The city takes two days. The rest is over the bridge.
Which Alcatraz ticket includes the ferry. What an hour on the bay costs at sunset instead of noon. Whether Muir Woods and Sausalito beat a day in the vineyards. Reviews of every tour you can book in San Francisco.
Four bookings a first San Francisco week gets built around.
The island, an hour on the water, the redwoods over the bridge and a day in the vineyards. What each costs, and what the people who took it say.
01The island morningAlcatraz Ticket, Ferry, & Self-Guided AppFerry from Pier 33 with the cellhouse audio walk included. The first sailing is the quiet one, and slots go weeks ahead all summer.
02Over the bridgeMuir Woods and Sausalito (Return by Bus or Ferry)Redwoods at Muir Woods, then lunch on the Sausalito waterfront and a ferry back past the island. The single most booked day on the site.
03An hour under the bridgeGolden Gate Bay CruiseUnder the Golden Gate and around the rock. The cheapest way to see the skyline the way the postcards do it.
04The vineyard dayNapa and Sonoma Wine Country Full-Day Tour from San FranciscoNapa and Sonoma on one run north. Tasting fees are usually extra, and somebody else driving is the entire point.
The best hour of a San Francisco day is spent offshore.
The bridge is a different object from underneath it, and Alcatraz only lands once you have crossed the water everyone on that island failed to. Three kinds of day afloat, and what it costs to get aboard each one.
Six San Francisco neighbourhoods, and the hours worth spending in each.
Lanterns over Grant Avenue, espresso and second-hand paperbacks in North Beach, mural alleys in the Mission, the rainbow crossings of the Castro, painted Victorians in the Haight and crab pots at the Wharf.
North of the Golden Gate the traffic thins and the trees get old.
Half an hour past the toll plaza there is a canyon of redwoods that were standing before the mission was built, a ferry town with houseboats tied along the mud, and vineyards an hour beyond that. Almost all of it is a day trip, and almost none of it minds the fog.
What San Francisco visitors actually book.
Every San Francisco review →The days out more travellers take than anything else here, and what earns each of them the slot.
1
Muir Woods and Sausalito (Return by Bus or Ferry)
Visit Muir Woods for 90 minutes among ancient coastal redwoods, then spend an hour in Sausalito. Gray Line guides such as Don, George, Jerry, and Judith provide commentary, while selected options add a bike ride or ferry return. Expect a compact, well-paced outing with limited free time.
From · $91
Read our review →
2
Big Bus SF: Hop-on Hop-off Tour with 17 Stops and Sunset Option
from $56
3
Napa and Sonoma Wine Country Full-Day Tour from San Francisco
from $165
4
Small Group Yosemite and Giant Sequoias Day Trip from San Francisco
from $239
5
Golden Gate Bay Cruise
from $38
6
Hop-On Hop-Off Sightseeing Tour with 17 Stops
from $56
7
Yosemite Highlights & Giant Sequoias Day Tour from San Francisco
from $219
8
San Francisco Super Saver: Muir Woods & Wine Country w/ optional Gourmet Lunch
from $179
What a day out in San Francisco actually costs.
Every tour on the site, grouped by what you pay for it. A good part of this city comes in under the price of dinner in the Mission.
Walking tours, the short bay cruises, bike hire and the self-guided city games.
- 1Golden Gate Bay Cruisefrom $38
- 2Golden Gate Bay Cruise (60 Minutes)from $39
- 3Skip-the-Line 1-Hour Bay Cruise by Boatfrom $38
Alcatraz with the ferry, the Muir Woods and Sausalito run, food walks and sunset sailings.
Yosemite and the wine country by coach, small-group days and the flights over the bay.
Napa and Sonoma are an hour apart and a whole day away.
Two valleys, one road north out of the city, and tasting fees that are almost never inside the ticket price. The days that work are the ones where the stops are already reserved and somebody else has the wheel.
Every wine country day →
Three things San Francisco has that nowhere else does.
Prisons, cable hauls and tall trees exist all over. A federal penitentiary on an island in the middle of a working harbour, and a redwood canyon half an hour from downtown, do not.
Alcatraz Island
A federal penitentiary ran on this island for twenty-nine years, close enough that the men inside could hear the city on New Year’s Eve. Ferries leave Pier 33 and every ticket includes the cellhouse audio walk, narrated by the guards and inmates who were there. Capacity is the ferry, not the island, so summer sailings are gone weeks ahead and there is no walk-up queue to join.
- 1Alcatraz Ticket, Ferry, & Self-Guided App★★★★★★★★★★ 4.5 · 2,460 reviews
- 2Combo Tour: Alcatraz Island and San Francisco Grand City Tour★★★★★★★★★★ 4.0 · 2,228 reviews
- 3Inside Alcatraz Tour with Bay Cruise★★★★★★★★★★ 4.5 · 1,577 reviews
Muir Woods
Coast redwoods survive in one sheltered canyon thirty minutes over the bridge, a stand of them older than the state by a couple of centuries. The floor stays cold and half-dark even in August, which is exactly why the fog belt suits them. Every car needs a parking slot booked in advance; the coaches already hold theirs, which is why most people arrive on one.
- 1Muir Woods and Sausalito (Return by Bus or Ferry)★★★★★★★★★★ 4.5 · 5,098 reviews
- 2San Francisco Super Saver: Muir Woods & Wine Country w/ optional Gourmet Lunch★★★★★★★★★★ 4.5 · 3,352 reviews
- 3Muir Woods and Sausalito Half-Day Trip★★★★★★★★★★ 4.6 · 1,722 reviews
The Oldest Chinatown
The lanes above Grant Avenue have been a Chinese quarter since the 1840s, rebuilt after 1906 in a deliberately theatrical style so the city would not move it somewhere cheaper. The herbalists, the temples above the shopfronts and the fortune-cookie alley are all still working businesses. Produce stalls are a morning thing; the dim sum queues start well before noon.
- 1Chinatown & North BeachLittle Italy: 7 Tastings & History★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 1,070 reviews
- 2Ghost Hunt in SF Chinatown with a Professional Investigator★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 922 reviews
- 3San Francisco Chinatown Walking Tour★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 778 reviews
Four San Francisco bookings that will not wait.
Most of this city can be decided over breakfast. These four run on ferry manifests, canyon parking permits and tasting-room calendars that were set long before your flight was.
- 01Alcatraz Ticket, Ferry, & Self-Guided AppThe island runs on ferry capacity and nothing else. Summer sailings clear weeks out, and there is no standby line at Pier 33.
- 02Muir Woods and Sausalito (Return by Bus or Ferry)Every vehicle entering the canyon needs a parking slot reserved in advance. Drivers who did not book get turned around at the gate.
- 03Small Group Yosemite and Giant Sequoias Day Trip from San FranciscoFour hours of driving each way means a departure before dawn, and the small-group seats go long before the coach ones do.
- 04Napa and Sonoma Wine Country Full-Day Tour from San FranciscoTasting rooms take reservations now rather than walk-ins, so the day is built around slots the operator already holds.
A San Francisco summer morning is grey, cold and best spent indoors.
June and July do the same thing every year. The marine layer sits over the western half of the city until early afternoon, the wind coming through the gate makes the bridge deck genuinely cold, and the sun turns up around two. Give the morning to something with a roof and let the day burn off.
By place — the city and the belt around it
By kind of day — boat, bike, table or road
Alcatraz, the bridge, the redwoods, then the vineyards.
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