Optimize your Itinerary for  A Perfect Week   in our San Francisco Bay Area
 Plan Wonder-Full Days & Evenings in several of our Exciting! Destinations

         If you're lucky you'll enjoy a whole week in our San Francisco Bay Area…there's enough to do here to fill at least 7 days and nights. Or maybe you have only a long weekend. Whatever the case, do not block out activities for every hour. Allow for time to happen across completely un-expected places where you'll want to linger...or return. Leave time for casually exploring a fascinating neighborhood or picturesque town, for enjoying our seaside and inland natural attractions, for joining in our vibrant nightlife, or for taking a nap after a shiatsu massage.  
      Some attractions are not dependably open to the general public. A Friend in Town can help make sure you don't miss them if they're important to you. Take stained-glass windows, for example...some of the most magnificent examples are found at Sherith Israel synagogue (one of the oldest in our nation), Nob Hill's Grace Cathedral, and Stanford's Memorial Church. What about the icons at the gold-domed Russian Orthodox Cathedral, or the most expansive murals inside Coit Tower? We work to help you manage your FOMO.

        (Day 1)  Arrive. If there are hours remaining before bedtime, begin to recover from jetlag and your long day by relaxing with activities that do not require reservations: ride the "little cable cars that climb halfway to the stars" (the Hyde Street line from Powell & Market), up Nob Hill thru Chinatown and down to Fisherman's Wharf, where at Pier 39 you enjoy the antics of frisky sea lions. Appreciate views of Alcatraz and the Golden Gate Bridge. Make dinner of fresh crab from a street stand or clam chowder in sourdough bowls at Boudin's. Still not tired? Ride a historic trolley (the F Line) to the end of the line and back. Or take the bus to Coit Tower on Telegraph Hill for its panoramic views of city lights and the Bay.

        (Day 2) Take A Friend in Town's "Everybody's  Favorite City" Tour* that can feature the amazing! Muir Woods redwood forest, quaint Sausalito and Golden Gate Park. Evening offers theater (road shows from Broadway,  provocative regional theater, stand-up comedy, or live jazz by local and international stars. Try our world-class opera, orchestras, ballet...historic speakeasies and clubs. If you're a foodie, you already know that there are nearly 4000 restaurants in The City alone: for the popular, top-rated ones, make your reservations weeks in advance. For recommendations see our Where to Eat? page.

       (Day 3)  Sleep in. Take a free walking tour of one of the city's unique neighborhoods or landmarks—with San Francisco City Guides. Enjoy a leisurely lunch. Step inside boutiques on Union Street, a quiet shopping district oriented towards but not exclusively for more mature women. Or revisit the Sixties on Haight Street...whichever you choose, you'll discover treasures never seen at Neiman Marcus. 

       (Day 4) Take one of A Friend in Town's  Wine Country Tours*. We offer more choices as to regions, wineries, restaurants, scenery, things to taste other than wine...than any other tour company! ...even a tour for those who don't consume alcoholic beverages. Back in San Francisco very relaxed, you may want to do something that doesn't require close attention :-)  FYI spontaneous drop-in wine tastings are nearly extinct. We're currently recommending that if you can, book your wine-tasting tour with our input at least 3 weeks in advance. 

     (Day 5)  If it's Sunday, get in line early at Glide Memorial Church to experience a truly diverse congregation and some of the city's best gospel music. Glide is the most philanthropic place in the city's Tenderloin, serving especially our unsheltered neighbors. Spend the afternoon on a Segway tour in Golden Gate Park. Set aside a couple of hours for the justly famous Japanese Tea Garden, the dramatically designed DeYoung Art Museum next door, the "green" California Academy of Sciences directly across…or lounge in a paddle-boat on Stow Lake. If you're a fan of avant-garde technology, you may want to take our Silicon Valley /San Jose Tour*, where you can stop by Apple's corporate HQ and experience the superb Computer History Museum (near the Googleplex) and,or walk through the central part of Stanford University's huge, architecturally fascinating campus.

       (Day 6) Take A Friend in Town's Monterey & Carmel Tour*, during which you'll see some of the world's most productive farmland en route to some of California's most spectacular coastal scenery along the Seventeen Mile Drive. There's also Carmel-by-the-Sea, for which the adjective "charming" was invented. Clint Eastwood lives nearby...Doris Day used to...and the late "Painter of Light" (Thomas Kinkade) was often inspired by Carmel. You have options: visit the world-class Monterey Bay Aquarium, enter the world-famous Pebble Beach golf resort, see thousands of magical monarch butterflies (in season), spot otters in their natural habitat, enjoy the incomparable vistas along the Big Sur* coast.

​     What about Alcatraz? for many a "Must See" attraction. It's best to make arrangements for doing it on your own. Use the National Park Services' website-- www.cityexperiences/san-francisco/city-cruises/alcatraz.com. For holiday weeks and from May through September, reserving your tickets 3 months in advance is not too early, especially for the most popular 'Evening at Alcatraz' tour.   

      (Day 7) Spend your last day power-shopping in Union Square, visiting our excellent Asian Art, African Diaspora, Contemporary Jewish and,or outstanding SFMOMA. Or follow up on something that really intrigued you before—perhaps those Dead posters on Haight Street—or just blending in with locals nursing a cappucino at a North Beach cafe.

     Book with us and we'll help you determine whether it's opera or baseball (Go Giants! Go A's!) or basketball (Warriors! and our new WNBA team, the Valkyries!), hiking or skating, dim sum (Chinese) or a ceviche (Peruvian) that are going to make this your vacation of a lifetime!

 ​   * Usually we're happy to take you on as many as 3 tours if you're new to A Friend in Town
​...4 if you've been out with us before.

---