Between Carmel and Monterey, 17 Mile Drive affords dramatic views of the Pacific Ocean and Del Monte Forest along the Monterey Peninsula. This post provides a list of free self-guided tours of San Francisco that you can enjoy anytime, day or night, every day of the week. The old-style Market Street of San Francisco. Everyone can listen at the same time! Let California Tours take care of all of your accommodations on a self-guided driving road trip vacation. After driving down from the freeway we got into a deep gorge with super high skyscrapers on both sides. It's also where Pebble Beach Golf Club is located, a legendary course that has attracted the likes of Teddy Roosevelt and Sir Winston Churchill. Recommend! Even when the Americans insist on driving up and down the steep 44 San Francisco hills, one street turned out too steep even to them. From there, youll hear about the citys unique history and how it became one of the most progressive cities around. AAA Travel Guides - San Francisco, CA - American Automobile Association As the ground convulses, buildings disintegrate and fires are ignited. We also offer a new favorite spots map of San Franciscos downtown core. Below are links to a few that might be helpful, and look for more on Google. It's all up to you! With its famous golden doors, beautiful stained glass windows, and gorgeous icons, youll be amazed. Of course fog can obscure the views youre seeking from the drive. The tourist area of San Franciscos Fishermans Wharf. Alamo Square Park, Steiner St, San Francisco, Tour of California Self-Guided Driving Bundle. As one of San Franciscos oldest neighborhoods, the Mission District is full of rich ethnic history. Each stop offers a little information about what happened at that location. As distances are long in San Francisco, driving is by far the best way to explore the city. Want to work with us? How to get to Lombard Street if youre not driving: take the Powell-Hyde cable car. Despite the bridges theres still a lot of ferry traffic on the bay. Your email address will not be published. We include a few details about each tour to give you an idea of what to expect on each outing. Alamo Square is the home of the Painted Ladies: the beautiful Victorian-era homes of the 1870s. We provide customizable self guided driving vacations throughout United States, including car rentals, GPS, and hotel accommodations. Good news! This means you only have to bring along the ones you plan on using that day. Looking upwards you will see how high these earthquake protected buildings are! Twin Peaks are also typically less crowded than the Coit Tower, which is always a plus. This is where most department stores are, making the San Francisco Market Street one of the main shopping streets of the city. To get the best views of the painted ladies come here in the evening and look at them from the Alamo Square Park. My tour guide was very knowledgeable and friendly. Looking at them you could imagine being in China. I've used these many times. You cant come to San Francisco and not set foot on the Golden Gate Bridge! The price is about $275 per person and does not include wine. A San Francisco self-guided tour is a must-do on your tour of California. San Francisco Self Drive Tour | TourCentric The exclusive neighborhood on Pacific Heights. However, a driving tour may not be for everyone. However, if you don't plan to spend much time at each attraction or stop, you can cut the time down significantly. The most famous Napa Valley restaurant is The French Laundry in Yountville. He has traveled to over 30 countries, and has never found a place he loves as much as this one! Market Street rather looks like a European high street. This trail connects important historical sites throughout the streets of SF. Lying in the sun side by side and diving into the waters when they get hungry. One important thing for you to note if youre taking this drive intentionally, however, is that the signs are often stolen and it takes awhile to replace them so youll want the map with you in addition to following the signage! (See privacy policy), Find additional self-guided tours plus some multi-day itineraries, Learn more about things to see and do in Japantown, You can buy these together or separately through Amazon. What follows is 1 of 17 walks from their book, "Walking San Francisco's 49 Mile Scenic Drive", edited and condensed for our website. This is a self-guided tour; no guide will accompany you. Tour Types; Tours by Region; Tours by Activity; About; Contact; USA Guide; . 