San Francisco is a great city to spend few days with many iconic spots. As part of our 2 weeks in California, we spend 2 and half days in SF. We really enjoyed biking to Sausalito, visiting the piers, the famous cable cars and trying the local craft beer spots. You can find below our itinerary and some practical info.

Itinerary:

• Day 1: Cable cars, Piers, Alcatraz by night
• Day 2: Bike Golden Gate to Sausalito, Painted Ladies
• Day 3: Additional visits around the piers, Chinatown and the city center.

Day by day

Day 1: Cable cars, Piers, Alcatraz by night (Thursday 21 September)

We arrived in San Francisco Airport before noon. We then took a Uber to reach our hotel for an early checking before going to visit the city. Our hotel was at the intersection of Market st and 7th (more information about that in the practical information section).

We started by walking to Powell Street to see the cable car station Powell St & Market St. It was about 2pm on a Thursday and the line at the station was significant, so we decided to go by feet. We walked north on Power St and then west on Lombard st. We then went north on Hyde St to reach Ghirardelli. At the end of Hyde St we stopped at Blazing Saddles to check the bikes rental. The bike reservation is done online but we wanted to see how the bikes look like. This initial walk was a good introduction to San Francisco, I was impressed by how steep the streets are, and we enjoyed seeing the cable cars.

From Ghirardelli we walked east along the piers and south east to reach the Ferry Plaza. On our way we stopped at: Boudin bakery (between Pier 45 and Pier 41 to buy some bread, Pier 39 to check the sea lions and visit the pier, and Pier 33 to see the departure of the Alcatraz tour. At Ferry Building we stopped on the terrace of Fort Point brewery to enjoy some of their beers, while waiting for the start of the Alcatraz tour. We also booked online our bike rental for the next day.

Alcatraz night tour

We went back to Pier 33 for our Alcatraz night tour at 5:45pm for a tour starting 6:30. 10 minutes after our arrival the 5:55 tour embarked to the boat and left to Alcatraz. We waited in line about 30min to embark for our tour. We were the first in the boat and went on the middle deck facing the front of the boat. The ride to Alcatraz was great, despite some fog from wood fire we enjoyed an amazing sunset behind the Golden Gate bridge and had nice pictures of Alcatraz. Arriving at Alcatraz we followed the guide to walk up to the start of visit.

The first step was to get our audio guide (we took the English version but a lot of languages are available). We then followed the audio guide for all the visit. The audio guide is easy to understand and is interesting. It describes well how people were leaving in the prison, and the different areas. We think the visit by night is cool and add a little bit of tension or Shutter Island vibe. The low lighting creates an heavier atmosphere, especially when entering the cells of the D-Block “The Hole” where there is no light. (Nothing to be scared about because you still have a lot of people around you).

After the audio guide we stopped by the shop for few souvenirs and postcard (the shop has a lot of cool souvenirs). We then walked a little bit in the Island to check the Lighthouse area. This area offers a nice view of San Francisco by night. Our next step was to walk down to take the first ferry back to San Francisco, the one leaving Alcatraz at 8:40pm.

Day 2: Bike Golden Gate to Sausalito, Painted Ladies (Friday 22 September)

Bike the Golden Gate Bridge

We grabbed some food and coffee to go, and walked to Blazing Saddles at 2715 Hyde st. We arrived a little bit after the opening and did the check-in. It includes signing few electronic forms, watching a video, and recovering the bikes.

On the bike we started by the usual tour: biking west along the Marina to arrive at the Marine drive road. Our first stop was at Fort Point National Historic site (bottom south east side of the bridge). With the morning lights we had great view of the bridge. We then went back a little bit and biked up to the start of the bridge (We enjoyed few great vista points before starting to cross the bridge). Crossing the bridge is a nice experience in the morning when it’s not too packed.

We arrived at the North east part of the bridge at Dana Bowers Vista point and crossed below the bridge to go to Battery Spencer. (The stairs to cross the road at Dana Bowers were not obvious to find, but the map is accurate). On the other side of the bridge the Conzelman Rd to reach Battery Spencer point is short but steep. We parked the bike at the parking and walked the short ridge trail to reach battery Spencer view point. This is a cool small additional stop but the view from Battery Spencer in the morning is not great (Sun is lighting the other side of the bridge). I would advice this part more in the afternoon or sunset for better pictures. After Battery Spencer we biked to the Bay Area Discovery Museum for nice and different views of the bridge, and we finally biked to Sausalito.

Sausalito is a nice coast small town, we went up to the Floating homes view point which was a cool stop. We then started biking back to Sausalito Joinery for a well deserved meal. The Joinery is the restaurant / Beer hall advised by the bike rental. We were initially skeptical to follow this recommendation, but we were very positively surprised by the place. The food was amazing (nice sandwiches or salads), the beer was good, and the atmosphere very welcoming. We also had a small discount on the beer as we were coming from Blazing Saddle.

