San Francisco

We love street and urban art. We love its raw grit, city themes, fleeting nature and the sport of spotting new works by street art all-stars. So no matter where …

During the California leg of our round-the-world tour we had the pleasure of staying at Hotel Diva in San Francisco for two nights in May. Though Diva doesn’t fall into the average backpacker’s budget, it most definitely falls into any Globetrotting Girl’s budget in need of a some spectacular relaxation in a sexy hotel in the heart of San Francisco!

While you’re at Alamo Square, go to the bathroom. Not because the facilities are so clean (which, for public restrooms, they are). Right outside the bathroom, well hidden from the sound of buses squeezing through the hilly San Franciscan streets, there is a creative and quirky collection of plants, potted in discarded shoes found by city gardner David Clifton.

Planning a trip to San Francisco and don’t know where to eat? I have compiled a list of twelve essential restaurants you need to eat at in San Francisco!

Though its name sounds otherwise, it is not located by the Golden Gate Bridge (although you’ll find two huge parks there too: the Golden Gate Park stretches for 47 blocks from Stanyan Street to the Pacific Ocean – it’s more than 3 miles long and half a mile wide, which makes it even bigger than New York’s Central Park and its 4.12 km2 (1.589 sq mi) makes it one of the largest urban parks on the planet. You can easily spend an entire day just exploring the broad parkways and the variety of activities the park offers.

San Francisco’s Chinatown is one the biggest outside of Asia. The Sing Chong Building (in the picture) was one of the first buildings that was rebuilt after the big earthquake …

The fact that the locals don’t use the cable cars is most likely due to the limited network. Only three routes are still in operation, rendering the cable cars experience a tourist experience rather than practical commuter transport.

San Francisco was one of our favourite cities during the American leg of our travels. The city is filled with life; it could take a lifetime to discover all of its secrets. It could also take a big budget if you’re not careful. However, with a bit of planning, exploring the streets of San Fran doesn’t need to eat through your budget. Here are the Globetrottergirls’ tips on getting the most out of San Francisco on a shoestring budget.

Being built on various hills, San Francisco has a number of viewpoints for magnificent vistas of the city and the bay. Here are our Top 5 views:

Both cities are built on seven hills. They both have street cars…but the more we explored Lisbon, we uncovered just how connected these 2 (unintentional) twin cities really are! Read on to find out what else San Francisco has in common with Lisbon.