Itinerary · 6 days · 26 places
6 Days in San Francisco
Six days in San Francisco: settling in around Union Square, a whole day at the Golden Gate Bridge, the ferry to Alcatraz with the cellhouse audio tour, Golden Gate Park and the Haight, the Mission District with its murals and taquerías — and finally the Ferry Building and the cable car powerhouse before your flight home from SFO.
Open in the appThere you can adjust the plan to your dates, your pace and your interests.
Photo: David McElwee · Pexels
The route on the map
The plan, day by day
Day 1Arrival, Union Square & Chinatown
Arrival in San Francisco
Hotel check-in
Your base on Union Square is central, between department stores, theatres and the cable car lines, so you can walk to Chinatown in the evening.
Union Square
Framed by department store façades and centred on the 1903 victory column, the square is the transfer point for the Powell Street cable cars, which you can watch being turned on the turntable at the southern end.
Day 2Golden Gate Bridge & the Presidio
Palace of Fine Arts
The rotunda and colonnade built for the 1915 World's Fair are reflected almost perfectly still in the surrounding lagoon in the morning.
Crissy Field
The waterfront promenade on the former military airfield runs past restored salt marsh straight towards the bridge towers.
Golden Gate Bridge
On the east sidewalk you walk to the north tower in about 35 minutes, looking 67 metres down to the entrance of the bay.
Battery Spencer
From this abandoned coastal battery in the Marin Headlands you see the bridge's north tower from above at an angle, set against the skyline.
Baker Beach
The sandy beach below the Presidio cliffs offers the best-known view of the bridge from the south; the currents make swimming off-limits.
Evening: Chestnut Street in the Marina
With its cafés, wine bars and ice-cream parlours, the shopping street between Fillmore and Divisadero is the liveliest corner of the north of the city in the evening.
Day 3Alcatraz, the Wharf & North Beach
Alcatraz Island
The ferry from Pier 33 crosses to the prison island in 15 minutes, where the cellhouse audio tour is narrated by former inmates and guards.
Pier 39 and the sea lions
California sea lions have lived permanently on the floating docks of K-Dock since 1989, and you can hear them barking from the boardwalk.
Musée Mécanique
The hall at Pier 45 houses around 300 working coin-operated machines, from fairground fortune tellers to piano orchestras, which you start yourself with quarters.
Coit Tower
On the ground floor of the tower on Telegraph Hill, murals from 1934 depict working life in California, and from the top the view stretches across the bay and its bridges.
Evening: Columbus Avenue in North Beach
Between City Lights Bookstore and Washington Square you spend the evening in the Italian cafés and bars of the old immigrant quarter.
Day 4Golden Gate Park & the Haight
California Academy of Sciences
Beneath the undulating living roof, a rainforest dome, a planetarium and a large aquarium all share a single building.
de Young Museum
The copper-clad building shows American painting and Oceanic art; the observation tower on the ninth floor is free to enter without a ticket.
Japanese Tea Garden
The oldest Japanese garden in the USA, from 1894, with a drum bridge, pagoda and teahouse, can be covered in one short circuit.
Stow Lake
The loop around the lake encircles Strawberry Hill island with its waterfall and viewpoint; rowing boats are available at the boathouse.
Haight-Ashbury
At the famous 1967 street corner, record stores, second-hand shops and Victorian houses with painted bay windows line the street today.
Evening: Alamo Square
From the park's lawn you look out at the 'Painted Ladies' on Steiner Street, standing in the evening light against the downtown skyline.
Day 5Mission, Castro & Twin Peaks
Mission Dolores
The 1791 adobe chapel is the oldest surviving building in the city; next door lies the small cemetery of the mission's founders.
Balmy Alley
Since the 1970s, murals about Central America and gentrification have covered every garage door and fence in this one-block alley.
Mission Dolores Park
The park's south-west lawn slopes so steeply that from the steps you look out over palm trees to the high-rises of Downtown.
Castro Theatre
The 1922 movie palace with its illuminated sign and Spanish Baroque façade is the landmark of the neighbourhood around the Castro/18th intersection.
Twin Peaks
From Christmas Tree Point at 280 metres you look out over the whole city as far as the Bay Bridge in the afternoon — it's almost always cold and windy at the top.
Evening: Valencia Street
Bookshops, cocktail bars and ice-cream parlours line the street between 16th and 24th Street, and it stays lively well into the night.
Day 6Ferry Building & flight home
Ferry Building Marketplace
In the hall beneath the 1898 clock tower, an oyster bar, a cheesemaker and coffee roasters sell their wares; in front lies the Embarcadero promenade.
Cable Car Museum
In the powerhouse on Mason Street you look down from the gallery at the four huge drive wheels that still pull the cables of every line today.
Departure from San Francisco
Make it your trip
Viatro AI opens this plan in the app — with map, travel times and opening hours. You change the days, pace and places yourself.
