– adventuring with ash –

San Francisco. The City by the Bay. My sister and I have wanted to visit for as long as we can remember. Finally, we have! I planned a 3-day Itinerary that I feel allowed us to see so much, and I’d love to share it with you.

We landed in San Francisco around 3pm, a couple hours after our predicted arrival of 12pm. Our flight had been delayed. However it luckily didn’t negatively impact our plans at all. I knew that we’d first take the BART train from the San Francisco airport, to our hotel in Union Square. The ride wasn’t bad at all, it took about 35 minutes so is definitely the fastest option next to maybe Ubering. While on the train, a couple who was sitting across from my sister and I held up their phone and showed me a picture of Amanda Seyfried, and asked me if it was me lol. When I said no, they told me I was her twin and look just like her. I’ve heard that I look like her before (I don’t), but I love her so every time someone tells me that it makes my day, lol. What a nice compliment to start my trip!

After we got to the hotel, we checked in and admired our AMAZING view from the hotel. I knew I chose a tall hotel, so I asked for high floor and we got to get on the 15th floor! They have 16 stories. Thew view was INCREDIBLE!

After we got checked in and settled in a bit, we headed out to start our day 1 of exploring San Francisco. We first went out and explored the beautiful Union Square area. It was awesome. The tall buildings, the sounds of instruments filling the streets. We saw a cable car almost immediately and caught a glimpse into our next day, when we’d be riding one. It was awesome and i can still remember how happy I felt.

While walking in Union Sqaure, we came across one of the 500 famous heart statues that are spread around San Francisco. I wish I knew about these heart statues sooner, they have some beautifully painted hearts that I would’ve loved to track down and visit. I only saw two. If you click on this link, 2024 Hearts in San Francisco Sculptures , you can see several of the painted hearts. They are stunning, and I wish I would’ve tracked some down.

After Union Square, we headed to the Downtown area. It was amazing. We saw the Transamerica Pyramid, explored the ferry building, sat and watched the water at the bay bridge, explored Rincon park and the famous Cupid’s bow and arrow statue. Sitting there watching the water under the bay bridge as the sun was setting was beautiful.

After downtown, we made our way over to Chinatown. I wanted to do Chinatown at night and it worked out perfect. You can read all about my time in Chinatown here, it was seriously such a blast. After exploring the Chinatown area and seeing the red lanterns and dragons gate, we headed back to the hotel for a good night’s rest. We knew we still had so much more to see.

Day 2, we woke up, got some Jack-in-the-Box breakfast, and made our way over to Pier 39 via the bus. Pier 39 was super cool. We saw the giant Ferris wheel on the pier, with views of the Golden Gate Bridge. Pier 39 is also a great viewing spot to see Alcatraz Island. We explored the area and the shops, taking it all in. We saw the famous Pier 39 sea lions who rest on the docks, they were adorable and loud lol.

At Pier 39 we also ate lunch at Bubba Gumps, which you can read about here. I highly recommend you eating here if you’re in the area. Awesome food, yummy drinks, and beautiful water views of Alcatraz island and the Golden Gate Bridge. Cant ask for any better than that. We also did the Aquarium of the Bay, which you should read about here. Lastly, we did Magowan’s Infinite Mirror Maze at Pier 39. It was pretty short, but such a fun experience. for only $10 you walk through this room of infinite mirrors and have to try to find your way out. My sister and I had a lot of fun.

After Pier 39, we explored the Fisherman’s wharf a little and then made our way to the cable car boarding. For $8 a ticket, we got to take a ride on the cable car to Lombard street. It was a cool experience riding on it and seeing how the cable cars work. I love how they’re open and you can stand on the sides, I think its cool. Definitely worth it 🙂

Lombard street was cool. We got dropped off at the top and could see how it spirals down, but the angle isnt great. We walked all the way down which was tiring lol, a lot of steps. But it did give us better views of Lombard street, and it was cool to see the cars coming down at a spiral like that. When you get to the bottom, you have amazing views of Coit tower, and the east side of the city by the water. It was absolutely beautiful.

