San Francisco – A Fabulous Weekend Itinerary!
I want to share with you my own truly fantastic San Francisco weekend itinerary!
If you can only manage a two-day break in San Francisco – by following my fabulous mini-itinerary – you’ll waste no time at all in optimising fun and having amazing experiences.
Over two fabulous days, we’ll explore the streets of San Francisco on foot and also use the famous San Francisco cable cars.
We’ll eat amazing food in San Francisco restaurants and hire bicycles to cycle over the Golden Gate Bridge and, of course, we’ll also get to Take a Guided Tour and explore the decommissioned prison on Alcatraz Island.
Each of these adventures and iconic experiences in San Francisco were high on our travel bucket list!
The backpacking husband and I were excited to be in The Golden City – a popular nickname for San Francisco – derived from the gold rush days!
Travel with me to San Francisco!
TWO PERFECT DAYS IN SAN FRANCISCO
On previous trips to the USA, we’d almost made it to San Francisco a couple of times but somehow it just didn’t happened.
This time around, we were on our way over the Pacific from an Amazing Trip to Asia, transiting through the USA.
We’d flown from Seoul in South Korea, via Beijing China, landing in San Francisco on a stop over while on route to the Caribbean.
And this gave us the opportunity to spend a fabulous 48-HOUR or TWO DAY pit stop in San Francisco!
Interestingly, during that flight over the Pacific Ocean, we experienced time travel!
We crossed the International Date Line and arrived in San Francisco half an hour before we actually left Seoul.
How crazy is that?
Of course, in real-time, we had been travelling so long that we were exhausted and jet-lagged.
See my post on how to manage jet lag and travel fatigue.
But we didn’t let that stop us embracing this opportunity to explore San Francisco at last!
TABLE OF CONTENTS
- TWO PERFECT DAYS IN SAN FRANCISCO
- what to do in San Francisco
- GUIDED CITY TOURS
- TAKE A GHOST TOUR!
- Iconic Landmarks & Attractions
- Cultural & Historical Sites
- Outdoor & Nature Activities
- Unique Experiences
- WHERE TO STAY IN SAN FRANCISCO
- San Francisco – MY Fabulous Weekend Itinerary
what to do in San Francisco
There is so much to see and do in San Francisco, which meant that for our action packed two day itinerary we had chose very carefully from all the iconic landmarks and fun attractions and cultural experiences on offer, to narrow down our options.
GUIDED CITY TOURS
I’m a big fan of taking organised and guided tours when exploring a city for the first time as they can often cover lots of the city’s main attractions in a short time.
Plus they are designed with visitor ease and comfort in mind, offering convenient pick-up points, pre-arranged tickets, all without the stress of planning your own transportation or routes.
Guided tours also provide historical context, guides who are knowledgeable (and often fun!) and who provide cultural stories and local tips, that you might otherwise miss if you’re exploring on your own.
There are LOTS of different types of guided tours that are available in San Francisco.
You might try a Walking Tour or a Sightseeing On Wheels Tour or a Food and Drink Tour.
TAKE A GHOST TOUR!
Once you’ve done Alcatraz and heard the tales and seen the sights you might of course be in the mood for a ghost tour.
US Ghost Adventures provides entertaining, historic and authentic ghost tours and experiences across the United States’ most haunted cities – including San Francisco – where from the spark of the Gold Rush, San Francisco has endured earthquakes, fires, deaths, and some of the most terrifying hauntings on the west coast!
Lost in a fog of tragedy and greed, San Francisco’s reputation as the city of gold has long vanished in the darkness with its forsaken souls so a ‘Gold and Ghouls Ghost Tour’ or a ‘Boos and Booze Haunted Pub Crawl’ or other spooky guided tour with US Ghost Adventures (who have uncovered a corrupted and shocking history with ‘Ol Frisco’s ghosts) will forever change the way you view the beloved Golden Gate City.
Iconic Landmarks & Attractions
GOLDEN GATE BRIDGE: Drive, walk, or bike across this world-famous bridge and enjoy breath-taking views.
ALCATRAZ ISLAND: Take a ferry tour (skip the line) to explore the infamous former prison and learn about its history.
FISHERMAN’S WHARF AND PIER 19: Enjoy seafood, street performers, and sea lions basking on the docks.
LOMBARD STREET: Visit the ‘crookedest street in the world‘ with its steep, winding turns and beautiful landscaping.
