With such a short amount of time in San Francisco we were determined to see the most we could. I always find the best way to do this is to take a Tour. It takes the stress out of the process – you don’t have to worry about navigating the local public transport system and finding sites etc. Extranomical Tours are the go to company for tours in San Francisco. They run every kind of tour imaginable from Yosemite Day tours, Napa and Sonoma Valley Wine tours and City Tours. We chose to take a city tour in order to maximise our time in the city.
The San Francisco City tour is a quintessential city tour, featuring everything you could hope to see in this amazing city. The tour takes four hours on average and covers all the main tourist sites on top of giving customers an insight to the diverse culture of the citizens of San Francisco.
Phil, our guide was so engaging and genuinely interested in showing us the best of his city. Phil's knowledge was first rate and really made the history of San Francisco come alive for us. The tour was almost like having a good friend show you the city which in my opinion is much preferable to a large bus of people. The Extranomical mini bus also has free wifi, making it very easy to update your social media or share your pictures - great especially if you are an international traveller and you don't have roaming data.
The Extranomical mini bus picked us up near Pier 39 and proceeded to take us to North Beach and on to the Palace of Fine Arts for a photo stop. This Palace looks very like something you could see in Rome or Florence, it's hard to believe it was only intended to last one year!
Next on to the famous Golden Gate Bridge. To get to the Golden Gate Bridge we travelled through Presido and stopped at Fort Point for a photo.The Bridge is obviously an iconic landmark to people around the world, and for many crossing the bridge is a once in the life time experience. Our guide Phil made this moment extra special by playing Judy Garland's "San Francisco".
We then set out exploring the main San Francisco neighbourhoods - Castro, Mission, Haight Ashbury and Chinatown. Which each new neighbourhood came different distinct architecture. Along the way Phil shared anecdotes about each area and general city life as well as tips for how to spend the rest of our time in the city. Phil, our guide was especially accommodating to everyone on the tour when he asked us if we had anything specific we wanted to see in the city. We chose to visit the iconic "Painted Ladies" made famous by Fuller House.
I would highly recommend this tour for anyone who is in San Francisco for a short period of time and doesn’t want the hassle and high cost of getting ubers all around the city.
To book a tour with Extranomical visit their website - https://m.extranomical.com/
