15 Things to Know Before Your First Trip to San Francisco

San Francisco is Generally Pretty Safe

San Francisco is generally considered to be one of the safest big cities in the country, with relatively low rates of violent crime compared to similar sized U.S. cities. 

Using data on Wikipedia’s crime rates page for U.S. cities (which pulls from FBI stats), you’ll find that San Francisco’s violent crime rate per 100,000 people is significantly lower than other U.S. cities.

For example, look at the SF rates versus Nashville (46% lower), Denver (40% lower), and even Seattle and Portland (~20% lower), the latter two are cities I am very familiar with and don’t view as particularly violent at all. 

The point is that for a city in the U.S., San Francisco is about as safe as it gets (in terms of violent crime). 

The exception to the rule is property crime like car break-ins, which are more common. But even car break ins have seen big double digit decreases year over year for the past few periods. 

Another good reminder here: if you have a car, leave absolutely nothing inside, visible or not. Especially if it’s a rental car, which tend to be targets for people looking to make a quick buck.

The big neighborhood to avoid here is the Tenderloin, which is the infamous neighborhood just west of Union Square. 

I’m not going to sugarcoat it, the Tenderloin can be rough. I used to walk through a corner of the Tenderloin on my way to work most days, and it’s certainly not great.

However, as long as you’re aware of it and alert to where you are in the city, the good news is that it is fairly easy to avoid. 

Here’s a map of the area that I would absolutely just plan on avoiding while you’re in San Francisco. 

Outside of that, the most you’re likely going to find in other parts of San Francisco is visible homelessness (more on that in a second) and mental illness, which is definitely uncomfortable but more often than not it’s not a threat to your safety (even if it feels unsafe). 

San Francisco has a Visible Homeless Population

Like many cities on the west coast, where the cost of living has skyrocketed and the climate is fairly mild, San Francisco has a visible homeless population that it would be nearly impossible to avoid completely on any trip to SF. 

It’s a big bummer to encounter, and it’s a multifaceted issue with a wide variety of causes, ranging from mental illness and addiction to housing policies. 

No one is really at fault; we’re seeing the consequences of decisions made a generation ago. 

We’re not here to debate the causes of homelessness on the west coast, we’re instead going to focus on the practical implications for your visit to San Francisco. 

Look, we get it. If you’re coming from a different part of the country (or world), it can be jarring to encounter people living on the street. 

It’s uncomfortable even for us, who have lived in Seattle, San Francisco, and Portland, all of which have had similar issues over the past 10 or so years. 

There are two things that we want to emphasize here. 

First, by and large, the visible homeless population is not a threat to your safety. Obviously, there are exceptions to this rule, but that’s the point; they’re exceptions. 

Don’t engage with people yelling at you on the street, and generally look like you have a purpose and know where you’re going. 

Second, and arguably more importantly, remember that the homeless population you encounter are human, and deserve the same respect and dignity as anyone else.

We, as a society, have utterly failed them, and it’s always good to remember that in your interactions. 

The visible homeless population is concentrated in a few neighborhoods around the city, namely the Tenderloin, SoMa, and the Mission District.

If you avoid those areas (though we’d advocate for visiting the Mission, which is one of our favorites), you will avoid the majority of that population. 

The Cable Cars are Cool, but VERY Expensive

We used to ride the cable cars in San Francisco often to get up and down the hill (we lived at the top of Nob Hill) because they are included if you have an unlimited monthly transit pass (which only makes sense for residents). 

However, if you’re paying for a cable car ride, you should know ahead of time that it is exorbitantly expensive. It’s a whopping $9 a person (kids under 4 ride free). 

Compared to a regular bus ride at $2.85, you’re paying more than triple for the privilege of riding the cable car (which, to be fair, is pretty cool). 

Is it worth it? Only you can answer that. 

The other thing to know about the cable cars is that you can board at any intersection along the route, not just at the station.

Which means you can bypass the huge lines at the terminuses – particularly on the Hyde/Powell line – by just walking a few blocks along the route. 

Of course, there needs to be room on the cable car to board, but there usually is even if there’s a long line at the start of the line. 

