The best visitor guide for your vacation or holiday with tips on sightseeing, the city, and what attractions to visit. Build your own, self guided, tour.
San Francisco Self Guided Tour has the best information for visitors to San Francisco, new residents, and even locals looking for something new. We go through the avalanche of data about San Francisco and find the nuggets of information that are most useful for you. Then we add our own favorites and fair warnings, based on years spent in San Francisco, loving San Francisco. "One Size Fits All" Guide Books get outdated quickly, while on line guides send you to their advertisers, not to the best places. San Francisco Self Guided Tour wants you to see why we think San Francisco is a great place to visit and that we're lucky to live here. Here's what we have for you:
Top Tips for Tourists
Useful links for planning your trip. These will help you make use of the tips.
A gallery of handy items for your trip (I'm still working on this, suggestions are welcome)
Cable Cars are great fun, but not reliable transpo more...1 point
Cable Cars are great fun, but not reliable transportation. They are a fantastic way to see San Francisco and any Cable Car ride is full of photo opportunities. There are three problems:. #1: they are open to the weather: if it is wet or cold outside, you'll be wet or cold on the cable car. #2: the cable car routes are very limited. #3: due to their popularity, there are usually long lines to ride the cable cars and they can be difficult to catch anywhere except at the ends of their routes.1 point
Alcatraz is a great tourist stop: it is unique to more...1 point
Alcatraz is a great tourist stop: it is unique to San Francisco and there is a very good self-guided audio tour of the prison, available in several languages. Only one company actually docks on the island. It is Alcatraz Cruises. Other companies will try and sell you Alcatraz "experiences" and Alcatraz "tours" that are just boat rides that circle the island. You need to book your Alcatraz tickets in advance. If you plan on seeing Alcatraz on a weekend you may have to book weeks in advance.1 point
How you handle this is up to you, but here's my ad more...1 point
How you handle this is up to you, but here's my advice: Not many panhandlers are aggressive, but aggressive panhandling is bad for everyone: don't encourage it by giving money. I believe that, most of the time, money given on the street is used to buy alcohol or drugs. This is why I suggest that, if you feel like you should help, you find a charity and donate to the charity. Then you know your money will go for real help. If you want a recommendation, try The San Francisco Food Bank1 point
Hill top areas in San Francisco tend to be much mo more...1 point
Hill top areas in San Francisco tend to be much more expensive, and therefore safer and more residential, than low lying areas. If you are uncomfortable about the area you are in, in most of San Francisco, walking uphill will put you in the midst of safe, and often boring, rich people. If you want a vivid demonstration of this, walk out of the Tenderloin up into Nob Hill. (Legal disclaimer: there is no substitute for being aware of your surroundings and prudent in your choices.)1 point
The free tourist guides, San Francisco Guide and S more...1 point
The free tourist guides, San Francisco Guide and San Francisco Bay City Guide, are surprisingly handy. They have good maps of the city, including public transportation, fairly good general tourist information, and, in the San Francisco Guide, a stylized map showing the hills of San Francisco in relation to major streets and land marks. Both guides have matching web sites and you have guides sent to you before your trip for a nominal fee.1 point
Muni covers much more of the city than BART and th more...0 points
Muni covers much more of the city than BART and the cable cars do, but is much less pleasant to ride. Muni does not run on schedule, unexplained gaps in service are common, and Muni is packed during rush hour on high traffic routes. Muni is also usually noisier, dirtier, and a bumpier ride than BART and the cable cars. Rush hour is about 8-10 AM in the morning and about 4:30 -6:30 PM in the afternoon. If you're crossing the street, remember that is is common for MUNI buses to run red lights.0 points
There are several good places to rent bikes in San more...0 points
There are several good places to rent bikes in San Francisco and there are a couple very nice bike tour routes, but be careful if you plan to do a lot of riding around the city for transportation. The hills can make for tough biking, there aren%u2019t a lot of bike lanes and there is also a lot of bike theft in San Francisco, so lock your bike up with a very good lock. The San Francisco Bicycle Coalition has put together a pretty good resource list if you plan on biking in San Francisco.0 points
