When I was a teenager, I was fascinated by San Francisco. For reasons that are unclear to me now, it was where I wanted to travel before anywhere else and I spent so much time reading about the city and dreaming of my first trip there. I completely forgot about this, until I visited for the first time during my recent trip where I spent one month in the USA & Canada.

We’d just returned to the United States, after spending a few days in Vancouver. This was my first trip to California, a place I was dying to visit and totally fell for. San Francisco was our first stop in the golden state before we hit the road for the Pacific Coast Highway and then ended our trip in Los Angeles.

I acknowledge the Ohlone and Ramaytush people as the First Nations owners of the lands now recognised as San Francisco. I pay respect to their Elders, lores, customs and creation spirits. I recognise that these lands have always been places of great natural beauty, culture and community. 

This post covers a lot, you can use these links to skip to a section:

• Chinatown
• Ferry Marketplace Building
• City Lights Book Store
• Fisherman’s Wharf
• Palace of Fine Arts
• Golden Gate Bridge
• Napa Valley & Sonoma Day Trip
• Mission Street Art & Food Tour
• Mission Dolores Park
• The Castro
• Pacific Heights

The verdict

I really loved San Francisco.  I didn’t do some of the touristy “must-do’s”, like going to Alcatraz (sold out months in advance), riding a cable car (have trams in Melbourne) or going to Haight-Ashbury (ran out of time, and heard it’s pretty skeezy these days). I saw the famous, steep zig zagging Lombard Street only because our bus to Napa Valley drove past it, but to be honest I actually can’t remember seeing it. I did see the Golden Gate Bridge, but it was 80% shrouded in fog. I made it to Fisherman’s Wharf, but it is one of the crappiest tourist attractions I have ever visited.

What I loved about San Francisco, and what ended up being most memorable for me, was experiencing the city by its different neighbourhoods – particularly the Mission and The Castro. The city’s rich food culture and vibrant arts scene is what I loved the most, rather than the numerous iconic tourist attractions that had built my perception of the city before visiting.

Chinatown

We arrived in San Francisco in the early evening and decided to go for dinner in Chinatown, which was close to our hotel. San Francisco’s Chinatown is the oldest in North American and the largest Chinese enclave outside Asia. Based on this, I assumed that at 7pm on a Thursday night, we’d have our pick of places to eat.

Strangely, it was a total ghost town. We were lucky that Eastern Bakery, the oldest bakery in Chinatown, was open, so we grabbed a couple of little cakes and other items to have later. Eastern Bakery opened in the 1920s, when diner culture was huge in America, and it serves both traditional Chinese, American, and American Chinese food. It’s a local institution, especially for American-born Chinese who grew up in the neighbourhood and found comfort in the multicultural food offering.

We did eventually find a small restaurant to eat in, and had a few dumplings and, of course, a fortune cookie. Fortune cookies were not invented in China, but in Chinatown in San Francisco.

I would love to come back to Chinatown one night when it’s all open for business – it’s a gorgeous neighbourhood and I can only imagine how much more dynamic it is when it’s full of people.

Ferry Marketplace Building

On our first morning, we rugged up as much as we could and walked to the Ferry Marketplace, via the Financial District. The Ferry Building is a beautiful beaux arts building from the late 19th century, and is a ferry terminal, a food hall and also home to some offices.

I really wanted to try cheese from Cow Girl Creamery, Acme Bread’s sourdough and the Secret Breakfast ice cream(bourbon and cornflakes) from Humphrey Slocombe, but I’d just had breakfast and it was way too early for ice cream! The empanadas at El Porteno empanadas and Hog Island oysters would have made a great lunch, if it had been a little later. We were thinking about taking a ferry to Sausalito across the bay, but the weather forecast looked gloomy until the afternoon, so we decided to pass.

City Lights Book Store

From the Ferry Building, we made our way north to Fisherman’s Wharf, with a detour to North Beach to visit City Lights Book Store. The book shop is San Francisco’s landmark book store  and has been running for more than 60 years. City Lights self publishes a number of San Francisco-focused books every year, and is famous for publishing Allen Ginsberg’s Howl and is credited with leading the Beat literary scene. For many years, the store was a modern pilgrimage site for literary lovers across the USA.

I was on the hunt for a novel set in San Francisco (or California) to read over the next week. I’d read a book set in Miami, while in Miami, which gave me so much more insight into the city and local culture and I was keen to do the same here. I picked up Amy Tan’s The Joy Luck Club and my boyfriend got East of Eden by John Steinbeck. Side note – since coming back to Australia, I’ve read Isabel Allende’s latest book Daughter of Fortune, which is partially set in San Francisco when it was barely a city, during the gold rush. It’s a great story, but it was also interesting learning more about the founding of the city.

I think I bought at least six or seven books on this trip. Books aren’t the smartest souvenirs, since they’re bulky, heavy, and can generally be purchased anywhere, but I can’t help myself!

