San Francisco in 3 Days — The Only Itinerary You Need

The Postcard Route — 6 landmarks, 3 hours

Start your trip with the hits. This is our Classic SF walking route — Ferry Building → Chinatown → North Beach → Coit Tower → Lombard Street → Fisherman's Wharf. Six stops, 3.2 km of walking, every stop has an audio guide. Grab coffee at Blue Bottle in the Ferry Building, dim sum in Chinatown, a sandwich at Molinari in North Beach, and clam chowder at the Wharf. The Google Maps one-click export means no planning — it is wired and ready. Start time: 9am. Book tickets: nothing this day — all stops are free except the cable car or Coit Tower elevator, which is $10.

The Wild City — Golden Gate Park + Lands End + Sutro Baths

Golden Gate Park is bigger than Central Park. Rent a bike at the entrance (Fulton and Stanyan, ~$30/day) and loop through in about 2 hours. Must-stops: the Japanese Tea Garden (oldest public Japanese garden in the United States, audio guide here), the bison paddock (actual bison), and the Conservatory of Flowers. Lunch: picnic supplies from the Saturday farmer's market if it is Saturday; otherwise a burrito in the Inner Sunset. Afternoon: drive or rideshare to Lands End. Walk the coastal trail north from the parking lot above Sutro Baths — 1.5 miles of cypress groves, shipwrecks visible at low tide, and Mile Rock Beach halfway up. End at the stone labyrinth overlooking the Golden Gate Bridge. Sunset here is the best in the city. Our Hidden SF route covers the full coastal stretch with audio guides at every stop. Start time: 9am (or 7:30am if you want the Japanese Tea Garden before crowds).

Neighborhoods, food, and a choice

The Mission District in the morning. Start at Clarion Alley — the murals here are repainted regularly and are a living gallery, not a museum. Get a burrito at La Taqueria or El Farolito. The debate over which is better has been running 30 years and will never be settled. Then walk to Dolores Park — the hilltop view takes in downtown and the Bay.

Afternoon: choose one of three:

• Option A — Sausalito: Ferry from the Ferry Building to Sausalito. 25-minute ride across the Bay. Lunch on the waterfront. Ferry back before sunset. Our Sausalito audio guide covers the floating homes and the WWII shipyard history.
• Option B — Muir Woods: Drive 20 minutes north across the Golden Gate Bridge to Muir Woods. Old-growth redwoods — some of these trees were saplings when the Roman Empire fell. Parking reservation required — book ahead. Our Muir Woods guide explains why this grove survived when everything around it was logged.
• Option C — Alcatraz: If you booked the Alcatraz night tour three weeks ago (you did, right?), this is your afternoon. The ferry leaves from Pier 33. The night tour is genuinely better: fewer people, lower lighting, creepier stories. Audio guide explains the unsolved escape.

Evening: dinner in North Beach — Italian, family-run, old-school. Tony's Pizza Napoletana if you wait in line. Original Joe's if you do not. End the trip at City Lights Bookstore, open until midnight.