In Brief
How do you spend 3 days in San Francisco?
Day one is the wharf and Alcatraz, day two the Golden Gate Bridge and the Presidio, day three Golden Gate Park and the hills. Book Alcatraz first, from 47.95 dollars for an adult and 29.15 for a child of 5 to 11 with the ferry and audio tour included, because the park service warns it sells out weeks ahead in summer. Then buy nothing else in advance: the bridge, the sea lions, the Tunnel Tops playground, the Cable Car Museum and the park itself are all free.
Key takeaways
- Alcatraz is the one hard booking: 47.95 adult, 29.15 child, from Pier 33, first boat 8:45am
- Children 18 and under ride Muni free, but the cable car is 9 dollars for everyone aged 5 and up
- Fort Point opens Thursday to Monday only, so put the bridge day on the right side of the week
- The Japanese Tea Garden is free 9 to 10am on Monday, Wednesday and Friday
The 3 days at a glance
One part of the island or city per day, so you spend your time looking at things rather than riding between them.
| Day | Area | What it covers | Paid entries | Pre-book? |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Fisherman's Wharf and Alcatraz | Alcatraz, the wharf, Pier 39 sea lions, a cable car ride | Alcatraz 47.95 adult and 29.15 child, Aquarium of the Bay 28.25 and 20.25 | Alcatraz, weeks ahead in summer |
| 2 | The Embarcadero, the bridge and the Presidio | Ferry Building, Crissy Field, Tunnel Tops, Golden Gate Bridge, Fort Point | Everything on this day is free | Nothing |
| 3 | Golden Gate Park and the hills | Tea Garden, California Academy of Sciences, de Young, Painted Ladies, Coit Tower | Academy 49 to 55 adult, de Young free under 18, Coit elevator 8 | Academy on peak days |
Every price is the operator's own 2026 figure, checked in August 2026. One honest gap: the Exploratorium blocks automated access to its ticket pages and its prices are not printed here rather than copied from a blog; budget for it at the door or check its site directly.
Check today's San Francisco attraction pricesCompare tickets and timed entries for your datesDay 1: The island, the wharf and the crookedest street
F streetcar to Jones and Beach; no rail station at the wharf itself
Everything on day one is within a flat two-kilometre stretch of waterfront, which is why the Alcatraz ticket sets the schedule. The first boat at 8:45am is the one to want: the island before the crowds, back at the wharf by lunch, and the afternoon free for the sea lions and the cable car. Getting here is the F streetcar, because the wharf has no rail station of its own.
08:45
Alcatraz
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.
- Price
- Price: 47.95 adult, 29.15 child 5 to 11
- Nearest station
- Nearest station: Pier 33, Alcatraz Landing
- The catch
- The catch: The America the Beautiful parks pass does not cover it, and refunds need 72 hours notice.
12:30
Fisherman's Wharf
Free to wanderWalk 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
- Nearest station: F streetcar, Jones and Beach
14:00
Pier 39
Rated 4.6 out of 5 on Google Maps from 138,862 reviews, as of October 2026The 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.
- Price
- Price: Sea lions free, aquarium 28.25 adult and 20.25 child
- Nearest station
- Nearest station: F streetcar, the Embarcadero at Stockton
- The catch
- The catch: Online aquarium tickets add a 6 percent web fee, which is the wrong direction for a booking fee to run.
16:00
Cable Car
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.
- Price
- Price: 9 dollars per person aged 5 and up
- Nearest station
- Nearest station: Powell-Hyde line, Hyde at Beach
17:00
Lombard Street
FreeHop 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
- Nearest station: Powell-Hyde line, Lombard stop
Skip this: a separate bay cruise
The Alcatraz ferry is already a bay crossing with the same skyline, bridge and island views the harbour cruises sell. Unless boats are the point of the trip, the money does more at the Academy of Sciences on day three.
Day 2: The bridge, the fort and the tunnel-top park
Embarcadero BART, then the free PresidiGo shuttle or the 30 bus
Day two costs nothing at all if you let it, which in this city is a sentence worth reading twice. The one scheduling rule: Fort Point, the Civil War fort directly underneath the bridge deck, opens Thursday to Monday only, so if your middle day falls on a Tuesday or Wednesday, swap this day with day three. Fog usually burns off after midday in summer, so the bridge is an afternoon stop on purpose.
