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San Francisco, United States, top 10 things to do (Wimup travel guide)
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Top 10North AmericaUnited States

Top 10 Things To Do in San Francisco

Country
United States
Best months
Sep · Oct · May
Population
874K
Language
English
Budget / day
$170–330
Quick answer

Four days, split by geography rather than by checklist. Give the first to the northwest corner: the Presidio, the Tunnel Tops and a walk onto the Golden Gate Bridge. Book Alcatraz for the second morning and spend the afternoon on the Embarcadero. The third is Golden Gate Park and one of its museums, ending at Lands End. Keep the fourth for neighbourhoods on foot: Chinatown, North Beach, the Mission.

San Francisco on Foot

▶ Video guide Open the film page (4:00:12) →

San Francisco is 47 square miles of hills wedged between a bay and an ocean, and the weather, the architecture and the politics all change within a few blocks. Distances are short and the gradients are not, so the difference between a good day here and an exhausting one is usually a decision about transport.

The 10 best things to do in San Francisco

1

Walk out onto the Golden Gate Bridge

Landmark· Golden Gate Bridge, San Francisco, CA 94129, United States

The bridge opened on 27 May 1937 with a 4,200 foot main span, the longest in the world until 1964. Walking it is the point: the east sidewalk is the pedestrian side, the deck moves under traffic, and the fog either hides the towers or sits below them. For the view of the span rather than from it, cross to Battery Spencer.

Time2 hours
CostFree on foot
Best atLate afternoon
TipWind on the deck is stronger and colder than the city behind you
Map↗ Website
Alcatraz Island, San Francisco, United States (Wimup)
2

Take the ferry to Alcatraz

Island prison· Alcatraz Island, San Francisco, CA 94133, United States

A harbour fort, then a military prison, then the penitentiary that held Al Capone between 1934 and 1963, and a national park site since 1972. What makes it worth half a day is the cellhouse audio tour, narrated by former inmates and guards. The graffiti from the 1969 occupation is preserved rather than painted over.

Time3 hours
CostTicketed
Best atThe first departure of the day
TipBook weeks ahead. Sailings sell out, and no other operator can land you on the island.
Map↗ Website
Golden Gate Park, San Francisco, United States (Wimup)
3

Spend a day in Golden Gate Park

Park· 501 Stanyan St, San Francisco, CA 94117, United States

A thousand acres of former sand dunes, laid out from 1870 and planted into a forest, running three miles from the Haight to the Pacific. Two major museums, a Japanese tea garden, a bison paddock and a windmill, which is more than one day carries, so pick a half. JFK Drive has been car-free since 2022.

TimeHalf a day
CostFree
Best atWeekday mornings
TipThe park is three miles long
Map↗ Website
4

Ride the Powell-Hyde cable car

Transport· Powell St & Market St, San Francisco, CA 94102, United States

Three lines survive of the system that once covered the city, and they are the last manually operated cable cars in the world: a gripman clamps a lever onto a cable running at nine and a half miles an hour. Powell-Hyde is the one worth queueing for. At the Market terminus the cars are turned by hand on a wooden turntable.

Time1 hour
CostA single-ride Muni cable car fare
Best atBefore 9am
TipBoard at a stop along the line rather than at Powell and Market
Map↗ Website
Ferry Building, San Francisco, United States (Wimup)
5

Eat your way through the Ferry Building

Market· 1 Ferry Building, San Francisco, CA 94111, United States

The 1898 building with the clock tower survived the 1906 earthquake, spent forty years hidden behind a freeway and got its waterfront back after 1989. Inside is a nave of permanent food stalls; outside, the farmers market runs three days a week, with over a hundred vendors on Saturday. It is also a working ferry terminal.

Time2 hours
CostFree to enter
Best atSaturday between 8am and 11am
TipDo the outdoor market first and the indoor stalls after
Map↗ Website
Presidio Tunnel Tops, San Francisco, United States (Wimup)
6

Cross the Presidio to the Tunnel Tops

Park· 210 Lincoln Blvd, San Francisco, CA 94129, United States

A military post for 218 years under three flags until the army handed it over as parkland in 1994. Presidio Tunnel Tops opened in 2022 on fourteen acres built over the highway tunnels, and it is the best free viewpoint in the city. Below it, Crissy Field runs along a restored marsh to Fort Point under the bridge.