Once I dragged myself out of the book store, we walked through North Beach, which is a historic Italian neighbourhood. It’s full of pretty pastel architecture and Italian restaurants and cafes, some of which look lovely and others which look very touristy.

Fisherman’s Wharf

I’d heard Fisherman’s Wharf was a bit of a tourist trap, but it kept coming up as a must-do in San Francisco, so we swung by. I really like to see things for myself, even if they end up being a bit of a let down.

Hand on my heart, and I rarely say this – you do not need to bother visiting Fisherman’s Wharf. It’s gross and full of scammers. Twice, some random guy with a clipboard came up to my boyfriend and told him he was going to get a fine for an “infraction” – I think the idea was that he’d distract us while someone else pick pocketed us. We quickly realised it was a scam, but it was annoying having to avoid the scammers and pickpockets as we made our way through the throng.

We were hungry for lunch, and we’d both wanted to try the west coast’s famous burger chain, In ‘N Out, and see how it stacked up to it’s east coast rival, Shake Shack. I am usually pescatarian (eat seafood, no other meat), but made an exception to try the famous In ‘N Out burger.

After a year of not eating meat, a greasy burger was a terrible idea – I don’t think I’ve ever felt so sick in my life. That was a dumb idea, and the burgers are definitely better at Shake Shack in my opinion anyway! (Side note – the pesco-friendly shake shack burgers are very lacklustre, but I remember the meat ones from my first trip to the US were amazing!).

We swung by the famous Ghirardelli Square, which had a few buskers hanging around, but wasn’t particularly interesting. We kept walking, through Russian Hill and Cow Hollow, until we eventually made it to the Palace of Fine Arts, our final detour before the Golden Gate Bridge. Cow Hollow is a charming neighbourhood, with cute shops and bars and so many pretty houses.

Palace of Fine Arts

The Palace of Fine Arts is a bit of a weird one to be honest. It’s very pretty, and it’s kind of historic, but unless you’re attending a concert or getting your wedding photos taken (as many were), it won’t take you long to look around. It was built in 1915 for the Panama-Pacific Exposition, as a place to exhibit artworks. Much like the Eiffel Tower, which was also built for an expo, it wasn’t meant to last but it was so popular that it has stood the test of time (with a little extra reinforcement of the original temporary design). It’s inspired by Ancient Roman and Ancient Greek ruins, but isn’t a replica of any particular ancient site, so it’s kind of historical fiction. It’s very pretty though and worth visiting if you’re in the area.

I would not recommend walking from the Ferry Building, to Fisherman’s Wharf, to the Palace of Fine Arts, to the Golden Gate Bridge however. There is definitely a better way to see San Francisco, and I’ll write a suggested itinerary post once I figure it out.

 

Golden Gate Bridge

I’m glad I didn’t have my heart set on seeing a spectacular view of the Golden Gate Bridge. The fog forecast predicted that the fog would clear, but all day it pushed back the time it would clear by a few hours. We made the long walk along the waterfront to the bridge, getting pummelled by icy wind. It was a long walk and it was very clear that it was still going to be cold and miserable when we got there, but we’d got that far that we decided to go anyway.

I was hoping for the fog to clear, but I also think it’s pointless getting too worked up about things you can’t change – especially the weather. Weather worries is one of the fastest ways to ruin your travels. We found a cafe/gift store which was the prime spot for bridge viewing, and I got a hot chocolate the size of my head.

Mark Twain once said “the coldest winter of my life was a summer in San Francisco,” and now I get it. The Bay Area is colder, wetter and windier in July than it is in November, so the weather was pretty miserable for most of the time we were there. Luckily, the sun did come out a couple of times and when it did, the San Francisco is GLORIOUS.

Napa Valley & Sonoma Day Trip

I love visiting wineries almost as much as I love wine, so I was very excited to visit one of the most famous wine regions in the world on this trip. Our day trip to the Napa Valley also included lunch & a winery visit in the neighbouring Sonoma wine region, which is lesser known outside the USA, but equally as impressive.

We went on a tour, which limited us to very large wineries. We visited Andretti and Madonna Estate in the Napa Valley and Cline in Sonoma. One frustration from this day was that none of the wineries offered international shipping, which was a shame. I was really excited to ship some of my favourites home, because while it’s not impossible to find American wine in Australia, it’s not that common (Australia has its own thriving wine industry).

There was a couple of hours allocated for lunch in Sonoma, which is a charming town that feels a million miles away from San Francisco. We had a lovely lunch at Della Santina’s, which is an Italian restaurant with a beautiful leafy courtyard.

