San Francisco, California

View of downtown San Francisco with Market Street cutting right through the middle
Source: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Cityscapes_of_San_Francisco#mediaviewer/File:
Downtown_San_Francisco_-_March_2013.jpg
Author: Peter Kaminski


San Francisco is a city in California, on the west coast of the United States. It has a population of about 810,000 and is the fourth largest city in the state behind Los Angeles, San Diego and San Jose. San Francisco is the financial, cultural and transportation hub for the San Francisco Bay Area, a region with a population of about 7.4 million people.

Due to its geography and architecture, San Francisco is a major tourist destination. It has many iconic attractions, the most famous being the Golden Gate Bridge. Other major attractions include its cable car and Chinatown.

Golden Gate Bridge, San Francisco
Source: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Golden_Gate_Bridge_Yang_Ming_Line.jpg
Author: Cary Bass


San Francisco enjoys a Mediterranean climate with mild, wet winters and cool, dry summers. The mild climate of San Francisco is due to the cool currents from the Pacific Ocean that tends to moderate extreme temperatures. The warmest months of the year is September when average daily temperature is at around 63.7°F (17.6°C) while coolest month is January when temperature goes down to 46.4 °F (8°C). January is also the wettest month with 4.72 inches (119.9 mm) of rainfall.

Chinatown, San Francisco
Source: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Chinatown_SanFrancisco10.jpg
Author: Urban

Travel to San Francisco

The San Francisco International Airport is 10 miles (16 km) to the south of downtown. It receives the bulk of the international flights arriving in San Francisco. The Oakland International Airport is another airport serving the Bay Area.

Both the San Francisco and the Oakland airports are connected by the Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) train system to downtown San Francisco. The ride from San Francisco Airport to downtown costs $8 one way. If you arrive at Oakland Airport, you must first take the AirBart bus to the BART station. The fare is $3 per adult - you need to prepare exact change in cash. From the BART station to downtown, the fare is a further $4.00.

San Francisco Cable Car No. 60
Source: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:San_Francisco_cable_car_no._60
#mediaviewer/File:San_Francisco_-_Flickr_-_besopha.jpg
Author: besopha

Travel within San Francisco

It is possible to explore San Francisco on foot. Having said that, you need to bear in mind that this is a big city, so take the necessary precautions expected of every stranger in a strange town. The streets and avenues of San Francisco are numbered, so that helps to a certain extend, in helping you locate places.

I wouldn't recommend driving in San Francisco unless you are familiar with the streets. Also, the many intersections with no left turns mean you may be going around quite a bit each time you miss a turn. Taking Public Transit
The San Francisco Municipal Railway runs the trains and cable cars in San Francisco. If you are taking public transit quite a bit, you should get the day pass for $13, allowing you unlimited rides for a day. Longer passes are available: $20 for 3 days while $26 buys you a full one week of rides. The passes are available at the airport, the cable car ticket booth at Market and Powell stations and a few other locations.

Houses in San Francisco
Source: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Architecture_of_San_Francisco#mediaviewer/File:
Fen%C3%AAtres-arqu%C3%A9es-2013-SF5.jpg
Author: Hypersite

Places of Interest in San Francisco

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About this website

Dear visitor, thank you so much for reading this page. My name is Timothy Tye and my hobby is to find out about places, write about them and share the information with you on this website. I have been writing this site since 5 January 2003. Originally (from 2003 until 2009, the site was called AsiaExplorers. I changed the name to Penang Travel Tips in 2009, even though I describe more than just Penang but everywhere I go (I often need to tell people that "Penang Travel Tips" is not just information about Penang, but information written in Penang), especially places in Malaysia and Singapore, and in all the years since 2003, I have described over 20,000 places.

While I try my best to provide you information as accurate as I can get it to be, I do apologize for any errors and for outdated information which I am unaware. Nevertheless, I hope that what I have described here will be useful to you.