After that, we had to walk BACK up Lombard street. Our legs were definitely yelling at us lol. But the bus stop we needed to go to was back that way. We headed towards it, and grabbed some coffee at an amazing cafe before getting to the stop. Next stop: the palace of fine arts.

The Palace of Fine Arts was awesome. It is free to go around and explore. The architecture was so cool to see, and so tall! The venue was built in 1915 and is just stunning, take a look for yourself:

After the Palace of Fine Arts, we had our long walk to the Golden Gate Bridge. It was over 2 miles of walking to get to the bridge, after we had been walking all day. But i was ready lol. I maaaybeee fibbed slightly to my sister and told her it was just over a mile lol. She would’ve done it regardless but I didnt want her less excited after hearing we had a two mile walk hahah.

The walk was beautiful though. We walked down to Crissy Field park/beach and walked the Golden Gate Promenade trail all the way to the bottom of the bridge. So we had beautiful ocean and bridge views the entire time, just watching as the bridge got closer and closer. It was so beautiful and better than i had imagined. We took in the views at the bottom of the bridge before then hiking up the Presidio promenade trail, up to now the top of the bridge.

It was 6:15pm by the time we got to the top of the bridge, and they dont allow you to walk on the bridge after 6:30pm. Luckily we made it just in time to walk about a quarter of it. The views were stunning and we can now say we’ve walked on the Golden Gate Bridge! 🙂 after that we got on the bus to head back to the hotel but since we were nearby the Sutro Baths I wanted to see the at night so we did that. However- you cannot see them at night lol. Definitely added extra time and walking to our night that we could’ve been at the hotel relaxing, but you live and you learn! We finished the night off with some amazing pizza before heading off to bed 🙂

Onto Day 3, our last day 😦 we definitely made the most of it. We were out of the hotel at 7am, and took a bus to the Sutro Baths, now that we could actually see them lol. We spent probably an hour and a half there, it was amazing. You can read about my time at the Baths here. I 100% recommend adding it to your itinerary. I got soaked by a giant wave which was hilarious, definitely gave me something to remember!

We then walked from the Sutro baths to Golden Gate Park, which is quite a bit of a walk. We were exhausted at the end of this day lol, we seriously did SO much walking. On our last day, we walked over 10 miles.. we both had walked 23,000 steps. And that’s on top of the other 2 days that were also filled with walking. We walked from one end of Golden Gate Park all the way to the other, and GGP stretches over 3.5 miles. You can read about out time at GGP here 🙂

After Golden Gate Park we made our way over to Alamo Square and got to see the Painted Ladies, a row of 6 Victorian-style homes with the tall buildings of Downtown San Francisco in the background. Such a beautiful, beautiful area. The Painted Ladies are the houses that were shown in the Full House intro!

After the Painted Ladies, we made our way to our last stop of the day and last stop of the trip: Twin Peaks. Twin peaks is the second highest natural point in San Francisco, with an elevation of 925ft, only 2nd by a mere 3 feet to Mt. Davidson that stands at 928ft. The view from Twin Peaks is amazing. We had to hike a bit to get up there, and I was in boots and had already walked 9 miles this day.

But it was so worth it. You can see everything. Beautiful views of the ocean, the Golden Gate Bridge, the downtown area. You can see the Bay bridge. It’s just absolutely gorgeous. We went at sunset, and I truly think it was the best time we could’ve gone. Twin Peaks is definitely a spot you don’t want to miss!

As are the rest of them, honestly. San Francisco is such a beautiful, vibrant city and I am so glad my sister and I went. I hope you guys can take some inspiration from this article, and maybe plan your own itinerary around it or even follow mine! It was an amazing trip with so many sights hit, i truly feel like we made the most out of our time there. I will be back San Francisco!!