How many days do you need in San Francisco?
Four days. That is the length of the itinerary we built for San Francisco.
Here is what each day holds. Every stop below carries its time, and every gap says how to get to the next stop, with the walk or drive time wherever both stops are mapped.
San Francisco · 4 days United States
Best time: September and October are the warmest, clearest months, which surprises everyone.
The bridge and the bayDay 1
📍9:00 AMGolden Gate Bridge
Walk out from the southern end for the full effect. It is often in fog until midday, which is its own kind of view.
🚶 ~43 min · 🚗 ~6 min · 1.6 mi
🌳1:00 PMPresidio and Baker Beach
A former army post turned national park, with a beach below the cliffs looking straight back at the bridge.
🚗 ~14 min · 4.0 mi
⛴️5:00 PMFerry Building
A 1898 terminal turned food hall on the waterfront, with a farmers market outside on Saturdays.
Alcatraz and North BeachDay 2
📍9:00 AMAlcatraz
The island prison, with an audio tour narrated by former guards and inmates that is far better than it needs to be. Book weeks ahead.
🚗 ~8 min · 2.4 mi
📍2:00 PMChinatown
The oldest Chinatown in North America and one of the largest Chinese communities outside Asia. Walk Stockton Street, where the groceries are, not Grant.
🚶 ~16 min · 🚗 ~2 min · 0.6 mi
🏰5:30 PMCoit Tower and the Filbert Steps
An Art Deco tower with 1934 murals inside, and a wooden staircase down through gardens and cottages on the east slope.
The Mission and HaightDay 3
🌆10:00 AMMission District murals
Balmy and Clarion alleys are painted end to end, decades deep, and the Mission is where to eat in this city.
🚶 ~18 min · 🚗 ~2 min · 0.7 mi
🌳2:00 PMDolores Park
A sloping lawn with the whole skyline in front of it. On a sunny weekend the entire neighbourhood is on it.
🚶 ~35 min · 🚗 ~5 min · 1.3 mi
🌆5:00 PMHaight-Ashbury and Alamo Square
The 1967 counterculture intersection, then the row of Victorian houses on the park everyone photographs.
Golden Gate Park and the coastDay 4
🌳10:00 AMGolden Gate Park
Larger than Central Park, running three miles to the ocean, with a Japanese tea garden and a botanical garden inside it.
🚶 ~26 min · 🚗 ~3 min · 1.0 mi
🖼️1:30 PMde Young Museum
American and Oceanic art in a perforated copper building, with a free observation tower over the park and the city.
🚗 ~8 min · 2.4 mi
📍5:30 PMLands End
A coastal trail through cypress on the cliffs at the mouth of the bay, past shipwreck sites and the ruins of a Victorian bath house.
This is how Petrel lays out a trip. Upload your own confirmations and it builds this for your dates: flights and hotels included, with live flight status and the travel time between stops.
This is one of 126 free itineraries. Open it, change anything you want, and it becomes your trip.