San Francisco travel guides & articles
All 26 in-depth pieces we’ve published on San Francisco — newest first.
Tours & tickets
Doing Time in San Francisco's Alcatraz Cellhouse
You board a timed ferry at Pier 33, climb to the cellblock and hear a 45-minute audio tour narrated by former guards and inmates.
Tours & tickets
San Francisco Chinatown by Bus and on Foot in October 2026
Use the open-top loops for the few things they do well, then spend the rest of your time in the alleys, tea rooms and banquet halls they drive straight past.
Tours & tickets
San Francisco's Bay Bridge and Where to Actually See It
The west span is not walkable, the lights are back on, and the bridge works far better as an evening visit than a daytime photo stop. Here is how to plan that evening.
Tours & tickets
What San Francisco's Union Square is like in November
Union Square has an ice rink in the middle and free games out on the terraces all day. It's worth an hour in November, you can eat well on the plaza, and you can get out to the redwoods from there.
Outrunning San Francisco's Fog Belt in a Single Day
A west-to-east itinerary from the murk at Lands End to a sunlit Mission roof, with nine stops picked for how they deal with the weather around them.
48 Hours on San Francisco Bay by Commuter Ferry
The Marin and East Bay boats cross the same water as the tour cruises for a third of the fare. Here is how to build two days around them, from the Ferry Building out to Angel Island and back.
The Park Between Two Seas: Golden Gate Park Beyond the Postcard
A local's honest, neighbourhood-by-neighbourhood walk across San Francisco's greatest green space — from the museum concourse to the windmills at the ocean, with real prices, door realities and the timing that makes or breaks a day.
Riding San Francisco's Fog Line From Ocean Beach to the Mission
The fog has a hard edge in San Francisco, and you can walk across it. Where it stops, which side to eat on, and how to time a day around it.
Richmond District, San Francisco: the neighbourhood guide
A local's walk through the fog-lined avenues where San Francisco's best dim sum, a hidden columbarium, and the ruins at the edge of the continent all sit a few bus stops apart.
Chinatown, San Francisco: the neighbourhood guide
Ten blocks of the oldest Chinatown in North America, walked properly — from the gate at dawn to a dive bar's baijiu Mai Tai after dark.
Mission District, San Francisco: the neighbourhood guide
Murals, mission-style burritos, and the sunniest park in the city — how to actually spend a day in the Mission in 2026.
Karl Comes Home: How the Fog Made San Francisco
A calm, local's map to meeting Karl the Fog — the twelve best places to watch San Francisco's marine layer roll in, and which ones suit couples, families, and big groups.
Sunset at Land's End: San Francisco's Wild Coastal Edge Where the City Meets the Pacific
A local's route through San Francisco's Land's End Trail — Sutro Baths ruins, the best cliffside Golden Gate view in the city, a hidden beach down 243 steps, and every honest caveat about who each stop actually suits.
North Beach, San Francisco: the Neighbourhood Guide
A local's walk through San Francisco's old Italian quarter — where the Beat writers drank, the delis still cure their own meat, and every street eventually leads back to one square of grass.
Pacific Heights, San Francisco: The Neighbourhood Guide
A local's walk through San Francisco's old-money ridge — the parks, the one house you can actually enter, and the stretch of Fillmore Street where the whole neighbourhood eats and drinks.
Haight-Ashbury, San Francisco: the neighbourhood guide
A block-by-block walk through Haight-Ashbury in 2026 — the corner, the record store, the parks, and the bars that actually earn a stop.
Tours & tickets
Haight-Ashbury by Bus in San Francisco's Foggy September 2026
The open-top loop only skims Haight Street: what it shows you, where to get off, and how to spend the four hours the bus never gives you.
SOMA (South of Market), San Francisco: the neighbourhood guide
How to read South of Market in order — from the museum block to the tasting-menu strip to the fog rolling off Folsom Street at 3am.
Tours & tickets
Sea Lions and Sourdough at San Francisco's Wharf in October
A full October day at Fisherman's Wharf with children: the sea lion rafts at K-Dock cost nothing, there is a submarine to climb and a sourdough catwalk to watch, then the wheel at dusk.
Marina, San Francisco: the neighbourhood guide
A flat, sunny stretch of reclaimed bay fill that turned a ten-month fair into a neighbourhood — here's where to walk, eat and stay in the Marina, from the Wave Organ to the beer hall inside a decommissioned army post.
Castro, San Francisco: the neighbourhood guide
A block-by-block walk through the Castro in 2026 — the plaza mid-rebuild, the reborn Castro Theatre, and where a local actually eats and drinks between them.
Walking the Buried Gold Rush Fleet Under San Francisco
Several hundred ships were abandoned in the bay in 1849 and never removed. This flat, mostly free afternoon walk takes you over, into and out to the ones still down there.
The City in 400 Stairways: San Francisco's Hidden Pedestrian Grid
San Francisco hides a second city built entirely out of steps — here's the walking route that finds it, hill by hill, neighborhood by neighborhood.
How San Francisco's Cable Cars Actually Work
A working powerhouse, three turntables, and crews who still spin the cars by hand. Ride San Francisco's cable cars for the machinery rather than the photo.
Where the Jukebox Still Takes Quarters: San Francisco's Last Real Dive Bars
A room-by-room tour of the Mission, Tenderloin, SOMA, and Polk Gulch dives that never got the mixology-menu treatment - cracked booths, cash-first bartenders, and the last few blocks of San Francisco that haven't been priced out of themselves.
San Francisco's Victorians: The Houses the 1906 Quake Spared
A walk through the Victorian and Edwardian streets that survived San Francisco's defining disaster — from the postcard row everyone photographs to the interiors, cottages and private follies most visitors never find.