if you need more information! 

Have you ever been to San Francisco? Have you been to any of the places/done any of the things on this list? If not, what is your "local tip" for your neck of the woods? 

22 comments:

  1. If I manage to make it to San Fran (nope; never been) will you be my tour guide? This all sounds awesome and I would love to visit and NOT PLAN ANYTHING and just tag along and have someone that knows the area take me to all the best places :)

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    1. Of course I will! You just tell me when! Actually, I have a lot of fun showing people around as long as they don't want to go to the too touristy places, although those sometimes have their place as well. I hope if you do come that you will bring your appetite, as one of my favorite things to do is to eat all of the different foods!

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  2. Love it! I was born in the Bay Area and though my family moved when I was three we came back many times to visit my grandparents. I haven't been since.........uh...........uh.........uh..........memory fails and as best I can place it my last visit might have been in the early 90s.

    Anyways, someday I will come back and when I do I will make use of this list.

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    1. Well some things have not changed much since the 90s! Although after the earthquake (89) they did do a lot of work on some of the freeway entrances, overpasses and bridges. Also depending on where your grandparents are, the vibe may be a little different. Many of the neighborhoods have changed a bit.

      Definitely the restaurants have changed in many cases. Actually a lot of places are closing this year, after many decades in some cases. I don't know if it is lagging from the pandemic or what but it is sad to see some old standbys close.

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  3. I had the opportunity to visit when my friend Margaret lived in Vallejo in 2018. I flew into San Francisco and we went to the mission district and I can't remember the other part. We explored on foot and it was so much fun! We took in quite a bit of Napa and Sonoma and the redwood forest and the coast and it was GORGEOUS! Then on Sunday before I flew back we were back in San Francisco and visited Coit Tower, had lunch in China Town and explored a bit more. I loved being out there! She's in Brooklyn now and I got to spend time with her in March and once again we walked and explored and I'm hoping to get back up for another visit. I love exploring!

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    1. I do like Brooklyn too! I have stayed over there a few times and I have some friends who live in Coney Island, which I had not really been to before they moved there, and that is fun too! Actually the last time I was in Brooklyn, I did an almond croissant tour, where I walked (see exercise!) to all of the local bakeries and tried an almond croissant at each one! I think I came back after that trip about five pounds heavier, but it was worth it!

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  4. Oooh this looks very lovely. I was in SF once, when I was 12, with my parents, and I remember nothing. I think we only passed through as we were on a road trip. I don't remember anything about it at all! So it might be a sign I need to go.

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    1. You definitely need to come back! There are direct flights from Calgary and it is only a couple of hours! Plus it is not cold in the winter time, so it would be perfect for you to escape in Dec/Jan/Feb and come here for some better weather. There are so many things to do; this list is just the tip of the iceberg!

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  5. Would you believe that I worked for part of a summer in San Francisco and never did ANY of the touristy things? Not a one! What a waste! It looks like such a beautiful and vibrant city with so much to offer. Hopefully I will get back there again someday!

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    1. I can believe it! Sometimes it is more fun to just LIVE in a place then worry about checking things off a list! I am sure you had a great time and your experience was probably a lot different than people who just come for a day and knock of a bunch of popular wish list items. However, I do hope that you at least enjoyed the views of the bay, or walked around in the neighborhoods, and ate food! Those simple things are some of my favorite ones!

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  6. Usually when I come into the city (we live in the East Bay, wrong side of the tunnel) I like to go to Golden Gate Park, a museum, Lands End, Ocean Beach, that kind of thing. A couple of weeks ago, though, I played host to my cousin who wanted to do touristy things, and I was surprised at how fun it was. I especially enjoyed showing her Musee Mechanique, she had never seen it before. I fell in love with it when it was under the Cliff House. We had wonderful food in the Marina district too. Mmmm. I love SF. I lived there from '87 - '94, and I have a lot of good memories. Maybe that's me remembering a time of my life, maybe it's SF, who knows.

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    1. I was hoping that you would comment, since you are my local contingent! I did see your post about your cousin and I also have fond memories of the Musee from when it was in the Cliff House! We actually used to go there nearly every time we came to the city and then we would go and get ridiculously expensive seafood in the Cliff House afterward! It is kind of the end of an era that it is no longer functioning, although I did read that there is a possible new owner who is hoping to open it back up in 2024!

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  7. I have done a lot of these, many of them with you! I have been to San Francisco several times. It is such a cool city with so much to offer. The best thing I've done in the area is not in San Francisco proper though - it was that Dip Sea trail/hike down to the beach to eat tacos at that cute taco stand on the beach.

    We are definitely due for a trip to SF. We just need the boys to be a bit older. They would get so tired out in a big city like SF so it's not worth it to go there just yet - but some day we will come visit Auntie Kyria!

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    1. Well, you are in luck, as my tour services have no expiration date! I would love to show the boys around the city someday. It was not on this list, but the Exploratorium would be right up their alley and I remember loving it as a kid and would probably still love it now!

      I do love that Dipsea hike too! However, there were so many things on the San Francisco list, I did not have room to touch on anything outside the city! That will definitely be in a future things to do in the Bay Area post!

      P.S. I also did not put some of my other favorites, like Starbucks and cookies in the Castro, in this post! :)

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  8. Been to San Francisco one with L and T. R was in my belly. I will never forget the delicious food in Chinatown and how an artist wrote L's name on a painting. Wonderful time.

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    1. I am so glad that you enjoyed it; I think that every time you come back you will find new and different things to do, which is part of what I love so much! There is never enough time!

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  9. I’ve been to San Francisco three times. Once with my parents, once taking our kids when they were in primary school and the latest was in 2019. With the kids we walked up the Filbert steps. And on our latest trip we went to the Golden Gate park and down to Ocean Beach through to Land’s End. We also checked out the murals in the Mission District … and had dumplings in Chinatown. I really enjoyed my time there.

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    1. Wow you covered a lot of the items on my list! I am especially impressed that you saw the murals in the Mission as it is a little bit off the beaten path! I don't mean the Mission neighborhood itself, as a lot of people do go to check it out, but you even went down the side alleys!

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  10. I've been there twice! Beautiful place. It's been a long time now. We didn't have THAT much time, either, so while we hit a lot of the highlights, there definitely was more to be explored, too.

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    1. Next time you come you will have to do a couple of the off the beaten path things! I think fisherman's wharf is beautiful and the clam chowder is good, but there are so many more fun places to see too! I probably have a list of hundreds of things and these are only 10! The good thing about the city is that it is only 7 miles by 7 miles, so you really can cover a lot of ground in a short time!

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  11. Oh, I love this list, Kyria. I've actually done quite a few things from this list, but I definitely want to check out more of the hidden steps (so fun!) and go back to Twin Peaks!

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    1. Thanks San! There are so many little nooks and crannies in the city to explore; I am still working my way through them all too! My favorite thing to do in most cities is to just wander, and as I am sure you are aware, San Francisco does not disappoint in that regard!

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