18 Amazing Things to Do in San Francisco
When it comes to searching for things to do in San Francisco, the city rewards the curious. But planning a trip to San Francisco can feel overwhelming with so many things to see and do. But with detailed neighborhood guides, timing tips, and local insights, it becomes much easier.
From iconic landmarks like the Golden Gate Bridge and Alcatraz to family-friendly neighborhoods, coastal trails, world-class food, and hidden local gems in unique neighborhoods, there’s no shortage of unforgettable experiences packed into its seven square miles.
This guide rounds up 18 stops, neighborhoods, and things to do in San Francisco that will give you a good flavor of the city, from classic must-sees to underrated local gems residents love.
If you’re a first-timer, this 3-day itinerary might help you make the most of your time.
📍Disclosure: This post contains affiliate links, and I may earn a tiny commission if you click and purchase through them at no extra cost to you! Thank you for helping me do what I love!
📍If you’re planning to visit several attractions while sightseeing in San Francisco, the Go City San Francisco All-Inclusive Pass can be a convenient way to bundle admission to 30+ sites into one price and help stretch your travel budget.
1. Break Into Alcatraz
A must on any San Francisco itinerary, the infamous prison-turned-museum and National Park was originally built in the mid-19th century as a lighthouse and military fortification.
Surrounded by the chilly waters of San Francisco Bay, Alcatraz is about 1.25 miles (2 kilometers), it’s one of the best things to do in San Francisco.
You’ll get on the boat near Fisherman’s Wharf, one of the best neighborhoods for families to stay in when visiting San Francisco, with several great kid-friendly hotels within walking distance.
📍Alcatraz tours are one of the most popular things to do in San Francisco, so it’s worth checking schedules and availability in advance to avoid missing the boat—literally.
2. Hop on a Cable Car
More than just transportation, these rolling national landmarks have been around since 1873, offering a nostalgic ride with amazing city views. It’s another very popular thing to do in San Francisco.
There are three active cable car lines in San Francisco: the Powell-Hyde, Powell-Mason, and California Street.
If you only ride one Cable Car, I suggest the Powell-Hyde line. It runs between downtown San Francisco, near Union Square (on Powell Street) to Fisherman’s Wharf.
On the way you go up and down some of San Francisco’s famous hills, and get some amazing views of the skyline, the bay, and Alcatraz. It even stops at the top of Lombard Street.
Travel Tip: Make a stop at the Cable Car Museum and see the actual cables that pull the cars up and down San Francisco’s hills. It’s FREE to enter.
3. Bike, Walk or Admire the Golden Gate Bridge
It’s the symbol of the city, so of course it’s on the list. Every time I come home from a trip and see the Golden Gate Bridge, I smile. It never gets old, whether smothered in fog or gloriously International Orange (the official color).
The structure spans 1.7 miles across the Golden Gate Strait, the narrow entrance to the San Francisco Bay from the Pacific Ocean. You can walk, bike, or drive across it.
Travel Tip
Rent an e-bike in San Francisco and pedal over to Sausalito, then take the ferry back
If you aren’t into two-wheel adventures, visit the Golden Gate Bridge Welcome Center, where you can check out the exhibits and browse the gift shop before starting your trek across the span.
4. Wander Around Chinatown
When looking for things to do in San Francisco, wandering its eclectic neighborhoods tops the list, and Chinatown tops that list!
The roughly 30-square-block neighborhood is home to San Francisco’s first street: Grant Avenue, and its alleyways hide bakeries, tea tasting rooms, and stores selling unusual produce.
Be sure to check out the Tin How Temple on Waverly Place, one of the oldest still-operating Chinese temples in the United States.
📍There are countless grocery stores, dim sum spots, noodle bars, and dumpling shops to eat your way through in Chinatown, San Francisco.
But if you’d like a deeper introduction to the neighborhood’s food and history while you explore, a guided food tour is a great way to experience North America’s oldest Chinatown..
5. Hit Up a Ball Game at Oracle Park
Enjoy peanuts and Cracker Jacks at Oracle Park, home to the San Francisco Giants and a really fun thing to do in San Francisco, especially on game day.
