I have gotten great advice here in the past. We are going to San Francisco with a a side trip to Big Sur. Any advice on particular things to do, places to stay, and restaurants to go to. We are taking the opportunity to see Hamilton, since we cannot get tickets for the show in NYC, but other than that we are totally open to suggestions.
Definitely walk across the Golden Gate Bridge. But dress warmly!
See the Wharf, but don’t eat there. Ride the cable cars. Have a canoli and espresso at Stella Bakery, then go to Molinari’s for a great sandwich.
I just saw Hamilton in San Francisco, and it is great.
What stuff do you like to do? San Francisco has tons. There are some nice trails along the Pacific. There is the Presido with nice trails, a good museum about the Presidio’s history, and also the Disney Family museum. Go to the Ferry Building to eat and walk along the shore to see the sea lions.
If you walk the bridge, I’d suggest going halfway. You can see the San Francisco skyline just fine from the halfway point. The observation center on the Marin side is more for cars. I went all the way across, and the view from the middle is much better.
Take a cable car, but also go to the free cable car museum. There are also a bunch of good museums in Golden Gate Park.
Wear good shoes and be prepared to climb - but if you play your cards right you can go down hills, not up them.
In the Big Sur Area, depending on your interest, at Andrew Molera State Park there’s a pretty easy trail to the mouth of the Little Sur River.
Oh, and don’t forget to check out Lombard Street, “The crookedest street in the world.”
And be sure to walk down it. You can tell the start by the tourists taking pictures.
BTW there is an even more impressive set of steps than Lombard Street - Telegraph Hill the steps for which run from near Coit Tower to the Embarcadero. The view going down is tremendous.
Again, go down, unless you want a real workout.
On your way to (or from) Big Sur, be sure to check out the world-famous Monterey Bay Aquarium… especially the otters.
as a Brit, who has visited SF a few times, have loved walking around the Golden Gate Park on a sunny Sunday afternoon. Just a short walk from there to Haight/Ashbury, which used to be quite evocative but I found a bit “meh” when I was last there 10 years ago.
Be sure to check out City Lights book store.
And be sure to wear some flowers in your hair.
And fly Trans Love Airways.
It will be worth it, if not for the sake of this thread, but for the sake of your own peace of mind.
Personally, I thought the tour of Alcatraz was super cool.
I was there in 1965 when the proto-hippies were arriving, then again in 1980 when it was pretty now ghettoized. Then it recovered but it’s just like any other hip urban neighborhood now.
Pretty well ghettoized.
Don’t know how much time you have or what your budget is, but here are a few noteworthy things to do that haven’t yet been mentioned:
In San Francisco, a tour of the Ghirardelli Chocolate Factory is fun. If there is a chance to attend an opera at the War Memorial Opera House, that’s pretty wonderful. An Italian meal in North Beach is a treat, but you’ll want to find out from locals where the best places are these days. They change.
If you have transportation and don’t mind a short jaunt north, it’s well worth your time to drive to Mt. Tamalpais in Marin County for a stroll among the redwoods. They are unforgettable. This drive will also take you across the Golden Gate Bridge, a memorable thing for anyone to do.
When you’re ready for a stop in Big Sur, try either Nepenthe or Ventana Big Sur for lunch. Both are expensive – you’ll pay nearly $20 for a good hamburger at Nepenthe and that’s the “cheap place” – but the views are unsurpassed if you manage a clear day. Bear in mind that in summer, the heat in the San Joaquin Valley sucks the fog up against the coast in Big Sur, so perfect views are chancy. Always bring a sweater.
For the quintessential Big Sur experience, stop at Limekiln and hike to either the beach or up to the kiln or both. The hiking is easy and beautiful.
There’s an In N’ Out there. So get yourself a Double Double Animal Style.
I was in San Francisco last March and the one thing I found was that compared to most other cities was that the “touristy” things were actually a lot of fun. Fisherman’s Wharf, Golden Gate, Alcatraz, Cable Cars, etc. You can’t go wrong.
