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Your Location: TUG Home > Review Home Page > USA - West>San Francisco Activities Guide	Last updated: 9 Mar 2005

One of the best parts about San Francisco is that it is a city made for walking.  Surprising little streets, a funky little alley, or a sweeping, magnificent view could surprise you at the next corner.  If you prefer someone to lead you on your walk, San Francisco has a nonprofit organization that is devoted exclusively to giving free walking tours around the city daily.  San Francisco City Guides Free Walking Tours

If you prefer to do it yourself, the San Francisco Visitor's Bureau offers some maps for a few self-guided walking tours.

Consider a walk along the Bay, from Fisherman's Wharf, up over the hill at the foot of Van Ness, through Fort Mason, on through Crissy Field and the Marina, past the Wave Organ and down to Fort Point under the Golden Gate Bridge. Then catch a bus back. It's considered one of the ten most beautiful walks in the United States. Dress Warmly, it can get cold and windy on the bay.  By the way, your best bet anywhere in SF is to layer. It can be sunny and warm one minute, then cold and windy the next. So leave yourself some flexibility in donning and removing clothing.

Speaking of removing clothing, go to the Haight District, one of the main hearts of the "flower child" movement of the 60s. There is a hologram museum there, a lot of kitschy shopping, and a really good Martini Bar. Clothing is no longer optional there, and it's become much more mainstream and corporate in general than it was in the 1960s.

The Compass Rose (415) 774-0167 at the Westin St. Francis Hotel in Union Square has a High Tea at 4 pm daily. That's kind of fun on a weekday, and the String Trio that plays is corny, but fun. Stay and they have a caviar and vodka hour that starts around 6.

The California Sea Lions invade the docks outside Pier 39 with a passion each January, and stay most of the year, although many of them leave for the summer months.  They are fun to watch for awhile, as they jostle for position and bark orders at each other nonstop.  Sea Lion Cam on Pier 39 in San Francisco

• "Lots of kid attractions here: merry-go-round, media experiences, arcade, a walk-through aquarium and the famous sea lions and inexpensive - moderately priced dining with a view."
• "Walk the whole Ghirardelli Square/The Cannery/Fisherman's Wharf/Pier 39 area.  These popular SF landmarks are right in a row alongside the bay at the north end of the Embarcadero.  All within easy walking distance of Fisherman's Wharf Hotels."
  

• "Be sure you pay a few dollars more and get the headphones so you get a self-guided tour, because there are no personally guided tours, except for a huge group with one ranger with no amplification.  Without the headphones, you are going to miss out on so much, and you won't enjoy your trip nearly as much.  During high season, the tour sells out well in advance, so don't wait until you get to SF to buy tickets or you may miss out.  You can buy your tickets online, by phone and in person."

Golden Gate Park has a windmill with tulips, carousel, herd of roaming buffalo, and several museums and an arboretum. On Sundays, they close the park off to cars and it is filled with skaters, bicyclers and skateboarders, as well as often having interesting events like picnic contests or free Opera performances.

Check the Bay Guardian when you first get to the city (free on many street corners). It always has a comprehensive list of events, performances and other unusual attractions for the week.  In addition, its annual Best of the Bay issue is worth viewing.

There is a booth in Union Square where you can get half-price tickets for the day's performances starting at 11 a.m. on Tues.-Sun., as well as full-price tickets for anything, and various public transportation passes starting at 10 a.m. The best half-price tickets sell out fairly early, and many of the transactions are cash only.

Walk through Chinatown and North Beach and smell all the strange smells in the Chinese and Italian Apothecaries and Delis.

• "A fascinating and exotic area to walk through.  There is a 2-for-1 coupon for the All About Chinatown tour in the Entertainment book."

Giants Baseball Game or Pac Bell Park Tour (Weekend games sell out and night games are cold - order your tickets online in advance.)   Tours are offered daily from 10 am to 2 pm depending on the team's schedule and area availability.   Note that there is no parking at the park - take public transportation.  The private lots in the area are $10 - $20 for the game.  
Tickets can be purchased at Pac Bell Park Ticket Office (Mon. - Sun. 10 am to 5 pm) 
Giants Dugout Stores:
     Pac Bell Dugout Store - (415) 972 2000
     Four Embarcadero Center Dugout Store (415) 951 8888
Tickets.com - (510) 762-BALL and at sfgiants.com

Also - the A's stadium just across the bay in Oakland is very easy to get to on BART for just a few dollars and BART goes directly to the stadium.    2-for-1 coupon in the Entertainment book.

