Why San Francisco is perfect for a solo trip from food to history and everything in between
With hippy roots, sunshine and the sea, San Francisco won't disappoint you
When you think of San Francisco you think of several things: hippies, the Golden Gate Bridge, and Alcatraz.
I last visited San Fran when I was a teenager and it’s a bit of a blur, but those images have stayed with me.
I decided to visit again as a solo female traveller and I wasn’t disappointed. Some parts historic, some as new and shiny as you can get (the city is now home to tech companies like Google and Uber), I rediscovered a vibrant, buzzing city that was perfect for exploring on my own.
I arrived in the early evening and with my body eight hours ahead on London time I felt very confused. But I was full of beans as my taxi drove me downtown to the Clift Royal Sonesta, a hotel that dates back to 1916.
The hotel is all dark wood, crackling fires, and it has a bar called the Redwood Room which has been a San Fran institution since the 1960s, and does a mean margarita.
After a good long sleep, the first thing I did was get on a hop-on-hop-off tourist bus to explore the city. Yes, one of those open-top red ones where everyone wears headsets that you wouldn’t be seen dead on. Only it was actually brilliant.
I was jetlagged and I was on my own - and the bus tour did everything I wanted. It took me on a narrated tour of the entire city, from Downtown with its flashy shops to Chinatown, over to Haight-Ashbury, a 1960s hippy haven to the likes of Jimi Hendrix and Janis Joplin.
After I was full of falafel and had overdosed on vintage shopping I hopped back on the bus which took me down a very windy Golden Gate bridge and over to the posh town of Sausalito. Be warned - San Francisco gets very, very windy, and mid-ride the man sat next to me actually lost his hat.
Next up and still in full tourist mode I went to visit Alcatraz, the notorious, creepy prison island a mile from the mainland which once housed prisoners such as Al Capone.
as it's so popular, so make sure you do.
After a choppy ride over (I told you this place was windy), we were treated to an audio guide that brings the dilapidated, crumbling buildings and its creepy cells to life. If you go, you must listen to the guide, which directs you around the old penitentiary.
It’s as if its ghosts have come back to life, even if it closed for good in 1963. In some places you can even see bullet holes in the wall from past battles between prisoners and guards.
Despite its grim past, Alcatraz can work up a hunger as there is plenty of walking involved – fortunately the Ferry Building, a haven for food on the dock, is just down the pier from where the ferry lands.
You can shuck oysters with a glass of wine while you look out onto the bay (the very one that Otis Redding wrote that very famous song about).
After two nights at the lovely Clift Royal Sonesta, it was time to up sticks to the nautical-themed Argonaut Hotel in Fisherman’s Wharf. You might have clocked by now that San Fran is a watery kind of place, and the hotel has touches of the sea at every turn.
The most nautical I got that night, however, was a long bath in my room’s amazing Jacuzzi bath before bed. It’s a hard life when you’re still jetlagged.
San Fran is very close to Mexico, which you notice a lot in the food on offer, so of course I went for the huevos rancheros for breakfast at the Argonaut next morning. Fried eggs with guacamole, spices and hash browns? It would be rude not to.
I made Castro the next stop on my tour. The neighbourhood is full of character and history and is a central point in San Francisco’s famous gay rights movement. Today it is a melting pot of different sexualities, races and classes, and is the perfect place to sit and have a coffee and watch the world go by.
I’d very much recommend the for one of their ginormous toasted cheese sandwiches. I went back at least twice.
The neighbourhood is full of the iconic pastel-painted Victorian houses known as the Painted Ladies. Lining the city’s hilly streets, they’re like something you might find back in the UK, which is one of the things that makes the city so unique.
Castro itself is a symbol of the LGBT movement, and I also made sure to pay a visit to its History Museum, which is both poignant and shocking and well worth a look.
I also paid a visit to Clement Street for a food tour with . Airbnb isn’t just about renting apartments - Experiences let you, well, experience things in the city you’re staying in.
, took a small group of us around the neighbourhood and told us about its history, before taking us into eight different restaurants. It was also a great way to meet people on a solo trip.
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We tried everything from dim sum to handmade chocolate and oolong tea while Jan expertly informed us about the neighbourhood she knows and loves.
I left San Francisco after a week with a full belly and an empty heart. I fell for its Californian charms the first time I visited when I was still at school, and the city is everything and more now (especially now I’m old enough to drink a beer or two).
Expect history, expect views, expect sunshine and especially expect amazing food from the Windy City that really has something for everyone. Whether you’re travelling solo or in a couple, I couldn’t recommend San Fran any more highly.
How to get to San Francisco, where to stay and what to do
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