Things YOU need to know before YOU go to San Francisco in California. San Francisco is the 4th most populated city in California and has a population of 800,000 people. San Francisco is known for year round fog, the golden gate bridge, cable cars, Victorian Houses, sweeping bay views, and of course Alcatraz. One of America’s most unique & distinctive cities.
2 – Weather
I refer to San Francisco as the foggy city.
Mark Twain’s famous quote: “The coldest winter I ever spent was a summer in San Francisco.”
The weather varies by hour, and by neighborhood. It could be 70 degrees and Sunny in one spot, and 50 degrees with pea-soup fog in the other.
September and October are the warmest and sunniest months.
Wear layers you can easily remove.
3 – Food:
Clam Chowder & Sourdough Bread
Seafood at Fisherman’s Wharf
Little Italy
Chinatown
Koi Palace by San Francisco Airport
Ferry Building for lot’s of local food.
Cowgirl creamery has good cheese.
Ghirardelli for chocolate and ice cream
4 – Hotels:
SF can be quite expensive
Weekends are often cheaper
I like Union Square. Most central, you can take the BART here. Cable car, street cars.
2nd choice: Embarcadero
I dont like fishermans wharf.. too touristy.
Definitely stay within the city.. dont be crossing the bay.
5 – Getting In:
3 Major Airports: SFO, OAK, SJC
SFO is 15 miles South of the city.
A strip of TARMAC surrounded by water.
The main airport, the major airlines all fly here.
Prone to weather delays (FOG)
Taxi or uber will cost about $60 and take between 25-60mins.
BART: $10 to Union Square and 35 mins. BART makes 4 stops in Downtown SF.
Oakland is 25 miles from SF, across the bay. Less foggy, so less delays. Good if you are visiting Napa. Lots of Southwest flights.
San Jose
60 miles south of SF. Good if you are visiting Santa Cruz, Monterey, or Carmel. You can do a one way rental car and return to SFO.
6 – Getting Around:
Cable Car: San Francisco classic from 1873. It’s amazing they still run these.
Best place to ride… on the outside! Want to stop… just yell out you want to stop!
7 – POPOS:
What’s a Popo? Privately owned public open spaces.
They come in the form of urban gardens, plazas, but the best ones are on rooftops.
Neither obvious nor clearly marked, POPOS are all over downtown San Francisco—and everyone is welcome
8 – Chinatown:
SF has the largest Chinatown outside of Asia. It’s also the oldest in North America. It is around one mile long by one and a half miles wide. Covers 24 square blocks. More than 100,000 people live in Chinatown. It’s the most densely populated neighborhood in the city and in fact the most densely population neighborhood in the US west of Manhattan.
It really is a city within the city. Chinatown has it’s own customs, languages, places of worship, social clubs, and identity.
Lots of great Dim sum joints, bakeries, tea shops, and this is where the American fortune cookie was invented.
More visitors come to Chinatown than the Golden Gate Bridge.
Portsmouth Square bustles with activity such as T’ai Chi and old men playing Chinese chess.
9 – Fisherman’s Wharf:
Probably the most touristy part of San Francisco, particularly because it’s next to the Golden Gate Bridge.
Alcatraz Tours leave from here. Book in advance. More about that in a bit.
Visit Boudin, Ghirardelli Chocolate Factory, and In-N-Out Burger.
They invested the Irish Coffee in the 1950’s at Buena Vista Cafe here.
And of course the Sea Lions
My favorite place is the arcade
10 – Alcatraz:
Probably the most famous prison in the US.
home to some of America’s most notorious criminals, Operated here from 1934 to 1963.
11 – Day Trips
Napa
Santa Cruz
Monterey / Carmel
3 nights in SF, 2 nights in Napa, 2 nights in Monterey/Santa Cruz, and maybe add a night or 2 in Silicon Valley if you are a tech nerd.
You might enjoy watching more of my travel videos from the San Francisco Bay Area in this playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLOVadUHX1B-Ld9Pj94hS8laRJW50pS9ZJ
Santa Cruz Travel Guide: https://youtu.be/4_x0wdPXIsw
Napa Travel Guide: https://youtu.be/6hWcdFTHcIA
CLICK HERE TO SUBSCRIBE: http://bit.ly/yellowwsub
Yellow Productions on Social Media:
FACEBOOK: https://facebook.com/YellowProductionsTravel
INSTAGRAM: https://instagram.com/yellowwproductions/
TWITTER: https://twitter.com/chrisraney
Explore more of my content on my 2nd channel, the Office Survival Guide: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCkeyiJNicoE7FMIwNvcsZ8g
Check out my blog:
My video gear:
Sony FDR-AX53 4K Handycam: http://amzn.to/2hYePVc
Sony ECMW1M Wireless Microphone: http://amzn.to/2gQKDGG
GoPro Fusion 360 Camera: https://amzn.to/2NINKSz
Pacsafe LS250 Anti-theft Shoulder Bag: http://amzn.to/2h0YCNt
35 Comments
You might enjoy watching more of my travel videos from the San Francisco Bay Area in this playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLOVadUHX1B-Ld9Pj94hS8laRJW50pS9ZJ
Santa Cruz Travel Guide: https://youtu.be/4_x0wdPXIsw
Napa Travel Guide: https://youtu.be/6hWcdFTHcIA
Yep, Anchor Steam! Thumbs up!
Thank you. This is a brilliant video. 👏 👍
Very informative video. We are going in a few days time and some good tips here. (And in the comments!). I do realise that some things may have changed due to COVID.