When I was at the Wharf last September I sent my daughter a picture of my In N’ Out meal with the rationalization that I’d never had In N’ Out before, and I’m well aware that the closest most restaurants on the Wharf come to a “fisherman” is the logo on the frozen seafood box.
My standard recommendation in the past has been Tommy’s Joynt, but after my last visit I’m not so sure. The people on the line seemed to be just going through the motions: they didn’t snarl at me once.
I live in San Francisco and I agree with this. When friends visit, I usually take them to the most obvious tourist attractions. They always enjoy it, and I love becoming a tourist in my own city.
Recently a friend and I took the SF Love Tour, and it was an absolute blast.
The best Chinese restaurants in San Francisco aren’t in Chinatown. They’re in the Richmond District, mostly on Geary and Clement Streets. It’s hard to go wrong picking a Chinese restaurant in that neighborhood.
The Mission District is famous for Mexican food. La Taqueria is one of the most-loved, but there are plenty of other great places.
The Ferry Building Marketplace is a must for any foodie. There are restaurants and food stalls, bakeries, cheese makers, chocolatiers, and more.
North Beach is the historically Italian neighborhood. It’s a great place just to walk around and look at things. There are some very spots to get an espresso or cappuccino. One of the best-known is Caffe Trieste, but there are plenty of others.
There are three cable car lines, two of which start at Powell and Market. These two are the ones that tourists usually ride, because their routes are more interesting than the California Street line. If you get on at Powell and Market, you’ll have to wait in a long line. To avoid this, go up the street about a block to the first stop and board there. The conductors always leave a little space on each car to allow more people to get on, so you’ll be able to board without a long wait.
If you like the oddball and the quirky, you should visit Musée Mécanique near Fisherman’s Wharf. It’s a museum with over 200 antique arcade machines. Admission is free, but you have to feed coins to the machines to use them. Be sure to drop a coin in the Laffing Sal near the entrance.
If you want to visit Alcatraz, get your tickets ASAP. They sell out quickly.
The Exploratorium is a hands-on science museum. Most of the exhibits are participatory. That is, you do things rather than just look at stuff.
I usually encourage visitors to San Francisco to go to Muir Woods, but you should see plenty of redwood trees in Big Sur, so Muir Woods would be redundant.
When (not if) you visit the Golden Gate Bridge, you might want to visit Fort Point, which is a civil war era brick fort under the San Francisco end of the bridge. It’s a great place for anyone with an interest in history, and you get a different view of the bridge from there.
The best view of the Golden Gate Bridge is from Battery Spencer on the Marin County side.
Art museums worth visiting include the Palace of the Legion of Honor, the Asian Art Museum, the De Young Museum, and the Museum of Modern Art. The Academy of Science has a good museum in Golden Gate Park, near the De Young.
Strybing Arboretum and the Conservatory of Flowers in Golden Gate Park are well worth visiting.
If you like to walk, you can see some great views of the city by going up the Filbert Steps. They start where Filbert Street runs into the east side of Telegraph Hill, and end at Coit Tower on top of the hill. You can see San Francisco Bay on the way up, and can also get a look at some very nice homes and gardens. With some luck you might see some wild parrots. I should warn you that this path involves a lot of climbing.
On your side trip to Big Sur, you might want to visit the Monterey Bay Aquarium. You should know that it takes a least four hours to see everything there, so it might not be worth your while if you can only spend a couple of hours there.
Another place you might want to see on your way to or from Big Sur is Point Lobos State Natural Reserve. It has been called “the crown jewel of the state park system,” and “the greatest meeting of land and water in the world.” A friend whom I took there said that “everything here looks like a Sierra Club calendar.”
Check out Mort Sahl Live on Thursdays at The Throckmorton Theater in Mill Valley (over the bridge).