A lot ups and downs in San Francisco

I had the chance to visit San Francisco for two days. There needs to be more time. But San Francisco is smaller than I thought. I should have visited Alcatraz, which is iconic for this city. For sure, spending more days would allow me to visit Golden Gate Park, Twin Peaks (to get the 3rd possible way of amazing view), or to visit China Town, which is, if I believe the locals, like every other China Town in New York or London. So basically, two days are tough, but enough 🙂

Coit Tower
Next to the pier, you should spend $10 to climb the 257 steps to the Coit Tower. Unfortunately, the elevator is broken. But you get rewarded with an impressive 360-degree view.

Architecture

If you try to find something, San Francisco special (besides Golden Gate Bridge, the cable car, and Alcatraz) is the architecture. It’s impossible to take pictures of all nice houses, so I spam you only with only some of my photos 🙂

By the way, the famous houses “Painted Ladies” are worth visiting, BUT you see the same style of houses everywhere in the city. So I would put it off the list of must-dos. But never mind, here is my picture:

Bike Tour
I decided to do a bike tour to see the Golden Gate Bridge. Starting at $40 for 24 hours, you can rent a bike and do the tour across the bridge. By bike, it’s free to cross the bridge.

On the other side, you will reach small village houses in the water, little homes with beautiful front yards, and some with small yachts and dogs running around in a park. It seems to be far away from any big city, but it is pretty beautiful and worth visiting.
If you do the whole way around, you could use the ferry from “Tiburon” back to Pier 1 in San Francisco. One ride with the ferry is $14.

Food

As you normally expect big food postings from me, I must disappoint you this time. I had two signature dishes of San Francisco, the lobster soup in a bread bowl and an In-N-Out Burger.

The first one is something special, but why the burger? This chain only exists on the west coast, and sure, the hype is bigger than the taste, but it’s even in the local travel guides mentioned as a must-do.

Lastly, here are some pictures of SF’s famous trams and cable cars.

Should you visit San Francisco? Yes, but plan 3 to 5 days; you might get bored in SF alone just as a tourist. Be aware that the streets are ALWAYS going up and down; this is the first time I have walked so much uphill and downhill in one city…