Activities
What do you want to do?
Map and form
Leaders shouldn’t be making the decisions..the girls should be!!
Union Square
free - Trendy Union Square is a wonderful starting point on your tour of the city. Take a cable car to California St and take advantage of this photo op at the "heart" in the park. Lots of great stores and fun window shopping! Greet the fancy doorman at the Sir Francis Drake Hotel (Mr. Sweeney).
Go to the top of the Mark Hopkins Hotel in the glass elevators to see the view (6:30am-1:30am, must be “well-dressed after 4pm”.)
Chinatown
$ - Discover the fortune cookie bakery in Ross Alley, exotic grocery shops, herb shops, bakeries and fabulous trinkets stores.
Have dim sum for lunch (we recommend the Hong Kong Dim Sum House at 960 Grant, I’ve had another recommendation for Hunan’s Home Restaurant at 622 Jackson St, at Kearny or R & G Lounge at 631 Kearny St at Commercial) and explore the trinket shops and Chinese markets (down Stockton and Grant) and visit the Chinese Tien Hou Temple 125 Waverly Place, (off Clay between Stockton St. and Grant Ave.) This is a great place to pick up cheap souvenirs! Pay .50 for a photo at the fortune cookie bakery and $4 for a bag of cookies – unforgettable!
Coit Tower
free (unless you visit the giftshop or take the tour to the top of the tower) - 360 degree views, fabulous mural painted during the 1930s, free self-washing restroom and secret gardens on Telegraph Hill! There is a free walking tour given by San Francisco City Guides.
Ferry Marketplace/ Farmer’s Market
$-$$ - (Saturday AM) (ride the “F” line vintage streetcars, almost as cool as the cable cars!) The Ferry Building is a great place to find snacks or to graze for breakfast or lunch! Olive Oil, flowers, produce, honey, crafts, chocolates, deli. Great place to buy a “taste of San Francisco” to bring home.
Alcatraz Tour
$$$ ( $24.50 adult and $15.25 11 and under kids (group discounts)) The cruise to Alcatraz leaves from Pier 33 includes: 45 minute audio presentation "Doing Time: The Alcatraz Cellhouse Tour," featuring actual correctional officers and prisoners who lived and worked on the Island; orientation video. The trip takes 2-2 ½ hours including the ferry ride back and forth to the island. Great views of the city from the boat.
Pier 39
$-$$$– At Pier 39 see the California Sea Lions, ride the carousel ($5 for 2 tickets) beautiful painted scenes of San Francisco. Avoid the tourist traps and browsing the overpriced gift & souvenir shops. Bubba Gumps and Hard Rock Café are here…but so many great restaurants cost less and will give you more real San Francisco atmosphere for your money.
Fisherman’s Wharf
free to walk around and smell the fresh fish $ - inexpensive things to do
Peek into the Maritime Museum and climb aboard some of the restored antique ships ($3 for adults free for kids.) Buy fresh crabs at the Fisherman’s Wharf dock and go to the hostel to cook dinner. There’s a Safeway 5 minutes walk from the hostel where you can get more stuff for dinner and picnic food for Saturday visit the Musee Mechanique old time antique arcade machines .25 each, very fun!! Boudin Bakery Tour & samples – ($3 kids, free for adults, self paced tour and bread samples.. sourdough, ciabatta, chocolate & raisin..) exhibit explains how bread is made, SF earthquake display, delicious array of bread samples with tasty olive oil and spreads.
Ghirardelli Square
$ - Self paced exhibit showing how Ghirardelli chocolate is made (buy a bag of chocolates and share it.) A gigantic “Earthquake Sundae” (8 scoops and 8 toppings plus bananas, cherries and whipped cream about $20) to share at famous Ghirardelli restaurant! (we finished ours in 5 minutes!)
Lombard Street
free - walk (or run) down the “crookedest” street in the world. The cable car can let you off at the top of the street. Once you get to the bottom you can continue walking downhill to the bus.
Cable Cars
$6 per person but a “must do” activity! Read more about it in transportation. Catch the cable cars from either end. There is a free cable car museum in the middle. Your girls will love "hanging out" from the poles on the side and feeling the wind in their hair as you climb the hills of the city and watch the beautiful scenery all around you.
Grace Cathedral
free, Grace Cathedral “bible in bronze” doors by Ghiberti, incredible stained glass windows and round "rose" window that looks like the great cathedrals of Europe. What you'll really love is the great outdoor labyrinth! It's on top of a hill a short walk from Union Square.
Yerba Buena Gardens
Huge complex..gardens and waterfall are free, for $10 the girls can ice skate or bowl, at Zeum 11am-6pm closed monday- a technology based self-expression museum $10 kids, $13 adults (group discounts), they can do incredible animation, audio and video editing, digital photography. $4 for 2 rides on the old carrousel Metreon – big shopping center, hip arcade and food court.
Alamo Square “Full House” Park
free – if any of your girls are Full House fans, this is the scene that is in the open to the show. Great photo op with the "painted ladies" and beautiful view of the city. Nice grassy slopes where you can have a picnic and look out over the city.
Golden Gate Park – Japanese Garden
$ ($3.50 adults, $1.25 kids) (free from 8:30-9:30 on Saturday am) tea garden where you can sit or just walk around the garden for free (tea $2.95/person..save money and just buy a Japanese snack in the gift shop and share!)…beautiful and very unique. Fune Ya Sushi Boat Restaurant ,354 Clement Street, is an inexpensive dining experience! Not far away. The sushi plates float by the table and the girls can choose what they want $1-$2.50 per plate. Try the green tea ice cream for dessert! Voted most fun on our trip!
Exploratorium
The museums are great in San Francisco, especially the Exploratorium, described by Scientific American Magazine as “the best science museum in the world.” ($8 kids $13 adults,10am – 5pm), but it takes a long time to explore a museum and we've got great museums in Balboa Park too. If it’s raining on Saturday, that might be a good thing to do instead of going to Golden Gate Park, it’s located in Crissy Field right near the bridging festivities. The other option on a rainy day would be to head to South Market and on to
Bridging Event
To register for the event go to the official website.
Crissy Field, where the bridging event takes place is an enormous park at the city end of the Golden Gate Bridge. There’s plenty of walking from the parking to the field and there’s public transportation to Crissy Field too. Your troop will get assigned a time to take a bus across the Golden Gate Bridge and walk back across the bridge with thousands of other girl scouts and over to 
Crissy Field for the Girl Scout festivities. At the end of the bridge is a short “ceremonial” handshake and chance for a photo op at one of the most beautiful spots in the city with the Golden Gate bridge in the background (the lighting on the bridge is better in the afternoon). The trip over the
bridge is about 3 miles..you may want to walk around during the next month to get in shape! Don’t rush to do the walk first thing in the morning, it’s much more crowded before noon. It can be very cold on the bridge, dress warmly in layers. Lots of fun free activities at Crissy Field. Lots of time to swap with other troops and have a picnic. Booths put on by scout troops and games and places to throw a frisbee with a lovely view of the bridge. If your troop would rather have some “free” play time than site-see around the city then plan to stay here longer and just enjoy a relaxing time together.Things to do BEFORE the trip
Games and Meeting activities –
Travel Postcards - create 2 travel postcards of places in San Francisco that you’d like to visit.
Test your bus map reading skills
copyright © 2009 Debbie Lechner
updated
September 12, 2013