It’s hard living over the other side of the world from family– you miss out on SO much, so months ago when my sister announced she was taking her whole family of seven to America, we dreamed up the perfect vacation for our families to meet for the first time ever, and make memories, on an epic road trip through coastal California.

This trip has been my No. 1 dream American vacation for a long time, and we had a lot of fun planning the perfect itinerary that would check tons of things off our “bucket list” in just one week: From watching the sunset over the Golden Gate Bridge, to hiking to the base of the tallest waterfall in North America, to visiting the #1 aquarium in the world.

The trip started in San Francisco–a city I had always wanted to go to, but never had! My sister and I searched books, and blogs and pinterest for the top “must do and see” (and eat) in SFO, and crammed as much as we could,  efficiently and kid-friendly, in the day and a half we had there.

The trouble is, even with the research and mapping, it’s hard to navigate a city you have never been to before, so the reality was VERY different from our plan. I thought I would write up our planned itinerary, along with our actual experiences, what we wish we knew, and what we’d do again, so that you will better know what to plan for, what to avoid, and what you can’t miss out on in San Francisco.

DAY 1 
THE PLAN 
{Pick up the car rental @4:00pm} 
1. Dinner: Go to La Taqueria, order “the best Mexican food in the whole U.S,” ask for the burrito:“El Dorado Style.”
2. Stop at the Painted Ladies on the way
3. PM Meet my Sister & family at Baker beach & take some pretty pics in front of the Golden Gate bridge
4. Have a picnic & watch the sunset over the golden gate  
5. Check into the Grand Hyatt, Embarcadero 

THE REALITY  
1. After picking up the rental we headed to La Taqueria, got stuck in horrendous downtown SFO traffic, saw the lines out the door and down the street, had nowhere to park for blocks, and decided to skip going there!

2. My sister and her family were waiting for us at Baker Beach, so even though the painted ladies were close, it would have taken a long time to reach them with traffic, so we had to skip those too, and headed straight to Baker Beach.

3. We got turned around a little, and drove across the Golden Gate bridge twice!

MY FAMILY GOT TO MEET MY SISTERS FAMILY FOR THE FIRST TIME EVER!!
We got a couple of cute family pics on the beach, in front of the golden gate before the kids jumped straight into the Ocean!

4. We hadn’t planned on them getting so wet and sandy– but it made for great memories and photos! We “watched” the sunset over the Golden Gate as we dried and de-sanded our kids for the hotel.

5. We checked into the Grand Hyatt at the Embarcadero, ordered room service for our hungry kiddos at like 8pm, and my husband used his awesome app to find us an Indian take-away in our hotel room.

WHAT WE WISH WE KNEW 
downtown SFO traffic at rush hour will be CRAZY, and will suck all your time away! 🙁
Getting a burrito from La Taqueria might be more effort than it’s worth.
Dress the kids to get wet and sandy at the beach.
Stay in Union Square rather than the Embarcadero, it’s closer to everything.
Also, The Grand Hyatt was incredible in the lobby, but the rooms were “blah” for the price.
Factor in $75 or so a day for parking, unless your hotel specifically states free parking, you won’t have it!

WHAT WE’D DO AGAIN 
Drive over the Golden Gate Bridge (at least once!)
MEET UP AT BAKER BEACH! It was the perfect, most scenic, family-friendly place for us all to go. We loved it!

Watch the sun set over the Golden Gate bridge.

Let the kids get as wet and dirty as they like! Just be prepared with towels, plastic bags and a spare change of clothes, (which luckily we had handy).

Order the Masala Fries from Chaat corner with mint chutney, raita and tamarind, they were amaaaaazing! (I’m going to work on recreating that recipe ASAP)!

DAY 2
THE PLAN:
1. Hit the Powell and Market Public Kiosk and buy an all day mini passport (to ride the cable cars all day) 
2. Get Cruffins for breakfast at Mr Holmes Bakehouse & pics outside the ‘I got baked in San Francisco’ sign
3. 10:30am Alcatraz Tour
4. Pier 39/Fisherman’s Wharf to eat some Clam Chowder in a sourdough bread bowl at Boudin’s Bakery, and see the seal lions on the dock
5. Walk next door to Ghirardelli Square for some chocolate/ice cream
6. Ride a cable car to Lombard Street (the world’s most crooked street)
7. From there, go over to Coit tower, and take in incredible views of the city and street art
8. Walk around the ferry building
9. Have dinner in the world’s oldest Chinatown– at Z&Y. See Ross Alley, where Indiana Jones and Karate Kid were filmed.
10. Back to the hotel, right next door.

THE REALITY:
1. We got turned around and couldn’t find the Powell and Market Kiosk, but my husband went underground, and came back with some all day passes to ride the busses and cable cars. We didn’t have time to figure out where to go to catch the cable car and then wait for it, so we started walking to make sure we weren’t late for our Alcatraz tour.

2. We found a Safeway on the way, and ducked in quickly for milk, bananas and the world’s WORST donuts. Not the SFO Cruffins we were hoping for– but got the kids fed and happy.

3. We made our 10:30 Alcatraz tour! Yay.




4. We had THE BEST Clam chowder of our lives at Boudin’s Bakery!
AND… we found the seal lions basking at pier 39.


5. We got a bus over to Ghirardelli Square, rather than walked, because the kids were getting tired and we didn’t want to waste our passes. The kids and I got a chocolate sundae to split, and my husband got a vanilla milkshake… [at a chocolate factory!] We saw a guy getting tackled and arrested there!

6. We drove on Lombard Street but never saw the crooked part :-/

7. We couldn’t bus/cable car to the top of Coit tower– so we hiked, up the STEEPEST HILL, with 6 kids and 2 babies in strollers, and my husband’s severely sprained foot!

It was a little tiring! 
But the views on top were amazing and made it worthwhile. 
8. The ferry building closed before we could get there. 🙁

9. Chinatown was SUPER cool. We saw old Chinese ladies practicing their Tai Chi, men playing Chinese Chequers and card games in the park. Z&Y couldn’t seat us all, but we found a restaurant called Chinatown restaurant, and all had a sit-down meal together after an exhausting day. The food was GOOD.

WHAT WE WISH WE KNEW 
Plan ahead of time where to get on and off the cable cars, or you’ll waste a lot of time trying to figure it out (and might not even get to ride on one) 🙁
Or better yet, just SKIP the expensive passes all-together and walk the city on foot.
If you have little kids the hour-long Alcatraz audio tour will be hard to take.
Make time for the ferry building! It was right across the street from our hotel, but because it was the last thing on the itinerary, it closed before we got to see it.
Get reservations for Z&Y in advance, esp if you’re in a large group.

WHAT WE’D DO AGAIN

Lie-in t’ill 9 or 10: nothing in the city is open before then anyway.
Take the Alcatraz tour: the views from the ferry and from the island were beautiful, and you can’t go to San Francisco and not do Alcatraz! 
Go to The Boudins Bakery for clam chowder in sourdough bread bowls. It was THE BEST Clam Chowder i’ve ever had, and the best thing we ate in SFO.
Take the walk up to Coit tower! We got to experience the SFO steep streets, see beautiful homes and views along the way, laugh and chat and make memories.
Stay for just a day or two… and then get out of the city and find some nature!

We missed out on seeing and experiencing a couple of things I had dreamed about, but we also did amazing things we hadn’t planned on, or were better than I had anticipated! I hope this gives you a better idea of what to expect, dream about and plan for, to maximize your short stay in one of the world’s most amazing cities!

<3 Sarah