3 Days in San Francisco with Kids

Trip date: March (Spring Break) 2018. Friday – Sunday

Kids’ ages: 8, 6, 7-months

One of my FAVORITE cities in the world! I cannot say enough about SF and it’s amazing beauty and climate. We live in Texas, it’s hot most of the time. SF on the other hand has highs that hover around the 60’s year round!

Whether you’re traveling with or without kids, San Francisco needs to be on your short list! Here’s our itinerary from this past March when we took our kids for the 2nd time.

We try to hit a museum on every trip to the big city, especially with kids and this time we stayed next to the Museum of Modern Art, but ran out of time to go in. We went the last time we were in SF by ourselves (without kids) and it was great! The staff brags that it’s bigger and better than the MoMA in NYC. 😉

Day 1

(1/2 Day)

We arrived at SFO late afternoon, ubered to our hotel, put our stuff down and got out as quickly as we could. This is what our day looked like once we were there. We ubered everywhere that wasn’t within walking distance. 

• Pier 39 
  • Go see the sea lions on Pier 39 – we do this every trip with kids!
  • Grab some good crab/seafood while you’re down here! Crab House at Pier 39 is our fave. We don’t go to San Fran w/out stopping here for crab!
  • There is plenty to do at Pier 39 for kids! Ride the carousel and get some ice cream. We got ice cream after dinner and then watched the Sea Lions. This was our 2nd time with the kids down here and they couldn’t wait to go back this time.

Day 2

• Breakfast at Sears Fine Food – great for kids. We also brought them here last time, so it’s becoming a San Fran tradition 🙂 They give the kids tokens when they bring the check and the kids can use the tokens on the old slot machine at the entrance. Kids always find this fun, of course. 
• Ride the famous Cable Cars – there are stops right here near Sears Fine Foods. 
• California Academy of Sciences – We easily spent hours here. So much to do and see. Our kids didn’t want to leave.
• Alcatraz Night Tour – our kids STILL talk about this, and it’s been 7 months since we did it. They LOVED it and say it was the highlight of the entire trip. There is an audio tour (no extra charge) and we all paid very close attention to it, even my 6 year old. Very interesting!

Day 3

• Breakfast near the Bay Bridge (or really anywhere). We chose over here so that we could check this bridge off our list.
• Ride the double decker bus over the Golden Gate Bridge to Sausalito (ride on the top deck, it’s open air). There are several ways to get on the double decker. We were short on time, so we took an uber to Golden Gate park, took photos in front of the bridge and then hopped on a bus. Beware, the buses stop going over to Sausalito fairly early (5ish depending on the day) so double check the schedule before you head over there. 
  • There are several companies, but just to go over the bridge it won’t matter which company you choose, it’s most important that the can get seats on the top for the full experience and views when going over the Golden Gate Bridge
  • We have done the hop on hop off tours a couple of times when in SF (and other cities) and it seems like we usually end up on this the City Sightseeing buses. They’ve been good.
    
• Dessert in Sausalito at The Trident – sit out on the back deck, great views of the bay and SF! (We’ve had dinner here before too, just the two of us, great food and beautiful scenery!)
  • Explore Sausalito  – it’s a cute little town with lots of shops, restaurants and treats.
• Ride the Ferry from Sausalito back to San Francisco – this is cheap fun actually and provides great views of SF, surrounding towns, and the Golden Gate Bridge.
  
•  Full House house – 1709 Broderick St. – (look for green doors, not red like on the show) if you’re a fan of the show, stop by on your way somewhere. We had our uber stop while we grabbed a few pics, then we hopped back in. It’s a regular house, on a regular street, nothing else to see. Check the google reviews before you go to see if it’s currently under renovation (it tends to be under construction a lot with the change in ownership). It may not be worth going if it’s boarded up. 
• Dinner – it was our last night, so we went to a cute little Mexican food restaurant within walking distance of our hotel
  

How to get around:

We Ubered/Taxied everywhere.

• Uber or Taxi – this is what we used most
  • Do keep in mind if you have a baby, as we do, currently (2018) you have to have babies in a carseat, even in taxis and ubers. So bring your baby carrier with you (not ideal, I know). We didn’t always carry our carseat with us when we went out and we had several ubers cancel our trip after they saw the baby and asked if we had a carseat.
• Hop on Hop off double decker sightseeing buses 
  • Great way to get from point A to point B and learn a lot of the city on your way and things you otherwise would have missed.
• Cable Cars
  • These are a must, at least once, when you’re in SF, but they are expensive and don’t go many places. They are really more of an attraction than a way to get around. 
• Bikes
  • One of our favorite ways to see this beautiful city, but I recommend waiting until you’re here without young kids to try this. It can be dangerous and difficult with all of the hills. 

Where to Stay

St. Regis 

This is where we stayed this trip and one other time when we came without kids. We stay on points!

• Centrally located, near lots or restaurants, things to do, and shopping
• Surprisingly super kid friendly!
• Rooms are roomy, over-sized actually, and with QUEEN beds, not fulls
• The bathrooms are huge for a standard room, even has a door on the potty room, which is SO helpful when traveling with so many sharing one bathroom.
• Indoor Pool
• AND they gave our kids welcome bags with activities inside when we arrived. They even brought tiny robes and slippers to our room for the kids! They totally felt like VIP’s. 

Fairmont 

My other favorite SF hotel, but it’s way out of budget and it’s hard to stay on points.

• The most unbelievable views of any hotel in SF or anywhere! We could see the Golden Gate Bridge and Alcatraz from our room.
• Beautiful architecture
• Rooms and amenities are top notch.
• Great location near Fisherman’s Warf, next to a cable car stop, and on top of Nob Hill