CHINATOWN: Explore the oldest and one of the largest Chinatowns in North America for authentic food, shops, and culture.
Cultural & Historical Sites
SAN FRANCISCO MUSEUM OF MODERN ART (SFMOMA): Discover one of the largest modern and contemporary art collections in the U.S.
EXPLORATORIUM: A hands-on science museum perfect for all ages.
PALACE OF FINE ARTS: Stroll through this beautiful Greco-Roman rotunda and lagoon, ideal for photography.
MISSION DISTRICT STREET MURALS: Admire colourful street art reflecting the neighbourhood’s Latino heritage.
HAIGHT-ASHBURY: Walk through the birthplace of the 1960s counterculture movement, known for its vintage shops and music history.
Outdoor & Nature Activities
GOLDEN GATE PARK: Explore this huge park (by vintage bus) featuring gardens, museums, a Japanese Tea Garden, and the California Academy of Sciences.
MUIR WOODS NATIONAL MOMNUMENT: Just outside the city you can walk among ancient coastal redwoods.
BAKER BEACH: Relax or take a guided hike to Baker Beach with views of the Golden Gate Bridge or enjoy a beachside picnic.
Unique Experiences
FOOD TOURS: Experience the diverse food scene with guided food tours Chinatown and in neighbourhoods like the Mission District, North Beach (Little Italy), or Ferry Building Marketplace.
CABLE CAR RIDE: Take a historic ride on one of San Francisco’s iconic cable cars.
FERRY RIDE TO SAUSALITO: Enjoy a scenic trip across the bay to the charming waterfront town of Sausalito.
STREET FAIRS AND FESTIVALS: Depending on the time of year, enjoy events like the North Beach Festival or Outside Lands Music Festival or take a holiday lights tour by hippy bus.
WHERE TO STAY IN SAN FRANCISCO
One of the reasons it had taken us a while to get to San Francisco during all our previous travels in the USA is that it is a very expensive city for hotel accomodation.
But, having amassed some hotel points, we managed to book a room using those points at The Holiday Inn Express in the Fisherman’s Wharf area in downtown San Francisco.
There is of course, a fabulous choice of accommodations to choose from in San Francisco so you might use my interactive accomodation map of the Golden City to find your perfect place to stay!
FIND YOUR PERFECT PLACE TO STAY IN SAN FRANCISCO
San Francisco – MY Fabulous Weekend Itinerary
DAY ONE: AM – MORNING
FISHERMAN’S WHARF, PIER 39, CLAM CHOWDER
We explored the Fisherman’s Wharf area and took a leisurely walk around Pier 39.
We watched stormy looking clouds roll in across the bay and we stopped to watch the sea lions that have made the place their home and were sleeping on the wooden dock.
We had a browse in the souvenir stores selling t-shirts and touristy trinkets.
We admired the view of Alcatraz Island and enjoyed what was a beautiful but breezy day.
I’ve heard that the San Francisco weather can be notoriously foggy and chilly with strong winds at certain times of the year.
We were there mid-April and it was an absolutely perfect time to visit.
There are so many songs about San Francisco and while you are there it’s hard not to bring them to mind and to quietly hum the tune to ‘San Francisco – Be Sure To Wear Flowers In Your Hair’ or ‘Sittin’ On The Dock Of The Bay’ or ‘I Left My Heart In San Francisco’ – or maybe that’s just me!
While we were at Pier 39 on Fisherman’s Wharf – with wonderful views of the bay – we had classic and delicious clam chowder from a sourdough bread bowl at a restaurant called ‘Chowders‘ for lunch!
For those of you who aren’t sure what a clam chowder is: I wrote a post about The Steep Streets and Cable cars and Clam Chowder Experience in San Francisco that you might also enjoy.
Clam Chowder is a thick and creamy chicken and potato broth soup with clams – that’s a kind of shellfish – for which San Francisco is famous and there are many restaurants claiming the best clam chowder!
DAY ONE: PM – AFTERNOON
CABLE CARS, STEEP STREETS, UNION SQUARE
After lunch and after exploring the pier, we were keen to explore the streets of San Francisco – especially the steep streets – and to travel up and down them on a cable car.
There are three cable car routes to choose from and we chose to take the cable car from Fisherman’s Wharf turnpike all the way to Union Square where it turns around at the junction of Market and Powell Street and then heads back up the street again.
You can ride on the cars by sitting on seats inside or outside.