Public Transportation is Useful, But Confusing

Despite being a relatively compact city (famously seven miles by seven miles), San Francisco can be a little confusing to navigate with all of the different forms of public transportation and relevant agencies. 

Since getting around is a fairly important aspect of visiting, we figured we’d take a second to go through the various options, what they’re good for (and what they’re not useful for), and how to use them. 

We’ll start with the most useful and work our way through the options from there. 

The main aspect that is confusing is the fact that there are a bunch of different forms of public transportation, and they’re all run by different agencies.

Luckily, there’s a single agency that manages the payment systems across them (Clipper Card), which simplifies it at least a little bit. 

Here’s our brief summary of the various options for getting around SF. 

First is MUNI, who runs the buses, underground light rail, streetcars (along the Embarcadero), and the famous cable cars in the city. 

The bus system is fairly comprehensive, and most lines come every 10-15 minutes at peak times (though the buses can be packed). 

The thing to know about MUNI is that you cannot tap your credit card on board the buses (come on San Francisco, I thought you were a forward-thinking metropolis??), you need to have your ticket ready beforehand. More on your options for doing this below. 

Second is BART, which is an underground Subway best for connecting the city to the suburbs to the east and south.

It is also useful for connecting the downtown core in SF to the Mission District, but not much else. 

The most useful aspect of BART is connecting to the airports. There is a direct BART line from SFO to the city, and a mostly direct line (there’s a short connector line to get to the main line) from Oakland International Airport.

If you were driving, both of those routes would be messy from a traffic perspective at basically all hours of the day, but BART bypasses all that traffic and tends to be about the same amount of time and significantly cheaper. 

Third is Caltrain, which is the commuter train line that connects the suburbs in the South Bay (like Mountain View and Palo Alto, for example) to a station in the city in SoMa (South of Market).

It’s not really useful for anything in the city, but if you’re heading south, it’s what you’re looking for. 

Last, but not least, is the ferry system, which runs from various piers on the Embarcadero to places like Sausalito, Oakland, Marin, and Alameda (among other places).

There are two ferry companies to know: Golden Gate Ferries (Larkspur, Sausalito, and Angel Island) and San Francisco Bay Ferry (Oakland, Alameda, Vallejo, etc).

Useful for a day trip to Sausalito (we like to walk across the bridge one way and take the ferry back), but not much else in the context of visiting (it is useful for commuting, though). 

There are basically four options for buying tickets for public transportation in San Francisco. 

The MUNI App: You can buy single tickets, day passes, etc etc through the app, then scan the code using the pay stations on board the buses (or before you get on the MUNI Underground).

This ONLY covers forms of transit under MUNI – the buses, underground light rail, cable cars (it’s a separate, more expensive fare for the cable car), and street cars on the Embarcadero. 

A Digital Clipper Card: Clipper Card is the agency that allows you to load up a card and pay for transit across agencies (BART, MUNI, Golden Gate Transit, CalTrain, etc etc).

You can get a Clipper Card online and add it to your Apple Wallet, and it allows you to buy some (not all) relevant passes. This is probably the best option for most people. 

A Physical Ticket: You can go to the terminals at MUNI Underground Stations to get passes for MUNI, and you can do the same for BART (though BART just added a tap-to-pay option for credit cards, which is great!). 

Cash: You can only pay with cash on board buses, and there’s no change given so you need exact change. You can also pay with cash at the machines for MUNI Underground or BART at the ticket machines before you enter. 

The Hills are No Joke

For years, we lived two blocks from the tippy top of Nob Hill in the heart of San Francisco, and we were intimately aware of which streets near our house offered the most mellow incline (mellow is a relative term here) to get to and from our front door. 

Clearly all of that knowledge was jettisoned the minute I left SF because on this last trip, I was heading to one of my favorite coffee shops in San Francisco on Washington St, a handful of blocks from where we used to live, and I said to myself “yeah, I’ll just head up the hill for nostalgia’s sake.” 

Well, what I forgot is that Washington St happens to be one of the steeper paths, especially heading up the hill from there.