07:40am: Departure from Post Street pickup location Save even more - get up to 25% on select hotels when you book on the app. We still want you to have a great time here, so weve prepared these free self-guided tours that you can do on your own. 1. These experiences are best for self-guided tours & rentals in San Francisco: 4-Hour Slingshot Rental; Golden Gate Bridge Bike Rental with Sausalito Ferry Return; Golden . After booking, you can check your email before downloading the Action Tour Guide app, enter your unique password, and access your tour. For one block, this road turns into the crookedest street in the world! Youll make EIGHT hairpin turns within that one block! Online information on parking in San Francisco, Another provider of parking information in San Francisco. San Francisco City Guides - Free Walking Tours - Home Go City | San Francisco All-Inclusive Pass. Castro: This colorful district is one you do not want to miss. Take a deep dive into everything Haight-Ashbury and the Castro District have to offer. Frommer's also has a second audio tour that covers the San Francisco Waterfront. The app was super easy to use, and the content was really fun! Lowest price guarantee Reserve now & pay laterFree cancellation. per adult. London en,it,fr,es,ar,+5 de, pt, ru, ja, ko. View All Reviews. Most San Francisco seals travel south in summer to give birth to their pups and to be back here for winter. While a driving tour is a decent option, if you want to visit as many tourist spots as possible, a walking tour is the best way to really get to know the city. You will also receive a full color map of the route. Interested in seeing as many gorgeous views of the city as possible? It started when wealthy families started building their houses up on the hill after the cable car line was opened. Our San Francisco exploration begins at one of the city's most iconic stops: the Painted Ladies! Amsterdam Our guide was extremely knowledgeable, having grown up in the area, and pointed out not only historical places, but beautiful murals, homes and fun nooks and crannies (like hidden stairways to streets) that we never would have seen on our own. The 49-Mile Scenic Drive map also is available from the San Francisco Convention & Visitors Bureau Visitor Information Center on the lower level of Hallidie Plaza at Market and Powell streets (near the cable car turnaround). 29. You can buy these together or separately through Amazon. After driving a long while up and down the incrediblysteep hills (yes, they are steep) we left the car for a few hours in a parking garage (Beach Street close to Pier 39 on the map) and explored the Fishermans Wharf area by foot. San Francisco City Guides - 80 Walking Tours, All Free Follow a live GPS map down a curated route. The busy street begins at the Dragons Gate and you will find loads of Chinese restaurants on the main street and even more on the side streets: On the nearby Kearny Street the Chinese community of San Francisco gathers for Chinese music and games. Monterey, Carmel & The 17-Mile Drive - San Francisco Youll get to know their history and why these quirky little cars are still used today. Points of Interest along the San Francisco:-. This is based on an audio guide I did . Id also done a tour with the sister company in Los Angeles several years ago. If youre not driving, use the steps for walkers that exist on both sides. $ 45 $ 34. The tour shouldnt take longer than 1 - 1 hours to finish. It's a totally weird and unique San Francisco thing ( here's a list of a bunch of other weird San Francisco quirks). Check out our favorite local recommendations listed in the app and stop for a bite. We entered San Francisco from the freeway from the downtown exit (Fremont Street). Night Adventures: Do you love seeing a city at night? Copyright with All Rights Reserved 1996-2017. Prague Most tour companies spend between 1.5 to 2 hours in the forest. Hit the road whenever you're ready, stop as often as you'd like, and just enjoy the journey! There are only really 7 stops on this self-guided tour of the Golden Gate Bridge, and you can expect the whole tour to take around 1 - 1 hours. Limantour Beach to Olema. Plan your shuttle time back to Sausalito carefully so you can catch your ferry back to San Francisco. California Street is so steep that it was almost too exiting for us to drive behind a cable car, stopping each time it stopped and starting uphill again each time it started. The tour includes 3 hours of media content, so we recommend planning for a minimum of 4 hours. We'll learn all about this building's strange history as we pass. No self-respecting local would be caught dead at Pier 39 (except to visit the resident seals), or the "visitor's center" at the Golden Gate Bridge, or Alcatraz ( many of us have never bothered to tour Alcatraz). The Financial District of San Francisco has changed a lot since the Gold Rush when this place already was a base for trade functions. Definitely recommended! Learn More. To get to the end of the pier where the sea lions are you will need to walk all the way through the tourist zone, souvenir shops and carousels. Explore all that SF has to offer with this ultimate self-guided experience! Fisherman's Wharf walking tour & Alcatraz visit. San Francisco spreads out over 47 miles, so it's best to stick to one area at a time on your self-guided tour. San Francisco Skyline Sightseeing, Gray Line, and Tower Tours lead combination tours that include tours of Sausalito, Sonoma, and/or highlights of San Francisco. As we drive, we'll learn about another iconic San Francisco feature: the cable car! (C) Ghirardelli Square - a landmark public . Next, youll head into the citys tech quarter, where youll spot big-name HQs like Uber and Twitter and get a crash course in how Frisco became the go-to spot for the most cutting-edge tech produced anywhere.