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 kind of packing for a metropolis, or a season. It’s extra like packing for a sequence of weather-related challenges. Freezing chilly! Blazing solar! Mountain climbing up hills! Tiny, 7×7 sq. mile San Francisco consists of a minefield of micro-climates, which suggests 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 the way 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 put up 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 a number of of our favorites that will help you put together in your journey.

In search of 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 under 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, & one of the best issues to do, plus solutions to questions you by no means knew you had… like whether or not there’s weed all over the place (sure) and when you’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 a number of fast suggestions that you just’ll have to know earlier than you begin planning your journey.

• Don’t rent a car. Don’t do it! You do NOT need the effort or expense of parking a automotive throughout your journey to San Francisco. It’s terrible. I NEVER drive in San Francisco if I might 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 exterior of the town could be organized through tour or at most, a one-day car rental.
• Get a Clipper card once 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’ll be able to even load it in your cellphone nearly. Order on-line earlier than your journey or choose one up at Walgreens or numerous different locations for a $3 charge – here’s where and how to get one.
• Use Google Maps for transit. BART (primarily the underground subway) solely has a number of 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 the way to get from place to position, 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 possibly can. San Francisco is a metropolis greatest explored on foot. Sure, you possibly can take transit to get round, when you can stand the hills, strolling is one of the best ways 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 possibly can. To assist, we’ve obtained a self-guided San Francisco walking tour – and we’ve additionally obtained options for one of the best strolling sneakers for journey. Listed below are our favourite journey sneakers 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 go 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 a number of steps again and internally seethe.
• San Francisco has a LOT of homeless residents. This will positively be a little bit of a tradition shock. Please understand that the parents experiencing homelessness are our neighbors, and never a blight or an eyesore. Lots of the people that you will note are additionally battling psychological sicknesses, and you may even see individuals who look like speaking to themselves or to skinny air. Though this may be startling, do not forget that these individuals are in much more hazard than you’re, and are unlikely to hurt you in any method. Homelessness is traumatic, significantly for the mentally sick, whose situations could 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 a number of personal rooms for hire in SF, so as to be a extra accountable traveler, we suggest that you just select to remain in resorts 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 instances don’t sync up along with your have to roam the streets and also you want a spot to retailer your luggage try LuggageHero, a service that helps you discover a protected place to maintain your baggage when 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 – suggestions for visiting San Francisco in our information to things nobody tells you about San Francisco!

What to Put on in San Francisco

One widespread 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 rigorously thought-out system of layers, beginning with one thing you possibly can 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 instantly vanishes and takes all the heat of your very bones together with it.

You see, San Francisco shouldn’t be a heat metropolis. And it’s particularly not heat in the summertime, which is definitely the coldest season of the 12 months. We like to quote Mark Twain, who supposedly mentioned “the coldest winter I ever skilled was a summer season in San Francisco.” After all, 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 often warmest in the course of the month of October, throughout Indian summer season, which can be hearth season, so … you may get pretty sizzling sunny climate throughout your journey, however you additionally may get choking smoke. It’s a tossup.

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

So. Concern 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 particular objects of clothes we suggest packing in your journey to San Francisco:

• The Good Strolling Footwear: San Francisco is a strolling metropolis – and a metropolis filled with hills, so it’s like, strolling plus climbing, too. And when you wouldn’t look too misplaced within the Bay Space in a pair of climbing boots, likelihood is you kinda wish to be cute, proper? Nicely, we gotcha lined: the proper pair of sneakers for San Francisco is a pair of Allbirds Tree Skippers (his, hers): they’re breathable, light-weight, sustainable, go together with all the pieces, and cozy sufficient to stroll in for miles. The mesh higher retains your toes from getting sizzling and sweaty, however due to the wool insole, your toes received’t get chilly, both. Learn extra about our favourite journey sneakers for women & men.
• The Best Travel Jeans: If we needed to choose one merchandise that you just’ll possible be carrying each single day of your journey, it will be a pair of those. Why? For starters, they’re comfortable 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 huge I can match my cellphone in it – important in a spot like San Francisco, the place pickpocketing and cellphone snatchers are positively 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 once you don’t really feel like carrying denims, these additionally operate as pants. As a curvy woman, this Amazon model is my favourite – they don’t slip down when you stroll, don’t snag simply or stretch out over time, and have a pleasant thick waistband and TWO pockets. Additionally 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 – which 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 gentle to the contact. We put on wool on each journey whether or not we’re going someplace chilly or heat! For San Francisco, we suggest packing wool t-shirts (hers and his). They’re the proper base layer – they’ll maintain you cool in the course of 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 whole “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, once you’ll strip all the way down to your t-shirt, and the freeze of 6pm once 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 carrying 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 suggest is a packable down jacket. They’re extremely light-weight and pack down into nearly 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 are going to maintain you heat under freezing! And they’re positively 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 probably the most inexpensive 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 received’t rain throughout your journey until 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. Positive, certain – you’re coming from the midwest and your own home is usually lined in 6 toes of snow and also you suppose you understand chilly. I hear you. But additionally? When the wind is blowing at 25mph and it’s stuffed with moisture as a result of your entire metropolis is shrouded in a thick layer of fog, 50 levels feels lots nearer to -50. So pull out a pair of gloves (light-weight cotton is ok, simply one thing to cowl your palms) 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’ve them.
• Lounge Pants: You’ll wish to put on these on the aircraft and as PJs pants. Earlier than I found the Outdoor Voices CloudKnit pants, I believed all stretchy lounge pants have been the. identical. I used to be improper. These light-weight, super-stretchy pants look superior and really feel wonderful. They’ve 3 roomy pockets and so they’re excellent for all the pieces from carrying 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’ve it. Your excellent outfit formulation for day by day in San Francisco: journey denims, insulating t-shirt, center layer for cuteness, heat down jacket for the morning and night chilly, and a snug pair of strolling sneakers that goes with each outfit. Straightforward, proper? 😉

