San Francisco for first-time visitors
The Golden Gate Bridge on foot, from the south Presidio side. Walk the 2.7 km to the north tower and back in about 50 minutes. June fog currently sits at bridge-deck level most mornings, so aim for afternoon when the 13°C wind off the Pacific feels sharp but the towers stand clear. Book Alcatraz 2-3 weeks ahead. Everything else is walk-up.
Questions first-timers ask about San Francisco
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Must-see
The Golden Gate Bridge on foot, from the south Presidio side. Walk the 2.7 km to the north tower and back in about 50 minutes. June fog currently sits at bridge-deck level most mornings, so aim for afternoon when the 13°C wind off the Pacific feels sharp but the towers stand clear. Book Alcatraz 2-3 weeks ahead. Everything else is walk-up.
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Best time to visit
September and October are San Francisco's real summer. The fog that blankets the city from June through August retreats, afternoon highs reach 70-75°F along the Embarcadero, and hotel rates sit 15-20% below peak. First-time visitors who arrive in July expecting California sunshine find 55°F grey skies and damp Pacific wind instead.
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Airport to city
Take BART from SFO's International Terminal directly to Powell Street in Union Square. The ride costs $10.20, takes 29 minutes, and runs every 15-20 minutes from roughly 5am to midnight. After midnight, Uber or Lyft costs $35-55 to downtown. Buy a Clipper card at the BART station for $3 to use on all San Francisco transit.
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How to get there
San Francisco International (SFO), 21 km south of downtown, handles most flights. United runs its Pacific hub here with transpacific and domestic nonstops. Oakland (OAK) is Southwest's cheaper alternative, 45 minutes by BART across the Bay. Round-trip fares from the US East Coast run $280-500. From London, £550-900 nonstop. BART from SFO to Powell Street costs $10.55 and takes 29 minutes.
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Getting around
Clipper card on Muni and BART for the backbone, Uber or Lyft to dodge the hills, and your legs for flat stretches in the Mission and Marina. BART runs from SFO to downtown Powell Street in 30 minutes for about $9.65. Cable cars are a ride, not transit. $8 each way, expect a 45-minute line at Powell and Market.
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Curated for first-timers
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Must-see attractions
San Francisco's must-see list is a short walk between the obvious and the strange, and the city rewards travelers who refuse to pick a side. The bay rim gives you a suspension bridge on the San Francisco Bay and a federal island that pulled tourists for decades; the hills give you a Neo-Gothic cathedral and an observation tower staring at each other across Russian Hill. Inland, the mission that gave the city its name still keeps its doors open, while the Castro tends a memorial mini-park that argues, quietly, that monuments do not have to be grand to count. This is a list for the visitor who wants the postcards AND the footnotes: the shopping center on the waterfront and the historic SRO on Eddy Street, the theater on Taylor and the church on Portola. Twelve stops, ranked, each pinned to a real coordinate and a real address. Walk them in the order that fits your day, not ours.
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Best restaurants
San Francisco eats like a city that argues with itself: a Brazilian rodízio three blocks from a Thai kitchen, a Tokyo-style yakiniku counter sharing a sidewalk with a French brasserie, a ramen bar on Valencia and a burger joint on Grove. The twelve places below sit mostly inside a tight rectangle bounded by Market, Hayes, Folsom and Valencia (Hayes Valley, Civic Center, the western edge of SoMa and the top of the Mission) because that is where the city's middle-priced, owner-operated restaurants have quietly clustered. None of these are tasting-menu trophies. They are the rooms where you can show up at 18:30 on a Tuesday, eat well, and leave with money left for a second drink. The list skews toward kitchens that pick one tradition and execute it cleanly (handmade pasta, charcoal-grilled beef, soup dumplings, Thai street food) over fusion ambition. Hours and addresses are pulled from OpenStreetMap; cuisines and websites are the operator's own.
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Browse experiences
Things to do in San Francisco, by interestOther traveler types
- For foodies
San Francisco for foodies
- For families with kids
San Francisco for families
- For digital nomads
San Francisco for digital nomads
- For solo travelers
San Francisco for solo travelers
- For couples
San Francisco for couples
- For budget travelers
San Francisco on a budget
- For luxury travelers
San Francisco for luxury travelers