OK, OK: everyone is telling you to dress in layers more...0 points
OK, OK: everyone is telling you to dress in layers for San Francisco, but I couldn't leave it off of this list. Remember that it is usually windier and colder by the water and even windier and colder on the water. For planning your clothing, use the detailed forecasts from Weather Underground to get a feel for how your clothing needs will change during the day, dress in layers, and think about a warm hat.0 points
Japantown was a large and thriving area before the more...0 points
Japantown was a large and thriving area before the massive internment of Japanese-Americans during World War II. For various reasons the neighborhood never came back as strong as it once was. Japantown has some nice places and shops but, unless you have a specific destination or event you want to see, it is not particularly interesting or fun for visitors to San Francisco.0 points
Visiting San Francisco?<br />
Then come chec more...1 point
Visiting San Francisco?<br />
Then come check out the San Francisco Cable Car Website, the online home of<br />
the web's first interactive Cable Car. Features in...1 point
The San Francisco Bicycle Coalition is an alliance more...1 point
The San Francisco Bicycle Coalition is an alliance of thousands of people who ride bicycles, and who want to encourage more people to ride bicycles be...1 point
San Francisco CityPass includes six attraction adm more...1 point
San Francisco CityPass includes six attraction admissions and a seven-day MUNI & Cable Car Passport. All CityPass attractions are accessible via MUNI%...1 point
San Francisco is a great walking city. This is my more...1 point
San Francisco is a great walking city. This is my lens about walking tours of San Francisco. It includes information on my favorite walking guide boo...1 point
Well regarded local charity providing food through more...0 points
Well regarded local charity providing food through food pantries, soup kitchens, child care centers, homeless shelters, senior centers and other human...0 points
Includes Admission to over 45 Attractions and City more...0 points
Includes Admission to over 45 Attractions and City Tours. Plus save 15-50% on shopping, dining and additional California tour services. Includes a fre...0 points
My favorite book of San Francisco walks. Most of more...1 point
My favorite book of San Francisco walks. Most of the walks are well off the beaten path for visitors, but a couple cover the classic tourist areas of North Beach, China Town, and Telegraph Hill. The Russian Hill North walk, done on a sunny day, will have anyone believing San Francisco is the most beautiful city on earth.1 point
A good movie and great preparation for doing the a more...1 point
A good movie and great preparation for doing the actual Alcatraz tour. Rent this instead of that horrible movie "The Rock" which includes locations that do not even remotely resemble the real Alcatraz.1 point
Looks a little silly, but it's perfect for cold, f more...0 points
Looks a little silly, but it's perfect for cold, foggy, rainy times in San Francisco. Goretex keeps you dry and the fleece lining keeps you warm. Plus it's easy to carry or stow in a purse or backpack if the sun comes out.0 points
This calendar has a few selected upcoming events with an emphasis on Street fairs and Festivals. There's way too much going on, especially with bands and shows, to list everything.
Flaming Sin: London's Grand Guignol at the Hypnodrome, 3/21/08 to 5/3/08, Fri.&Sat. @ 8:00pm-11:00pm, At the Hypnodrome, 575 10th Street, San Francisco.
9th Annual: How Wierd Street Faire, Sun, May 4, 11:11am - 5:55pm, At Howard & 2nd Streets, San Francisco.
Insignificant Others, 5/4/08-5/31/08, Sun.@2:00pm, Fri.& Sat.@8:00pm; Theatre39, San Francisco.
Seaman's Memorial Cruise, Sat., 5/17/08, 10:00am-4:00pm, At Bay Pier 45, San Francisco.
2008 ING BAy to Breakers 12K Footrace, Sun.,5/18/08, 8:00am-10:00pm, At Howard and Main Street, San Francisco.
Carnaval San Francisco, Sat.5/24/08 @ 10:00am-Sun., 5/25/08 @ 6:00pm At Harrison Street between 16th and 24th streets, San Francisco
Union Street Festival, Sat.,5/31/08, 10:00am-6:00pm, At Union Street between Gough & Steiner, San Francisco.
San Francisco Travel Deals
San Francisco Visitor Weather
Guest Book and Reader Feedback
Please sign my guest book and tell me what you like and what I could do to make this a more useful lens.
