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 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 similar metropolis. Plus hills.

So, let’s dive into tips on how to pack for the distinctive challenges of San Francisco, our beloved adopted house metropolis for over a decade. As a result of “deliver 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 checklist – together with what to depart at house.

Psst: Planning to go to the Bay Space? We’ve obtained a ton of weblog posts about our adopted house metropolis of over a decade! Listed here are a couple of of our favorites that can assist you put together in your journey.

Searching for extra San Francisco inspiration? Now we have 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 perfect 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 should 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 checklist, listed here are a couple of fast ideas 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 need to entry outdoors of the town might be organized by way of 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 possibly can even load it in your telephone nearly. 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 a couple of traces and is fairly easy to make use of, nevertheless it doesn’t get you to a lot 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 they usually’ll get you all over the place you want! To determine tips on how 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 absorb actual time.

• Stroll as a lot as you may. San Francisco is a metropolis greatest explored on foot. Sure, you may take transit to get round, should you can stand the hills, strolling is the easiest way to see all of the quirks and attraction that make up San Francisco! Spend not less than a day wandering via the town and stroll as a lot as you may. To assist, we’ve obtained a self-guided San Francisco walking tour – and we’ve additionally obtained ideas for the perfect strolling footwear for journey. Listed here 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 cross your lips is a good way to out your self as an out-of-towner, which has the additional advantage of inflicting everybody close to you to take a couple of steps again and internally seethe.
• San Francisco has a LOT of homeless residents. This could positively be a little bit of a tradition shock. Please needless to say the oldsters experiencing homelessness are our neighbors, and never a blight or an eyesore. Most of the people that you will note are additionally combating psychological diseases, and you may even see individuals who look like speaking to themselves or to skinny air. Though this may be startling, keep in mind that these persons are in way more hazard than you might be, and are unlikely to hurt you in any means. Homelessness is traumatic, significantly for the mentally in poor health, whose circumstances might be exacerbated by the stress of homelessness. Additionally, as a result of there are too few public restrooms in San Francisco, you’ll odor some disagreeable issues throughout your keep. Maintain your breath and bear in mind: you get to go house 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. Through the years, strict legal guidelines have been established, limiting the quantity and kind of AirBnBs discovered within the metropolis. When you can nonetheless discover a couple of personal rooms for lease in SF, with the intention to be a extra accountable traveler, we suggest that you just select to remain in lodges as an alternative. We’ve obtained a whole information to where to stay in San Francisco – and where not to.
• Reap the benefits of baggage storage. In case your check-in and check-out occasions 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 secure 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 – 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 all the time hear about packing for San Francisco is to all the time, all the time, all the time deliver 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 may strip right 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 all of the sudden 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 mentioned “the coldest winter I ever skilled was a summer season in San Francisco.” After all, he never actually said that, nevertheless it’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 also be fireplace season, so … you may get beautiful scorching sunny climate throughout your journey, however you additionally may get choking smoke. It’s a tossup.

The one factor you may 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 definately’ll have a couple of superb hours of heat and probably even sunny climate, after which 6pm will hit and it will likely 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 here are the precise objects of clothes we suggest packing in your journey to San Francisco:

• The Excellent 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 mountain climbing boots, chances are high you kinda need to be cute, proper? Properly, we gotcha lined: the right pair of footwear for San Francisco is a pair of Allbirds Tree Skippers (his, hers): they’re breathable, light-weight, sustainable, go together with every thing, and comfy sufficient to stroll in for miles. The mesh higher retains your toes from getting scorching 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 doubtless be carrying each single day of your journey, it could 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 massive I can match my telephone in it – important in a spot like San Francisco, the place pickpocketing and telephone snatchers are positively a priority. We deliver 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. In addition they make fleece-lined leggings that I put on when it’s chilly! FWIW, I put on a measurement 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 cloth. It retains you cool when it’s scorching 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 delicate 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 right base layer – they’ll hold 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 right 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 lightweight jacket, a sweater or cardigan, a sweatshirt, or a button-down shirt. Seize one thing out of your closet – that is most likely what you’ll be carrying for a lot of the day (and due to this fact in most of your photographs).

