Two days in the city, and a garden nobody is looking for
San Francisco, California · 2 nights · Apr · May · Jun · Sep · Oct · up to 6
San Francisco is small, vertical, and has different weather by neighbourhood, which is the single most useful thing to know before packing. Two nights is enough for one large thing a day: Alcatraz on the first morning because the boats sell out weeks ahead, the bridge and the Presidio on the second. Golden Gate Park is a thousand acres and the far end of it is empty on a Tuesday. Eat in the Mission.
The ending
A sunken rectangle of hedge and brick behind the Academy of Sciences, benches along a wall set with bronze plaques of lines from the plays, where you can hear the park and see none of it.
That is Shakespeare Garden, Golden Gate Park. See how private it is and when it’s open, or build the rest of the trip around it.
Do
- Alcatraz Island Tour
- Bike the Bridge (Blazing Saddles)
- Avital Food Tours (Mission District)
- Kabuki Springs & Spa
Eat
- Foreign Cinema
- Hog Island Oyster Co.
Stay
- Proper Hotel San Francisco
- Hyatt Regency San Francisco
Two nights in a city this size?
Yes, if you pick one thing a day. Three nights here turns into a list, and the list is the part you remember.
What is actually in the garden?
Hedges, a brick path, benches, and a wall of quotations. It is small, walled and easy to walk past from the main path, which is exactly why it works.