San Francisco, CA

This was our first stop on a two week California adventure, click here to view this trip's overview page. We selected San Francisco as the starting point for our northern and central California loop tour - primarily because this is a United Airlines Hub and secondly because it is a very interesting city to explore and enjoy.

We chose to stay in the financial district due to its proximity to Chinatown and Coit tower and walkability to the waterfront areas of town. We had both been to San Francisco in the past so we skipped some things that we’d both done before. This page covers the places we explored and is not meant to be a guide for the entire city.

Our San Francisco Visit Highpoints

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• Chinatown This is one of the oldest and most established Chinatowns in the U.S. Beyond iconic Dragon’s Gate, a bustling maze of streets and alleys brims with dim sum joints and other traditional eateries.
• Coit Tower Coit Tower is a 210-foot tower in the Telegraph Hill neighborhood of San Francisco, California, offering panoramic views over the city and the bay.
• Tadich Grill Located in the heart of San Francisco’s Financial District, Tadich Grill is the oldest, continuously run restaurant in California, and third oldest in the United States. They now take reservations for half of their seating and the remaining half is available on a first come, first serve basis.
• Cable Cars The San Francisco cable car system is the world's last manually operated cable car system and an icon of the city of San Francisco.
• Fisherman’s Wharf Souvenir shops and stalls selling crab and clam chowder in sourdough bread bowls appear at every turn, as do postcard views of the bay, Golden Gate and Alcatraz.
• Fort Mason / Ghiradelli Square Shops and restaurants fill this 3-level landmark former chocolate factory near Fisherman's Wharf.
• The Ferry Building Vendors sell produce, cheese, coffee, candy & prepared food in this soaring, restored 1898 space.

One of the first things that we noticed was how empty the city was compared to previous trips. COVID has definitely had an effect on traffic and crowds which helped create a more low key environment with less stress while still being entertaining. Bear in mind that our use of the word "empty" does not mean that the streets were devoid of people - there were people moving about, going to work, shopping, etc. But if you have ever been to San Francisco in the past, you are aware of how crowded everything was. Popular locations would have lengthy lines, the cable cars would be jam packed. So oddly enough, we enjoyed the diminished crowds because we had good access to every place we visited.

Click the above video poster image to view our California road trip which allows you to get a glimpse of San Francisco, Muir Woods, Sausalito, Napa and Sonoma, Yosemite, Santa Monica, Santa Barbara, Pacific Coast Highway, Monterey, Carmel by the Sea... We did this short video to inspire others to try it out.

Getting around San Francisco is pretty easy; Walking is a great choice if you are up for it. It is a walkable city although the hills will give you a workout. As just an example, Fisherman's Wharf is 1.3 miles walking distance from our hotel. We took an indirect walking route via Coit Tower (on Kearny Street) and then down Stockton to the wharf area.

The Muni system which includes buses, light rail trains, street cars, and the famous cable cars is a great option for touring the city. Of course, Uber and Lyft are always there if your legs give out.

The muni system offers many different passes. We suggest looking them up prior to your visit. You can download the App and purchase them from there. There is a one day visitor passport that includes all forms of muni transportation. It’s a good deal if you plan to use it a lot during your day and allows you to ride the cable cars as well which due to their touristy nature are more expensive than the other Muni options.

Click here to go to the San Francisco MTA site, where you will find information regarding all types of public transportation, fares & maps.

• The Golden Gate Park is larger than NYC's Central Park.
• Locals call San Francisco fog "Karl".
• The Chinese fortune cookie was invented by a Japanese resident of San Francisco.
• Golden Gate Bridge was originally to be a black & gold color, the existing color is actually the primer. The Military wanted to insure that the bridge was visible when the fog was obscuring the bridge.
• The oldest Chinatown in North America is in San Francisco.
• There are no human burials allowed in San Francisco but there are pet cemeteries & only two human cemeteries still exist.
• The city's original name was “Yerba Buena” which means "good herb" in Spanish.
• San Francisco’s cable cars are the only National Historical Monument that can move - at a constant 9.5 MPH.
• Levi Strauss invented denim jeans in San Francisco for the Gold Rush miners.
• There are more than 4,415 restaurants and and 61 have Michelin stars.
• After New York, Moscow, and London, San Francisco is the fourth city in the world with the highest population of billionaires per square meter.
• San Francisco was originally covered by sand dunes that spanned an area of seven miles. As the city grew, the sand dunes were covered or eradicated.
• San Francisco has more dogs than children. According to Census and Animal Care and Control department data, San Francisco has around 10,000 more dogs than children.
• San Francisco is only seven miles long by seven miles wide for a total of 46.87 square miles.

Google shows that (as of 9/18/2024) there are 450 hotels in San Francisco. This list includes all types, ratings, locations, etc. If you would prefer to conduct your own research, click here to view the Google Search Results list for "accommodations in San Francisco". Once you are on that Google Search Results page, you can then change the filters to resort the hotels list by price, # of stars, property type, etc. This is a very useful tool for when you are research planning a trip.

NOTE: Google calculates a business's review score by averaging all of the ratings that have been published on Google for that business. The rating scale is 1–5 stars, with 5 being the highest possible rating.

Below is what Google says are the "five most popular hotels in San Francisco" based upon guest ratings;

1. Hotel Drisco Pacific Heights: A 6-minute walk from The Presidio park, this 5 star hotel in the Pacific Heights neighborhood is 0.8 miles from Fillmore Street's boutiques and 4 miles from the Golden Gate Bridge. (4.9 guest rating)
2. Inn San Francisco: This Victorian B&B dating from 1872 is a 10-minute walk from a BART rail station and less than a mile from the lively Castro area and the family-oriented Noe Valley neighborhood. (4.9 guest rating)
3. Four Seasons Hotel San Francisco at Embarcadero: Occupying the top 11 floors of the 345 California Center high-rise, this posh hotel is 2 miles from stores and eateries at Pier 39 along San Francisco Bay. It's 7 miles from the Golden Gate Bridge and 15 miles from San Francisco International Airport. (4.8 guest rating)
4. Omni San Francisco Hotel: Set in a former bank building dating from 1923, this refined hotel in the Financial District is across the street from a cable car stop and 13 minutes' walk from the shops and restaurants of iconic Union Square. (4.6 guest rating)
5. The St. Regis San Francisco: A north star for arts and culture lovers, this 5 star rated hotel is adjacent to SFMOMA and across the street from Yerba Buena Center for the Arts. (4.6 guest rating)

As most of our city explorations were going to be in the vicinity of the Financial District, we concentrated our research on hotels in that area and decided to select the Hilton San Francisco Financial District. Read further to understand why we selected this hotel.