Travel Guide: San Francisco

San Francisco is such a fun city! There is so much to do. I’ve been a handful of times and each time I’ve done something different so I wanted to make a recap for y’all. Hope you find it helpful!

What to do:

Museum of Ice Cream – You can dive into a pool of sprinkles. I repeat, a pool of sprinkles! They let 15-20 people (including kids) at a time and give you about 5 minutes in the sprinkles. Also, I saw they now have a slide to slide into the sprinkles. This place is seriously awesome. When you first enter the museum, they encourage you to pick an ice cream name. I picked Funfetti, my favorite thanks to HaloTop and Pillsbury. First you enter the pool of sprinkles and then you continue through different exhibits of the museum (one caveat – it’s more of an interactive museum for kids or an Instagrammer’s paradise than a museum). Throughout the museum, you also get ice cream! I read some reviews before we went that said you don’t get ice cream but we got it four times and also cotton candy. You can ride a unicorn, go for a pink sprinkled cookie ride, walk through a candy forest, create different fun sayings on the wall, swing with ice cream in different exhibits and take a gif! Very fun place and every couple of months, they change it up. If you are going to do anything in San Francisco, this one is going to be at the top of my list with or without kids (besides the Golden Gate Bridge obviously). 

Golden Gate Bridge – I didn’t know there were so many places you could go to take pictures and get a great view of the Golden Gate Bridge (so pretty)! We went to Battery Spencer and the view was awesome! You do have to park on the street and walk a little bit but it’s a huge area to take pictures. Definitely, a must if you are visiting SF. Some other places to take pictures are Marin Headlands – Hawk Hill, Marshall Beach, Crissy Field, and Fort Point.

Ghiradelli Square – does this really need a description? Can we say Chocolate, chocolate everywhere! The square is actually made up of cute restaurants, bars, and shops and it’s super close to the Ocean. It’s the cutest little area. Some of the shops will even give you free Ghiradelli samples. We ate lunch at The Cheese School, it was delicious but a little pricey. I had a Chicken Bacon sandwich and it was so good. Next, we went to Ghiradelli Marketplace. I ate my sandwich as quick as I could because I was really just there for the dessert. We had a hot fudge sundae and a brownie sundae and oh man, words can’t describe the sundaes. They were so delicious and super filling.

Full House House – If you watched the show growing up or if you watch the Netflix series now, you know that the house is based in San Francisco. If you’re in the area, it’s definitely fun to take pictures in front of the house and there is a little park in front of it. The address is 1709 Broderick Street.

Napa – if you like Wine, Napa is the place for you. There are so many different wineries in Napa, how do you choose!? The first time we went to Napa, we took a bus from SF to NAPA and it handled all of the transportation and tasting fees. You take a bus there and then a ferry home which was pretty fun. This was great because we didn’t have to worry about driving back to SF after the winners (it’s about an hour with no traffic). The only problem is we didn’t get to sit and really enjoy being at the wineries but we did get to have a tour which was pretty fun. We went to three wineries. The second time we went, my sister in law drove us and we googled and asked friends which wineries we should go to. This was way better because we got to sit and enjoy, have a glass of wine, do a taste, go on a tour, walk around and just be at our own pace. Keep in mind that the wineries close between 4-4:30.

Our favorite wineries in Napa are Andretti Winery, Robert Mondavi Winery, Domaine Carneros, Bouchaine Vineyard, Domain Chandon, and V. Sattui Winery. Domaine Carneros is beautiful and looks like a castle! It is so picturesque, definitely try the champagne as well (they are known for it!) 

I’ve also heard great things about Sonoma, which is only 30 minutes from Napa. You can also join the wine clubs and ship wine bottles home.

Union Square – Such a fun area – restaurants, coffee shops and restaurants. I stayed in Union Square the first time I went. Union Square is super fun and has a lot of great shopping! The stores are huge. There is even an ice skating rink during Christmas time. 

Alcatraz Island – it used to be a prison. Al Capone stayed there and it is the prison featured in the movie The Rock with Sean Connery and Nicholas Cage. It’s on a private island. It has tours and it sells out really quick. Try to book the tour ahead.

Fisherman’s Wharf – a fun area to stay in, very touristy, but great restaurants and lots to do. Definitely check it out, I’ve listed a couple of the restaurants in the section below.

Cable Car & Lombard street – you have to take a Cable Car downtown and also go down Lombard street. It is the most crooked street in the world. And boy, they are not kidding! It’s so windy, but definitely a cool experience. 

Twitter, Google and Lyft are all in SF – if you can take a tour, do it! Super fun to see the offices. Twitter had a photo booth which you know I love. 

What to eat (aka my favorite topic):

Cliff House – this was on the fancier side and a little out of the way of SF, but definitely worth it! Also, there are two sections of the building that are actually two different restaurants. Downstairs is a much fancier restaurant than upstairs, make sure you make reservations and go to the correct host stand (ask when you book), but when you see the menu items, you will know. This happened to my husband and I. When we sat down, we realized these were not the prices we had seen and realized there were two restaurants in the same building. The oysters were soooo good. Great restaurant, great food and the view was great.

San Franciscan Crab – if you can’t make it to Alcatraz Island, you can go to the San Franciscan Crab and sit over the ocean. Very cool restaurant with good food and dessert. I would go here just for the view.

Waterfront Restaurant – we discovered this restaurant after our Napa Wine Tour. Great view and delicious food! 

Here are some other restaurant recommendations Nopa, Spruce, La Ciccia, Aliotos and Fiorella.

Before we went to SF, everyone said it was the best place to get coffee.

Here are a couple of places we enjoyed getting coffee: Sightglass Coffee, Four Barrel Coffee, and Andytown coffee roasters.

Hope you found this travel guide helpful! If I missed anything, leave a comment and I’ll be sure to add it!

xoxo

Sparkling in Style