# What to see in San Francisco **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [April 3, 2004, 3:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-to-see-in-san-francisco/238017 "2004-04-03T03:52:13Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![anewthought](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/3da27b/32.png) [@anewthought](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/anewthought)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2004, 3:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-to-see-in-san-francisco/238017/1 "2004-04-03T03:52:13Z")
Going to San Francisco in 2 weeks, summer vacation. We have some things we want to see for sure, but what other places would you recommend to go or things to do? Highway 1 up the coast Bed & Breakfast Subway System Trolley Fishermans Wharf Old downtown hotels Chinatown Saualito Golden Gate Bridge & SF Bay What else?!?! Not looking to spend a ton of money but would like to dig into the SF ‘culture’ a little bit ---
**Author:** ![mcbiggins](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/7c8e57/32.png) [@mcbiggins](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mcbiggins)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2004, 3:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-to-see-in-san-francisco/238017/2 "2004-04-03T03:56:17Z")
Lombard St.! The Persidio! City Lights Bookstore! Barry Bonds! ---
**Author:** ![Snooooopy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ee7513/32.png) [@Snooooopy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snooooopy)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2004, 5:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-to-see-in-san-francisco/238017/3 "2004-04-03T05:07:30Z")
Hookers in the Tenderloin! ---
**Author:** ![John\_Kentzel-Griffin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ccd318/32.png) [@John\_Kentzel-Griffin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Kentzel-Griffin)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2004, 6:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-to-see-in-san-francisco/238017/4 "2004-04-03T06:09:39Z")
General Questions is for questions with factual answers. IMHO is for opinions and polls. I’ll move this to IMHO for you. **DrMatrix** - GQ Moderator ---
**Author:** ![Amazingrace](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/8edcca/32.png) [@Amazingrace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Amazingrace)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2004, 2:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-to-see-in-san-francisco/238017/5 "2004-04-03T14:23:21Z")
Do Alcatraz. I believe that it’s best if you get tickets a few weeks ahead of time. It’s only about a half-day long adventure. I thought it would be dumb and boring, but it is really interesting. ---
**Author:** ![emekthian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ecae2f/32.png) [@emekthian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/emekthian)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2004, 4:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-to-see-in-san-francisco/238017/6 "2004-04-03T16:48:26Z")
Angel Island is fun. You can take the ferry (and who doesn’t like taking a ferry?) to the island from Tiberon, and hike there. There are some good trails, some historical buildings, and the view from the top of the mountain is definately worth the trip! ---
**Author:** ![tarragon918](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/d26b3c/32.png) [@tarragon918](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tarragon918)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2004, 4:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-to-see-in-san-francisco/238017/7 "2004-04-03T16:58:44Z")
I went to visit my brother there in 1985, and was there for two weeks! Boy, did I have a great time! Went up the coast to Eureka one weekend (saw Patrick’s Point there)–the drive up the coast is -beautiful-; stopped at a vineyard on the way back. Let’s see… I think my favorite thing was a cruise of the bay, believe it or not. Most of the time I was there (it was mid-July) the weather was wonderful; just a bit of fog, but the fog is wonderful too. I also visited Marin Headlands, Sausolito, the Seal Rocks, Golden Gate Park (where I visited both the Botanical Gardens and the Natural History museum), Coit Tower, Trans-America Pyramid observation deck, the Wharf (where I had a walk-away dungeness crab cocktail!), Embarcadaro, which is where the Giradeli chocolate factory is (YUM!), Chinatown… I know there is more, I just can’t recall it all right now. The other weekend, we went down to Santa Cruz. All I can say is that the coastline both north and south is gorgeous! I did -not- walk across the GG bridge, though! ---
**Author:** ![straykat23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c4cdca/32.png) [@straykat23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/straykat23)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2004, 2:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-to-see-in-san-francisco/238017/8 "2004-04-04T02:27:09Z")
There’s a terrific series of articles in the San Francisco Chronicle, “San Francisco for Virgins.” > **[Tour For San Francisco Virgins](https://www.sfgate.com/travel/article/Tour-For-San-Francisco-Virgins-2825068.php)** > > Tour For San Francisco Virgins Click on the articles in the Tour for SF Virgins box. Well written, fun, and gets you all around the city. ---
**Author:** ![minor7flat5](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/minor7flat5/32/258_2.png) [@minor7flat5](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/minor7flat5)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2004, 4:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-to-see-in-san-francisco/238017/9 "2004-04-04T04:06:57Z")
One one trip out there I rented a mountain bike and crossed the Golden Gate. There’s places by Pier 41 where you can rent a bike for a couple of hours for ten or fifteen bucks – they give you a laminated map with explicit directions to the bridge, to the ferry in Sausalito, and then back to their place. It was a humbling experience – I was not in tip-top form, but not horribly out of shape, and I was still huffing and puffing at times. About half the way up to the bridge, I stopped by the side of the road expecting to die at any minute, and some young twentysomething jocks rode up and asked me if I was OK. That said, it was beautiful, and I enjoyed it immensly. Do take advantage of the Sausalito ferry to come back – once you cross, you don’t want to go back over the bridge. When I was walking through town on Mason street, on my way to the Warf, I stumbled across the [Cable Car Museum](http://www.cablecarmuseum.com/). It’s _free_ and it’s pretty cool. Besides seeing some neat exhibits, you can also look into the bowels of the cable car system and see the machinery that powers the cables. If you are passing through the center of town, make sure to stop there. Another vote for Alcatraz. Make sure to pay extra for the audio tour: they give you a tape to listen to as you walk around various parts of the prison. After that, see if you can find one of the park rangers giving a tour – they are very interesting and will answer all of your questions. There’s something undescribable about walking the same halls as the prisoners did many years ago. Every once in a while you catch yourself looking at some commonplace object or a particular wall, or running your hand down the cold steel of one of the bars, and you think “This is the real place. This isn’t a movie set. People spent their entire lives looking at what I am seeing.” **Amazingrace** was right about tickets. They have a limit of something like 5,000 folks per day, so you must be sure to purchase your tickets ahead of time.