The Rock and the artisan (bread) roll. Different places to see and picnic in San Francisco.

I was recently discussing San Francisco as a destination with a colleague and also with a client who has just been and given I’ve been a few times I thought I would tell all I know about this wonderful city.

The main thing to remember about San Francisco is that the main city itself is the least populous. More people live across the bay bridge in the wider bay area and Oakland than San Francisco itself.  Property in San Francisco proper is hugely expensive so hotel prices reflect this unfortunately so it’s not a cheap place to stay in.

Prices start for somewhere 3 stars plus and half decent at around £150 a night so its best to bear that in mind when looking at itineraries.

What I like about San Francisco is that it has some truly iconic buildings and iconic structures.

The Golden Gate bridge is probably the most well known followed by Alcatraz but the Transamerica building in the financial centre and Cuit tower and Fishermans wharf follow close behind and that’s not to mention the crooked Lombard street. (featured films in Bullitt and Vertigo and the Love Bug).

Much like New York, San Francisco is a veritable film set, films featuring or set here include…

Recent and past Star Trek films, Antman, Planet of the apes (recent remakes), Milk, Hulk, Dirty Harry, the Graduate, Basic Instinct and The Rock (with Sean Connery and with scenes at Alcatraz and the lovely & historic Fairmont hotel where I stayed a few years ago. Love that film 🙂

San Francisco has a pretty impressive film history but the city is great as a standalone destination without any of the added film shenanigans. Apart from Fishermans Wharf, there is very little tackiness of any kind to encounter here.

So what do I like? Well for a start in the city itself there is a myriad of things to see, some of which I’ve listed above.

Outside of the obvious, some of the best things are outside of the more well known Nob hill and surrounding area from Union Square to Fishermans Wharf.

Golden Gate Park  https://goldengatepark.com/ is a day trip in itself, it features the huge Academy of Sciences which has its own aquarium, planetarium any many other attractions and exhibits to do with the sciences.

It has a beautiful Japanese garden and tea rooms which I visited when there and the De Young Fine Arts Museum. It also has its own arboretum and the Strawberry Hill island which is within one of the many lakes in the park.

You can walk from here quite easily to the Haight Astbury area which is steeped in hippy culture and interesting shops and cafes to go with it, it certainly has a style of its own.  Not too far from

Haight Astbury is the Castro area, which is the centre of all things LGBT in San Francisco and the setting for the aforementioned film “Milk”. For such a cosmopolitan city its fitting that

San Francisco has an area like this and we walked around a bit soaking up the atmosphere of what I’d imagine is a bit of Jerusalem for the gay community. Like neighbouring Haight Astbury it again has a style and atmosphere of its own.

Another fairly unmentioned but cool place is the ferry building at the Bay Bridge end of the Embarcadero (the main route along San Francisco’s bayfront, which leads down to Fishermans Wharf)  https://www.ferrybuildingmarketplace.com/

Personally, I would use it as a place to stock up for a picnic to go to Golden Gate Park or somewhere else back to nature. From fresh bread to patisserie to artisan cheese, meats, and chocolate. This place has everything for a good picnic as well as quite a few cafes and eating venues. It also has wine shops with tasting but I would tend to lean more towards a trip outside of San Francisco to Napa Valley for anything wine based.

If you were looking for a lunch stop in the Napa Valley area a picnic at V Sattui Vineyard is a safe bet featuring weekend barbeques and an incredible deli daily, although they specialize in sweet wine so not really my thing!! Napa Valley is a fantastic relaxing thing to do for a day as long as you have a designated driver as its a bit outside the city. Some of the more obscure winemakers are more interesting out here but Beringer and the famous Robert Mondavi are worth a visit as is the vineyard of one Francis Ford Coppola….

Another of my suggestions for San Francisco area, weather and fitness allowing is hiring a bike and cycling through the Presidio (pictured) and across the Golden Gate bridge to Marin County. It is a bit of an uphill battle getting up and over the bridge but once you’ve done it it is all downhill to the seaside town of Sausalito where there are some great seafood restaurants and boutique shops as well as a great view of the bridge and bay. Most bike operators in San Francisco offer a ferry ticket back which is a great way to get a superb view of the Golden Gate that you won’t get if you just stay in San Francisco! You can pick up a bike here at Fishermans Wharf.

There are loads of other things possible from San Francisco in a day or half a day. The Jelly Belly jelly bean factory is over in Oakland for example (that’ll be on my itinerary next time) or further around in Marin county, it’s possible to see redwoods at Muir Woods.

For a longer trip, you can get out to Yosemite national park on a long day trip or down the coast to Monterey.

It’s a city you could easily spend a week in but whatever you do its got to be on the bucket list!!