A popular option is to take the a ferry back to San Francisco, but we decided to bike back. Crossing the Golden Gate was not an experience as pleasant as in the morning due to the crowed. What was very nice is to explore the south west side of the Golden Gate. The Golden Gate Bridge Rooftop View and the Pacific Overlook were great early in the afternoon. We then went bake to the bike rental via the Presidio Tunnel Tops. (Our biking loop is available in the map at the end of the post)

Biking the Golden Gate to Sausalito was an amazing experience. For nice pictures of the bridge keep in mind the sun position. You can check the different pictures in this post to have an idea: South east side / east side good in the morning. West side better in the afternoon.

The Painted Ladies

After the biking we were still having the energy for a walk. From Hyde st we went to the house of Full house tv show from our childhood (1709 Broadrick Street). We then walked to the Painted Ladies at Alamo Square. The Painted Ladies are cool to see and the walk bake to our hotel was nice.

For the night we went for dinner at Shuggie’s in Mission area. The food was a little bit spicy but very good. We then tried The Crafty Fox Ale House for a sampler of local craft beers. The Crafty Fox was a cool experience to try a local bar. We were not overly impressed by the quality of the beer even if some of them were good.

Day 3: Additional visits around the piers, Chinatown and the city center (Sunday 23 September)

Our top objective of the day was to stop at REI to buy bear spray for Yosemite and Sequoia. We started walking to “Boulangerie” in Hayes st for a good breakfast. We then went to Dolores Park. From Dolores park we had a nice view over the city. Our next stop was Clarion alley to see some local street arts. We finally walked to REI in Brannan St to arrive a little bit after the opening. In REI we learned that Yosemite and Sequoia only have black bears, bear spray is not needed and illegal. Thanks REI for being honest and informing us that we should not buy this product.

After the REI visit we went to Chinatown and walked to Pier 39 for a lunch at Bubba Gump. Chinatown is nice to visit and close to the cable cars (easy to access). Bubba Gump for lunch is a very touristic spot and slightly overpriced. But we are tourist and we enjoyed our lunch. Everything in the restaurant is around the Forrest Gump movie, and you will love the place if you are a fan of the movie.

For afternoon we walked from Pier 39 to the Baseball Stadium (Oracle Park), and the Basket ball Arena (Chase Center). On our way we stopped at Acme bread to buy a loaf of sourdough. The walk in these areas had noting amazing. The city is doing a lot of building around the Chase Center and it will certainly become a very nice place.

To finish our stay in San Francisco we went to Black Hammer Brewing Company and went back to our hotel to pack our bags for the next steps of our trip. The Black Hammer beers are the best one we had in San Francisco. This is a brewery that we recommend.

Practical information

Safety

We were surprised by the number of homeless and drugged people in the street of San Francisco. We stayed at the YOTEL in Market st which is just south of Tenderloin. It’s close to the theaters and a busy area, but we saw many people in a bad shape when walking back to the hotel every night. We had no issues and local associations are present to help ensure the safety of the people, but we were not expecting that. Also when we went to Dolores / Mission area, the Mission St is not the best one for a walk during the night. Valencia St or Dolores St are better. If you stay around the Fisherman’s Wharf, Coit Tower, Lombard St you will not see that.

Weather

Ariana went multiple time to San Francisco during summer (July, August) and always had a foggy windy weather. We double checked the weather when preparing for the trip and indeed it seems the weather is a lot better during late September and October. We had a great weather for 3 days, only issue was some smoke coming from wood fire from Northern California. If you come during summer be ready for not so good weather.

Bread

We love bread, and we were impressed by the quality of the bread at Acme bread. The loaf that we bought was still crunchy multiple days after. The one we had at Boudin was not as good but was still very enjoyable.

Reflecting on the itinerary

Number of days: If we were doing it again I think we would certainly try to spend only 2 days in San Francisco to have more days for the rest of our road trip. One day for the bike tour and one day for the cable cars, Lombard St, the piers, Alcatraz.

Bike tour improvements: We could have done more biking to check the following points: The “Old Mill Park” after Sausalito. Or on the way back to San Francisco the Lincoln Park and the Golden Gate Park would have been nice to try.

Alcatraz: If you are planning to visit Alcatraz around end of September, I would recommend the night visit with a 6:30pm departure (the one we took). It’s great for the sunset.

You can use the Map below to see the full itinerary of our 2 weeks in California, it includes the spot we recommend in San Francisco and the bike ride in San Francisco). The following steps of our trip are here.