San Francisco travel guide: best places to visit, tours, restaurants, hotels, things to do

There is no location like San Francisco. Regarded for its cable cars and trucks, steep streets, eclectic architecture, summer months fog and impressive views, this lively town draws in site visitors from around the planet seeking for an city journey. 

Almost everything about San Francisco is varied, from its population to the thousands of places to eat throughout the metropolis.

It is the cultural centre of Northern California – this is wherever you go to get your fill of museums, live shows, performs and dance performances – and regularly evolving, embracing its record as it looks to the long run. Now is the time to see what San Francisco has to offer you.

What to do

Get up near and personal with some of San Francisco’s most beloved landmarks in the course of a Crimson and White Fleet Golden Gate Bay Cruise. Through this hour-extended narrated sailing, you are going to move beneath the legendary Golden Gate Bridge and by Alcatraz, a former jail that after housed these notorious names as Al Capone and George “Machine Gun” Kelly. There are three day by day sailings, and in the wintertime, the 4pm tour doubles as a sunset cruise.

Hunting for a flavor of the Bay Location? Visit the San Francisco Ferry Making, which dates again to 1898 and is now home of the Ferry Developing Marketplace. Inside of this community food stuff marketplace, there are outposts of regional favourites like Acme Bread and Gott’s Roadside, even though outdoors, local farmers market their refreshing create numerous periods a week. Edible Excursions offers a two-hour tour of the current market, with a knowledgable manual major participants from merchant to merchant, procuring samples of their specialities – it’s exciting, educational, and tasty.

San Francisco Ferry Building

The San Francisco Botanical Backyard garden offers a tranquil respite from the hustle and bustle of the town. Tucked away in Golden Gate Park, the garden – open daily at 7.30am – boasts extra than 8,000 varieties of plants from close to the planet, with the towering Monterey cypresses providing equally shade and natural beauty.

From the San Francisco Botanical Yard, it is just a fast stroll to the de Younger Museum, which homes American, African and Oceanic art textile arts and costumes. On exhibit through to 12 February 2023, “Ramses the Fantastic and the Gold of the Pharaohs” showcases 181 unbelievable artefacts from historic Egypt, which include royal masks, sarcophagi, gold jewelry, mummified animals and amulets. Be positive to insert on the digital reality working experience “Ramses & Nefertari: Journey to Osiris”, which takes contributors on a stunning tour of the majestic Abu Simbel and Nefertari’s tomb.

Formally, San Francisco has 36 neighbourhoods, which include Chinatown (the oldest Chinese local community in the United States), The Castro (home to numerous LGBTQ landmarks) and Haight-Ashbury (the birthplace of hippie tradition). You can examine the areas that interest you by foot, community transport or bicycle (there are rental places throughout the town), using the time to check out out the general public art and murals and cease at one particular-of-a-sort retailers and cafés.

The San Francisco C3 ticket is an easy way to see many points of interest at a price cut – it gives just one-time admission to a few areas or pursuits (selections include things like the Aquarium by the Bay, Exploratorium, San Francisco Zoo & Gardens, California Academy of Sciences, and San Francisco Museum of Contemporary Artwork) for savings of up to 44{d8a8d447f05f03c64398acf0d3c5a745c9c41fc784ba89cd5aecd37177dc7d51}.

Exactly where to remain

Suitable on the Embarcadero, the 1 Hotel San Francisco brings together luxury with sustainability. Locally sourced and repurposed materials are uncovered throughout the hotel – the foyer floor is composed of 7,000 square toes of reclaimed barn wooden – and the effectively-appointed rooms arrive with plush pillow-leading mattresses, crisp linens, Nespresso machines and in-room greenery, with many presenting sweeping sights of the Bay Bridge and Ferry Setting up.

1 Hotel San Francisco

California cuisine with a world wide spin is on the menu at Terrene, the hotel’s restaurant. The elements for specialities like the seared scallops with aubergine puree, harissa hen skewer and za’atar fries are sourced in just 100 miles of San Francisco, with some, like the mint and other greens, grown on the rooftop chef’s garden. Wanting to chill out even more? E-book a holistic treatment method at the Bamford Wellness Spa, outfitted with outdoor Japanese soaking tubs that have picture perfect views of the city.

Charges at 1 Lodge San Francisco start out from £410 per night time for a conventional area. 

Where by to take in and consume

Flavour, flavour, flavour. That’s the 1st phrase that comes to head immediately after making an attempt the Korean fried chicken (get the full serving – you are going to want leftovers) and soy marinated beef brief ribs at Ilcha, a new Korean cafe on Lombard Road. Each dish is completely seasoned, with the tender beef bulgogi starring in two of the menu’s standout dishes: the bulgogi tater tots and bulgogi jeongol, a tasty hotpot chock comprehensive of meat, greens, tofu and textural surprises like rice cakes and japchae. The servers are pleasant and content to solution any concerns about the anju (food) and sool (alcoholic drinks) menus.

Ilcha

The menu at Ancora is a enjoy letter to regional components. A new seafood-centred cafe in the Mission District, the food items served at Ancora couldn’t be any fresher – the aim is on in-season produce, anchovies and black cod from the waters of San Francisco, Mt. Lassen trout and Petrale sole caught in Fifty percent Moon Bay. The delectable sauces, like the a single identified on the luscious plankton tagliolini with white sturgeon caviar, include an extra burst of flavour. Get the exceptional selfmade bread to soak it all up.

Wildhawk is not your regular bar. Indeed, you can wander in and buy a gin and tonic or Manhattan, but why would you want to? Wildhawk is known for its wildly creative residence cocktails – the Diving Swallows, for case in point, is made with two kinds of Scotch whisky, San Zanj rum, Galliano, and coconut milk, topped with buttered popcorn – and ice cold martinis for two. The vibe is warm and cosy, and whether you are sitting down at the bar or on 1 of the comfy couches, you’ll really feel welcome by the affable bartenders.

For a fast breakfast or lunch, swing by Tartine Bakery for a new pastry, like a flaky croissant or early morning bun, or a much more sizeable slice of quiche. Soon after 10am, contemplate buying a person of the hot pressed sandwiches, designed to purchase on Tartine’s great state loaf bread (the pastrami with gruyere, horseradish, and dijon mustard is a winner). 

La Cocina Municipal Marketplace is a diverse form of meals hall. Its six suppliers contact “disparate corners of the Earth – Senegal, El Salvador, Algeria and others”, but though the cultures represented are “diverse”, there are “small, poetic considerations that unite them”, mentioned the San Francisco Chronicle. Most supply beans and rice in some form and meals are “made to be financially available to small-earnings people of the Tenderloin”. It is an empowering – and tasty – environment, with diners in a position to get from several suppliers for a correct culinary journey.

How to get there

There are immediate flights from London Heathrow Airport to San Francisco International Airport on British Airways, United Airlines, American Airlines, Virgin Atlantic, and Delta. For far more details on factors to do in San Francisco, see sftravel.com