What to Pack for San Francisco (& what NOT to)

Ahh, the Metropolis by the Bay: barking sea lions, clanging MUNI buses, steaming clam chowder in sourdough bread bowls, freezing chilly Marine Layer… *marinates in nostalgia* We spent over 10 years dwelling within the San Francisco Bay Space, and y’all, let me let you know: determining what to pack for San Francisco is a CHALLENGE.

It’s not your typical type of packing for a metropolis, or a season. It’s extra like packing for a sequence of weather-related challenges. Freezing chilly! Blazing solar! Mountaineering up hills! Tiny, 7×7 sq. mile San Francisco consists of a minefield of micro-climates, which implies traversing from the nice and cozy, sunny Mission to the arctic chill of the Outer Sundown is like taking a protracted haul flight between two completely completely different climates and seasons – all inside the identical metropolis. Plus hills.

So, let’s dive into learn how to pack for the distinctive challenges of San Francisco, our beloved adopted residence metropolis for over a decade. As a result of “carry layers” doesn’t fairly cowl it (though if we needed to summarize this publish in two phrases…) Right here’s your full San Francisco packing record – together with what to depart at residence.

Psst: Planning to go to the Bay Space? We’ve obtained a ton of weblog posts about our adopted residence metropolis of over a decade! Listed below are just a few of our favorites that will help you put together in your journey.

On the lookout for extra San Francisco inspiration? We’ve got a self-guided strolling tour of San Francisco which visits 6 of our favourite native neighborhoods. Click on the hyperlink beneath to subscribe and we’ll ship a printable model proper to your inbox!

We even have a Podcast episode about San Francisco! Discover out what to eat, the place to drink, & the very best issues to do, plus solutions to questions you by no means knew you had… like whether or not there may be weed all over the place (sure) and if you happen to’ll by chance see nudity (double sure). We’re additionally spilling the fair-trade, natural, ethically sourced tea on our lesser-known lifetime of crime.

San Francisco Journey Ideas

Earlier than we dive into our San Francisco packing record, listed below are just a few fast ideas that you just’ll must know earlier than you begin planning your journey.

• Don’t rent a car. Don’t do it! You do NOT need the trouble or expense of parking a automobile throughout your journey to San Francisco. It’s terrible. I NEVER drive in San Francisco if I may help it, and I extremely encourage you to do the identical. As an alternative, use public transit (BART and Muni) and rideshares (Lyft & Uber) to get round. Something you wish to entry outdoors of the town will be organized through tour or at most, a one-day car rental.
• Get a Clipper card if you arrive for transit. Clipper playing cards are reusable plastic playing cards that you just load cash onto for transit (like a scannable transit bank card) and can work on ALL Bay Space transit, together with BART and Muni to get your across the metropolis. You may even load it in your cellphone just about. Order on-line earlier than your journey or choose one up at Walgreens or plenty of different locations for a $3 payment – here’s where and how to get one.
• Use Google Maps for transit. BART (primarily the underground subway) solely has just a few traces and is fairly easy to make use of, but it surely doesn’t get you to many of the metropolis. Enter MUNI, which has each buses and electrical trams that go above and underground – you’ll see them all over the place. There are a ton of traces and so they’ll get you all over the place you want! To determine learn how to get from place to put, simply enter your vacation spot into Google Maps and choose transit to get directions on which buses or trains to soak up actual time.

