Discover San Francisco in 2 Days
with Red and White Fleet and Big Bus Tours

Day 1

Morning: Red and White Fleet Cruise
Kick off your day with either our 1-hour Golden Gate Bay Cruise or our 90-minute San Francisco Bridge to Bridge Cruise. Both tours take you under the Golden Gate Bridge and closely around Alcatraz Island for great photo opportunities of the former prison island. The San Francisco Bridge to Bridge has an extended route that also allows you to see the Ferry Building and financial district from the bay and cruise under the iconic Bay Bridge. All along the way, we'll share insights about the city's history and landmarks via our headphone audio in 16 language choices.
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Late Morning: Discover Neighborhoods with Big Bus Tours
Once back at Pier 43 1/2, step onto a Big Bus open-top double-decker bus for a hop-on hop-off tour to explore San Francisco's vibrant neighborhoods. With a 2-day ticket, you will be able to use the bus as many times as you wish to see different neighborhoods and sights in San Francisco.
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Lunch: Enjoy a Meal in North Beach
North Beach is the first stop along your double-deck bus tour. In this lively neighborhood you will find many Italian markets, cafes, and restaurants for a memorable lunch. This includes a fantastic little bakery called Liguria, which serves up some of the best focaccia breads in town. It is located right on the corner of Washington Square, where Marilyn Monroe and Joe DiMaggio famously posed for wedding pictures.
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Early Afternoon: Explore Chinatown
San Francisco's Chinatown is the oldest in North America and offers a fascinating mix of local produce markets, tourist shops, and restaurants. Explore this vibrant community and gain insights into Chinese culture in America. If you haven't eaten in North Beach already, this will be another great spot for lunch. You can even visit a fortune cookie factory and the San Francisco Cable Car Museum while there!
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Afternoon: SF MOMA & San Francisco Architecture
If you are interested in arts and architecture, be sure to step off the bus in San Francisco's Financial district to visit the Salesforce Park, an elevated city park that's built high above the downtown streets and offers beautiful views of San Francisco's tallest buildings, including the Salesforce Tower. A few blocks further west, you will be able to visit the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, one of the largest collections of 20th century art in the United States. It is located right next to the convention center and Yerba Buena Gardens.
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Evening: Dinner & Views
After a long day of sightseeing in San Francisco, you might be too tired to venture out in the evening. But in case you want to go for dinner, good food is found everywhere throughout San Francisco. Some of our favorite neighborhoods for going out to eat in the evening include the Marina District along either Chestnut or Union Streets, or also the Lower Hayes Valley. Both are easy rides via Lyft or Uber. You'll also be able to find rooftop bars in some of the hotels near Union Square for spectacular city views at night.
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Day 2

Morning: See the Painted Ladies from Full House
Start your day early and hop back on the Big bus to take you to Alamo Square, where you can find the colorful Victorian homes called the Painted Ladies, which were made famous by the popular TV program Full House.
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Late Morning: Explore Haight-Ashbury
Haight-Ashbury is a colorful district that was once the epicenter of the hippie movement and Flower Generation of the 1960s. Today it remains a vibrant neighborhood and offers visitors the chance to learn about artistic and social activism and browse through the district's collection of eclectic shops. Here you can find a cafe for a light lunch.
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Lunch: Stroll through Golden Gate Park
At the western end of Haight-Ashbury, you'll have a chance to explore beautiful Goldn Gate Park, which spans across more than 1,000 acres all the way to Ocean Beach. With a broad variety of formal gardens including the Japanese Gardens and San Francisco Botanical Gardens, the park features playgrounds, sports fields, performance venues, and two fantastic museums.
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Afternoon: Museum Hopping in Golden Gate Park
Two must-see museums in San Francisco include the California Academy of Sciences and the De Young Museum. Situated around the Music Concourse in Golden Gate Park, both facilities offer world-class exhibits in state-of-the-art buildings. The platinum LEED certified California Academy of Science is the only place in the world to house a planetarium, rainforest, aquarium, and natural history museum under one living roof. The De Young Museum is unique for its diverse collection of American art and distinctive architecture that features and observation tower with views of the Golden Gate Bridge.
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Late Afternoon: Cross the Golden Gate Bridge
Complete your day by hopping back on your Big Bus open top double decker and let it take you to the visitor center of the Golden Gate Bridge on the south side of the bridge. From there you can either cross the bridge aboard the bus, or you can walk it and then pick the next bus at the vista point on the northern end of the bridge. It is roughly a 2-mile walk. Either way, it's a fantastic experience!
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Evening: Catch a Show
San Francisco is known for having a lively performing arts scene - one of the best in the country. From musicals to the opera, plays, concerts, and comedy shows - theres not a single night of the year without having dozens of entertainment options available. Many of San Francisco's performance venues are in historic buildings with ornate auditoriums, which by themselves are worth the visit. So, we highly encourage you to support the local arts scene by visiting a show.
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The above 2-day itinerary provides you with a sampling of the best things to do in San Francisco, all of which are activities that you can enjoy at any time of the year. The itinerary won't require you to have a car, as the boats of the Red and White Fleet and the double-decker busses of Big Bus, alongside San Francisco's streetcars and cable cars, cover all your transportation needs.
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Ideally, we suggest that you spend at least 3-4 days in San Francisco.  It's a place like no other in the United States, providing a unique blend of neighborhoods, incredible vistas, arts and culture, and amazing food - all while being a very welcoming community to visitors of all backgrounds.
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