Clipper or a bank card. Muni is $2.85 with Clipper or the MuniMobile app, $3 in exact cash, and the fare covers two hours of transfers. Since December 2025 Muni readers take a contactless bank card or phone, as BART gates do. Carry Clipper in your phone wallet anyway: it also works on the cable cars and the ferries.
The cable car. $9 a ride, no transfer, so the $15 one-day visitor passport pays after one cable car and two bus rides; three days is $35. The Powell and Market line runs to an hour in the afternoon. Board at Hyde and Beach, or mid-route at any brown stop sign, or ride after 5 p.m.
Alcatraz. Only Alcatraz City Cruises sails from Pier 33; the day tour is $47.95 with the cellhouse audio tour. Tickets open 90 days ahead and spring to fall dates sell out weeks before, so book the morning your dates open. Anyone else selling “Alcatraz tickets” is bundling a bay cruise that does not land.
The fog and the bridge. Summer is the foggiest, windiest season at the bridge, often much colder than the Mission, so pack a windproof layer in every month. Walk the bridge on the east sidewalk, free, open 5 a.m. to 9 p.m. in summer time and to 6:30 p.m. in winter; the first tower and back is about 40 minutes. Come back on the 28 bus from the toll plaza, or the free Presidio GO shuttle from Tunnel Tops.
Free museums. The de Young is free for everyone on the first Tuesday of the month and every Saturday for Bay Area residents with ID; closed Monday. SFMOMA is $30, free under 18, closed Wednesday. The Japanese Tea Garden is free from 9 a.m. to 10 a.m. on Monday, Wednesday and Friday.
Two warnings. Never leave anything in a car, not in the trunk, not for five minutes; car break-ins are the most common crime visitors report, so carry your bag or do not rent. The Tenderloin, the blocks west of Union Square towards Van Ness, has open drug use and people in crisis; it is a few streets, so walk around it and skip it after dark.
BART from the airport. The station is in the International Terminal; a train to Embarcadero or Powell takes about 30 minutes for around $11, of which about $5.50 is the airport surcharge. Tap a bank card or Clipper at the gate and the same one leaving.
Morning check. Look at the sky at 8 a.m.: clear on the west side means the bridge now and the Mission later; gray means the reverse. Waystop’s hours check will flag the de Young if it lands on a Monday.