• Stroll as a lot as you’ll be able to. San Francisco is a metropolis greatest explored on foot. Sure, you’ll be able to take transit to get round, if you happen to can stand the hills, strolling is the easiest way to see all of the quirks and allure that make up San Francisco! Spend a minimum of a day wandering by the town and stroll as a lot as you’ll be able to. To assist, we’ve obtained a self-guided San Francisco walking tour – and we’ve additionally obtained ideas for the very best strolling footwear for journey. Listed below are our favourite journey footwear for men and for women.
• Don’t name it “San Fran” or “Frisco.” Please. There are 2 acceptable affectionate nicknames for San Francisco: “SF” and “The Metropolis.” That’s it. These are the two. Permitting “San Fran” or “Frisco” to move your lips is a good way to out your self as an out-of-towner, which has the additional benefit of inflicting everybody close to you to take just a few steps again and internally seethe.
• San Francisco has a LOT of homeless residents. This could undoubtedly be a little bit of a tradition shock. Please remember the fact that the parents experiencing homelessness are our neighbors, and never a blight or an eyesore. Most of the people that you will note are additionally combating psychological sicknesses, and you may even see individuals who seem like speaking to themselves or to skinny air. Though this may be startling, do not forget that these individuals are in way more hazard than you might be, and are unlikely to hurt you in any method. Homelessness is traumatic, significantly for the mentally ailing, whose situations will be exacerbated by the stress of homelessness. Additionally, as a result of there are too few public restrooms in San Francisco, you’ll scent some disagreeable issues throughout your keep. Maintain your breath and bear in mind: you get to go residence and use a toilet or take a bathe everytime you need. They don’t. Have compassion. There’s a improbable useful resource for the way to answer the homeless in San Francisco on SF Gate.
• Don’t keep in a short-term rental. Regardless of Airbnb being headquartered within the metropolis, brief time period leases in San Francisco have traditionally contributed to the housing disaster, which in flip impacts homelessness. Over time, strict legal guidelines have been established, limiting the quantity and sort of AirBnBs discovered within the metropolis. Whilst you can nonetheless discover just a few personal rooms for hire in SF, so as to be a extra accountable traveler, we advocate that you just select to remain in accommodations as a substitute. We’ve obtained an entire information to where to stay in San Francisco – and where not to.
• Benefit from baggage storage. In case your check-in and check-out occasions don’t sync up along with your must roam the streets and also you want a spot to retailer your baggage try LuggageHero, a service that helps you discover a protected place to maintain your baggage whilst you’re working round! Use the code PRACTICALW for two hours of free baggage storage on us.

We’ve obtained some extra useful – and a few solely mildly useful – ideas for visiting San Francisco in our information to things nobody tells you about San Francisco!

What to Put on in San Francisco

One frequent piece of recommendation you’ll at all times hear about packing for San Francisco is to at all times, at all times, at all times carry a jacket. Y’all – THIS IS ESSENTIAL ADVICE.

The important thing to packing for San Francisco is to assemble a fastidiously thought-out system of layers, beginning with one thing you’ll be able to strip all the way down to when the blazing solar feels about 80 levels (which is the way it feels in San Francisco when it’s about 60) and layered as much as stand up to arctic windchill ranges of 30 levels, which is how San Francisco feels at 6pm on the dot when the solar abruptly vanishes and takes all the heat of your very bones together with it.

You see, San Francisco just isn’t a heat metropolis. And it’s particularly not heat in the summertime, which is definitely the coldest season of the yr. We like to quote Mark Twain, who supposedly stated “the coldest winter I ever skilled was a summer time in San Francisco.” In fact, he never actually said that, but it surely’s caught within the San Francisco lexicon and we’re sticking to it, revisionist historical past be damned.

San Francisco is usually warmest throughout the month of October, throughout Indian summer time, which can also be hearth season, so … you would possibly get pretty sizzling sunny climate throughout your journey, however you additionally would possibly get choking smoke. It’s a tossup.

The one factor you’ll be able to rely on – apart from smoke between August and November, and rain between December and February – is that you just’ll must pack layers. Each single day, there’s a considerably predictable sample: it’s freezing chilly till 10am, you then’ll have just a few superb hours of heat and presumably even sunny climate, after which 6pm will hit and will probably be instantly freezing once more.

So. Worry not. You are able to do this. All you want is a few sensible planning (and a day bag for the additional layers). Listed below are the precise gadgets of clothes we advocate packing in your journey to San Francisco:

• The Good Strolling Sneakers: San Francisco is a strolling metropolis – and a metropolis stuffed with hills, so it’s like, strolling plus climbing, too. And whilst you wouldn’t look too misplaced within the Bay Space in a pair of climbing boots, chances are high you kinda wish to be cute, proper? Properly, we gotcha lined: the proper pair of footwear for San Francisco is a pair of Allbirds Tree Skippers (his, hers): they’re breathable, light-weight, sustainable, go together with the whole lot, and comfy sufficient to stroll in for miles. The mesh higher retains your toes from getting sizzling and sweaty, however because of the wool insole, your toes gained’t get chilly, both. Learn extra about our favourite journey footwear for women & men.
• The Best Travel Jeans: If we needed to choose one merchandise that you just’ll possible be sporting each single day of your journey, it might be a pair of those. Why? For starters, they’re cozy as hell, light-weight, and actually cute. However extra importantly, there SEVEN. GIANT POCKETS. Together with not one however two zippered/hidden again pockets and a “coin” pocket so large I can match my cellphone in it – important in a spot like San Francisco, the place pickpocketing and cellphone snatchers are undoubtedly a priority. We carry a pair of stretchy, cozy, pockety Aviator denims with us on each single journey! Learn extra about why we love them and our different favourite pairs of pants for journey for women & additionally for men.
• Cozy Leggings: For days if you don’t really feel like sporting denims, these additionally operate as pants. As a curvy woman, this Amazon model is my favourite – they don’t slip down whilst you stroll, don’t snag simply or stretch out over time, and have a pleasant thick waistband and TWO pockets. In addition they make fleece-lined leggings that I put on when it’s chilly! FWIW, I put on a dimension XXL.

• Wool T-Shirts: In a spot like San Francisco the place the local weather and temperature shifts wildly all through the day, it’s improbable to have clothes that’s naturally temperature regulating. Merino wool is a miracle material. It retains you cool when it’s sizzling AND heat when it’s chilly. When it will get moist (say, in a very gnarly fog cloud) you’ll keep comfy whereas your clothes dries. It naturally resists the expansion of fungus and micro organism, so it by no means smells – that means no mid-trip laundry to do! Efficiency wool isn’t just like the itchy wool of the previous – it’s skinny, stretchy, and tremendous comfortable to the contact. We put on wool on each journey whether or not we’re going someplace chilly or heat! For San Francisco, we advocate packing wool t-shirts (hers and his). They’re the proper base layer – they’ll maintain you cool throughout the warmth of the day and heat you again up once more beneath your jacket when the temps drop. We additionally actually love hemp, which is equally anti-microbial and temperature-regulating. Our favourite hemp journey clothes is made by prAna – browse their assortment for women and men. Their total “Cozy Up” line is improbable and we’ve obtained a complete bunch of stuff from it.
• Center Layer: Someday between the warmth of the day, if you’ll strip all the way down to your t-shirt, and the freeze of 6pm if you’ll throw in your down jacket, you’ll need one thing that’s in between. Like a light-weight jacket, a sweater or cardigan, a sweatshirt, or a button-down shirt. Seize one thing out of your closet – that is in all probability what you’ll be sporting for many of the day (and subsequently in most of your photographs).

• Warm, Packable Jacket: Ah, right here it’s: the jacket of “at all times carry a jacket” fame. The one we advocate is a packable down jacket. They’re extremely light-weight and pack down into virtually nothing, which is ideal since you’ll be carrying it round in your day bag for many of the day. However the insulating properties of down are unbelievable – they may maintain you heat beneath freezing! And they’re undoubtedly as much as the duty of the 6pm fog chill. Be sure you get REAL down, not polyester – it’s heavier and fewer insulating. Listed below are essentially the most reasonably priced and light-weight ones we’ve discovered: women’s, men’s. They’re cheaper and lighter as a result of they’re made with out hoods (you don’t want a hood – it in all probability gained’t rain throughout your journey except you’re visiting within the lifeless of winter).
• Gloves, Hat, and Scarf: A heat jacket designed for the lifeless of winter is nice and all, however belief me, the chilly in San Francisco is actually chilly. Certain, certain – you’re coming from the midwest and your own home is often lined in 6 toes of snow and also you assume you realize chilly. I hear you. But in addition? When the wind is blowing at 25mph and it’s crammed with moisture as a result of your entire metropolis is shrouded in a thick layer of fog, 50 levels feels loads nearer to -50. So pull out a pair of gloves (light-weight cotton is ok, simply one thing to cowl your arms) and a hat and a shawl, and throw them in your day bag. In some unspecified time in the future, you’ll be actually glad you have got them.
• Lounge Pants: You’ll wish to put on these on the airplane and as PJs pants. Earlier than I found the Outdoor Voices CloudKnit pants, I believed all stretchy lounge pants had been the. identical. I used to be mistaken. These light-weight, super-stretchy pants look superior and really feel superb. They’ve 3 roomy pockets and so they’re good for the whole lot from sporting on 20-hour flights to sleeping to climbing by the jungle (true story). We every have a pair that comes with us on each journey, and we put on them on each flight. Learn extra about our survival tips for long-haul flights!