I was huffing and puffing by the time I got halfway to the top of the hill, and sheepishly texted Alysha that I had forgotten how steep that hill is. 

The point is that, yes, the rumors are true. The hills in San Francisco are brutal. 

However, the good news is that it’s easy to either work around the hills, or to use public transportation to get to the top of them. 

For example, if I had been thinking straight (the caffeine clearly hadn’t hit yet), I would have realized in that hill situation above that I could have walked a few blocks south to catch the 1 to the top of the hill, a bus I took to and from work almost every day I lived in Nob Hill, and walked downhill to our old apartment. 

Bring comfortable walking shoes because it is likely that, at some point, you will need to do some walking, and some of that walking might involve climbing a hill (even if it’s not one of the steepest hills in the city). 

Choose Where to Stay Carefully

Our philosophy when choosing a place to stay in a new city is to first decide which neighborhood we want to stay in, and then finding a place to stay within that neighborhood. 

San Francisco makes this a little difficult because of the way the city is zoned.

The vast, vast majority of hotels in San Francisco are clustered in three or four central neighborhoods, which are, unfortunately, not necessarily our favorite neighborhoods in the city in terms of places to visit. 

Those neighborhoods, generally speaking, are Union Square, the Financial District (plus SoMa), and Fisherman’s Wharf.

They’re fairly central with good transit connections (except for Fisherman’s Wharf), have tons of hotel options to choose from, but the neighborhoods themselves are sort of meh. 

However, in the neighborhoods we do enjoy, you’ll be lucky to find one or two places to stay, and they tend to be small B&Bs built into existing Victorians (or something like that), which means they only have a handful of units to serve the hordes of tourists visiting SF. 

Given that landscape, what’s our recommendation? 

Spoiler alert: It depends. Which is why we have an entire guide dedicated to helping you choose the right place to stay in San Francisco for your situation, style, and budget. 

Generally speaking, we really love Nob Hill (the last place we lived in SF before leaving), and it has a few good hotel options to choose from.

However, it’s at the top of a hill (not great if you’re not up for walking or taking the bus) and it’s relatively expensive (not great if you’re on a budget). 

Union Square is the best value, it’s super central, and it has great transit connections to the rest of the city, so it would be a good home base for a couple of days.

However, the neighborhood itself is kind of lifeless, and it’s adjacent to the Tenderloin, which is one of the only areas in SF that we recommend avoiding if you can. 

If you’re coming to SF with a car, we’d recommend staying in the Marina at the Star Motel and the Coventry Motor Inn, two motel-style places to stay where parking is included (which will save you anywhere from $30-80 a day in parking fees). 

It’s not the most convenient place to stay (though it is close to the Golden Gate Bridge!), but the savings in parking are worth the tradeoff we think. 

Like we said, the best neighborhood for you is likely going to depend on what you’re looking for and what your budget is, so we’d read our full guide with all the details if you’re unsure which area would be best for you. 

The Best Parts of San Francisco are the Neighborhoods

This is true of basically every city in the world, but it’s worth repeating here.

All of our favorite neighborhoods in San Francisco are the parts of the city where real people actually live, which means there are businesses there to serve the people that live there.

By and large, the majority of people in San Francisco live to the west of the Embarcadero, Fisherman’s Wharf, the Financial District, and Union Square. 

However, most people on their first visit to San Francisco never leave the eastern half of the city (basically those four neighborhoods), which is a shame because those places are generally full of chain restaurants and stores.

That’s not to say there aren’t gems to be found, but they’re the exception not the rule. 

Over the course of your San Francisco itinerary, you should definitely do your best to get out to places like the Richmond, Sunset, Mission, and Divisadero to seek out the best food, drinks, and coffee in the city.   

Everything is Going to Feel Expensive

We lived in SF for a while, and then we left for five years and moved to Portland before we really returned to SF for any significant amount of time. 

When we lived in SF, we must have been desensitized to the cost of everything in the city, from coffee to cocktails because it was our everyday reality. 

Over the course of that time away, we clearly lost that sensitization because I suffered sticker shock for the first 24 hours or so of my latest trip to San Francisco. 

