3 Days in San Francisco, Planned Hour by Hour

Nearest station: Pier 33, Alcatraz Landing

The ferry leaves from Pier 33, not the wharf itself, and the whole visit runs two and a half to three hours with the cellhouse audio tour included in the ticket. The Day Tour is 47.95 dollars for anyone 12 and over, 29.15 for a child of 5 to 11 and free under 5, with the National Park Service warning on its own FAQ that summer and holiday tickets sell out several weeks ahead. The audio tour, narrated by former guards and inmates, is genuinely one of the best in the world and children follow it happily.

The catch: The America the Beautiful parks pass does not cover it, and refunds need 72 hours notice.

Nearest station: F streetcar, Jones and Beach

Walk the ten minutes from Pier 33 into the wharf proper for a crab roll or a sourdough bowl. The best thing here costs quarters: Musee Mecanique on Pier 45 is a warehouse of antique coin-operated arcade machines, penny fortune tellers and player pianos, where five dollars in change entertains a family for an hour.

Nearest station: F streetcar, the Embarcadero at Stockton

The sea lions on K-Dock are free, loud and reliably the favourite thing small children see all trip. They colonised the dock after the 1989 earthquake and the pier's own count peaked above 2,100 in 2024, though numbers swing with the season as most of the colony migrates to the Channel Islands in early summer. The Aquarium of the Bay at the pier's entrance is the paid add-on: 28.25 dollars for an adult and 20.25 for a child of 4 to 12 at the gate.

The catch: Online aquarium tickets add a 6 percent web fee, which is the wrong direction for a booking fee to run.

Nearest station: Powell-Hyde line, Hyde at Beach

Ride the Powell-Hyde line from its Hyde and Beach turnaround by Ghirardelli Square, which is the prettiest of the three lines and passes the top of Lombard Street on its way over Russian Hill. The maths matters for a family: 9 dollars flat per person aged 5 and up, no transfers, not covered by the ordinary Day Pass, and the free-for-kids rule that covers the rest of Muni does not apply here. Treat it as a ride, not transport, and queue at Hyde and Beach rather than the longer Powell and Market end.

Nearest station: Powell-Hyde line, Lombard stop

Hop off the cable car at Lombard and walk down the brick switchbacks everyone photographs. It is a public street and free, it takes fifteen minutes, and doing it on foot beats sitting in the queue of cars waiting to drive it. From the bottom you are twenty downhill minutes from the wharf again for dinner.

Nearest station: Embarcadero BART

Start with breakfast at the Ferry Building's food hall, and if your day two lands on a Saturday you have hit the jackpot: the Ferry Plaza Farmers Market runs 8am to 2pm with over a hundred producers, with smaller Tuesday and Thursday editions from 10am. Then ride toward the Presidio: the free PresidiGo shuttle leaves from near the Salesforce Transit Center and reaches the park in about 25 minutes.

Nearest station: PresidiGo shuttle, or bus 30 to its Crissy Field end

A former army airfield turned shoreline park, with the bridge filling the view, sand that children disappear into, and flat paths the whole way. It is National Park Service land with no fee and no gate. Walk it westward, because the bridge grows the entire time.

Nearest station: PresidiGo shuttle, Main Post stop

The park built over the road tunnels, free to all and open every day in its own words, with the Outpost, one of the best adventure playgrounds on the west coast, plus lawns, food trucks and the full bridge panorama. This is where the picnic happens. The Walt Disney Family Museum on the Main Post behind it is the paid option at 30 dollars for an adult and 15 for ages 6 to 17.

Nearest station: Bus 28, or the Presidio shuttle to the toll plaza area

Walk out onto the deck from the Welcome Center plaza, which is open 9am to 6pm daily. Walking is free, and the 10.25 dollar toll people worry about applies only to southbound cars. You do not need to cross the whole 2.7 kilometres for the photograph; the first tower is the classic frame and about twenty minutes out.

The catch: The sidewalk closes to pedestrians in the evening, and wind on the deck is serious with small children.

Nearest station: A flat 20-minute shoreline walk from Crissy Field

The brick Civil War fort sits directly under the bridge's southern anchorage, free to enter, with cannons, spiral granite stairs and a roof deck that puts the bridge immediately overhead. It opens Thursday to Monday, 10am to 5pm with the roof closing at 4:30, and is closed Tuesday and Wednesday, which is the single most common way this day goes wrong.

The catch: Closed Tuesdays and Wednesdays, all year.

Nearest station: N Judah to 9th and Irving, then a walk into the park

The oldest public Japanese garden in the United States, with the steep drum bridge children treat as climbing equipment. On Monday, Wednesday and Friday the first hour, 9 to 10am, is free for everyone; outside it, non-resident pricing is demand-based and set in the booking engine, so check the page rather than trusting a printed number. San Francisco residents enter free all year.

Nearest station: 5R Fulton or N Judah to the Music Concourse

An aquarium, planetarium, rainforest dome and natural history museum under one living roof, and the best single indoor day in the city with children. Pricing is seasonal: 49 dollars for an adult and 39 for a child of 3 to 12 off-peak, rising to 55 and 45 in spring break, summer and holiday weeks, with under-2s free. Arriving by transit, bike or on foot takes 3 dollars off every ticket, which almost no visitor notices.

The catch: Sunday opening is 11am, ninety minutes later than the rest of the week.

Nearest station: Bus 5 or 21 toward downtown

Ride east and get off at Alamo Square for the postcard: the row of Victorians with the downtown towers behind. It is a public park, free, and the lawn on the Hayes Street slope is the frame. Twenty minutes does it unless a picnic breaks out.

Nearest station: California cable car line or the T Third to Chinatown-Rose Pak

The oldest Chinatown in North America, entered properly through the Dragon Gate on Grant Avenue. Walk Grant for the lanterns and the shops, then cut one block west to Stockton Street, where the actual food shopping happens, and find the Golden Gate Fortune Cookie Factory in Ross Alley, where a bag of fresh cookies costs a few dollars and watching them fold is free.

Nearest station: Bus 39 from Washington Square

Finish on Telegraph Hill. The ground-floor Depression-era murals are free; the elevator to the open-air gallery at the top is 8 dollars for a non-resident adult, 5 for ages 12 to 17, 2 for a child of 5 to 11 and free under 4. From the top the whole three days assembles itself: the wharf below, the bridge west, the island out in the bay.

The catch: The climb up the Filbert Steps is genuinely steep; the 39 bus does it for anyone who has had enough hills.