5 Tips for Visiting San Francisco and Monterey

A few years ago, my family spent a week visiting San Francisco and Monterey. San Francisco offers great sightseeing, with popular sights in or near the city, including Alcatraz Island, Muir Woods, Chinatown, and Golden Gate Park. And just a two-hour drive away, you’ll find scenic and historic Monterey, home of Cannery Row and the Monterey Bay Aquarium. I’d previously spent only a day in San Francisco and no time in Monterey, so I took my time planning the trip. It was a great vacation, but as with any travel, I had some itinerary successes and failures. I’ve come up with five key tips so you can benefit from some of the things I learned.

1.   If you’re planning to go to Alcatraz, book your Alcatraz cruise early.

Alcatraz Island, the site of the infamous federal penitentiary, is a top San Francisco attraction. With its legendary reputation, it’s on every San Francisco must-do list. The only problem is there’s just one way to visit the island—via a cruise with the National Park Service’s concessionaire, Alcatraz Cruises. Tickets for Alcatraz Cruises can be purchased online 90 days in advance, which means they’re usually snapped up a week or more ahead. During our summer trip, the cashier at the Alcatraz Cruises ticket booth looked comically lonely, as the sign out front announced no tickets were available for at least three weeks. Suffice to say, if you’re interested in seeing Alcatraz, buy your tickets online and early.

Given its history as a notorious prison, you’d think Alcatraz would be a forlorn place to visit. Yet I found Alcatraz Island to be strangely beautiful with its rocky shores, old buildings, varied sea birds, and stunning city views. After your tour of the prison, you can walk the grounds and see flowers blooming in the gardens of Alcatraz, planted by generations of the island’s inhabitants.

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2. If you’re planning to go to Muir Woods, reserve your parking in advance.

Muir Woods National Monument, part of the Golden Gate National Recreation Area, is an old-growth redwood forest, with trees up to a 1,000 years old and 250 feet tall. Because the park is just a 40-minute drive from San Francisco, a visit to Muir Woods is at the top of most visitors’ lists.

One of the best tips I learned before our 2016 visit to Muir Woods was to get there early, before 8:00 a.m., to find parking. When we arrived, we scored one of the last few parking spaces available. After that, new arrivals had to wait for someone to leave. Following a tranquil hike, we walked out of the woods that afternoon to find dozens of vehicles lined up at the parking lot entrance trying to get in.

Thankfully, Muir Woods addressed this issue beginning in January 2018 by creating a parking and shuttle reservation system. Now you’re required to either reserve a private vehicle parking spot for $8 or purchase a shuttle ticket for $3 per adult (children under 16 are free). The parking reservation system is similar to the one implemented by Haleakala National Park for sunrise viewing, and according to the Muir Woods website, is one of three parking reservation systems currently being used by the National Park Service (the third is at Yosemite National Park). The Muir Woods website also cautions visitors to download their parking and shuttle tickets before arriving, as no cell phone service is available near the park.

3. If you’re planning to visit the Golden Gate Bridge, consider biking across it.

Another iconic sight in San Francisco is the Golden Gate Bridge. During my first short trip to San Francisco, I drove across the bridge and took some pictures from each end. For my second trip, I wanted a close-up view. A great way to do that is to bike across it. A number of bike rental vendors are located in or near Fisherman’s Wharf on the San Francisco side.

We started the morning of our bike excursion with a ride on the Powell-Mason cable car, which conveniently ends near the Bay City Bike Rentals on Bay Street at Fisherman’s Wharf. From there we got our bikes and started our eight-mile trek. The route takes you along the waterfront, through the Presidio, over the bridge, and into Sausalito, where you can have some lunch and do some shopping before returning to San Francisco on an afternoon ferry.

Before we went, my son was a little nervous about going so high on the bridge. But when we got to the top, the bridge was cloaked in fog, even though the rest of the city had sunny skies. If you didn’t look over the side, you could almost convince yourself you weren’t 220 feet in the air. Along with being foggy, the top of the bridge can be cold and windy, so make sure to bring a jacket.

Some guides tell you to do the bike ride on a weekday because it’s less crowded. However, on weekdays, bike riders have to share the East sidewalk with pedestrians. I heard from a friend who felt less than confident on a bike that being on the East sidewalk with pedestrians was a harrowing experience for him. If you too are concerned about sharing the sidewalk with walkers, consider going on the weekend when bicyclists have exclusive use of the West sidewalk. You can find sidewalk access times on the Golden Gate Bridge website here.

4. If you’re planning to visit Pier 39, reconsider your plan.

“Wait, what?” you say. “Pier 39 has sea lions, and sea lions are cute, right? And don’t I need a picture of them? You know, for Instagram?” Well, my friend, maybe or maybe not. Pier 39 is the most visited destination in San Francisco. So, unless you enjoy being crammed with hundreds of other tourists, then my recommendation is to skip Pier 39 altogether, especially if you’re combining your trip to San Francisco with a visit to Monterey. Monterey has excellent opportunities for observing harbor seals from the Coastal Trail in front of Monterey Bay Park, and you’ll get to view them with just a handful of other tourists who are not jammed so close they could wipe your nose for you.

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Even better, you can rent kayaks on Monterey Bay and get an up-close look at the abundant sea life in the area. There are several vendors near Monterey Bay Park and Cannery Row who will outfit you not only with kayaks and paddles, but also wet suits and splash jackets, because the water is cold, even during the middle of summer.

Kayaking in the bay was one of my favorite activities of the trip. You’re required to stay at least five kayak-lengths away from the animals, but even being that close was a thrill for this Florida girl. We saw dozens of sea lions barking and sunning themselves on the jetty and watched otters napping among the kelp forests that waved peacefully on the surface of the water.

All that said, do I think you should spend some time on the San Francisco waterfront to take in the views and get a feel for the area? Absolutely. Personally, I prefer the Embarcadero area to the more touristy and crowded Fisherman’s Wharf where Pier 39 is located. And note that if you take the Blue and Gold Ferry from Sausalito to San Francisco after biking the Golden Gate Bridge, you’ll disembark at Pier 41, immediately adjacent to Pier 39. You can then check out Pier 39 from the dock and decide for yourself whether it’s somewhere you’d like to spend more time.

5. If you’re planning to do the scenic 17-Mile Drive and you want the best view, plan your trip for the fall.

Most travel guides say the best time to visit the Bay Area is from September to November when the temperatures are warmer and the chance of rain and fog is less. But with school-aged children, summer is usually the best time for us to take our big family trip. Before the trip, I was concerned about the weather in San Francisco in late July. I’d heard that “June Gloom” can overtake the city in the summertime. And then there’s the famous quote attributed to Mark Twain, “The coldest winter I ever spent was a summer in San Francisco.” But the weather turned out to be lovely, with vivid blue skies and refreshing breezes, for most of the trip.

The only time the weather affected us was when we were leaving the city on the 17-Mile Drive through Pebble Beach to Monterey. During our late afternoon drive, our view was indeed shrouded in mist. Did we still enjoy it? Of course. The kids particularly liked scrambling over the rocks of the beaches at Bird Rock and China Rock, and I got a photo (albeit not a great one) of the Lone Cypress, the Monterey cypress that serves as the logo for Pebble Beach Resorts. But if getting the best chance of a clear view on the drive is important to you, choose the time of your visit accordingly.

I’m looking forward to spending more time in San Francisco and Monterey someday. In the meantime, I hope these five tips will help you spend some great days of your own in the Golden Gate City and on California’s central coast.