San Francisco -- Three days, two kids (13 and 10)

[sugarbear1]

What's not to miss?
We will tour Alcatraz (tix already purchased).
Both boys want to see the Stanford campus.
We are staying near Fisherman's Wharf.

The boys are good travelers, and big eaters. We will not have a car, but could possibly borrow one if we needed to.
I would love recs for restaurants and any specific sightseeing we need to do!

[nsl]

My family did a fantastic food tour through Chinatown and North Beach that my kids (12 and 15 at the time) thought was the best part of our SF trip last spring. This is the one we did, though there are tons of others on Viator with great reviews: 16731.partner.viator.com/tours/San-Francisco/Chinatown-and-North-Beach-Night-Walking-Tour/d651-3327NIGHT

We got a City Explorer Pass for everyone as a lot of the activities we wanted to do (bus tour, museums, etc...) were participating. It saved us quite a bit of money.

Alcatraz was a no for us (we did a ferry across the bay so the kids could see it close up) since both H and I remembered being bored by the tours we went on there as tweens. They may be better now, but I wasn't interested in spending that much time on something I was pretty sure my kids wouldn't wind up enjoying.

[Roc A Bee]

My kids went with their aunt this past summer. They did a hop on and off bus that they liked because they could jump off and see what they wanted and skipped other stuff.

Don’t rent a car. Driving there sucks.

[quesyrah]

California academy of sciences

If they’re into Star Wars the lobby of Lucasfilm is open to the public and they have some cool memorabilia.

[mommin]

museemecanique.com/
This place is super cool and I think the age of your kids is perfect for it. It’s an arcade but they’re all old, classic, antique games. Super fun to play and see all the different stuff.

www.waltdisney.org/
The Walt Disney Family Museum is neat too. It’s definitely not Disneyland but it’s fun and not something a lot of people tend to seek out.

[emilyinchile]

For sure no car. Take the train to Palo Alto then walk or Uber - the Stanford campus is huge, but the typical postcard view of Memorial Church is walkable from the train.

I don't really know what might be interesting at your kids' age, but in general I'd guess Chinatown, California Academy of Sciences and walking on the Golden Gate Bridge would be pretty cool.

[meganew]

Dec 29, 2023 18:09:44 GMT -5 emilyinchile said:

For sure no car. Take the train to Palo Alto then walk or Uber - the Stanford campus is huge, but the typical postcard view of Memorial Church is walkable from the train.

I don't really know what might be interesting at your kids' age, but in general I'd guess Chinatown, California Academy of Sciences and walking on the Golden Gate Bridge would be pretty cool.

I’m jumping in this thread because there’s a chance we’re in San Fran for a night or two this summer, but we’d need a car for the rest of the trip after. Which part of San Fran would be central enough to walk/Uber from?

[redheadk]

Cal academy of sciences in a great science museum but if you have been to other good ones I would skip it in favor of the Exploratorium which is fully hands on. Your kids are great ages for it. From there, you can walk to the Ferry Building for lunch.

I second Musee Mecanique. Ghirardelli is nearby for a great hot chocolate.

[1confused1]

I just took a 14, 16 and 17 year olds yesterday. We live an hour away so we have done most things S.F. has to offer.

Yesterday we started at Pier 39 and ate at Bubba Gumps at the 14 year olds request. Don’t eat there, there are better places. I would recommend Scomas on Fisherman’s Wharf for an old school restaurant experience. We walked from the pier to the cable car at Beach and Hyde and took it to Union Square. The Buena Vista is right next to the cable car turn around, they are famous for their Irish coffees. We ended up taking a cab back to Ghirardelli Square because it was so crowded on the cable car. Tried to get sundaes, but the line was too long. Bought some candy and then headed back to our car.

[sonrisa]

What time of year are you visiting? My kids are exactly those ages.

Personally I'd drive for Stanford and take advantage of the car that day to do other things that aren't easy on foot/MUNI. (Redwoods? Fort Point? Headlands? Land's End? Whatever is a good fit).

I'd do the Exploratorium over Cal Academy if you are staying in Fisherman's Wharf. You can even walk there. (Cal Academy has three knock out exhibits: the aquarium, the planetarium, and the rainforest dome with butterflies. All nice but really a better fit for slightly younger kids who are at "look at the animals" ages. Exploratorium has a big variety of individual hands on exhibits that you can enjoy from a purely observation level up to learning the physics/chemistry/bio involved.

Dim Sum is always a favorite with my kids. (Yank Sing is a classic option. SF Gate has a column just on local dumpling places).

[emilyinchile]

Dec 29, 2023 18:15:10 GMT -5 meganew said:

Dec 29, 2023 18:09:44 GMT -5 emilyinchile said:

For sure no car. Take the train to Palo Alto then walk or Uber - the Stanford campus is huge, but the typical postcard view of Memorial Church is walkable from the train.

I don't really know what might be interesting at your kids' age, but in general I'd guess Chinatown, California Academy of Sciences and walking on the Golden Gate Bridge would be pretty cool.

I’m jumping in this thread because there’s a chance we’re in San Fran for a night or two this summer, but we’d need a car for the rest of the trip after. Which part of San Fran would be central enough to walk/Uber from?

To go to Stanford, you would take the train from the San Francisco Caltrain station at 4th and King down to Palo Alto (exactly how long that takes depends on which train because some stop everywhere and others are express trains, so it's worth checking the schedule online, but call it 40 min-ish). Then from the Palo Alto train station it's a little over a mile to Memorial Church on Stanford campus. You can get to the SF train station via the city's public transit, called Muni, or Uber, Lyft, walk, etc.

I'm not sure if you were asking about Stanford or what exactly in terms of being central enough within SF, but in general the city is relatively walkable, just have to take the hills into consideration, and there are always ride shares available plus Muni, which you can use with an app or money, is easy.

[mrspez07]

Around the same ages we rented bikes and biked through town and across the Golden Gate Bridge to saulsalito and then took the ferry back. You can also just rent them to bike around, but the hills can be tough!

[sugarbear1]

sonrisa, we are going in late February.

Thanks for the suggestions, everyone!

[minzy]

I would have them walk or run across the Golden Gate Bridge (1.7 mi each way). It’s free, it’s exercise, and anytime they ever see an image of it again, they’ll remember doing that with their mom. I did this a couple of years ago (by myself on a work trip) and even though I live on the east coast, you’d be surprised how ubiquitous the image of the bridge is - I feel like I see it all the time.