49ers Football Game - If you're more of a football fan than baseball fan, the 49ers still play in 3com stadium (formerly named Candlestick Park) during football season.  Beware: it can get cold.  The wind whips up across the bay late in the evening, and the cold wind can bring tears to your eyes.  If the game goes into overtime, they used to pass out crossed candlesticks as a badge of honor to everyone who stayed until the end.

Sail on a Pirate Ship - Cruise the San Francisco bay in a REAL pirate ship!

There's a Farmer's Market at the Ferry Plaza, near the Embarcadero, on Saturday mornings. Even if you don't get anything, it can often be fun to try free tastes of the fresh produce, baked goods, precooked seafood or preserves.  You can find info on San Francisco Farmers' Markets and festivals at SFgate.com

"If you are interested in the Cable Cars, go to the Cable Car Museum at Washington & Mason. You get there by cable car, of course.  Once there, you can look down on the "machinery" floor to see the cable as it moves through the house and back to the street, and you will find displays that explain both the history and how the cable cars work. They also have a fairly interesting gift shop."

• "San Francisco Cable Cars  More of an experience than efficient transportation because it is slow and crowded, and you may have to wait in a long line, but a must-do when you visit SF."

Monterey Bay Aquarium: Home Page - This is a world class aquarium about 1 1/2 hours south of SF.  Well-worth a day trip.  Reg. admission is $19.95 for adults and less for kids.  There is a $3 off up to 4 admissions coupon in the SF Entertainment book. 

Just North of San Francisco
Muir Woods - A beautiful coastal redwood park right across the Golden Gate Bridge.

Six Flags Marine World - You can take the ferry across the bay for this - FUN for kids!  This is a GREAT park with both awsome rides and fantastic animal/marine shows; almost too much to see in one day. 

• High-speed catamaran ferry service is offered from San Francisco's Fisherman's Wharf at Pier 39. For schedule information, call the Blue & Gold Fleet at (415) 773-1188 or Baylink at (707) 64-FERRY.  Six Flags Marine World - Vallejo Baylink Ferry Service ($10 off admission for up to 6 people in the Entertainment book.)

San Francisco Bay Model Visitor Center, 2100 Bridgeway, Sausalito (415) 332-3871.  For the more tectonically inclined traveler, you might enjoy this three-dimensional hydraulic model of San Francisco and the California Delta.

• "If your interests are more along conservation/sciences/geography/History and you are visiting San Francisco, you might want to go over to the S.F. Bay Model in Sausalito. The Bay Model is a three-dimensional hydraulic model of the San Francisco and Delta areas capable of simulating tides, currents and river inflows."

Nike Missle Site (415) 331-1453 If, on the other hand, you spend your vacations reminiscing about vanquishing "The Evil Empire," or just like to dream about blowing stuff up,  you might enjoy this missle site and the attached Cold War Museum.  On the North Side of the Golden Gate Bridge, toward the ocean.  See the website for exact location and directions.

• "An educational Cold War museum in the heart of Golden Gate National Recreation Area - for great views of the entrance to San Francisco Bay and some Cold War nostalgia."

San Francisco With Children
Many of the above suggestions would be interesting and fun for children.  The following additional suggestions are excerpted from a thread discussing what to see in San Francisco with children:

EVERY TUESDAY
Legion of Honor

FIRST WEDNESDAY OF EACH MONTH
The Exploratorium
The Zoo

FREE 365 DAYS A YEAR
San Francisco Botanical Gardens

Driving into San Francisco and parking is not recommended.  Most places are easily walkable or accessible via public transportation, and parking costs around $30 a day are the norm.  Then, even assuming that you have parking near your resort, whenever you take your car to go somewhere, chances are you will not be able to find a place to park near where you are going, and if you do, chances are good that it will cost you around $20+ each time you want to park.  In fact, your best bet, for the reasons discussed above, is not to bring, rent or use a car at all while in the city.  But for those who insist on doing so, several TUG members have done research on the issue, and here is what they recommend for parking your car while in San Francisco:

"What I found re parking for 24 hour periods:
The Donatello charges $28 + 14% tax which = $31.92.
The Union Square garage charges $25.
The garage at Geary & Mason charges $28.
A garage on Bush near Powell charges $24.
The lot at 8th & Market charges $18.
I checked many others near the Donatello with all being in the 28-30 range.
I drove the streets under the Bay Bridge but never found anything certain re prices. (Each time we walked toward that area we stopped for a glass of beer at Gordon Biersch's, admired the Bay view, and forgot the parking question.)