Time3 hours
CostFree
Best atLate morning
TipWalk it west to east so the bridge is in front of you rather than behind.
Map↗ Website
7

Walk Chinatown from the Dragon Gate

Neighborhood· Grant Ave & Bush St, San Francisco, CA 94108, United States

The oldest Chinatown in North America, settled from 1848 and rebuilt after 1906 in a deliberately theatrical style its merchants commissioned. Grant Avenue is the souvenir spine and the reason to walk one block either side: Waverly Place for the temple balconies, Ross Alley for the fortune cookies, Stockton for the markets.

Time2 hours
CostFree to walk
Best atMid-morning
TipGrant Avenue is the show, Stockton Street is the neighbourhood. Do both.
Map↗ Website
8

Follow the Lands End trail to the Sutro Baths

Coast walk· 680 Point Lobos Ave, San Francisco, CA 94121, United States

The city's northwest corner is a cliff walk through cypress with the Golden Gate on one side and the open Pacific on the other, ending at the concrete shell of the Sutro Baths, a glass-roofed swimming complex that opened in 1896 and burned in 1966. Combine it with the Legion of Honor on the ridge above.

Time2 hours
CostFree
Best atAn hour before sunset
TipCheck a tide table. Low tide is when the ruins and the wrecks are worth the walk.
Map↗ Website
9

Give SFMOMA an afternoon

Museum· 151 Third St, San Francisco, CA 94103, United States

Founded in 1935 as the first museum on the West Coast dedicated to modern art, and doubled by Snøhetta's rippling white extension in 2016. The strength is the postwar American collection and the photography, and the building repays the walk. Richard Serra's Sequence is free to see from the street. Pick three floors.

Time3 hours
CostTicketed
Best atWeekday afternoons
TipStart on the top floor and work down. Everyone else starts at the bottom.
Map↗ Website
10

See the Mission murals and finish at Dolores Park

Street art· Balmy Alley, San Francisco, CA 94110, United States

Balmy Alley has carried murals since the 1970s and became one continuous artwork in 1984, when Latina artists painted its length in protest at US policy in Central America. Clarion Alley is its younger counterpart, repainted constantly since 1992. Walk 24th Street between them and end uphill at Dolores Park.

Time3 hours
CostFree
Best atWeekend afternoons
TipBalmy and Clarion are alleys off the main streets
Map↗ Website

9 of the 10, mapped

San Francisco · 9 spots
AllLandmarksMuseumsFoodFree

San Francisco travel FAQ

How many days do you need in San Francisco?+
Four. One for the bridge, the Presidio and Crissy Field, one for Alcatraz and the waterfront, one for Goldengate Park and the museums, and one for the Mission, the Castro and the hills. Three works if you drop a museum day, and anything beyond four is better spent on Point Reyes or the wine country than on more of the city.
When is the best time to visit San Francisco?+
September and October. The fog that defines the summer thins out, the wind drops and those two months are reliably the warmest and clearest of the year. May and early June are the next best window. July and August are cold, grey and busy, which surprises people every single year.
Do you need a car in San Francisco?+
Not in the city. Muni, BART and your legs cover everything here, parking is expensive and scarce, and the hills punish anyone learning to drive a manual. Rent for the day you go to Point Reyes or Napa, and leave nothing visible inside it: break-ins on parked cars are the city's most common crime against visitors.
Is San Francisco safe for visitors?+
The tourist areas are, with the ordinary caution any large city asks for. Street conditions in parts of the Tenderloin and mid-Market are genuinely rough and are best avoided after dark, and property crime is the real risk rather than violence. Keep bags with you on public transport and empty your rental car every time you leave it.
Do you have to book Alcatraz in advance?+
Yes. Sailings routinely sell out weeks ahead, especially between June and September, and City Cruises is the National Park Service's only official concessioner: any other seller is reselling at a markup or selling a bay cruise that never lands. Book direct as soon as your dates are fixed.
Where to walk

Best neighborhoods in San Francisco

Six districts that each read as their own town, from the Mission's murals to the Richmond's Clement Street.
The MissionMission District

The Mission

Food, murals, nightlife

The Latino heart of the city and its best eating, from taquerias on Mission Street to the pastry queue at Tartine. Flat, sunny and covered in murals.

Map
North BeachNorth Beach

North Beach

Cafes, bookshops, bars

Italian San Francisco and Beat San Francisco on the same six blocks: Washington Square, the espresso bars on Columbus, City Lights and the bars the poets drank in.

Map
Haight-AshburyUpper Haight

Haight-Ashbury

Vintage, record shops

The 1967 Summer of Love address, now a strip of record shops, vintage clothing and Victorians, with the park panhandle at one end.