Mo.anis.lndian
Love it, thank you for sharing
Nice video. I've been working as a professional clown/street performer/busker for about the last 20 year's.
As a local here are a couple other important tips to go alongside the one's mentioned in the comments.
*Always, and I mean always pay your parking meters. This city is extremely aggressive for parking violations, not only will they ticket you, but they will also tow your car in most neighborhoods. If you see multiple cars and think you'll be safe, know that they're aggressive. I've seen 4 meter maids, along with 4 consecutive tow trucks, as soon as one tows a car another one comes in to tow the other. A parking ticket plus tow fee will run you significantly north of $700 no joke.
*Never leave anything visible inside your car. If you care about it have it with you or in the trunk. This is one of the highest city for vehicular break ins and the police department is extremely understaffed so you'll basically receive a "welp that sucks man".
*everyone smokes pot everywhere, if you're not okay with this fact kind of either figure something out or keep to yourself. Again given the vibe of the city and the understaffed police force, most cops do not care and I myself have been passed by cops as I smoked and they didn't so much as flinch. Park rangers can be a little pickier so be warned.
*Again because of the police issue, J -walking is extremely prevalent you'll see this everywhere, again don't be that person that get's riled up over something so minor.
*Traffic sucks, stick to using the buses as some lines have been renovated and finally finished.
* We have some pretty unique parks, so avoid the touristy areas and instead focus on going to the SalesForce park which is a mile long park elevated to the 4th floor. Also Dolores park is really lovely, lafayette park, honestly this list can be pretty long but the three main ones would be Dolores, Golden Gate park, and SalesForce.
*We have pretty nice hiking trails so if you're into that or not I definitely recommend, a family friendly one would be Lands end, or even Twin Peaks, just know that the Twin Peaks one is quite tall.
*There are a lot of varying neighborhoods and you'd do yourself a great dishonor by not visiting them. Each neighborhood has it's own flair, nightlife, and restaurants, we have ; Hayes valley, Noe Hill, Russian Hill, Civic center, Mission, SOMA, The Height, to name a few.
*people here are extremely friendly, even most of the homeless that are away from the tenderloin. The hippies will even offer free drugs lol, and all things considered it is a relatively safe city, and one I am happy to call home. Rent here is horrid, but the city definitely has an appeal. I hope you enjoy your trips to this wonderfully diverse city.
You missed the Salesforce tower POPO.
Super informative man. Wife and I are going in two weeks and this video helped us out a lot!!
where can you park your car near fishermans wharf? any tips please? 🙂 REALLY GREAT VIDEO 🙂
Screw the overpriced SF hotels. Stay in Vallejo just up Interstate 80 across the Carquinez bridge. Then take the Vallejo ferry to SF. Drops you right off at Pier 39 every am. get the Ferry back in the afternoon. Get a nice bus to and from SFO or Oakland airports that picks you up and drops you off at 6 Flags.
HI CHRIS – I ll be first time in USA and planning to drive down from SFO to Anaheim ( Disney land ). Can the same distance can be covered in 1 day ?
Saludos al guey de casi al final que saludo y se animo a salir en el video jajaja!! Felicidades por tu video me va a servir para mi proximo viaje!!
Don't leave stuff in your car unless you want it broken into. Do not show off your expensive purses and watches while touring the city. You're welcome.
You are terrific! No phony theatrics! No exageration! Just San Francisco facts.
Living here in San Francisco for 86 years, what you said was fresh and new for me.
I guess I am boring, but you are exciting and very, very educational!
Good video. Oakland airport has a tram connection to BART train. A good option.
I live in SF. I work as an community ambassador in sf chinatown. So whoever can come up to ask us for directions and such. We wear the yellow and black jacket, our job is to make sure everyone to be safe.
Great video. Have done alot of what you covered here. Thanks for sharing.
First thing to know, never call it or write it San Fran Unless you really want to show what a big doofus tourist you are. It’s San Francisco. The end
Great video thanks!
You did NOT just add in n out burger to a san francisco itinerary… maybe its because im from southern california where its very common and it may be different for people visiting from states or towns that dont have a single in n out, but if youre going to a city that is so culinary driven and has some of the best cuisines and restaurants in the world then you better try that, even the cheap holes in the wall exotic restaurants.
are cable cars free?
Good and usefull information.i
Great video. Very informative . Thank you.
YOu are good
lol, the only thing that city is famous for now is how disgusting it really is. cannot help but laugh seeing a video promoting tourism when there are hundreds showing what a liberals cespool it really is now
Born and raised Sf native of 27 years… never been on a cable car. Lmao. Cool to see you walking in Alamo Square @7:08. I went to high school across the street in the big brick building.
One thing don't go there
Thanks for your video!
Yellow Productions also has very helpful videos about Vegas. Huge thanks!
It's now a normal sight but imagine 30 years ago, you stood at the intersection of a city, talking, laughing to a small device on your hand with the size of your hand, held at arm length. People would definitely stare at you thinking you need to check yourself in a mental ward.
If you're going to San Francisco, be sure to wear some flowers in your hair, if you're going to San Francisco, you're gonna meet some gentle people there
For those who come to San Francisco, summertime will be a love-in there, in the streets of San Francisco, gentle people with flowers in their hair.
https://youtu.be/obsAUJHMOZs
SF is a good example of what happens when the public buys into the hysteria the media packages and delivers.
Gay