San Francisco

How to even write about San Francisco? The city by the bay, study in contrasts, and the place that I've long called home. It feels even a little unnatural to call her by her proper name. It's always just SF or the City.¹ Please, never Frisco.

I've always thought San Francisco is a pretty bad place to visit but an incredible place to live. What makes it magical is the day to day: who you'll meet, where you'll hike, the detours you'll take when you're walking around town. There's no one obvious tourist attraction to tick off². It's a pick your own adventure kind of place.

I originally added this post as a dumping ground for my photos of the city. No text, just vibes. But I got enough people asking me for a full review that here we are. I'm focusing only on the city and places immediately proximate to it. If you're in the market for a northern California tour,³ there's a lot more to see once you cross the bridge.

What follows is the brief guide I would like to get if I were seeing this city for the first time. That starts with picking experiences, not landmarks. If you spend 5 days in the city I guarantee you that you'll see enough to get a sense for the intangibles.

Hike next to the ocean

SF is surrounded on almost all sides by water. It's surprisingly easy to forget that when you're surrounded by skyscrapers in FIDI or the hills of the Mission. Grab a car⁴ and travel North-West or South-West. You'll always find some of the most beautiful hikes along coast. Open hillsides, the occasional tree, and staggering cliffs will be the only thing between you and the open expanse of the ocean. Go to All Trails to get a sense of the options. If you're indecisive, pick one at random. I mean it when I say they're all fantastic.

If you're up for an ambitious bike ride, go across the Golden Gate to Rodeo Beach. You can rent a bike easily almost anywhere in the city, but Sports Basement has the best deals and probably the best bike selection if you might want to upgrade to a true roadbike instead of a hybrid. You'll see all of the hills of the headlands from the street and can choose one to hike when you get closer to the coast. Unless you're a pro rider back home, I'd skip going up Hawk Hill on the way back - through the tunnel is the best way to go.

Stroll between neighborhoods

Choose something you enjoy and can do repeatedly. Coffee, wine, shopping, it doesn't much matter. Each neighborhood has at least a few of each. Hop from one place to another and use it as an excuse to see more of the city. On the coffee circuit, there's Sightglass, Philz, Verve, Fiddle Fig, and a thousand others. Same with clothing boutiques although I can't name those as readily. Just walk in whatever direction looks most interesting and you'll stumble onto something.⁶

You're almost guaranteed to cross from commercial strips to residential houses back to commercial strips. The clustering of coffee shop pins on Google Maps is usually a good guide to find the main places of each neighborhood. Stick to the water where you can. Embarcadero to Marina Boulevard, over to the Great Highway, is a pretty solid loop.

The top most walkable neighborhoods:

Get cozy at the beach

With the exception of a couple days in high summer, any beaches north of SLO are probably not what you think of California. Warm sand is LA's turf. You won't find that up here.

Instead: picture fog gently rolling across the hills in the distance. Maybe a seal swimming past. And a few people walking dogs while the water breaks along the sand. If you go out to the beach on an average weekdays, you'll pass a few people taking in the views. It's a great place for solace.

Cook something

You almost can't go wrong on picking a restaurant. People are obsessive about Yelp and Google Reviews here, so if a place has more than 4.5 stars you're pretty much guaranteed to have a good time. Worth warning that food and drinks together can really cost you. A flight of appetizers to share is usually the best way to get out of a nice place for a bill less than $80.

But if you're renting an Airbnb or staying with friends, I'd encourage you to cook something. The raw produce of California is some of the best in the world. Buy up groceries at some of the weekday or weekend farmers markets, then put on your apron for some pea pasta in the spring or citrus salmon in the winter. Move with the seasons. Whatever the majority of growers selling is usually in peak season.

Walk among the trees

Golden Gate Park has museums and the conservatory of flowers but I would stick to the meadows. Each one has its own charm: some are huge stretches of green, others are small cutaways good for a few picnickers and not much else. Walk around or grab an e-bike from the Lyft racks.

If you're visiting on the weekend, Hippie Hill always has a drum circle. Without fail there will be some hippies from the 70s on bongo drums dancing shoeless. If you sit half a field away, it makes for a melodic backing track. Too close they'll probably pull you in to play bongos too.

Miscellaneous

Don't rent a car for your entire stay. Parking in SF is a constant survival of the fittest test. Plus, it robs you of the serendipity of seeing a tucked away storefront and checking it out.

The city is surprisingly walkable if you don't mind hills⁵. Muni can get you most places, though it seems to operate on its own schedule that follows the phases of the moon. Waiting is just part of that game. Skip it if you have a reservation somewhere.

If you're ever in doubt on where to go or what to see, just ask. People in SF are really quite friendly once they take out their earbuds.