GETTING AROUND

San Francisco has very good public transit, and all of it, BART, buses, light rail, streetcars, ferries and cable cars, are accessible with the use of a Clipper card.  How does it work? Well, you can watch this fairly uninformative and slightly aggravating video (https://youtu.be/NmsSAYYtX2A). The best deal in transit is the 3-day Visitor Passport. For $31, you get unlimited bus, streetcar, light rail and cable car rides (but no BART). The passports can be purchased at any Walgreens drug store. For arrival times, check nextmuni.com or download one of the many transit apps (Alex & Maria use Routesy).

Alternatively, Uber and Lyft are quick and still relatively inexpensive options for getting around town. If you don't mind sharing a car and there are only 1-2 people in your party, use Uber Pool; almost always $6-$8/ride.

THINGS TO DO

We love San Francisco. Alex moved here in 2004 for school, and Maria moved here in 2010 right after school. Now it is our home.  San Francisco, like any city, offers millions of things to do, and a Google search will probably be as creative as any advice we can offer here. But one of the unique things about San Francisco is how small it is, for a city. At roughly 7 miles by 7 miles square, you can walk from the Bay (Fisherman's Wharf, the Embarcadero, AT&T Park) to the breakers (Baker Beach, Land's End, Ocean Beach) in less then three hours. And though we mention that for illustrative purposes, the (somewhat boring!) truth is that our favorite thing to do in San Francisco is to, well, walk around!

So, yes, please note that a short drive over the Golden Gate bridge will take you to beautiful and justly famous wine country. And remember that in the Bay Area, you truly have no shortage of entertainment options, from playing mini-golf in an old Victorian, to touring an artisanal distillery just a ferry ride from downtown SF. But in the spirit of our pedestrian tastes, here are 5 suggested walking tours of the City:

Walking Tour 1: Strolling the Bay

Take a bus, street car, BART, cable car or cab down to the Ferry Building to start. (For a longer walk, you can start at AT&T Park) From there, cruise up the Embarcadero to the Exploratorium (its as if a science fair was given a Billion dollar budget), Pier 39 (See Sea Lions!), Fisherman's Wharf and Aquatic Park. End with a cocktail at the Long Now Foundation, where the service is surprisingly prompt given their commitment to 10,000 year timescales.

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Walking Tour 2: Caminar por la Mision

The Mission is San Francisco's historic Latino neighborhood and is the current epicenter of the tech boom (Mark Zuckerberg has a house here). There is tension between these two cultures in this time of rapid change (and rapidly rising rents). This dynamic is best contemplated while choosing an instagram filter to capture the impressive mural-lined alleyways.  Enjoy the best burritos in the world for about $5 at one of the many old-school taquerias, then grab a cup of some of the best coffee in the world for about $5 at one of the many new wave cafes.

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Walking Tour 3: Chinatown/North Beach

Chinatown is secretly Alex's favorite SF neighborhood. It's dense and very walkable thanks to a network of alleyways, and it is historical both as a cultural enclave and as a collection of old SF buildings. Unfortunately Mr. Bing's closed, so one can no longer play dice for money (although if you have a little Cantonese, you can probably get in a card game at the park).  There is nowhere more romantic than North Beach at night, and you really can't go wrong with any of the Italian restaurants on and around Columbus Avenue.

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Walking Tour 4: Golden Gate Park

I ran out of time to design my own, so below, please find a perfectly adequate park walking tour I found on Google.

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Walking Tour 5: Outside Lands

This ramble will take you from the Outer Richmond to the Outer Sunset by way of Land's End and Ocean Beach. The views of the Ocean are spectacular, and the history along the route, from Rodin sculptures, to WWII batteries to Sutro baths, make the landscape that much more interesting. This is a walk best done in nice weather, although it is also fairly dramatic in fog and mist. Head out West on the 1 or 38 line, start with a coffee and sandwich at our favorite Outer Richmond cafe, Garden House, proceed into Lincoln Park (a great golf course) to the Legion of Honor, and then around the back and along the coastal trail on your way to the Land's End visitor center that Maria helped design. From there, proceed through Sutro Park and down to Ocean Beach, ending with a beer at Cliff House or, keep going, ending with a beer at Java Beach Cafe instead. From there you can take the N Judah train back East.

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Honorable Mentions:

The Presidio

Right behind our neighborhood is the former Spanish garrison (established 1776) turned U.S. Army base turned beautiful park.  The Presidio has miles of nature trails, wonderfully preserved old buildings from throughout its history, and fantastic new museums and restaurants. El Polin Spring is one of Alex's favorite places in the City.

Twin Peaks

Tradition has it that San Francisco, like Rome, is a city built on 7 hills. In truth, SF has closer to 50 hills, as you'll discover if you spend any time walking around. But Twin Peaks is our grandest, and from its top you have a commanding view of the City and the Bay. Unless the fog has rolled in. In which case you will have a commanding view of water vapor.

Bernal Heights

Bernal is the SF neighborhood that time forgot. Just South of the Mission district, tucked away between a hill and the highways is a charming neighborhood with a small commercial strip on Cortland Ave. As hilly as any neighborhood we've got, its a uniquely San Franciscan place. 

The Castro

San Francisco's traditional gay neighborhood, the Castro is also, along with the adjoining Mission, one of the sunniest places in SF.  The Castro is home to beautiful Victorian homes, as well as Maria and Alex's favorite brunch place (thanks, Blake!), Harvey's.

Nob Hill

Maria's first SF neighborhood. Nob Hill has Maria's favorite little park, Huntington Park, right across the street from the majestic Grace Cathedral.  You can reach Nob Hill by cable-car (get on at Market and Drumm), which is really the way to go, not as many tourists take the California line, despite the spectacular views along the route.