09:00
Ferry Building
Free to enterRated 4.6 out of 5 on Google Maps from 38,527 reviews, as of October 2026Start 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
- Nearest station: Embarcadero BART
10:30
Crissy Field
FreeRated 4.7 out of 5 on Google Maps from 6,225 reviews, as of October 2026A 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
- Nearest station: PresidiGo shuttle, or bus 30 to its Crissy Field end
12:30
Presidio Tunnel Tops
Rated 4.9 out of 5 on Google Maps from 1,416 reviews, as of October 2026The 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.
- Price
- Price: Free; Disney museum 30 adult and 15 youth
- Nearest station
- Nearest station: PresidiGo shuttle, Main Post stop
14:30
Golden Gate Bridge
Free on footRated 4.8 out of 5 on Google Maps from 85,391 reviews, as of October 2026Walk 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.
- Nearest station
- Nearest station: Bus 28, or the Presidio shuttle to the toll plaza area
- The catch
- The catch: The sidewalk closes to pedestrians in the evening, and wind on the deck is serious with small children.
16:00
Fort Point
FreeThe 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.
- Nearest station
- Nearest station: A flat 20-minute shoreline walk from Crissy Field
- The catch
- The catch: Closed Tuesdays and Wednesdays, all year.
Skip this: driving across the bridge
Southbound cars pay a 10.25 to 11.25 dollar electronic toll depending on payment method, the vista point car parks jam solid, and the view from inside a car is mostly girder. The bridge is a thing to stand on, not drive over, and the shuttle and buses do the approach for nothing.
Day 3: The park, the ladies and the tower
The N Judah or the 5R to the park; buses back east
Day three is the museums day, and the day of week decides the order. The Japanese Tea Garden is free for its first hour on Monday, Wednesday and Friday; the Academy opens at 9:30 except Sundays when it opens at 11; the de Young closes Mondays and SFMOMA closes Wednesdays. Pick the free hour as your opener whenever the calendar allows.
09:00
Japanese Tea Garden
Rated 4.5 out of 5 on Google Maps from 17,010 reviews, as of October 2026The 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.
- Price
- Price: Free 9 to 10am Mon, Wed, Fri; otherwise priced by date
- Nearest station
- Nearest station: N Judah to 9th and Irving, then a walk into the park
10:30
California Academy of Sciences
Rated 4.6 out of 5 on Google Maps from 6,447 reviews, as of October 2026An aquarium, planetarium, rainforest dome and natural history museum under one living roof, and the best single indoor day in the city with children, with one caveat worth knowing before you pay: the Academy states it cannot permit any child under 4 into the Morrison Planetarium dome, and that the shows may not suit children under 7. 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.
- Price
- Price: 49 to 55 adult, 39 to 45 child, minus 3 arriving by transit
- Nearest station
- Nearest station: 5R Fulton or N Judah to the Music Concourse
- The catch
- The catch: Sunday opening is 11am, ninety minutes later than the rest of the week.
13:30
Painted Ladies
FreeRated 4.4 out of 5 on Google Maps from 28,447 reviews, as of October 2026Ride 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
- Nearest station: Bus 5 or 21 toward downtown
15:00
Chinatown
FreeThe 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
- Nearest station: California cable car line or the T Third to Chinatown-Rose Pak
17:00
Coit Tower
Rated 4.6 out of 5 on Google Maps from 16,044 reviews, as of October 2026Finish 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.
- Price
- Price: Elevator 8 adult, 2 child 5 to 11, murals free
- Nearest station
- Nearest station: Bus 39 from Washington Square
- The catch
- The catch: The climb up the Filbert Steps is genuinely steep; the 39 bus does it for anyone who has had enough hills.
If your day three is a Monday or a Wednesday
The de Young closes Mondays and SFMOMA closes Wednesdays, and the Academy's Sunday opening is 11am. The Tea Garden free hour runs Monday, Wednesday and Friday 9 to 10am, so a Monday park day still starts free; just point the afternoon at Chinatown and Coit Tower rather than a second museum.
