United States · California
Plan your San Francisco trip
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01Your itinerary
02Where to stay
Union Square & Downtown
Best for first-timers and convention travelersThe classic tourist base — big hotels, the cable car turnaround, shopping, and walking distance to Chinatown, North Beach and the theater district. Convenient and central, though the immediate blocks toward the Tenderloin can feel rough after dark.
The Westin St. Francis San Francisco on Union Square
Puts cable cars, department stores and the Financial District all within a ten-minute walk.
$$$InterContinental Mark Hopkins San Francisco
A few blocks uphill buys quieter streets and some of the best views in downtown, at the cost of a steeper walk home.
$$$$The Mission District
Best for food-focused trips and repeat visitorsFlat, sunny (by SF standards), loud with murals, and the epicenter of the city's food and nightlife scene. Fewer big hotels, more apartment-style stays, and a longer trip to the bridge — but you eat and drink better than anywhere else in the city.
A short-term rental apartment near Valencia Street
Puts you inside walking distance of the city's best taquerias, wine bars and coffee, with easy BART access downtown.
$$A small boutique hotel near Dolores Park
Quieter residential blocks a few minutes from the park and the 24th Street corridor.
$$$Hayes Valley
Best for design-minded travelers who want a central, low-key baseA compact, design-forward pocket between downtown and the Mission, walkable to the Civic Center performing arts venues and Golden Gate Park's eastern edge, with a boutique-and-cocktail-bar density that punches well above its size.
San Francisco Proper Hotel
Small, stylish, and central enough to walk to both downtown and the park.
$$$The Marina & Fisherman's Wharf
Best for bridge views and familiesClosest lodging to the Golden Gate Bridge, Crissy Field and the bay, with a younger, more suburban feel than the rest of the city. The Wharf itself is a tourist trap for food, but it's the practical base if the bridge and the bay are your priority.
Argonaut Hotel
Good for early Alcatraz ferries and bridge access, though you'll want transit or a car for the Mission and downtown.
$$$Affiliate notePostcardRoute is reader-supported. Some links to Booking.com (stays, flights, car hire, tickets and tours, airport transfers) are affiliate links, tracked through CJ Affiliate: if you book through them we may earn a small commission at no extra cost to you. We only recommend places we would send a friend.
03Tickets & tours
Golden Gate Bridge & the Presidio
The bridge you already know, but the best of it is the walk or bike ride across from Crissy Field, through the old Presidio army base's cypress…
Tip Go early morning or right at sunset — midday fog frequently swallows the towers whole, and you'll pay for a photo of grey soup.
Golden Gate Park
Bigger than Central Park and considerably weirder, with a bison paddock, a Japanese Tea Garden older than the century, the de Young Museum's twisting…
Tip Rent a bike near the Panhandle and ride the whole length to Ocean Beach — it's flat, shaded, and ends at the Pacific.
Alcatraz Island
The former federal penitentiary in the middle of the bay is one of the few genuinely essential tourist sights left — the audio tour, narrated partly…
Tip Book weeks ahead online directly through the official ferry operator; tickets sell out and third-party resellers mark them up badly.
Chinatown
The oldest Chinatown in North America, founded in the 1850s gold rush, still a dense working neighbourhood behind the dragon gate on Grant Avenue —…
Tip Find the Ross Alley fortune cookie factory, a tiny storefront that's been hand-folding cookies since the 1960s.
Mission murals & Dolores Park
Balmy Alley and Clarion Alley hold decades of political and community street art packed into two narrow blocks, a short walk from Dolores Park, the…
Tip Grab a burrito on 24th Street first and eat it on the park's hillside — it's basically a local rite of passage.
Coit Tower & Telegraph Hill
A 1930s Art Deco tower on the city's steepest hill, with Depression-era WPA murals inside and a 360-degree view from the top that takes in the…
Tip Skip the elevator queue and walk up the Filbert Street steps from the east side — a garden-lined stairway that's an attraction in itself.
Ferry Building Marketplace
A restored 1898 ferry terminal turned gourmet food hall on the Embarcadero, home to a serious farmers market three days a week and year-round stalls…
Tip Come Saturday morning for the full farmers market, then walk the waterfront path north toward Fisherman's Wharf instead of the reverse.
Twin Peaks
Two windswept summits near the city's geographic center offering the widest panoramic view in San Francisco, better in most ways than any paid…
Tip Bring a real jacket — this is one of the windiest, foggiest spots in the city even when downtown is warm and clear.
Day trips from San Francisco
Muir Woods & the Marin Headlands
Old-growth redwoods thirty minutes north across the Golden Gate Bridge, some over 600 years old, best visited early to beat both the fog and the tour…
Day tripWine Country: Napa & Sonoma
An hour to ninety minutes north, two very different characters — Napa polished and Cabernet-focused, Sonoma looser, cheaper and more varied.
Day tripHalf Moon Bay & the coast
A dramatic 45-minute drive down Highway 1 to a small fishing-town-turned-surf-town, with tide pools, pumpkin farms in October and some of the best…
Day tripEverything to do in San Francisco
Skip-the-line tickets, guided tours and day trips, all in one place on Booking.com.
04Getting there & around
Getting around the hills
San Francisco is compact — you can cross it end to end in about forty minutes without traffic — but the hills mean walking distance is not the same as walking effort. Muni, the city's combined bus, streetcar and cable car network, is the workhorse; get a Clipper card (or tap a contactless bank card directly on most lines now)…
Flights
Compare fares into San Francisco and pick dates that suit the days you planned.
Airport transfers
Book a private or shared ride from the airport so the first evening starts at your door, not at a ticket queue.
Car hire from San Francisco
Only worth it for day trips beyond the city — in town, the plan above works on foot and public transport.
Affiliate notePostcardRoute is reader-supported. Some links to Booking.com (stays, flights, car hire, tickets and tours, airport transfers) are affiliate links, tracked through CJ Affiliate: if you book through them we may earn a small commission at no extra cost to you. We only recommend places we would send a friend.