Best things to see and do in San Francisco: A 48-hour itinerary

By Danielle Wright

NZ Herald·

5 Feb, 2024 05:00 AM7 mins to read

Make the most of San Francisco in 48 hours. Photo / Denys Nevozhai on Unsplash

Crammed full of history and with a vibrant ambition, San Francisco mixes gritty urban styles and seaside charm. If you’re short on time or the city is part of a longer US itinerary, here’s how to make the most of 48 hours in the Golden City, writes Danielle Wright.

Day one

Morning

In the early hours, a jetlagged peek behind the Grand Hyatt San Francisco Airport Hotel curtain in my Runway Room makes me, as a solo traveller, feel less alone. Aided by a conveniently placed set of binoculars and a plane spotting guide on the windowsill, I watch the comings and goings of people jetting off and landing in the City on the Bay, once marketed as the Paris of the West. The US$237 million energy-efficient hotel, the only one on-site at the airport, opened just before the pandemic and offers guests a luxurious rest from the hustle and bustle of travel with soundproofed floor-to-ceiling windows and earthy textured furnishings that echo a more romantic era for travelling.

Lunch

When the sun does finally peak above the planes, I grab the airport’s sky train for a sleek journey to the main train line and a safe 20-minute ride to the heart of the city at Fisherman’s Wharf. It’s market day, where local producers and vendors sell from specialist stalls filled with flowers, fungi, strawberries and sourdough in a rainbow of colour blocks along the embarcadero.

A mushroom stall at the Ferry Building marketplace. Photo / Danielle Wright

After browsing their wares, I take table number five at Fog Harbor Fish House, a window seat overlooking the wharf with a view to former prison island Alcatraz. There’s a celebratory feel in the air as cutlery clangs and voices rise jovially around the heritage building setting of the historic restaurant: family-owned and run for the past two decades and the first Pier 39 restaurant to serve 100 per cent sustainable seafood. I’m given a bib to wear, along with cloud-soft sourdough dinner rolls and a refreshing glass of old-fashioned ginger lemonade. I choose the city’s lesser-known seafood soup, cioppino, overshadowed by the showy seafood chowder famously housed in sourdough bread bowls. As a house speciality, it arrives bursting with crab, fresh fish, shrimp, clams and mussels, stewed in a seafood tomato broth that makes me glad I’m wearing a bib. Invented by the fishers here, the story goes that if you came back without a catch, you could pass your pot around and the others would “chip in” some of their haul to bump up your broth and provide you with comfort and nourishment after a rough day on the water.

Seafood chowder in sourdough at Boudin Sourdough. Photo / Danielle Wright

Afternoon

There’s a carnival atmosphere accompanying a walk along the waterfront on a summer’s day, and I stop to watch the many street performances, from jazz bands to breakdancers, before joining a Bay City Bike Co tour. We set off past the iconic Ghirardelli Chocolate Company, which has operated for nearly two centuries, stopping at the National Parks’ Warming Hut store and cafe for hot, strong drip coffee. Our guide, Paul, an engineer and personal trainer from Romania, takes us through our paces up the steep roads fringing the reserve. We rest at last, taking in the view of the Golden Gate Bridge as he explains that the colour of the bridge was meant to be yellow and black but the architectural team liked the undercoat, a red lead primer, so much that they kept it. The bridge connects the Bay Area with Marin County, crossing the Pacific Ocean. It’s only partially visible, covered by the thick San Franciscan fog locals affectionately call Karl, which even has its own social media accounts. The high winds, and hectic mix of very fast local riders and tourists not knowing the bridge lane rules, add to the adrenaline rush, and as we reach the other side of the bridge, I hear a Canadian mum on the tour tell her two teenage sons: “This is bonkers! That was wild, but so worth it.”

Cycle over the iconic bridge on a tour of San Francisco. Photo / Getty Images

Evening

The endpoint of the bicycle tour is Sausalito, a charming upmarket seaside town with quaint homes on hillsides on the edge of a busy coastal road. It was once the artsy, quieter sister of San Francisco, but today I hustle with hundreds of other cyclists in the queue to get on the ferry back across the Bay. Relieved to be one of the last to make it aboard, I sit on the deck watching Karl creep over the Sausalito hills. Alcatraz Island comes into view and we sidle past the former prison island, now covered in seabirds and tourists. As the sun sets, I make my way back down the waterfront, stopping for oysters roasted from the back of a van and smothered in a creamy tomato sauce with just the right amount of spicy heat. There are also hot dog vendors, stalls selling fresh fruit stuffed into smoothie cups and bagel trucks. I return the bike, wandering through Chinatown, before heading happily back to the safe haven of my airport hotel.

Looking up on the Golden Gate Bridge during a bicycle tour to Sausalito. Photo / Danielle Wright

Day two

Morning

I take the train back downtown to Union Square, where I’m serenaded by a Donald Trump impersonator dancing to The Notorious B.I.G: “It’s like the more money we come across, the more problems we see.” Nearby, skateboarders grind on the concrete steps in front of expensive floral walls. I head inside to the luxury department store Nieman Marcus, where personal shoppers are showing an already well-heeled customer a selection of Chanel sneakers. On the fourth floor, under a beautiful lead-light domed roof, is a restaurant called The Rotunda. My waiter brings me an espresso cup filled with a chicken consume palate cleanser, before taking my order of the famous Crab Louie salad. Made with the west coast of North America’s famous Dungeness crab, known for its sweet taste, there are layers of butter lettuce, long cucumber slices, multi-coloured cherry and roma tomatoes, avocado, asparagus and shrimp, as well as the famous Louie dressing. It’s known as the “King of Salads” and, alongside a blood-orange martini and tip, sets me back a kingly sum of NZD$123.

Crab Louie salad at The Rotunda in Nieman Marcus. Photo / Danielle Wright

Afternoon

Since I first visited as a teenager, no trip to San Francisco would be complete without a walk on Lombard Street, with its calling card of being the most crooked street in the world. It’s not even the most crooked street in San Francisco, but let’s not let that fact get in the way of a world title. What it also has is the most scenic views, thanks to its height above the city and the magnificent hydrangeas and climbing bougainvillea visible in full bloom. Police officers at the top of the one-way street manage all the cars, and I walk down the red brick path with the other sightseers.

Lombard Street in bloom. Photo / Danielle Wright

Evening

After attempting to visit the airport museum and instead finding a man sleeping face-down in his curry, I head back to the relaxed elegance of Twin Crafts Market cafe at the Grand Hyatt, rather than the public airport, to wait for my flight call. Near the beautiful art piece This Infinite Gateway of Time and Circumstance by Jacob Hashimoto, which drapes 3500 ellipses from the roof to give the impression you’re drifting in and out of visibility through the clouds, it’s the perfect place to end my stopover and contemplate the travel journey ahead.