Information on San Francisco Tours
- Millions of tourists visit the city of San Francisco every year. Follow the tourists to the must-see locations. The Golden Gate Bridge is the most-famous most-photographed site. Tourists abound near Coit Tower and in Fisherman's Wharf, where Alcatraz can be viewed from across the bay. Rides in the ancient cable-cars and down Lombard (the world's most crooked street) are musts, as are walks along Union Square and Chinatown.
- The street of Castro is world-renowned as the place where many gays reside, work or simply hang out. Hayes and Steiner streets are where Victorian and Edwardian houses abound, just as is the Haight-Ashbury area. Nob Hill and Twin Peaks are elevated areas with beautiful views of the city. Greenery abounds in Muir Woods, including Presidio National Park, Alamo Square Park, Golden Gate Park and the Japanese Tea Garden.
- Outside the city, wine tasting in the wineries of Napa and Sonoma is a most popular tourist activity, and so are visits to the Giant Redwoods, Yosemite, Sausalito, Carmel and Monterey. These out-of-town trips may take half a day or even the whole day, so these tours normally come with transport, snacks or meals. If you want to cover as much of the city and the Bay area sights in the shortest possible time without having to disembark, bay cruise ships and helicopter rides are available.
- Dinner and dancing cruises around the bay can be expensive as well as thirty minute helicopter rides. Crossing the Golden Gate Bridge into Sausalito can be done in half a day, but going as far as Carmel and Monterrey could take all day, thus costing you more. Comprehensive city tours can take the whole day even when riding in a vehicle. A tour with a Segway (a self-balancing transport mechanism) is cheap, but cannot beat free walking tours scheduled daily, per neighborhood, and offered by city volunteers.
- Food from many parts of the world is available in San Francisco, be it Italian, Chinese, Thai, Vietnamese, Filipino, Spanish, Mexican or Nicaraguan. Food tours are offered, the better-known ones being the North Beach Food Tour and the Chinatown Food Tour. North Beach is the city's Italian enclave but the tour doesn't offer only Italian food, but also goes through the area's coffeehouses, bakeries and confectionery stores. Tours that include theaters, concerts and sporting events are also readily available.