With its sweeping views of the Bay Bridge and McCovey Cove, it’s a stunning place to catch a game, grab some good food, or just soak up the waterfront atmosphere.
If you’re staying in the neighborhood with your family, you can easily walk here too.
📍Even if you’re not visiting during baseball season, a behind-the-scenes ballpark tour offers a fun way to explore one of the country’s most scenic ballparks and is a great stop for both baseball fans and families.
6. Grab Clam Chowder at Fisherman’s Wharf
I’ll be honest, Fisherman’s Wharf is a magnet for tourists and selfie sticks. Still, it’s worthwhile to go if only because this area is almost as old as the city itself.
Fisherman’s Wharf was established in the mid-1800s by Italian immigrants who built up a thriving fishing community here. Only later did it turn into an entertainment hub and a top San Francisco tourist attraction.
Even so, it’s still an active fishing port, too, and when I’m around, I like to grab clam chowder in a sourdough bread bowl or fresh Dungeness crab, two food specialties you should definitely try when in San Francisco.
7. Climb Coit Tower
The fluted Art Deco column on Telegraph Hill known as Coit Tower is an emblematic part of the San Francisco skyline, built between 1932 and 1933 at the bequest of a wealthy San Francisco woman, Lillie Hitchcock Coit.
Go to see panoramic views from the top, but also to check out the colorful murals, painted in 1934 by 30 California artists. Docent-led tours are offered for a fee if you’re interested in a granular-level backgrounder on the tower and paintings, but you are welcome to go it alone, too.
8. Visit a Museum
San Francisco’s array of unique museums form a rich tapestry of art, science, history, and innovation. Alongside heavyweights like SFMOMA, the de Young, California Academy of Sciences, and the Exploratorium, the city delights in its quirkier side with gems like the Counterculture Museum, the Cable Car Museum, and the Musée Mécanique.
Many museums offer free entry days, too, which I have noted in my Budget Guide to San Francisco.
If you’re looking for things to do in San Francisco on rainy days, hunkering down in a museum is a great option too.
9. Pose at the Palace of Fine Arts
Go on any given day, and you’re bound to see couples posing in front of the eye-catching monument.
Located in the Marina District, a great neighborhood for families, the Palace of Fine Arts is a Beaux Arts beauty that’s a popular place for photos, proposals, and engagements. My daughter even snapped some of her prom pictures here.
10. Eat the Ferry Building
The clocktower-topped building is located where Market Street meets the Embarcadero. It used to be one of the busiest transit hubs in the world, handling around 50,000 daily ferry commuters at its peak. The opening of the Bay and Golden Gate Bridges in the 1930s curbed that.
The Ferry Building is now home to 50+ shops, cafes, restaurants, bakeries, wine bars, groceries, and more food-centric finds. Drop by for the thrice-weekly market (Tue, Thu, Sat) that unfurls around the perimeter.
It’s still a transit hub, too, and you catch ferries to Sausalito, Tiburon, Larkspur, and Treasure Island.
11. Peace Out in Haight-Ashbury
The epicenter of the 1967 Summer of Love, the Haight-Ashbury district still oozes psychedelic history and counterculture vibe, making it one of the more nostalgic things to do in San Francisco.
📍 Rather than wandering aimlessly around—also fun—you can join a walking tour walking tour past the homes of Janis Joplin and the Grateful Dead while a local guide brings the neighborhood’s bohemian history and colorful murals to life.
Vintage shoppers will adore the numerous stores along Haight Street, while snapping pictures in retro photo booths and soaking up San Francisco Summer of Love vibes. Book lovers, you’ll love Haight Street’s collection of independent bookstores, too!
12. Boat Over to Sausalito
One of the easiest day trips from San Francisco is a visit to Sausalito, a short 25 minute ride across the bay from the Ferry Building.