Map
The CastroCastro

The Castro

Nightlife, history

The first place in the United States where a gay neighbourhood organised itself into political power. The theatre marquee, the rainbow crossings and the Milk memorials.

Map
Hayes ValleyHayes Valley

Hayes Valley

Shops, restaurants

A freeway came down here after the 1989 earthquake, and the neighbourhood that grew back is the most walkable shopping district in the city.

Map
Richmond District

Outer Richmond

Food, everyday city

Clement Street is the city's second Chinatown and its least touristed food street, running west through Russian bakeries and dim sum counters.

Map
Where to eat

Best restaurants in San Francisco (2026)

Six that have earned their queues, from a 1912 oyster counter to a Michelin-starred dining room serving off dim sum carts.
Hayes Valley

Zuni Café

Californian

Open since 1979 on Market Street, and the roast chicken for two with bread salad is the dish the city built a reputation on. The room is a glass wedge.

Map↗ Website
Polk Gulch

Swan Oyster Depot

Seafood counter

A marble counter with a couple of dozen stools, run by the same family since 1912. Oysters, crab and chowder, and a queue on the pavement most of the day.

Map
Mission District

La Taqueria

Mexican

A James Beard America's Classics winner on Mission Street and the strongest argument in the burrito debate: no rice, more meat, the tortilla griddled.

Map
Polk Gulch

House of Prime Rib

Prime rib

One dish since 1949, carved from a silver cart at the table, with a spinning salad bowl as the opening act. A James Beard hospitality award in 2026.

Map↗ Website
Mission District

Tartine Bakery

Bakery

The corner bakery that reset American bread. Country loaves come out in the afternoon and go quickly; the morning bun is the thing to queue for before that.

Map↗ Website
Fillmore

State Bird Provisions

Tasting plates

Small plates carried around the room on dim sum carts, which sounds like a gimmick and works. It holds a star in the 2026 Michelin guide and still books out weeks ahead.

Map↗ Website
Where to drink

Best bars in San Francisco

Five bars with a century of argument behind them, including the one that brought Irish coffee to America.
Fisherman's Wharf

The Buena Vista

Irish coffee

Irish coffee arrived in the United States here in 1952, recreated after a trip through Shannon Airport. Poured in a line of glasses down the counter.

Map↗ Website
North Beach

Vesuvio Cafe

Historic bar

The Beat generation's bar, open since 1948, on the alley beside City Lights bookshop. Two floors of stained glass and old posters, and a balcony over Columbus Avenue.

Map↗ Website
Hayes Valley

Smuggler's Cove

Tiki

Three floors of shipwreck timber in Hayes Valley holding what the bar says is the largest rum selection in the country. Researched rather than sweetened.

Map↗ Website
Nob Hill

Tonga Room

Tiki

A tiki bar in the Fairmont basement since 1945, built around a hotel swimming pool, with a band on a floating barge and a rainstorm every half hour.

Map
Lower Haight

Toronado

Beer bar

A Lower Haight beer bar with a long chalkboard of taps, no food and no interest in changing. The Belgian and West Coast lists are the reason to come.

Map
What to see indoors

Best museums and galleries in San Francisco

Six beyond SFMOMA, covering European painting, Asian art, hands-on science and a living roof you can stand on.
de Young MuseumGolden Gate Park

de Young Museum

Art museum

The Golden Gate Park half of the Fine Arts Museums, in a perforated copper building oxidising to match the trees. American art, textiles, and the tower.

Map↗ Website
Golden Gate Park

California Academy of Sciences

Science museum

An aquarium, a planetarium, a natural history museum and a four-storey rainforest under one Renzo Piano roof, with a living wildflower meadow on top.

Map↗ Website
Legion of HonorLands End

Legion of Honor

Art museum

A 1924 copy of a Paris palace on the cliffs at Lincoln Park, holding European painting and one of the largest Rodin collections outside France.

Map↗ Website
Civic Center

Asian Art Museum

Art museum

One of the largest collections of Asian art in the West, in the old main library on Civic Center, covering six thousand years across the continent.

Map↗ Website
ExploratoriumEmbarcadero

Exploratorium

Science museum

Frank Oppenheimer's hands-on science museum, founded in 1969 and on Pier 15 since 2013. Several hundred exhibits you operate yourself.

Map↗ Website
Walt Disney Family MuseumPresidio

Walt Disney Family Museum

Biography museum

The Presidio barracks that tell the story rather than the brand: early animation tests, the multiplane camera, the failures alongside the films.