If you’re coming from other lower cost of living areas, you are likely going to experience that sticker shock too.

Gluten free pastries that cost $5-6 at home in Portland were at $8-9 in San Francisco. Shots of espresso are $4-5 in SF compared to $3-4 in Portland. 

You get the idea. Everything is going to feel a little more expensive than you think it should be, but remember that you are in one of the highest cost of living areas in the country, if not the hemisphere. 

The Best Time to Visit San Francisco is…

Even if you’re set on what time of year you’re going to be visiting, it’s worth reading this section so that you know what to expect when you arrive, weather-wise. 

First, we should note that there’s no real bad time to visit San Francisco, because the weather is mild year round thanks to its location on the coast and doesn’t really change that much.

It might swing 10-15 degrees Fahrenheit between summer and winter, but overall, it’s pretty steady over the course of the entire year outside of a couple of outliers.

You’re probably thinking about coming to the Bay Area over the summer.

It’s California! The weather will be great, right? You’ve seen pictures of the beaches in L.A. with bronzed, beautiful people lounging in the sun. That’s what you’re getting here, right?

Wrong. Ish.

Between June and August, San Francisco turns into the fog capital of the world.

It’s very, very different from the weather in Los Angeles, which is the reference point that most people have for California weather.

There’s a reason that you see so many “I <3 SF” sweatshirts around the city, and that reason is that people end up needing to buy an extra layer when they show up expecting 90 degrees and get 55 degrees and foggy, with fog so thick that it’s unclear if it’s lightly raining or if that’s just the fog. 

That being said, it often clears during the day and it’s very much a pleasant place to be during the summer. Just pack a few extra layers than you think you will need. 

The best times to visit San Francisco are the shoulder seasons, particularly September and October. That’s when you’ll get warm, clear weather, and crowds will be slightly thinner as kids go back to school. 

Spring in San Francisco is great, especially if you get outside of the city and get to experience the blissful two weeks a year (I joke, it’s more like four) where the hills around the city are actually green. Before they turn brown for the other 11 months of the year. 

Winter in San Francisco is a good time to visit if you’re on a budget. Unlike other places in the country, there’s no chance of snow or really, really cold weather in San Francisco. 

It does get more rainy in the winter, but you also get beautiful blue days in between the rainy periods. Crowds will be thin and prices will be lower (though it’s still San Francisco, so it’s not exactly cheap). 

Know Your Microclimates

One of the key things to know about San Francisco is the concept of “microclimates,” which basically just means that San Francisco’s unique geography means that different parts of the city may experience completely divergent weather patterns at any given time. 

This concept has singlehandedly kept the “I <3 SF” sweatshirt industry alive in San Francisco for decades as tourists show up expecting mild, sunny, warm climate and finding themselves enshrouded in thick fog on a summer morning in June. 

The best way to deal with the microclimates is to pack in layers (more on that in a second). 

Here are three key microclimates to keep in the back of your mind as you’re planning your trip. 

The Mission and the Castro: Generally more sunny and warm (+5 degrees F) than other parts of the city. Less fog. 

The Richmond and Sunset (towards Ocean Beach): Aggressively foggy, especially in the morning and evening. It can be 10+ degrees cooler than the areas further inland like Nob Hill and the Embarcadero (not to mention the Mission and Castro). 

The Golden Gate Bridge: It’s a toss up whether you’ll get a clear day or intense fog and wind out at the Golden Gate. Best to check the cameras before you head out. 

Ogres SF Residents Have Layers

Over the course of your trip, you are very likely to have an experience where, over the course of a day, it seems like you’re experiencing multiple different weather patterns that require different clothing choices. 

There are two main reasons for that; microclimates and Karl the Fog. 

It’s sort of a cliche at this point, but San Francisco is known for having microclimates throughout the city. 

This really just means that there are pockets within the city that will be warmer and sunnier than average (the Mission District and the Castro are known for this), and there will be pockets that are colder and grayer than average (anything in the western half of the city). 

San Francisco is also known for its fog – the fog even has a name, Karl the Fog – that tends to roll in during the evening, sit overnight over the city, and then roll back out the next day (then the cycle repeats). 

