What should I avoid in San Francisco?

The sit-down seafood restaurants along Jefferson Street at Fisherman's Wharf charge a 40-60% markup over comparable places in North Beach, 15 minutes south on foot. A whole Dungeness crab that runs around $48 at Alioto's costs closer to $30 at Sotto Mare on Green Street, where the cioppino arrives in a pot so hot the broth is still rolling. The bread-bowl chowder stands along the sidewalk are a different story. Those $12-14 bowls are fine for what they are. Pier 39's sea lions on K-Dock are free and worth 10 minutes, but the souvenir shops behind them sell the same imported keychains you would find in any US boardwalk town. Boudin Bakery at 160 Jefferson is the one Wharf stop that earns its location. The sourdough starter dates to 1849, and a warm round loaf costs $8. The crust cracks when you tear it.

San Francisco reported over 24,000 car break-ins in 2023, and the real number is likely higher because many go unreported. Never leave anything visible in a rental car. Not a phone charger, not a jacket, not an empty shopping bag. The hotspots are the Alamo Square parking area near the Painted Ladies, the Coit Tower lot on Telegraph Hill, and the pullouts along the Great Highway near Ocean Beach. Thieves work in under 90 seconds. If you hear the sharp pop of safety glass giving way in a parking lot, that sound is common enough that locals do not turn around. The practical answer is to skip driving altogether. Muni and BART cover most of the city for $2.50-3.50 a ride, and you will not spend 25 minutes circling for a parking spot in the Haight or the Mission.

The single biggest mistake first-timers make is packing for "California summer." San Francisco in June and July sits under a marine layer that locals call Karl the Fog. It has an Instagram account with over 380,000 followers. Temperatures can drop from 18°C to 12°C by mid-afternoon when the cold air rolls through the Golden Gate. You will feel the damp on your skin within minutes. Pack a windbreaker and layers no matter what the calendar says. The Sunset and Richmond districts on the west side get fogged in more often than the Mission, which tends to stay 3-5°C warmer because the hills block the marine air. If your hotel is near Union Square or in SoMa, expect wind tunnels between the tall buildings that make 14°C feel closer to 9°C. September and October are the warmest months in San Francisco, not July and August.

Lombard Street's one-block zigzag between Hyde and Leavenworth draws about 2 million visitors a year. On summer weekends the line of cars waiting to drive down it can stretch 30-45 minutes. You will idle on a steep grade. Exhaust drifts into the car. The brake lights ahead go nowhere. Walk it instead from the bottom. It takes 3 minutes and the upward angle photographs better anyway. The cable cars on the Powell-Hyde and Powell-Mason lines are worth riding once, but the wait at the Powell and Market turnaround can hit 90 minutes by noon on weekends. Board the California Street line instead. It runs through Nob Hill and Chinatown with rarely more than a 10-minute wait. Skip the wax museum and Ripley's Believe It or Not on Jefferson Street. Both charge $25-30 and deliver about 20 minutes of mild regret.

The Tenderloin, bounded roughly by Union Square to the east, Civic Center to the south, and Polk Street to the west, is the one neighborhood first-timers should route around after dark. During the day you can walk through it between Market Street and your hotel without incident. After 9pm the blocks along Turk, Eddy, and Ellis streets between Taylor and Jones have open drug use and aggressive panhandling. The SoMa blocks south of Market between 5th and 9th have a similar edge late at night. That said, this is a 6-block pocket, not the whole city. The tourist corridors in North Beach, the Marina, Hayes Valley, and the Castro are safe and active until midnight. The rule is simple geography. Pull up your hotel on Google Maps, check whether the Tenderloin sits between you and where you are going, and walk one block east or west to go around it.