The City by the Bay, Paris of the West

Here we are, at our last city on this tour across the USA coast to coast, San Francisco. And also at the time of writing this guide, September 2012, the farthest to the west I have ever been in the world and the very first time by the Pacific Ocean. One of the must visit places in the USA, beautifully elegant city with plenty of things to do and see. Don’t underestimate the time you will need here as it happened to us. Even with a rental car as we had, the time played against us the three days and a bit of the 4th we spent here. It was just too short. Basically, calculate that distances although not too big as some other cities, it takes really ages to reach from one place to another, specially if you count with public transportation. The whole of the city is up and down the hills. And if you plan to walk around you should better rethink about it and plan again something involving transportation. You can get exhausted of going up and down the hills, especially during the summer months. Quite a radical chance from Las Vegas where we came from our previous destination.

The city is well divided in clear areas, each of them having it’s own sights, therefore pretty simple to follow a route and know what to do. Although physically everywhere you go is nice. Unless of course, the fog. Chances to be foggy in the mornings and again towards afternoons are pretty high, this is a climate fact which cannot be avoided. What you can do in the other hand, is plan around to avoid going for example to the Golden Gate Bridge area when the chances of fog are high. Come in the afternoon instead of the morning or evening. The same applies to the famous hills over the city.

Also, even during summer, it’s pretty cold here coming the evening. You will need for sure long sleeve and jacket, not to mention when you go up Twin Peaks, where the temperature difference from the top respect the below one is steep. But it is from here and the Coit Tower where the views of the entire city will awe anyone. Lombard Hill is another great spot but in truth, any higher point will offer incredible views.

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