This means that, even though it might be cold and foggy when you head out for the day, there’s a strong chance that it will then be clear, sunny, and warm a few hours later, even within the same slice of the city. 

Always pack a couple of layers when you head out for the day so that, when you head west out to the Golden Gate Bridge, where it’s foggy and 20 degrees cooler than it is in the Mission, you’re not freezing your butt off trying to enjoy walking across the bridge in the whipping wind. 

Our version of the perfect SF layers generally involves a t-shirt (long sleeves is usually best, because it’s never really that hot), a fleece or sweatshirt, and then a light to medium jacket (the Patagonia Nanopuff is the GOAT SF jacket). 

We’d recommend bringing a tote bag or backpack along with you for the day, and making sure you have some of those layers packed for when the weather inevitably changes throughout the day. 

You don’t usually need a rain jacket outside of early spring and winter. But we do know that, unlike the Pacific Northwest where the rain is more like a perpetual mist that is always with you, but not enough to stop you from doing anything, it RAINS in San Francisco. Keep an eye on the forecast. 

Choose Your Airport Carefully (SFO vs. OAK vs. SJC)

Similar to the public transportation situation, the airport situation in SF can also be a bit confusing, with several options to choose from. 

San Francisco International Airport (SFO) is the closest airport to the city. That’s where you should fly into.

It has the best selection of flights and rental cars, the best transit connection into the city (more on this in a second), and the best infrastructure of the three main options in the Bay Area. 

You might find some flight deals into Oakland International Airport (OAK), which is a little further outside the city, but is doable. Sometimes I actually prefer flying into Oakland because it gets FAR less fog, which means fewer flight delays.

San Jose (SJC) is another airport that we sometimes get questions about, and we wouldn’t recommend it for most visitors to San Francisco because it’s a solid hour outside of the city without traffic (which is never) with no transit connections to the city. 

We wouldn’t fly there unless you’re coming to Silicon Valley, and in that case it’s probably the best option (though it’s close with SFO). 

How to Get into San Francisco from SFO

If you choose to fly into SFO, you have a few options in terms of how to get from the airport into the city. 

The most useful option is going to be BART, which gets you from the airport to the corridor along Market St in about 35-45 minutes, and only costs $11.25 per person.

You can tap a credit card at entry and exit, or you can buy tickets from the machines at the entrance for BART at the airport. 

The key here is that you’ll avoid the plentiful traffic that builds up south of the city and can add significant amounts of time if you’re driving. 

The challenge is the fact that BART really only serves a couple of the neighborhoods we’ve recommended in terms of where to stay. 

If you’re staying in Union Square or the Financial District, great! Nob Hill is also doable, though you might have to take a quick taxi / Lyft if you have a lot of bags.

If you’re staying in the Marina or Fisherman’s Wharf, BART only gets you partway there, and you’ll need to come up and grab a bus, taxi, or Lyft to go from Market Street to your hotel. 

If you have a lot of luggage, BART probably isn’t your best bet.

You’ll have to haul that luggage up and down escalators and stairs and, potentially, get on a packed train at rush hour, which can be stressful without the added stress of keeping track of a few suitcases.

In that case, a rideshare might be a better option. We like Lyft of the two main options in SF.

They pick up in the parking garage – follow signs from baggage claim (or in the app).

Let’s Talk Acceptable Nicknames

One thing that you should probably know about visiting San Francisco is that locals have really strong opinions about the nicknames people use for the city.

It’s kind of funny, because looking back I don’t feel like I had really strong opinions about what visitors called San Francisco, but I also have definitely given people some side eye (or shared a knowing look with Alysha or a friend) when one of the unacceptable ones is uttered.

The main acceptable nicknames for San Francisco are “SF” (literally “ess-eff”) and “The City.”

The common unacceptable nicknames are “San Fran” and “Frisco.”

It’s not like you’ll get laughed out of a room if you use either one of those, it’s just that it will immediately mark you as a tourist.

Which isn’t necessarily a bad thing – you are, after all, a tourist – but we felt like it was a good thing to call out!

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