And there you have got it. Your good outfit method for daily in San Francisco: journey denims, insulating t-shirt, center layer for cuteness, heat down jacket for the morning and night chilly, and a comfortable pair of strolling footwear that goes with each outfit. Simple, proper? 😉

Journey Necessities for San Francisco

There are just a few important gadgets I’d be certain that to pack in your journey to San Francisco that can make your all-day adventuring extra comfy, and some issues to cut back the ever-present danger of theft (which, frankly, is one thing we take into consideration in each main metropolis we go to – not simply San Francisco).

• Day Bag: If there’s one factor I’ve in all probability talked about 10x already, it’s day bag. You NEED to carry a day bag whilst you’re out exploring the town as a result of it holds your down jacket and your hat/gloves/scarf. It’s additionally a useful place to retailer an external battery in your cellphone, sun shades, and no matter souvenirs you would possibly choose up on the course of your adventuring! I like this cute day bag as a result of if it’s going to be in each image, it would as properly look good.
• External Phone Battery: Your cellphone is important for getting from place to put in San Francisco, whether or not it’s utilizing Google Maps or a digital Clipper card or calling Lyfts to get you round. You want it to remain charged! This small however highly effective exterior battery will maintain your cellphone charged all day lengthy.
• Hand Sanitizer: We strongly advocate taking public transit quite than renting a automobile, and we additionally strongly advocate sanitizing your arms afterwards. As a result of BART and Muni trains are gross. I imply, they’re cleaned often all, however nonetheless. We’ve seen sufficient. Stick some in your day bag and use it often!
• Travel Umbrella: You in all probability gained’t want one throughout your journey except you’re visiting between November and February, however this one is so small and light-weight it simply lives in my day bag for each journey. These teeny tiny journey umbrellas pack down right into a palm-size case and weigh hardly something. We maintain them completely in our day bag, which implies that every time it begins raining, we at all times have an umbrella able to go! They’re the proper set-it-and-forget-it day bag important.
• Popsocket for your phone: These cellphone equipment had been all the craze sooner or later just a few years in the past, and I now think about them an important theft-deterrent machine in your cellphone – which is a significant theft goal. Telephones are in all probability essentially the most generally stolen gadgets in San Francisco (apart from actually something left within the backseat of a automobile) and it’s just about all alternative theft – particularly somebody snatching your cellphone proper out of your and whilst you’re in the midst of utilizing it, as a result of they’re straightforward to seize and exhausting to carry onto. I can’t let you know what number of pals have had their telephones stolen whereas utilizing them on public transit – somebody nabs it proper because the doorways are closing, and bam, no extra cellphone and no approach to get it again. However the popsocket makes your cellphone actually, actually tough to seize out of your arms (which additionally means you’re much less prone to drop the dang factor on the bottom and break it!) I discover them extremely handy – and cute, too!

• Toiletry Case: We maintain all of our toiletries organized into this useful dandy hanging toiletry case. It suits into all of our baggage simply and hangs on any obtainable hook within the toilet. It’s so handy that we by no means hassle to unpack it; we go away it hanging up in our toilet at residence in between journeys!
• Sunscreen: Solar safety is important if you’ll be out exploring all day lengthy. We advocate Mineral Sunscreen, which is healthier for the atmosphere and protects your pores and skin with a bodily zinc oxide barrier quite than chemical substances that soak into your pores and skin. My favourite face sunscreen is this one.
• Packing Cubes: To maintain our resort room trying considerably organized, we roll up our clothes and manage them in packing cubes.
• Reusable Water Bottle: Don’t go in search of water bottles in San Francsco. Very similar to public restrooms, there aren’t many, and those that do exist, are gross. Convey your individual reusable water bottles as a substitute – it’s not solely an environmentally pleasant selection, however they’ve a significant benefit over low cost, clear plastic water bottles: they really maintain your water COLD.
• Away Carry-On Suitcase: You don’t need large heavy suitcases in San Francisco – there are method too many hills to navigate! This lovely carry-on suitcase just isn’t solely beautiful, but it surely’s extremely high-tech. It’s obtained two compartments: one for comfortable clothes, and one for exhausting stuff, like footwear and toiletries and 18 hair instruments though you swore you had been going to attempt to not be additional this journey. It features a built-in moveable charger, which implies no extra preventing over shops or digging round in your charger. It’s obtained a built-in laundry bag, with a built-in compressor, to be able to ditch the wadded-up plastic bag and really have room in your suitcase after you’ve postpone doing laundry for a strong 2 weeks. It’s extremely injury resistant and gained’t crack beneath the strain of everybody else’s stuff, conserving no matter’s inside protected too. And naturally, it does lock issues and wheel issues and all the opposite stuff that grown-up suitcases do.
• PacSafe Carry-On Backpack: In the event you’ll be taking public transit and strolling to your resort, it’s frankly loads simpler to be carrying a backpack quite than a rolly bag. This PacSafe bag ticks all of my bins: loads of house, extraordinarily theft resistant (that’s like, the entire PacSafe factor), extremely comfy to hold (it’s obtained all of the consolation and ease of an even bigger pack, with a great deal of adjustable straps) and with sufficient pockets and sections to maintain you properly organized in your journey. I carry this on most journeys, and it’s probably the most comfy backpacks I’ve ever carried!
• Knack Carry-On Backpack: This nifty bag carries like a backpack however opens like a suitcase, making it the proper in-between for if you’re not fairly a backpacker, not fairly a suitcase….er? The bag is principally like an enormous rectangle that opens precisely the way in which a suitcase does, permitting for A TON of house.

