What San Francisco's Union Square is like in November

An hour on the ice

The Safeway Holiday Ice Rink in Union Square fills the centre of the plaza at 333 Post Street, by Geary and Powell. Skaters circle under strung lights, with lit shop windows on all four sides. It runs until 18 January, open 10 a.m. to 11 p.m. every day and closing at 9:30 p.m. on 31 December. Sessions last an hour and a new one starts every 90 minutes, so check the next start time before you walk over. Adults pay $22 and ages 8 and under $17, skate rental included. Bring your own skates and $5 goes back on the card you paid with. A locker is $5. Beginners 48 inches tall or shorter can hire a Skate Helper for $6.

Free games and craft tables

Most of what sits on Union Square around the rink costs nothing. The free amenities are out from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. daily. There's a Kids Zone with giant foam blocks and books, a cart of board games and craft supplies you can borrow, and bigger games including ping pong, foosball and giant Jenga. Nothing is bookable, so you can just turn up.

Free winter craft sessions run on selected days from 5 November to 17 January: Thursdays and Fridays from 3 p.m. to 6 p.m., weekends from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. There's no craft on 26 November.

Then there's the tree. San Francisco is putting up a live Christmas tree for the first time in more than 20 years. The 2026 lighting date isn't fixed yet, but it should be lit in time for Black Friday on 27 November. Last season the tree was lit on 11 November. Check before you go.

When the square is at its best

Morning is the games and the open plaza. The craft tables only run on Thursday and Friday afternoons, and late morning at weekends, so that's the slot if you have children with you. After dark the rink is lit and the department store windows are on around it, and the last skating sessions run well into the evening. If you can only pick one window, take a late Thursday or Friday afternoon and let the crafts run into a rink session.

Eating in and above the square

Super Duper Burgers opened on 10 November in the small café space on the east side of the plaza, along Stockton Street. It's a tiny kiosk, so you order at the window and eat at the outdoor tables on the square. Burgers, garlic fries with aged cheddar, brown sugar lemonade and soft-serve made with Straus Creamery ice cream. It opens somewhere around 10 a.m. or 10:30 a.m., so check at the window on the day.

For a view over all of it, The Cheesecake Factory is on the eighth floor of the Macy's building at 251 Geary Street. The glass-roofed room and the terrace look straight down on the plaza and the rink. It opens at 11 a.m. most days and 10 a.m. on Sunday, closing at 10 p.m., or 11 p.m. on Friday and Saturday. Brunch runs until 2 p.m. at weekends. Don't plan on it for Thanksgiving or Christmas Day, when places like this usually close.

The cable car queue at Powell

The Powell Street cable car turnaround is one block away at Powell and Market, where the car is pushed round by hand on a steel turntable. Both Powell lines start there and run to the Fisherman's Wharf area, with cars leaving every five to 10 minutes at peak times. A single ride is $9 with no transfers. A 1-Day Visitor Passport, covering all Muni including the cable cars, is $15. You have to buy before boarding, and prepaying on MuniMobile or Clipper keeps you out of the ticket line. The queue here is the longest one around, so the fix is where you board. Walk a few blocks up Powell to the next stop, or take the California line, which starts at California and Market.

Redwoods a 10-minute walk away

Transamerica Redwood Park is a half-acre grove of mature coast redwoods behind the Transamerica Pyramid at 600 Montgomery Street. It's a 10-minute walk downhill from the square on Bush or Pine Street. It's free and there's nothing to book. The trees arrived full-grown from the Santa Cruz Mountains when the tower was built, and there's a sunken pool with bronze frogs on lily pads to sit beside. The gates are open on weekdays, 7 a.m. to 5:30 p.m., so save it for a working day.

Muir Woods in November

For old-growth redwoods, Muir Woods National Monument is the trip people leave the square for, and it asks for most of a day. It's open every day from 8 a.m. until around sunset. Entry is $15 for anyone 16 and over and free below that. If you drive, a $10 parking reservation is compulsory and comes with a 30-minute arrival window, so arriving without one can mean being turned away. Three flat loops start at the visitor centre. The shortest is half a mile on a boardwalk, accessible for strollers and wheelchairs, in about 30 minutes. The longest is two miles in an hour and a half. There's no mobile signal, no dogs or bikes, and you can only eat in the plaza before the forest or on the café patio.

Without a car in November, think hard about it. The ferry-and-shuttle route mostly runs in summer. The bus stops 1.5 miles away and 800 feet above the park, leaving a steep three-mile round trip on foot. A guided day trip is the easier answer. They go seven days a week from $80 per person. Each booking is confirmed by hand, so allow up to 48 hours and book a few days ahead.

Sea lions at Pier 39

The sea lions are the free wildlife of the trip. They haul out on K-Dock, on the west side of Pier 39 at The Embarcadero and Beach Street. They pile up on the floating platforms below a railed viewing deck. Numbers rise and fall with the seasons and the food supply, but hundreds are usually out there from late July to mid-May. There's a live webcam on the pier's site if you want to check before making the trip. The Powell/Hyde cable car ends at Hyde and Beach, a short walk away, and the F Market & Wharves streetcar stops by the pier.

If the weather turns, Aquarium of the Bay is on the same pier, open 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. with last entry at 4:30 p.m. Adults pay $28.25 and children 4 to 12 $20.25, and a Bay Area transit pass takes $2 off the adult price. Ninety minutes covers it. Go in through the pier's lift to level 2, as the outside lift is out of service.

Free bridge views in the Presidio

Presidio Tunnel Tops is free parkland laid over the roof of the highway tunnels, with grassy bluff-top lawns, timber overlooks and the Golden Gate Bridge filling the view. It's open every day all year and needs no ticket. Children get the Outpost, a playground built from logs and boulders. From downtown, take the Presidio GO Shuttle's Downtown Route to the Presidio Transit Center, or Muni 43 Masonic to the same place. If a full day for Muir Woods won't fit, this is the fresh-air half-day that will.

Lights in Golden Gate Park

Lightscape runs at the San Francisco Botanical Garden from 20 November to 3 January, and it's the one big evening out in the last stretch of the month. The trail is about a mile long, with tunnels of lights over the path and colour-washed trees reflected in the water. Give it at least 45 minutes. Tickets start at $32 for adults and $20 for ages 5 to 17, and under-5s are free. Entry is in a 15-minute window printed on the ticket. Book well ahead, as most nights go in advance and walk-up tickets are limited. It's outdoors on uneven ground, so wear layers and shoes you can walk in. Muni routes 5, 7, 43, 44 and the N-Judah serve the park.

A wet afternoon indoors

SFMOMA is a 10-minute walk from the square at 151 Third Street. Adults pay $30 and everyone 18 and under is free. A large part of the ground floor costs nothing whenever the museum is open, including Jacob Hashimoto's dense cloud of paper kites at the Howard Street entrance. It's closed every Wednesday, so don't save it for one.

Before you go

The rink and the free games share the plaza until mid-January. The museum shuts on Wednesdays, and the redwood park behind the pyramid is a weekday visit. Book the garden lights and any Muir Woods day trip in advance. See the San Francisco guide and the San Francisco hotel search.