I loved visiting an American wine region for the first time, especially one as famous as Napa, but I have to admit I think the Yarra Valley in Australia is more beautiful. I also preferred the Santa Maria Valley, in Southern California, which we ended up visiting a few days later during our road trip on the Pacific Coast Highway. I think part of the reason is that this was my first time on a really big bus tour of a wine region, and that meant we only visited really big wineries. I didn’t really like doing a tasting as part of a huge group and would have loved to visit some smaller wineries, which is what I’ve done every other time I’ve visited a wine region. Even when I went to Champagne in France, we managed to find a tiny tour which operated out of a mini van and only had about six people on the tour!

I would still recommend doing the day trip, because it was so worth visiting Napa and Sonoma, and the wine I tried was beautiful. My favourite winery of the day was Cline, in Sonoma, which has a beautiful estate. I’ll cover this day trip in a bit more detail in a post soon.

We had dinner back in San Francisco near our hotel at Del Popolo, which was delicious and blessedly un-touristy. After a day on a tour bus I needed somewhere a bit more chill for dinner.

Murals in the Mission: Food & Street Art Walking Tour

One of the things I want to do more of when I travel is take more walking tours – ideally, food walking tours. After having such a great time on Urban Adventures walking tours in  of the Lower East Side in New York  and Little Havana in Miami, I decided to book one in San Francisco. We took a food & street art walking tour of San Francisco’s historic Mission neighbourhood, which is the oldest neighbourhood in the city and yet still one of the most dynamic. It’s also the birthplace of the burrito!

I loved this tour, and learning more about The Mission while admiring the endless colourful street art around the neighbourhood. Our guide, Isabel, was so knowledgeable about the neighbourhood and regularly stopped to say hi to locals along the tour. It’s important to me to not be a total intrusion when I’m in a tour group and also to support local businesses along the way (which is not always the case with tours!). I really felt that this tour was respectful of the neighbourhood while also sharing it’s beauty, history and tasty food with the participants.

I’ll be writing more about this tour in an upcoming post!

Mission Dolores Park

Our tour ended in Mission Dolores Park, just as the sun came out. Mission Dolores, the church that the park is named for, is actually around the corner from the park. The beautiful tower overlooking the park is actually just the local primary school! It had been so cold and miserable earlier in the day, I was impressed how quickly locals descended on the park to make the most of the sunshine. I had wanted to try an ice cream from Bi-Rite Creamery, which is right near the park, but once again I was already too full of good food. San Francisco has so much good food, it’s impossible to eat everything you want to try – it’s definitely one of the best cities for food that I’ve visited in the USA.

Related: The Most Beautiful Places in California

The Castro

Once we left the tour, we headed to the historic Castro neighbourhood. We took the backstreets, taking the opportunity to admire more of the eccentric and beautiful San Francisco architecture.

The Castro is a beautiful historic neighbourhood that was centre stage for the gay pride movement in the 60s and 70s. The neighbourhood is still an important part of the LGBT community. The former offices of politician Harvey Milk, who was the first openly gay elected official in California, are on Castro Street. His legacy is honoured with the Rainbow Honour Walk, which is a series of plaques commemorating LGBT heroes and heroines along Castro Street, between 19th and Market Sts. The neighbourhood was buzzing when we visited, and there are heaps of bars, shops and restaurants I would have liked to have more time to check out. The neighbourhood is also home to the gorgeous Castro Theatre, which was built in the 1920s.

I had a browse at Dog Eared Books, a locally loved bookstore that specialises in small press and local literature. Naturally, couldn’t resist buying something – I bought a beautiful coffee table book called See San Francisco by Victoria Smith, AKA SFGirlByBay. I love the simplicity of the format and her beautiful photos of the city.

Pacific Heights

We couldn’t stick around in the Castro too long, because we were meeting one of my boyfriend’s colleagues, who had been transferred to the San Francisco office. We met him at Harry’s Bar in Pacific Heights, which is a beautiful old world sports bar with a genuinely tasty and fresh menu (a nice change!). Pacific Heights is one of the most expensive neighbourhoods in San Francisco, so after lunch we made our way to the Lyon Street stairs, ogling the mansions along the way. The stairs are a popular workout spot ( the stair case is steeeeep!) and also lookout towards the water. The weather had changed once again to cold and gloomy, but I imagine it’s spectacular when the sun’s out.

Next time…

I loved my introduction to San Francisco, and know that if I had the opportunity to visit again that I’d stay in the Castro, Pacific Heights or Cow Hollow, and now that I’ve seen most of the sights, spend more time eating, drinking & experiencing more of the city’s arts and culture. Next time, I’d love to do an architecture walking tour, another food and history tour of a different neighbourhood and a cooking class. I also want to go for lunch at Chez Panisse in Berkeley, tour Alcatraz and take a side trip to Sausalito and the John Muir woods. If there was any way I could get onto a small group wine tour, I’d love to go to Napa again.

Our next leg of the trip was one of the best – an epic road trip down the Pacific Coast Highway!

Have you been to San Francisco? Please leave your tips in the comments!