San Francisco: Day trips to take

Getting out of the city, according to one typical tourist

If you tuned in yesterday, you already know this. But here's the recap: My family and I recently went to California for the first time, spending a week in San Francisco. As a typical tourist in a new city, I asked friends for suggestions of things to do, eat, and day trips to take. Yesterday I shared what we did in SF; today let's talk San Francisco day trips. While some of these destinations are kind of obvious, others were happy accidents. I'd recommend them all.

Before diving in, here's one huge tip: RENT A CAR. Make sure your lodging has a parking spot. While we didn't use the car in the city (it's too expensive to park — instead use public transportation or Uber), having a car for day trips was perfect. 

4 Totally-worth-it SF day trips for the typical tourist:

#1 Muir Woods

Sing with me: "This land is your land, this land is my land... From the Redwood Forest to the New York Island." My family loves woodland walks, so a major draw of San Francisco was knowing we could do city things but also escape into nature. While Redwood National Park is nearly a 6-hour drive from SF, the Muir Woods (a redwood forest) is just 40 minutes from the city. Ask anyone in my family: This was the most worthwhile of our day trips. Getting lost in the awesomeness of nature and towering, ancient trees — there's nothing like it.

We left San Francisco bright and early on a Monday, driving our own car to Muir Woods. It was foggy and the roads are twisty, but luckily my dad's a rockstar behind the wheel. If you're driving, trust me: Get there right when the park opens. There are just two small-ish parking lots, and if you don't get a spot, you're stuck walking a very long way. While I still recommend renting a car, you can also get to Muir Woods by tour bus if that works for you. We spent most of the day in the woods, taking a steep canopy trail. Next time, I would just stay on the forest floor — in my opinion, the trees look most majestic from below. If you stayed on the easy, forest floor path, I think you could pretty much enjoy the woods in a half-day.

#2 Napa Valley

Wine country — check it off the bucket list! The drive to Napa is about an hour-and-a-half from San Francisco, making it totally doable in a day. We started at the Napa Visitor's Center, figuring that was our best bet to get a lay of the land. A nice gent circled some of his favorite wineries on a map of the region and explained which wineries were open to drop-ins and which ones required reservations. 

We're not big into wine. As my brother said on his third glass: "This one's also wine!" But we loved the landscape, the variety of vineyards and their architecture — from mission-style to tudor to a replica of an English castle. Know that you can go and walk around a handful of vineyards, do a relatively inexpensive tasting if desired, and call it a day. Or you winos can do your research, sign up for guided tours, and really learn a lot about the process of wine-making. Napa caters to all levels of wine knowledge and appreciation. 

#3 Sausalito

More than one person told me to go to Sausalito, so when we found out we could affordably rent bikes, cross the bridge, and end up there, I was all about it. However, I will say that the bike trip was the focus of our day, so I didn't get to spend as much time in Sausalito as I would have liked. My parents, however, drove the rental car over and hung out for a couple of hours, bumming around the shops and scoping out a spot for lunch. Sausalito is beautiful, with homes built into the hillside and views of SF across the bay. Definitely check it out, and give yourself a little time there to walk around and enjoy it. If you're not driving, take the ferry for gorgeous views.

#4 Tiburon

When my parents took the car from Sausalito, they did a little exploring and ended up in Tiburon — a town close to Sausalito with even more lovely views of San Francisco. As the bike rental people told us, most tourists stop at Sausalito and don't go on to Tiburon. Well, I think Tiburon is worth exploring. We had a delicious Italian dinner there one night, which I'll get to in another post. For now, know that it's worth going the extra mile from Sausalito to Tiburon.