Things to do in San Francisco

San Francisco is small, about 11 km a side. The hills make that feel larger, and the cable cars were built to climb them. Most tours in San Francisco are phone-led walks, not guided groups.

One district, one walk

• Fisherman's Wharf. A two-hour quest starts at Hyde Street Pier and passes the Cannery and the Buena Vista Cafe. The pier moors historic ships, among them the 1886 square-rigger Balclutha.
• Chinatown. A quest runs from Grant Avenue and Bush Street past Old St Mary's Cathedral and the Tin How Temple.
• Haight-Ashbury. A 3.5 km route through the 1967 Summer of Love, past Victorian houses tied to Janis Joplin, Jimi Hendrix and the Grateful Dead.
• The Castro. A 95-minute walk past Harvey Milk Plaza and the Castro Theatre, open since 1922, with a stop at the GLBT Historical Society Museum.
• Golden Gate Park. A 75-minute game among its gardens and monuments. The park runs nearly 5 km from the Haight to Ocean Beach.

How the day works

The quests run on your phone, start at any hour and can be paused.

A separate app route has audio in six languages. It runs on foot and by car, past the Golden Gate Bridge, the waterfront, Chinatown and North Beach.

Practical

• Weather. Summer is the cool season: July and August highs reach about 22C, with morning fog and nights near 13C. September and October are warmest, at 23 to 24C. January days reach 14C, and rain falls from November to March.
• Layers. The ocean-side Sunset and Richmond districts run colder than the east side. Carry a jacket even in July.
• Getting around. Muni buses and light rail, three cable-car lines, and BART from the airport. The Powell-Hyde cable car passes the top of Lombard Street's eight-turn block.
• Cars. Never leave anything visible in a parked car. Break-ins are common.
• Alcatraz. The ferry leaves from Pier 33, and it runs on tickets booked ahead.
• Tipping. Eighteen to twenty per cent in restaurants. Some bills add a small staff-healthcare line, which is not the tip.