Since touching down in SF on Tuesday evening we’ve been on a whirlwind tour of the city and surrounding area. Waking up at 0400 (thanks jet lag) we headed out early for a quick 5km jog to flush out the cobwebs and see a bit of the local area. A cheeky workout alongside the locals (including a visit from the SFPD) left us slightly more awake and ready for some sight seeing.
A cream cheese bagel later and we were on our way to Chinatown (via Quoit Hill), where we stopped off for some obligatory dim sum. Then it was on to Union Square where we jumped on a cable car (aka a tram) back over to Powell and Mason (tip – go the reverse of our route as you’ll have no queues). Then we wandered along the quayside and went to see the historic ships, and also bought our US national parks card – which gave us free access to this ships too (winning). Our tired legs took us home for a glass of wine and a burrito, before calling it a day.
The next morning we were up early again to hire bikes. We cycled over the Golden Gate Bridge via Fort Point and into Sausalito, then on to Tiburon (a decent 30km jaunt) which we’d definitely recommend as the scenery was very OC! We jumped on the Blue and White ferry back to SF then headed to a sports bar for a well earned beer or three. We found the Northstar bar rammed with locals watching the first game of the NFL season which meant the atmosphere was great. Judging by the amount of tequila being drunk at 1750 I think there would have been a few sore heads the next day. Home was via Dirty Burger for one of their 1/4 pounders with garlic fries ready for Alcatraz the next day.
On Friday morning we caught the bus via Union Square over to the Golden Gate Park. To be honest there wasn’t much to see unless you wanted to pay to get into the art museums so we wandered down to the Pacific Ocean before riding back home for a light bite ahead of our trip to the penitentiary. 1550 saw us jumping on a boat over to the island. We booked three days in advance and when we arrived we saw it was booked out for almost a week ahead – so we’d suggest booking online in advance. The trip itself was excellent with a very interesting audio tour and money well spent. We then treated ourselves to a scrumptious Thai dinner at Elephant Thai – highly recommended – before turning in early (after watching the US West Coast RV episode of The Grand Tour to get us in the mood for RVing the next day).
Three full days were plenty for us in SF as we pack our days full. We probably missed some of the more specialist areas but we felt ready to head off. Next stop – living like tortoises for 7 weeks!
The Hoffick's RTW adventure travel blog 