You are also allowed to stand. Lots of people stand whether there are seats available or not – often on the running boards while hanging onto a pole – as this is how you get the best views of the steep streets and the harbour.
The cable car system is fascinating and unique.
Built in 1873, the cable car system is synonymous with the streets of San Francisco and it’s the last working system of its kind in the world.
The cable cars are powered by an engine located in a central powerhouse and they move by gripping an underground cable that is in constant motion.
The man operating the cable car is called the gripman as he is responsible for operating the grip and also ringing the bell.
We bought our cable car tickets from the ticket booth at the Fisherman’s Wharf turnpike or you can buy online.
As well as riding on the cable cars you can also visit The Cable Car Museum on the corner of Mason Street and Washington Street.
It’s free to enter and you can see historic cable cars and displays of interesting old photographs.
And, as this is actually the powerhouse of the cable car system, you can watch the huge engines at work as they pull those colossal cables that run the cars in use on the streets.
WATCH MY VIDEO AS WE RIDE THE CABLE CAR DOWN A STEEP STREET IN SAN FRANCISCO!
DAY TWO: AM – MORNING
CYCLING OVER THE GOLDEN GATE BRIDGE
We were up early on day two as we were very keen and excited to rent bicycles and cycle over the Golden Gate Bridge.
Cycling over the Golden Gate Bridge has long been a bucket list thing for me to do once we got to San Francisco.
We hired our bikes from a company called Blazing Saddles whom I’d recommend to you.
They have various outlets around the Bay Area and we found them to have friendly, knowledgeable staff and the perfect bikes for us.
They adjusted the seat, gave us some good information, and fitted us with bike helmets too.
If you are doing the ferry boat return from Sausalito then Blazing Saddles will also sell you the return ferry ticket as part of your package.
You’d think cycling across the Golden Gate Bridge might be a super energetic and exhausting and a really difficult thing to do – but with a medium level of fitness it’s actually not – even if you haven’t been on a bicycle for years.
This is because the cycle ride from Fisherman’s Wharf will take you on a leisurely route through the Aquatic Park, Fort Mason, the Marina, and The Presidio National Park on a mostly flat car-free paved bike path all the way to the base of the bridge.
And, cycling across the bridge itself, is also done on a car-free sidewalk with a barrier there to protect you from traffic and not the road itself.
You can of course always take it really easy and rent an electric bike instead!
If you take the self-guided bike rental rather than the guided tour then you can take your time and cycle over the Golden Gate Bridge at your own pace to Sausalito and have lunch before hopping on the ferry with your bike right back to San Francisco.
The approximate duration and distance from Fisherman’s Wharf are 1.5 hours or 8 miles to Sausalito.
We actually didn’t do this route because we had only allocated time in the morning to experience cycling the bridge.
We’d planned to go over to Alcatraz Island in the early afternoon.
So we biked along the bike path past the beautiful marina and waterfront area, taking in the views of the bay and the bridge and of Alcatraz Island and then once we reached the bridge, we cycled over it, and then did it again in reverse.
It was a glorious day with blue skies.
Certainly an improvement on the previous day’s grey skies.
And, we were lucky because the bridge wasn’t at all busy.
Nor was it at all misty or too windy, as I’ve heard it can get pretty foggy and gusty up there on occasions.
Biking over such an iconic and probably the most famous bridge in America was a fabulous pinch-me kind of bucket-list experience for me and I loved every minute of it!
Read my more detailed post on Biking Over The Golden Gate Bridge.
DAY TWO: PM – AFTERNOON
ALCATRAZ ISLAND TOUR
Taking a ferry over to Alcatraz Island and exploring the famous decommissioned prison is on most people’s travel agenda when they visit San Francisco. I’m no exception!
I was really excited about it and – as soon as we’d booked our flight to San Francisco – I went straight online to pre-book our tickets for Alcatraz.
I was really glad I did. I later found out that had I waited until we were actually in San Francisco to buy our tickets we would have been disappointed (gutted, actually) as tickets had all sold out for our dates.
So if you are planning to visit Alcatraz as part of a trip to San Francisco do plan ahead.
Tickets are available to purchase up to 90 days ahead online so buy before you go.
The Alcatraz Island Tour starts off from Pier 33 which is also known as Alcatraz Landing.
Pier 33 is just a short walk from Fisherman’s Wharf.
We arrived half an hour before our ferry time (as it says on the ticket) and we joined the queue.
Note that if you book through Get Your Guide you get to skip the queue!
