Some San Francisco Facts:

Located in Northern California and is a 5.5 hour drive north of Los Angeles
It is the 4th largest city in California and the 17th largest in the USA
It is often referred to as the Fog City due to the regular fog during the spring and summer months of the year
Some of the main attractions to visit are the Golden Gate Bridge, Alcatraz and Lombard Street
Major banking and finance centre

I visited San Francisco in 2019 and really enjoyed my time there. Below is a list of the top things to do in the city:

Golden Gate Bridge

The Golden Gate Bridge is the most visited attraction in San Francisco, you can’t visit SF without visiting the Golden Gate Bridge. The bridge took around 4 years to build and was officially opened to traffic in 1937. The bridge is 746 feet tall and 2,737 meters long. The reason its called the Golden Gate Bridge is because the entrance to the San Francisco Bay from the Pacific Ocean is called the Golden Gate strait.

You are able to visit both sides of the bridge ( I would recommend doing so) and there are different ways to do this. You can either:

get a taxi to one side and walk across the bridge to the other side, the walk takes about 30-45 minutes each way
Use a city hop on hop off bus that stops at both sides of the bridge
Get a Golden Gate Transit bus, you are able to board on either the southbound toll plaza and travel to the north side of the bridge of vice versa

Northbound side of The Golden Gate Bridge

Southbound side of The Golden Gate Bridge

The reason for the name “Fog City”

Alcatraz

Alcatraz is a former maximum security federal prison, also known as The Rock, located in the San Francisco Bay. The former prison is on an island, 1.5 miles off the coast of San Francisco. Throughout the 29 years that Alcatraz was a fully functioning prison, there was a total of 14 attempted escapes involving 36 inmates. 5 of those inmates were presumed drowned but nobody really knows if they managed to make it across the bay to San Francisco. I really enjoyed my visit to Alcatraz and was one of my favourite experiences in San Francisco. This former prison holds so much history and you are able to visit some of the historic spaces e.g. the recreation yard, the prison cells, isolation cells and many other important parts of the former prison.

Ticket prices range from $29.15-$47.95 depending on age and includes the return ferry journey, an audioguide and more. You can visit the prison at night where tickets are slightly more expensive. Make sure you use the official site to book tickets https://www.cityexperiences.com/san-francisco/city-cruises/alcatraz/tour-options/alcatraz-day-tour/

Some photos of Alcatraz, showing the island from a distance, the cells and the kitchen

Painted Ladies

The painted ladies are 7 houses in a row with Victorian and Edwardian architecture lining Alamo Park. They are symbolic of the famous California gold rush where lots of money was coming into the city, they were built because builders wanted to build grand houses to show off their wealth.

Golden Gate Park

The golden gate park is a large (1,017 acre), park in the city that stretches 3 miles long from the Haight Ashbury neighbourhood in the east all the way to ocean beach in the west. It’s home to many popular attractions such as the San Francisco botanical gardens, Japanese tea garden, California academy of science, de young museum and more.

Images from the Japanese tea garden in Golden Gate Park

Ride a cable car

Cable cars are an iconic part of life in San Francisco, used by tourists and locals alike. When visiting SF one of the top things to do is to ride a cable car. They were first installed int he 1870’s to navigate the steep hills of the city where the traditional horse drawn carts struggled.

The most popular cable car route for tourists is line 60, the Powell-Hyde cable car. This line offers views of Alcatraz, Lombard Street, San Francisco Bay, Golden Gate Bridge and many others, the line then terminates at Fishermans wharf. There is usually a queue at the start of the line near Market Street.

Lombard Street

Lombard street is located in the Russian Hill neighbourhood of San Francisco and is famous for having eight hairpin turns in a one block section. The reason for the design of the street was to help vechiles and pedestrians navigate the steepness of the street. The iconic block in Lombard Street is located between Hyde Street and Leavenworth Street. It’s famous for being the crookedest street in the world, however its neither the crookedest or steepest street in the city.

Pier 39

Pier 39 is a popular tourist attractions full of restaurants and shops. There are also arcades, an aquarium and most importantly the sea lion viewing area located at the end of the pier. There are wooden platforms floating on the water where the California Sea Lions like to congregate and sunbathe on, they are very amusing to watch interact with each other. Pier 39 is a good place to spend one late afternoon/evening.

The Princess Diaries

The Princess Diaries is a Disney film released in 2001 with a second movie released 3 years later in 2004 starring Anne Hathaway and Julie Andrews. There are filming locations across the city that were used in the movie. When I knew I was visiting San Francisco, I knew I had to visit at least one filming location used in the Princess Diaries. There wasn’t time to visit all of them so I just chose to visit Grove high school located at 2601 Lyon Street. This is actually a private residence but the exterior was used as the school.

That’s so Raven house

That’s so Raven was a popular show on Disney Channel. The show was filmed in Hollywood, LA but the exterior shot of the house is an actual house in San Francisco. The address for the house is 461 Ashbury Street, San Francisco, CA, 94117.

San Francisco