Map↗ Website
Outside the park

Best parks and outdoor spots in San Francisco

Five green and coastal spaces beyond Golden Gate Park, including two miles of highway that became an oceanfront park in 2025.
Sunset DunesOuter Sunset

Sunset Dunes

Oceanfront park

The Upper Great Highway closed to cars in March 2025 and reopened as a park: two miles of former highway along Ocean Beach, now walking and cycling.

Map↗ Website
Presidio

Crissy Field

Bayfront

A former army airfield turned into a restored tidal marsh and a beach path with the bridge at the end. The flattest good walk in the city.

Map↗ Website
Baker BeachPresidio

Baker Beach

Beach

The postcard angle on the bridge, from the sand below the Presidio bluffs. The water is cold and dangerous, and the north end is clothing-optional.

Map↗ Website
Fort FunstonLake Merced

Fort Funston

Cliffs

Sandstone cliffs at the southwest corner where hang gliders launch off the bluff on the westerly wind. Off-leash dogs everywhere, and a trail down to a long empty beach.

Map↗ Website
Glen Park

Glen Canyon Park

Canyon

A creek, a rock canyon and a red-tailed hawk or two, in the geographic middle of the city. Locals use it and visitors never find it.

Map↗ Website
Where to look

Best viewpoints in San Francisco

Five hills and towers, ranked by what they show rather than by how high they are.
Twin Peaks

Twin Peaks

Summit

The 360 degree view, from downtown to the ocean, at nine hundred feet. The eastern half of the boulevard is closed to cars and being rebuilt as a promenade.

Map↗ Website
Coit TowerTelegraph Hill

Coit Tower

Tower

A 1933 tower on Telegraph Hill wrapped inside with Depression-era murals of California at work. A lift runs to the deck; climb the Filbert Steps to reach it.

Map↗ Website
Bernal Heights

Bernal Heights Park

Hilltop

A bare grass hill south of the Mission with the skyline laid out end to end and a fraction of the crowd of Twin Peaks. Dogs, kites and the best sunset in the city.

Map↗ Website
Inner Sunset

Grand View Park

Hilltop

Reached by the 16th Avenue Tiled Steps, a mosaic of sea and sky running up 163 risers, then a sand-dune summit looking straight down the Sunset to the Pacific.

Map
Alamo SquareAlamo Square

Alamo Square

City view

The Painted Ladies on Steiner Street with the downtown towers behind them, which is the most photographed row of houses in the country. Go early, the lawn faces east.

Map↗ Website
Beyond the city

Best day trips from San Francisco

Five trips within 90 minutes: redwoods, a ferry town, an open coast, an island and a college town.
Muir WoodsMarin County

Muir Woods

Redwoods, 30 min

Old-growth coast redwoods half an hour north of the bridge, on flat boardwalk trails. Parking and shuttle seats must be reserved in advance, every day of the year.

Map↗ Website
SausalitoMarin County

Sausalito

Ferry town, 30 min

A ferry from the Ferry Building or Pier 41, a waterfront of houseboats and galleries, and the bridge from the other side on the way back. The crossing is the attraction.

Map↗ Website
Point Reyes National SeashoreMarin County

Point Reyes National Seashore

Coast, 90 min

An hour and a half north: a lighthouse at the windiest point on the Pacific coast, elk on Tomales Point, and the beach where the San Andreas runs out to sea.

Map↗ Website
Angel IslandSan Francisco Bay

Angel Island

Island, 45 min

The largest island in the bay, reached by ferry, with a five mile perimeter road and the immigration station that processed arrivals from Asia after 1910.

Map↗ Website
BerkeleyEast Bay

Berkeley

College town, 30 min

Half an hour on BART: the university campus and its campanile, the bookshops on Telegraph Avenue, and the restaurant strip on Shattuck that invented California cuisine.

Map
What's on

Festivals & annual events in San Francisco (2026)

Time your trip around the dates the city closes streets for.
Feb

Lunar New Year Parade

The largest Lunar New Year parade outside Asia, staged at night through Union Square and Chinatown, ending with the Golden Dragon.

Apr

Northern California Cherry Blossom Festival

Two weekends in Japantown, with taiko, martial arts demonstrations and a closing parade. The neighbourhood at its liveliest.

May

Bay to Breakers

A twelve kilometre run from the bay to the ocean, held since 1912 and only nominally a race. Much of the field walks it.

May

Carnaval San Francisco

The Mission's own carnival, with a Sunday parade of Latin American and Caribbean dance groups down 24th Street.