Journey Necessities for San Francisco

There are a number of important objects I’d be sure that to pack in your journey to San Francisco that may make your all-day adventuring extra comfy, and some issues to scale back the ever-present threat 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 a superb day bag. You NEED to carry a day bag when you’re out exploring the town as a result of it holds your down jacket and your hat/gloves/scarf. It’s additionally a helpful place to retailer an external battery in your cellphone, sun shades, and no matter souvenirs you may 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’d as effectively look good.
• External Phone Battery: Your cellphone is crucial for getting from place to position 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 suggest taking public transit relatively than renting a automotive, and we additionally strongly suggest sanitizing your palms afterwards. As a result of BART and Muni trains are gross. I imply, they’re cleaned usually all, however nonetheless. We’ve seen sufficient. Stick some in your day bag and use it usually!
• Travel Umbrella: You in all probability received’t want one throughout your journey until 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 signifies 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 have been all the fad in some unspecified time in the future a number of years in the past, and I now think about them a necessary theft-deterrent gadget in your cellphone – which is a serious theft goal. Telephones are in all probability probably the most generally stolen objects in San Francisco (aside from actually something left within the backseat of a automotive) and it’s just about all alternative theft – particularly somebody snatching your cellphone proper out of your and when you’re in the course of utilizing it, as a result of they’re straightforward to seize and laborious to carry onto. I can’t let you know what number of buddies 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 technique to get it again. However the popsocket makes your cellphone actually, actually troublesome to seize out of your palms (which additionally means you’re much less more likely 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 helpful dandy hanging toiletry case. It matches into all of our luggage simply and hangs on any obtainable hook within the rest room. It’s so handy that we by no means trouble to unpack it; we go away it hanging up in our rest room at residence in between journeys!
• Sunscreen: Solar safety is crucial once you’ll be out exploring all day lengthy. We suggest Mineral Sunscreen, which is best for the surroundings and protects your pores and skin with a bodily zinc oxide barrier relatively 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 arrange them in packing cubes.
• Reusable Water Bottle: Don’t go on the lookout for water bottles in San Francsco. Very like public restrooms, there aren’t many, and those that do exist, are gross. Convey your personal reusable water bottles as a substitute – it’s not solely an environmentally pleasant alternative, however they’ve a serious benefit over low cost, clear plastic water bottles: they really maintain your water COLD.
• Away Carry-On Suitcase: You don’t need huge heavy suitcases in San Francisco – there are method too many hills to navigate! This stunning carry-on suitcase shouldn’t be solely beautiful, but it surely’s extremely high-tech. It’s obtained two compartments: one for gentle clothes, and one for laborious stuff, like sneakers and toiletries and 18 hair instruments despite the fact that you swore you have been going to strive to not be further this journey. It features a built-in transportable charger, which suggests no extra combating over retailers or digging round in your charger. It’s obtained a built-in laundry bag, with a built-in compressor, so as to ditch the wadded-up plastic bag and really have room in your suitcase after you’ve delay doing laundry for a stable 2 weeks. It’s extremely harm resistant and received’t crack below the strain of everybody else’s stuff, retaining 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: When you’ll be taking public transit and strolling to your resort, it’s frankly lots simpler to be carrying a backpack relatively than a rolly bag. This PacSafe bag ticks all of my packing containers: loads of area, extraordinarily theft resistant (that’s like, the entire PacSafe factor), extremely comfy to hold (it’s obtained all of the consolation and ease of a much bigger pack, with a great deal of adjustable straps) and with sufficient pockets and sections to maintain you effectively 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 once you’re not fairly a backpacker, not fairly a suitcase….er? The bag is principally like an enormous rectangle that opens precisely the best way a suitcase does, permitting for A TON of area.

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 carrying 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 put up and following our recommendation, so as a substitute you possibly can be a 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 believe 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 trouble bringing a swimsuit. Your resort received’t have a pool and the Pacific Ocean is the coldest physique of water in your entire world (OK, no, probably not – but it surely may as effectively be once you’re making an attempt to swim or surf in it). When you do find yourself going within the ocean, for like … scuba diving with nice white sharks or no matter, you’ll be carrying a wetsuit and your face will probably be numb. So that you don’t want a swimsuit.

Go away behind bug repellant, too. We don’t have mosquitos! They only aren’t a factor right here. Perhaps it’s too chilly. Perhaps 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, another tip: I requested Jeremy – native Californian and longtime San Francisco resident – for his suggestions, 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, carrying a Dodgers hat means inviting soiled appears and poor service, so … at your personal threat, 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 under!

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 a number of of our favorites that will help you put together in your journey.

When 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:

In search of 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 under 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, & one of the best issues to do, plus solutions to questions you by no means knew you had… like whether or not there’s weed all over the place (sure) and when you’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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