What to cut if you only have two days
Two days works if you cut a geography, not minutes from each stop. Merge the waterfront days and keep the park day, because the Academy and the Tea Garden are the half you cannot improvise elsewhere.
- Combine days one and two: Alcatraz on the first boat, the wharf at midday, then the F streetcar and shuttle west to the bridge for the afternoon. It is a long day and it works.
- Keep Fort Point only if your combined day falls Thursday to Monday; otherwise let the bridge deck be the fort.
- Do not try to add a day trip inside a two-day visit. Muir Woods and Sausalito eat a half day minimum once the ferry schedule has its say.
- If a museum must go, the de Young forgives you: everyone 17 and under is free, so it is the cheapest one to keep for a future trip.
Two days: Alcatraz, the wharf and the bridge in one long loop, then Golden Gate Park. Three days: the full plan, with Fort Point and Chinatown breathing properly.
What 3 days actually costs
Per adult per day, using the operators' own 2026 figures. The child column is the story: children 18 and under ride Muni free, the de Young and SFMOMA are free under 18, and the sea lions, the bridge, the Tunnel Tops and Fort Point cost nothing at any age.
| Muni Day Pass (buses, streetcars, no cable car) | 5.70 |
| Visitor Passport, one day, cable cars included | 15.00 |
| Alcatraz Day Tour, adult | 47.95 |
| California Academy of Sciences, adult, off-peak | 49.00 |
| Cable car single ride, everyone 5 and up | 9.00 |
| Coit Tower elevator, non-resident adult | 8.00 |
| Sea lions, bridge, Tunnel Tops, Fort Point, Cable Car Museum | 0 |
| Japanese Tea Garden, Mon, Wed and Fri 9 to 10am | 0 |
| de Young and SFMOMA for everyone under 18 | 0 |
About 110 to 140 a day with Alcatraz and one museum, or under 25 on the free day
One price is deliberately missing: the Exploratorium blocks automated access to its ticket pages, so no figure is printed here rather than one copied from a blog. Check exploratorium.edu directly; its After Dark evenings are adults-only, 18 and over, on Thursdays. BART from the airport to downtown is 11.80 dollars for an adult and 5.90 for a youth on Clipper, in about 32 minutes.
Where to stay for this itinerary
Base the trip where the mornings start: Fisherman's Wharf puts day one on foot and the Alcatraz pier ten minutes away, Union Square puts every rail line and the airport BART under the room, and the Marina's Lombard Street motor inns solve the parking problem for anyone arriving by car. The wharf is the family answer; Union Square is the transit answer.
San Francisco hotel prices follow the convention calendar rather than the seasons, and the all-in tax is about 17.5 percent once the tourism assessments stack on the 14 percent room tax. Check the public Moscone events calendar against your dates: Dreamforce, 15 to 17 September 2026, repriced the whole city.
- Free cancellation on most rooms
- No booking fee
- Prices on Trip.com
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Photo credits (13)
Photos via Wikimedia Commons, used under their respective licences.
- Alcatraz: Dietmar Rabich - CC BY-SA 4.0 · source
- Fisherman's Wharf: Pierre André - CC BY-SA 4.0 · source
- Pier 39: Mike Peel - CC BY-SA 4.0 · source
- Cable Car: Dietmar Rabich - CC BY-SA 4.0 · source
- Lombard Street: Nicolas Vigier - CC BY-SA 2.0 · source
- Ferry Building: Frank Schulenburg - CC BY-SA 4.0 · source
- Crissy Field: Tony Webster from Minneapolis, Minnesota - CC BY-SA 2.0 · source
- Golden Gate Bridge: Radomianin - CC BY-SA 4.0 · source
- Japanese Tea Garden: King of Hearts - CC BY-SA 4.0 · source
- California Academy of Sciences: Joe Mabel - CC BY 4.0 · source
- Painted Ladies: King of Hearts - CC BY-SA 3.0 · source
- Chinatown: Beyond My Ken - CC BY-SA 4.0 · source
- Coit Tower: Noah_Loverbear - CC BY-SA 3.0 · source