What I did this time:
One night we had a guest who parked at the Donatello. A friend let me use a parking spot at a t/s nearby which charged $20. We needed to go to the East Bay mid-week. We completed our errands at BayFair in San Leandro. This shopping mall/theater complex abuts the BayFair BART station. We left the car in the mall lot for the remaining days. We parked in the back between the movie theaters and the mall. Over to BART and back to SF.

What I plan to do next time:
Park in the Sunset / Richmond districts of SF.

Why?
Our final day, Saturday, was a nice day in SF. We had a few hours mid-afternoon before dinner. We took the N-Judah line to Ocean Beach and basked in the sun and sand (no swimming for us although others were). Along the ride out I saw street parking in these areas with no time limits. A fellow passenger said the only challenge was moving the car on street-sweeping days which are once a week and posted. Hmmmmm!

How much time does this take? No idea. If it takes too much time I can always park in any of the above lots."

"We park at the Pleasanton/Dublin BART station and pick up our car on the way home. Coming from Sacramento, that would work for you as well. It is about 45 min. from Pleasanton/Dublin to SF on BART.

Here is a list of SF parking: http://tinyurl.com/5lrnu

You can park at some of the BART stations. The stations in SF don't have parking and not all the stations with parking, offer extended parking. At the stations that do offer extended parking, you can park for free on the weekends and for a less than $10 a night on weeknights. You can register and pay for parking in advance on their website: http://www.bart.gov/index.asp

The station farthest south is the Fremont Station (above San Jose.) So you could drive to Freemont, park there, and then take BART into the city and use public transportation to get around in SF. Check their website to make sure Fremont offers extended parking."

"We have gone to SF many times and left our car in the ferry building parking lot in Vallejo for free and take the ferry across. Then we use cabs in the city or busses and avoid having to drive,find and pay for Parking You could also find parking in Tiburon, Sausilito or Larkspur and take the ferry.Over a week we feel we save a couple hundred dollars and have much more convenience.Few cab rides are over $7."

One TUGger tells us that there is free parking in a lot at 1254 13th Street on Treasure Island, just outside the City.  Treasure Island is in the middle of the Bay Bridge (which is the bridge that takes you to Oakland and the East Bay).  The following information and mapquest instructions should get you there:
"Treasure Island twenty minutes from S.F. by the MUNI 108 Busline that runs every 15 minutes. Treasure Island is an old Naval base that was decommissioned. The island is now used for residential purposes. The area I am suggesting is safe. You can leave your car or mobile home there. I've seen mobile home and cars there for over a week at a time. There is no street cleaning or towing on the lot I'm speaking of. Plus, the Police patrol the area regularly. The nice part is that it is free parking.

From San Francisco
Merge onto I-80 E toward BAY BRIDGE/OAKLAND. 2.8 miles Map

Take the exit on the LEFT toward TREASURE ISLAND. 0.1 miles Map

Turn SLIGHT LEFT onto TREASURE ISLAND RD. 0.4 miles Map

TREASURE ISLAND RD becomes AVENUE PALMS (Gate access required). 0.2 miles Map

Turn LEFT onto CALIFORNIA AVE. <0.1 miles Map

Turn RIGHT onto AVENUE PALMS. <0.4 miles Map

Turn RIGHT onto 9TH ST. <0.1 miles Map

Turn LEFT onto AVENUE B. <0.3 miles Map

Turn RIGHT onto GATEVIEW AVE. <0.1 miles Map

Turn RIGHT onto 13TH ST. <0.1 miles Map

End at 1254 13th St, San Francisco, CA 94130-1005 US

The lot is across the street."

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