It was a pleasant 15-minute ferry ride over to the island and it was exciting to see the imposing prison getting closer and closer as we stood on the deck snapping photos.
You can take your time and explore Alcatraz Island for as long as you like during the day and then take whatever ferry suits you back to the mainland.
We listened to the visitor’s welcome talk and then walked up the hill to the prison, stopping to look at the oldest lighthouse on the Californian coastline and also to take in the poignancy of the ‘Indians Welcome’ graffiti left by the Native Americans who occupied the island in 1969 to 1971.
It was a warm, sunny, and calm day when we entered the walls of the prison that had held the most dangerous criminals in America – like Al ‘Scarface’ Capone, George ‘Machine Gun’ Kelly, Arthur ‘Doc’ Barker and probably the most famous of all Robert ‘The Birdman’ Stroud.
Burt Lancaster starred in the 1962 movie ‘The Bird Man of Alcatraz‘ about Stroud’s life in solitary confinement on D Block. Stroud was reportedly never allowed to see it.
While walking around the cell blocks, as a writer with a vivid imagination, I could easily imagine what it must have been like to have been imprisoned there in the wintertime, on cold and dark and stormy nights.
It must have been horrible.
Inside the prison, the atmosphere was hauntingly oppressive.
We were told that when the wind blew towards the island, prisoners could often hear music and parties and people having fun in the city that was so close and yet so far away.
That was said to be the worst torture of all for the prisoners.
From my perspective, looking down from the prison wall to the water of the bay it looked as though it might be easy to escape simply by swimming away.
But the currents in the bay area are said to be treacherous.
There have of course in the past been many escape attempts.
The most fascinating escape attempt, in my opinion, and certainly the most mysterious, was on the night of 11 June 1962.
When brothers John and Clarence Anglin and fellow inmate Frank Morris pulled off a prison break so daring it went on to inspire Hollywood thriller Escape from Alcatraz starring Clint Eastwood.
The men used blades, spoons and a drill over the course of six months to gradually dig an exit opening through ventilation ducts in their cells.
They fashioned papier-mâché models of their own heads using plaster and their own hair to make them look lifelike.
Then, on the night of their daring escape, they used towels and clothing to pad out their beds and conceal their absence.
To date, the escape holes they forged and the model heads are still on display at Alcatraz inside the men’s prison cells!
You can read more details about this in my post – Escape From Alcatraz – A Mystery Solved!
I found this escape story utterly fascinating.
Until fairly recently, it was believed the three men had drowned in the bay on that night in 1962 because they were never seen again.
But a letter has since appeared, apparently written by John Anglin that may solve the mystery over what became of the three men.
The letter – obtained by CBS San Francisco – was allegedly sent to the city’s Richmond police station in 2013 and claims that Clarence Anglin died in 2011 and Morris in 2008.
You can read more about this letter and about John Anglin and the prisoners who escaped with him from Alcatraz in this fascinating 2018 news report in The Independent newspaper and in my article on Alcatraz Island Prison.
It was also interesting that while we were on the island, a former inmate, William ‘Bad Boy’ Baker, aged 80, who had written a book about his time in Alcatraz Prison in the 1950s entitled ‘Alcatraz – 1258’ was in the gift shop/bookshop that day to personally sign copies of his book. His prisoner number had been 1259.
Baker, who claims he learned how to counterfeit cheques in Alcatraz and ‘learned from the best’ is usually on the island every Wednesday through Friday to sign copies of his book.
It was great to meet him. He’s a real rockstar of The Rock!
After taking the headset tour and listening to all the interesting information and stories of Alcatraz – and of course, having my picture taken through the bars from inside one of the tiny cells, we went outside to take a breath of fresh air and admire the city skyline of San Francisco and The Golden Gate Bridge.
Visiting Alcatraz had been all and more than I expected.
It was an amazing experience!
You might also like to read my other posts on San Francisco:
SAN FRANCISCO – STEEP STREETS CABLE CARS AND CLAM CHOWDER
BIKING OVER THE GOLDEN GATE BRIDGE
ALCATRAZ ISLAND – A MYSTERY SOLVED
Have you ever been to San Francisco?
Did you ride the cable cars? Did you try the clam chowder?
What’s your favourite song about San Francisco?
Have you ever been to Alcatraz Island or are you planning a visit?
Have you biked the Golden Gate Bridge or do you plan to do it?
I’d love to hear from you!
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