Walking around SF is a great way to spend a day. Start in Union Square and take the cable car – hop off to walk the blocks around Chinatown, North Beach (Italian) and Columbus, go up to Colt Tower for a breathtaking view, down to Fisherman’s Wharf. You can rent a bike or take a ferry to Alcatraz or Angel Island near there.
Go see the sea lions at the wharf, they are cute! Neat boutiques near Grant Street, Polk Street. Best place to stroll – Japanese Tea Gardens at Golden Gate Park, or along the cliff rocks near the Palace of the Legion of Honor/The Cliff House area for incredible views of the Golden Gate bridge. Good places to wet your whistle – the Vesuvio bar near City Lights bookstore. Dim Sum & Italian seafood are very good in SF. Don’t forget to drive or walk down Lombard Street.
San Francisco is a really great walking city, and it is fun to just peek at the posted menu’s at all the little places and if it looks interesting, pop in for a munchies and a drink! Exploring all the different neighborhoods is great! It’s easy to find you have wandered many miles and had a great time. Michaelangelo’s is great for Italian food-just up the street from the Wash. Square Bar and Grill.
My favorite scenic lookout in all of SF is at the Legion of Honor museum, which is at the top of the hill overlooking the entry into San Francisco bay, so you see the Golden Gate Bridge from the ocean entry rather than from the bay looking out (which you’ll see if you are doing the Alcatraz tour.)
Definitely you have to go to North Beach (little Italy section) for dinner and drinks, clubs, etc. On Sunday, go to Rockridge or Sausalito for brunch, Stinson beach and Pelican Inn for afternoon pub drinks. Check out Tilden Park in East Bay, Golden Gate Park, Fisherman’s Wharf, Legion of Honor, Exploratorium, Palace of Fine Arts, Point Bonita Lighthouse in Marin Headleads.
Fisherman’s Wharf is not bad, so you should definitely spend some time there. Boats to Alcatraz leave from there anyway. Although it’s popular within certain circles to bash Fisherman’s Wharf as a tourist trap, seeing ships of the type that actually used to service San Francisco (sadly yet hopefully the C.A. Thayer, the 1890’s vintage lumber schooner is currently across the Bay being restored at huge expense), when it had a living, breathing maritime industry helps put things into perspective. Along the same lines you can still find the vestiges of a fishing industry in the “C” and “D” sheds, and the wharf and shed structures themselves tell you a lot about San Francisco’s maritime past. Since it’s dungeness crab season watch, them boil a huge potful of crabs at one of restaurants (cheer the crabs on by yelling “run away, run away” as they get grabbed and tossed into the pot) and then get a cracked chilled one to go, to snarf in your hotel room, with some good sourdough French bread and a bottle or two of Anchor Steam beer (dungeness crab should not be consumed in public – doing so inhibits you from properly enjoying it, a very messy spectacle.)
There are several restaurants that have outside booths that sell good seafood and makes for an inexpensive lunch. You can also get yummy clam chowder in a bread bowl all over on the wharf. Ghiradelli chocolate near the wharf is a must pilgrimage for tourists. The souvenir shops on the wharf are way tacky. There is a nice one in the Cannery bdg. along the wharf.