Stroll along Bridgeway, the town’s main waterfront drag, dip into art galleries, grab a coffee at Suzette Bistro, or a margarita at Copita, rent a kayak (or book a guided tour) with SeaTrek to check out the houseboats, and pick up some local souvenirs. My How to Visit Sausalito like a Local guide has some tips too!
Travel Tip: The last ferry back to the city is around 7 p.m., so plan accordingly. Or, book one of the hotels in town and make a special occasion weekend out of it.
If you’re thinking of an overnight stay, the incredible The Inn Above Tide in Sausalito is a splurge.
13. Hike Angel Island
I love Angel Island for its natural beauty and panoramic views, especially along the 5-mile Perimeter Trail and from its highest point, Mount Livermore, at 788 feet (240 meters).
However, the 1.2-square-mile, car-free island is also a State Park and conceals an interesting bit of U.S. history.
Often called the “Ellis Island of the West,” Angel Island was the West Coast entry point for Asian immigrants seeking U.S. citizenship between 1910 and 1940. Visitors can check out Angel Island Immigration Station Museum and the Angel Island Detention Barracks Museum.
Angel Island is accessible by ferry from either San Francisco (Ferry Building) on the Golden Gate Ferry or from downtown Tiburon on the Angel Island Tiburon Ferry.
Once on the island, you can walk (a little over a mile) or take a direct shuttle to the museum.
14. Peruse The Presidio
The former U.S. Army post, which became a 1,500-acre national park at the north-west end of the city, was established in 1776, making it as old as our country.
Visiting The Presidio is one of the more popular things to do in San Francisco for visitors and locals alike, thanks to its numerous museums, restaurants, and miles of scenic hiking and biking trails. It’s a fabulous place to stay with kids when visiting San Francisco.
I love meeting friends at Crissy Field for a walk.
Travel Tip: The Presidio GO Shuttle offers visitors, employees, and residents FREE daily service to and around the San Francisco Presidio, and between the Presidio and Downtown. It’s just one of many ways to visit San Francisco on a Budget.
15. Spend Time in Golden Gate Park
Where do I start? I HEART Golden Gate Park so much, and it’s an amazing place to spend a day, weekend, or just a moment. At 1,017 acres, it’s larger than New York’s Central Park.
There’s so much to do in the park, you’ll have to pick your pleasure. You’ll find the de Young Museum here, along with the Japanese Tea Garden, the oldest public Japanese garden in the United States, as well as lakes, playgrounds, trails, meadows, and even resident bison.
Golden Gate Park is San Francisco’s biggest park, and it’s home to one of the best free outdoor music festivals in San Francisco— Hardly Strictly Bluegrass—held each October.
16. Get Your Italian Food Fix in North Beach
New York has Little Italy; San Francisco has North Beach, a lively red-sauce-and-garlic-scented neighborhood with Italian flags painted on lampposts and streets dotted with trattorias, espresso bars, pizza joints, and cultural landmarks.
📍North Beach is packed with Italian bakeries, classic cafés, and Beat Generation haunts, but a guided food tour is one of the easiest ways to experience both the neighborhood’s culinary traditions (like Cioppino) and its literary clout (City Lights Bookstore) in one walk.
17. Soak in California History at Mission Dolores
In San Francisco’s lively Mission District, you’ll find Mission San Francisco de Asís, aka Mission Dolores, the city’s oldest surviving building, founded by Franciscan priests in 1776.
Mission Dolores is the 6th in the California chain of 21 Spanish missions, the last one built in Sonoma. If you’re from California like I am, you’ll know all about the missions because we studied them in 4th grade and had to build dioramas out of odd materials—I used popsicle sticks.
The ornate Mission Dolores Basilica, next door is beautiful with its Spanish-Baroque architecture.
18. Ride in a Waymo
San Francisco loves its gadgets and tech, and a futuristic experience when visiting the city to take a Waymo—a driverless taxi.
The autonomous rides glide quietly through neighborhoods and the experience of watching the car navigate traffic, pedestrians, and steep hills on its own is something uniquely San Francisco (and a little trippy).
If you’re curious what the experience, here’s what it’s like to take a Waymo in San Francisco.
