Tripwoa
Get it on Google Play

Explore with Viator

Things to do
in San Francisco.

Get to know San Francisco through its food, neighbourhoods and landmarks. Browse guided visits and activities for your trip.

Planning the whole trip? See our city guide
San Francisco
Photo: Rich Niewiroski Jr., CC BY 2.5

Find your kind of day.

Experiences and bookings provided by Viator.

Finding experiences in San Francisco…

Prices are starting prices in EUR and may vary by date, group size and option. Check availability and full terms on Viator before booking.

Search covers the whole collection for this city, not just the experiences shown. Price, length and sorting are applied before the list is built; when a search is running, price and length are applied to the results on this page. The featured order may reflect reviews, popularity, bookings and payments from operators.

We may earn a commission when you book through these links, at no extra cost to you.

How to choose

Half of San Francisco's tours leave the city

Twelve of the 24 experiences we list for San Francisco spend most of their day outside the city. Six cross the bridge to Muir Woods and Sausalito, three drive to Napa and Sonoma, and three run to Yosemite — 14 to 15 hours long, €184.06 to €210.48, the three dearest items on the page. Those twelve hold 26,909 of the 45,070 reviews collected here, and none of them runs under four and a half hours. The dozen that stay is a short list: five bay cruises of 60 to 120 minutes, three products sold on Alcatraz, and four city tours. Median duration across the 24 is 255 minutes and the median price is €81.02.

Muir Woods, not Alcatraz, is the destination this inventory repeats most: it appears in six titles, two of which bolt an optional Alcatraz visit onto the same long day. The four tours that stay inside the city split cleanly. The Chinatown, North Beach and Little Italy walk with seven tastings, the Love Tour and the Painted Ladies tour all rate 4.9, on 1,395, 3,145 and 2,430 reviews; the open-top bus is the most reviewed of the four, 4,748, and the lowest rated at 4.1. The absences matter too. Nothing here is private, nothing is a bike or cable-car tour, and no title names the Mission district or Golden Gate Park.

What to know before you book in San Francisco

Alcatraz is the booking that needs attention. The National Park Service directs visitors to Alcatraz City Cruises for island-landing tickets, so reserve in advance and use the departure point and check-in instructions given on the ticket. Other bay cruises may circle the island without landing, and five of the listings on this page are exactly that: sightseeing cruises that stop nowhere.

Twenty-two of the 24 carry free cancellation; the two that do not are both Alcatraz ferry packages. Two of the things people build a day around need no tour at all: the bridge's east sidewalk is open to pedestrians during its posted hours, and Mission Dolores Park is a public neighbourhood park. The Exploratorium normally closes on Mondays and its general Sunday admission begins at noon, so settle those days before booking a long trip out of town.

Full ticket rules and opening days for San FranciscoSan Francisco day plans

Quick answers

Do I need a tour to visit Alcatraz?

You need a landing ticket, and the National Park Service directs visitors to Alcatraz City Cruises for those. Three of the 24 listings here are sold on Alcatraz, at €66.51, €66.65 and €67.36, and they are the weakest block on the page: rated 3.9, 4.3 and 3.6, with 711 reviews between them. Two of those three are also the only listings on this page without free cancellation. Check that what you are buying actually lands, because a bay cruise may only circle the island.

Is a Yosemite day trip from San Francisco worth it?

The three Yosemite trips we list run 14 to 15 hours and cost €184.06, €197.27 and €210.48, which makes them the longest and most expensive things on this page. They rate 4.9, 4.4 and 4.4, on 4,130, 3,611 and 766 reviews. The shorter way out of the city is Muir Woods and Sausalito: six listings from €66.93, running four and a half to eleven hours, and the cheapest of them is also the most reviewed product here, with 5,240 reviews.

Which San Francisco bay cruise should I book?

Five of the 24 are sightseeing cruises that land nowhere. Three of them cost €34.35: the 60-minute Golden Gate Bay Cruise rates 4.7 on 1,757 reviews, the 60-minute bay cruise 4.4 on 411, and the 90-minute sunset departure 3.7 on 22. The two evening alternatives cost more — €51.08 for two hours and €77.50 for the 95-minute catamaran — and rate 4.5 and 4.8. None of the five includes an Alcatraz landing.

Plan your San Francisco days ↗