• Warm, Packable Jacket: Ah, right here it’s: the jacket of “all the time deliver a jacket” fame. The one we suggest 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 a lot of the day. However the insulating properties of down are unimaginable – they’ll hold you heat beneath freezing! And they’re positively as much as the duty of the 6pm fog chill. Ensure you get REAL down, not polyester – it’s heavier and fewer insulating. Listed here 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 most likely gained’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, positive – you’re coming from the midwest and your own home is usually lined in 6 toes of snow and also you suppose you recognize chilly. I hear you. But additionally? 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 rather a lot nearer to -50. So pull out a pair of gloves (light-weight cotton is okay, 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 need to put on these on the airplane and as PJs pants. Earlier than I found the Outdoor Voices CloudKnit pants, I assumed all stretchy lounge pants had been the. similar. I used to be mistaken. These light-weight, super-stretchy pants look superior and really feel wonderful. They’ve 3 roomy pockets they usually’re excellent for every thing from carrying on 20-hour flights to sleeping to mountain climbing via 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 excellent outfit formulation for every single 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 footwear that goes with each outfit. Simple, proper? 😉

Journey Necessities for San Francisco

There are a couple of important objects I’d make sure that to pack in your journey to San Francisco that may make your all-day adventuring extra comfy, and some issues to cut 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 most likely talked about 10x already, it’s an excellent day bag. You NEED to deliver 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 telephone, 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 telephone is important 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 hold your telephone charged all day lengthy.
• Hand Sanitizer: We strongly suggest taking public transit moderately than renting a automotive, and we additionally strongly suggest sanitizing your arms 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 most likely gained’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 hold them completely in our day bag, which implies that at any time when it begins raining, we all the time have an umbrella able to go! They’re the right set-it-and-forget-it day bag important.
• Popsocket for your phone: These telephone equipment had been all the craze in some unspecified time in the future a couple of years in the past, and I now take into account them a necessary theft-deterrent gadget in your telephone – which is a significant theft goal. Telephones are most likely 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 telephone proper out of your and when you’re in the midst of utilizing it, as a result of they’re straightforward to seize and onerous to carry onto. I can’t let you know what number of mates have had their telephones stolen whereas utilizing them on public transit – somebody nabs it proper because the doorways are closing, and bam, no extra telephone and no solution to get it again. However the popsocket makes your telephone 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 hold all of our toiletries organized into this helpful dandy hanging toiletry case. It suits 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 hassle to unpack it; we depart it hanging up in our rest room at house in between journeys!
• Sunscreen: Solar safety is important once you’ll be out exploring all day lengthy. We suggest Mineral Sunscreen, which is healthier for the surroundings and protects your pores and skin with a bodily zinc oxide barrier moderately than chemical substances that soak into your pores and skin. My favourite face sunscreen is this one.
• Packing Cubes: To maintain our lodge room wanting 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 individual reusable water bottles as an alternative – it’s not solely an environmentally pleasant alternative, however they’ve a significant benefit over low-cost, clear plastic water bottles: they really hold your water COLD.
• Away Carry-On Suitcase: You don’t need massive heavy suitcases in San Francisco – there are means too many hills to navigate! This stunning carry-on suitcase just isn’t solely gorgeous, nevertheless it’s extremely high-tech. It’s obtained two compartments: one for delicate clothes, and one for onerous stuff, like footwear and toiletries and 18 hair instruments though you swore you had been going to strive to not be additional this journey. It features a built-in transportable 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, as a way to ditch the wadded-up plastic bag and truly have room in your suitcase after you’ve delay doing laundry for a stable 2 weeks. It’s extremely injury resistant and gained’t crack beneath the strain of everybody else’s stuff, conserving no matter’s inside secure too. And naturally, it does lock issues and wheel issues and all the opposite stuff that grown-up suitcases do.
• PacSafe Carry-On Backpack: If you happen to’ll be taking public transit and strolling to your lodge, it’s frankly rather a lot simpler to be carrying a backpack moderately 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 an even bigger pack, with a great deal of adjustable straps) and with sufficient pockets and sections to maintain you effectively organized in your journey. I deliver this on most journeys, and it’s one of the 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 right in-between for once you’re not fairly a backpacker, not fairly a suitcase….er? The bag is principally like a giant rectangle that opens precisely the way in which 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 a giant, 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 type of vacationers since you’re studying this put up and following our recommendation, so as an alternative you may 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 principally 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 appears like -55 when the marine layer hits.

I wouldn’t hassle bringing a swimsuit. Your lodge gained’t have a pool and the Pacific Ocean is the coldest physique of water in your entire world (OK, no, probably not – nevertheless it may as effectively be once you’re making an attempt to swim or surf in it). If you happen to 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 might be numb. So that you don’t want a swimsuit.

Go away behind bug repellant, too. We don’t have mosquitos! They simply 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, yet another tip: I requested Jeremy – native Californian and longtime San Francisco resident – for his ideas, and he wished me to incorporate this: don’t deliver something with a Dodger’s emblem on it. You’re in Giants territory now 😉 For actual although, carrying a Dodgers hat means inviting soiled appears to be like and poor service, so … at your individual threat, I assume.

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 can assist 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 house metropolis of over a decade! Listed here are a couple of of our favorites that can assist you put together in your journey.

If you happen to’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:

Searching for extra San Francisco inspiration? Now we have 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 perfect 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 should 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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