Jun

San Francisco Pride

One of the largest Pride events anywhere, with the parade up Market Street on the last Sunday in June. Book a bed months out.

Aug

Outside Lands

Three days of music in the polo fields at the west end of Golden Gate Park. Cold and foggy by evening, whatever the month.

Oct

Hardly Strictly Bluegrass

A free three day festival in Golden Gate Park, endowed so that it would stay free. Six stages, no tickets, bring a blanket.

Oct

Fleet Week

Ships open along the Embarcadero and the Blue Angels over the bay, in what is usually the clearest week of the year.

Getting around

San Francisco transport & airports

How to arrive, and how to move around a city built on hills.
SFO

San Francisco International

The main airport, 21 kilometres south of downtown. BART runs from inside the International Terminal and reaches downtown in about half an hour, which beats a taxi at any hour.

Map↗ Website
OAK / SJC

Oakland and San Jose

Two alternatives across the bay, often cheaper. Oakland connects to BART by shuttle and is about 45 minutes from downtown. San Jose is an hour or more and works best with a car.

Map↗ Website
City transit

Muni

Buses, light rail through the Market Street subway, the historic F-line streetcars and the three cable car lines are all one system. Pay with a Clipper card or the MuniMobile app.

Map↗ Website
Regional

BART, Caltrain and the ferries

BART runs under Market Street to the airport, Oakland and Berkeley. Caltrain leaves 4th and King down the peninsula. Ferries cross to Sausalito, Tiburon and Angel Island.

Map↗ Website
Traditional food

Must-try dishes in San Francisco, United States

The dishes this city invented, and where they came from.
Sourdough bread, San Francisco (Wimup travel guide)

Sourdough bread

Sour from a wild yeast the Gold Rush bakers cultivated and kept. Boudin has baked it since 1849.

Cioppino, San Francisco (Wimup travel guide)

Cioppino

A tomato and wine seafood stew invented by Italian fishermen here out of whatever the boats brought.

Irish coffee, San Francisco (Wimup travel guide)

Irish coffee

Coffee, whiskey, sugar and a float of lightly whipped cream, recreated at the Buena Vista in 1952.

Fortune cookie, San Francisco (Wimup travel guide)

Fortune cookie

Traced here to the Japanese Tea Garden in the early 1900s. Ross Alley still folds them by hand.

Mission burrito

Steamed tortilla, rice, beans, meat, salsa, foil, the size of a forearm. Invented here in the 1960s.

Dungeness crab

The Bay Area's winter shellfish, sold cracked and cold or roasted in garlic. The season start moves yearly.

Dim sum

Chinatown and the Richmond do this better than most cities outside Asia, from trolleys to bakery counters.

It's-It

Vanilla ice cream between two oatmeal cookies, dipped in dark chocolate. Invented by the ocean in 1928.

San Francisco fact sheet

San Francisco at a glance

The essentials worth knowing before you go.
Country
United States
Region
Northern California, on a peninsula between the Pacific and San Francisco Bay
Population
873,965 at the 2020 census, with the Census Bureau estimating about 828,000 in mid-2024
Founded
1776, when Spain established the Presidio and Mission San Francisco de Asís. The settlement of Yerba Buena was renamed San Francisco in 1847 and the 1849 Gold Rush turned it into a city.
Nickname
The City by the Bay. Locals call it the City, and never Frisco.
Language
English, with Cantonese, Mandarin and Spanish widely spoken
Currency
US dollar (USD, $)
Time zone
Pacific Time, UTC−8, moving to UTC−7 for daylight saving from March to November
Calling code
+1, with 415 and 628 as the city's area codes
Airports
San Francisco International (SFO) 21 km south, plus Oakland (OAK) and San Jose (SJC) across the bay
Power
120V, 60Hz, type A and B plugs
Emergency
911 for police, fire and ambulance
Ideal length
4 days
Getting around
Muni buses, metro and streetcars, BART for the airport and the East Bay, and walking within neighbourhoods
Tourism board
Official site

Interesting facts

  • The summer fog is a weather system, not a mood. July and August are the greyest months here; September and October are the clear ones.
  • The three surviving cable car lines are the last manually operated system in the world, and a National Historic Landmark since 1964.
  • The 1906 earthquake was followed by three days of fire that did most of the destruction, and the city rebuilt inside nine years.
  • The Presidio was a working military post for 218 years, under Spain, Mexico and the United States, until the army left in 1994.
  • Alcatraz was occupied from 1969 to 1971 by Indians of All Tribes. The painted slogans are preserved rather than removed.

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