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“Everybody's Favorite City” San Francisco Tour

Tour Highlights

Chinatown: an unique 'world' of hidden temples, open-air markets, herb and tea shops, a fortune cookie factory
The majestic and beautiful Golden Gate Bridge
Muir Woods: an ancient redwood forest featuring the world's tallest tree species
Colorfully decorated Victorian houses known as "Painted Ladies"
Golden Gate Park: the tranquil Japanese Tea Garden (1894), the ultramodern DeYoung art museum, the Conservatory of Flowers (a greenhouse that looks like a wedding cake), the new very "green" and popular California Academy of Sciences
Nob Hill: a Gothic cathedral with unique features…famous grand dame hotels
Haight-Ashbury: where you can get your tattoo, hip clothes or Jerry Garcia T-shirt
North Beach: Old San Francisco with an Italian flavor
Pacific Heights: the city's most prestigious address…dozens of blocks of elegant mansions with panoramic Bay views
Sausalito: 'Mediterranean' hillside town looking out to the city skyline and Alcatraz

Creating your Personalized "Everybody's Favorite City" Itinerary

San Francisco can be fun! and a bit overwhelming. There're a very large number of attractions—famous ones like Pier 39's sea lion colony, and those known almost exclusively to locals. For nearly a dozen years A Friend in Town has been trying to show our guests everything of interest in a single day—an impossible goal as new sites (for example, the Walt F. Disney Museum) open every few months. So we'll ask you for your priorities the day before your tour (or the morning of)…then you can choose where we focus our attention in the time allotted. If by mid-afternoon you've still got energy and want to add sites to your original itinerary, we can often do that (for an additional $60 an hour). An important goal for us is that you spend as much time with actual San Franciscans as with other tourists.

If you would prefer just to leave it to your guide, we'll create an itinerary that focuses on famous attractions but also shows you a few unexpected places that help make San Francisco familiar from movies and TV yet also surprising…relaxing and stimulating…historic and new.

How do we decide whether a half- or full-day itinerary works best for us?

We begin each San Francisco tour by discussing your priorities as we cannot even drive by everything listed. Consider the suggested sites and how much time it takes on average to enjoy them. Figure that there's travel time between sites, that you may need a personal pit stop or two, that you may want to take or be in photos. Add it all up and see if your sum is closer to 4 or to 8 hours. Why not just be spontaneous and add time as we go? Because sometimes A Friend in Town will have another tour scheduled for the same day, or your guide may have other plans:

(Link to) Detailed San Francisco Tour Itinerary

“I felt like I really got to meet the City”

“It was great not to be part of a tour bus… just one of many in the herd. I have taken bus tours of San Francisco before, but this time I felt like I REALLY got to meet the City. Your knowledge of its history, architecture, restaurants and activities were amazing. I like the flexibility of being able to spend more time at the areas which interested me such as Grace cathedral and Muir Woods. Being able to go into neighborhoods to see houses, into restaurants to view old photographs of the city, or into a temple in Chinatown isn't something that's usually done on a bus tour. I have already recommended your company to some friends… Thanks again for a great time.”

– Douglas D. (Santa Maria, California)

More Reviews

What will it COST?

Because each tour is designed to fit your interests, our fees vary. Basically you pay by the number of hours in your itinerary. We do not add the fuel surcharges, "license fees," "tax" and mandatory gratuities that many other companies do.

	FEE	Average Duration	Additional Costs (paid to vendors)	Gratuity	Add'l Hours	Minimum Duration	Minimum Fee
Half Day	$290*	4h	Entrance Fees, Lunch	**	$60 ea	3h	$290
Full Day	$560*	8h	Entrance Fees	**	$60 ea	7h	$560

* Not per-person

* These fees are for couples, groups of up to 6/7 people or solo travelers. For groups of 7 to 25 (whereby we charter a minibus), please ask for a quote.

** A gratuity is customary and will be appreciated, but is not required.

“My one-stop recommendation for tours of the Bay Area”

“Perhaps the best thing about Jesse as a tour guide is that he is very unobtrusive: he invites you to explore the sites you visit on your own, yet is always ready to answer any questions you may have. Not only do you visit the site, but experience it. Jesse sets a mood with background information and personal asides that add priceless depth to the tour. As a travel professional it is exactly what I look for when choosing a tour company for our most discriminating clients. [His] personal service and flawless attention to detail is unmatched, and he will be my one-stop recommendation for tours of the Bay Area… You can truly tell that Jesse loves this city, and the amount of knowledge he has about San Francisco and the surrounding area is truly mind-boggling.”

– Wes H. (Charleston, South Carolina)

Why spend considerably more with A Friend in Town,
instead of saving $$ with a big-bus tour?

There are dozens of reasons why—compare us with renting a car or hiring a limo: Why tour with Us? We pick you up at your home or hotel; they make you start where they are. We can help you explore places (like Chinatown, the Mission district, the Haight), while buses only point to them as they pass them by. Using our extensive local knowledge, we can plan an itinerary that works so that you don't waste time and get disappointed because the place you really wanted to see required a reservation or doesn't show well in fog. We have access to neighborhoods, wineries and interesting destinations (which we won't share with our competitors) that are prohibited to buses and limos. We do the driving on San Francisco's steep, often one-way streets and the country lanes of the Wine Country… when you drive, you can't do it safely and enjoy the scenery. Click Here to find out more about our Fees.

“We really appreciated the flexibility and personalized service.”

“We had an absolutely fantastic time on the tour. We had a very limited time frame, yet we were able to see everything we wanted to see and more! We really appreciated the flexibilty and personalized service… and Jesse's vast knowledge of San Francisco and its history! Highly recommended!”

– CJ & Layne D. (Milwaukee, Wisconsin)

Call: 1-800-960-8099Reserve Your Tour