What NOT to Pack for San Francisco

Locals in San Francisco have a working joke: how do you determine a vacationer in San Francisco? They’re straightforward to identify in a crowd – they’ll be sporting shorts, flip-flops, and an enormous, outsized San Francisco graphic hoodie that they purchased in an overpriced vacationer store as a result of all they packed was shorts and flip-flops. Now, I do know you’re not going to be a kind of vacationers since you’re studying this publish and following our recommendation, so as a substitute you’ll be able to be part of us in figuring out them round Union Sq. and Pier 39 and chuckling to your self.

So, first issues first: you don’t want shorts. Don’t pack shorts, you’ll by no means put on shorts in San Francisco. Within the decade I spent dwelling there, I feel I wore shorts possibly twice. And I largely lived throughout the Bay in Oakland. The place it’s a lot hotter.

You additionally don’t want tank tops or sandals. As a result of 55 levels in San Francisco seems like -55 when the marine layer hits.

I wouldn’t hassle bringing a swimsuit. Your resort gained’t have a pool and the Pacific Ocean is the coldest physique of water in your entire world (OK, no, not likely – but it surely would possibly as properly be if you’re attempting to swim or surf in it). In the event you do find yourself going within the ocean, for like … scuba diving with nice white sharks or no matter, you’ll be sporting a wetsuit and your face will probably be numb. So that you don’t want a swimsuit.

Depart behind bug repellant, too. We don’t have mosquitos! They simply aren’t a factor right here. Possibly it’s too chilly. Possibly they don’t just like the marine layer. Most of California doesn’t have biting bugs, however there are completely none in San Francisco.

Oh, yet another tip: I requested Jeremy – native Californian and longtime San Francisco resident – for his ideas, and he needed me to incorporate this: don’t carry something with a Dodger’s brand on it. You’re in Giants territory now 😉 For actual although, sporting a Dodgers hat means inviting soiled seems and poor service, so … at your individual danger, I suppose.

Able to pack your down jacket and favourite sweater and dive into some clam chowder in a sourdough bread bowl? What questions can we reply that will help you put together in your journey to San Francisco? Drop us a remark beneath!

Psst: Planning to go to the Bay Space? We’ve obtained a ton of weblog posts about our adopted residence metropolis of over a decade! Listed below are just a few of our favorites that will help you put together in your journey.

In the event you’ll be visiting San Francisco as a part of an extended journey to California, check out a few of our different posts or browse our California travel guide:

On the lookout for extra San Francisco inspiration? We’ve got a self-guided strolling tour of San Francisco which visits 6 of our favourite native neighborhoods. Click on the hyperlink beneath to subscribe and we’ll ship a printable model proper to your inbox!

We even have a Podcast episode about San Francisco! Discover out what to eat, the place to drink, & the very best issues to do, plus solutions to questions you by no means knew you had… like whether or not there may be weed all over the place (sure) and if you happen to’ll by chance see nudity (double sure). We’re additionally spilling the fair-trade, natural, ethically sourced tea on our lesser-known lifetime of crime.

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