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 residing within the San Francisco Bay Space, and y’all, let me inform you: determining what to pack for San Francisco is a CHALLENGE.

It’s not your typical form of packing for a metropolis, or a season. It’s extra like packing for a collection of weather-related challenges. Freezing chilly! Blazing solar! 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 an extended haul flight between two completely completely different climates and seasons – all throughout the identical metropolis. Plus hills.

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

Psst: Planning to go to the Bay Space? We’ve bought a ton of weblog posts about our adopted dwelling metropolis of over a decade! Listed here are a couple of of our favorites that can assist you put together to 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 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, & one of the 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 for those who’ll unintentionally 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 Suggestions

Earlier than we dive into our San Francisco packing listing, listed below are a couple of fast ideas that you simply’ll have to know earlier than you begin planning your journey.

• Don’t lease a automobile. 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 also help it, and I extremely encourage you to do the identical. As a substitute, use public transit (BART and Muni) and rideshares (Lyft & Uber) to get round. Something you need to entry exterior of town may be organized through tour or at most, a one-day automobile rental.
• Get a Clipper card if you arrive for transit. Clipper playing cards are reusable plastic playing cards that you simply 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 nearly. Order on-line earlier than your journey or decide one up at Walgreens or a number of different locations for a $3 payment – right here’s the place and learn how to get one.
• Use Google Maps for transit. BART (primarily the underground subway) solely has a couple of strains and is fairly easy to make use of, but it surely 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 strains they usually’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 absorb actual time.

• Stroll as a lot as you may. San Francisco is a metropolis finest explored on foot. Sure, you may take transit to get round, for those who 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 not less than a day wandering by way of town and stroll as a lot as you may. To assist, we’ve bought a self-guided San Francisco strolling tour – and we’ve additionally bought strategies for one of the best strolling footwear for journey. Listed here are our favourite journey footwear for males and for ladies.
• 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 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 understand that the parents experiencing homelessness are our neighbors, and never a blight or an eyesore. Lots of the of us that you will notice are additionally battling psychological sicknesses, and you might 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 way more hazard than you’re, and are unlikely to hurt you in any approach. Homelessness is traumatic, notably for the mentally ailing, whose circumstances may 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 dwelling 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 reply to the homeless in San Francisco on SF Gate.
• Don’t keep in a short-term rental. Regardless of Airbnb being headquartered within the metropolis, quick 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 couple of personal rooms for lease in SF, with a view to be a extra accountable traveler, we suggest that you simply select to remain in motels as an alternative. We’ve bought a whole information to the place to remain in San Francisco – and the place to not.
• Make the most of baggage storage. In case your check-in and check-out instances don’t sync up together with your have to roam the streets and also you want a spot to retailer your baggage take a look at 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 bought some extra useful – and a few solely mildly useful – ideas for visiting San Francisco in our information to issues no person 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 convey 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 face up to arctic windchill ranges of 30 levels, which is how San Francisco feels at 6pm on the dot when the solar out of the blue 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 12 months. We like to quote Mark Twain, who supposedly mentioned “the coldest winter I ever skilled was a summer time in San Francisco.” In fact, he by no means truly mentioned 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 time, which can also be fireplace season, so … you would possibly get beautiful scorching sunny climate throughout your journey, however you additionally would possibly 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 simply’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 couple of superb hours of heat and probably even sunny climate, after which 6pm will hit and will probably be instantly freezing once more.

So. Concern not. You are able to do this. All you want is a few good planning (and a day bag for the additional layers). Listed here are the particular objects of clothes we suggest packing to your journey to San Francisco:

• The Excellent Strolling Sneakers: San Francisco is a strolling metropolis – and a metropolis filled 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, likelihood is you kinda need to be cute, proper? Effectively, we gotcha coated: 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 every little thing, and comfy sufficient to stroll in for miles. The mesh higher retains your ft from getting scorching and sweaty, however because of the wool insole, your ft received’t get chilly, both. Learn extra about our favourite journey footwear for girls & males.
• The Greatest Journey Denims: If we needed to decide one merchandise that you simply’ll doubtless be carrying 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 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 convey 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 ladies & additionally for males.
• Cozy Leggings: For days if you don’t really feel like carrying denims, these additionally perform as pants. As a curvy lady, 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. Additionally 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 material. 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 snug 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 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 girls and males. Their total “Cozy Up” line is improbable and we’ve bought a complete bunch of stuff from it.
• Center Layer: Someday between the warmth of the day, if you’ll strip right 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 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).

• Heat, Packable Jacket: Ah, right here it’s: the jacket of “all the time convey 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 are going to 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 essentially the most reasonably priced and light-weight ones we’ve discovered: girls’s, males’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 received’t rain throughout your journey until you’re visiting within the useless of winter).
• Gloves, Hat, and Scarf: A heat jacket designed for the useless 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 repeatedly coated in 6 ft of snow and also you suppose you recognize chilly. I hear you. But additionally? When the wind is blowing at 25mph and it’s full of moisture as a result of your entire metropolis is shrouded in a thick layer of fog, 50 levels feels so much nearer to -50. So pull out a pair of gloves (light-weight cotton is okay, simply one thing to cowl your fingers) 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 gotten them.
• Lounge Pants: You’ll need to put on these on the aircraft and as PJs pants. Earlier than I found the Out of doors Voices CloudKnit pants, I assumed all stretchy lounge pants have been the. identical. I used to be flawed. These light-weight, super-stretchy pants look superior and really feel superb. They’ve 3 roomy pockets they usually’re excellent for every little thing from carrying on 20-hour flights to sleeping to climbing by way of 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 ideas for long-haul flights!

And there you’ve gotten it. Your excellent outfit method 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 comfortable 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 ensure that to pack to your journey to San Francisco that can make your all-day adventuring extra snug, and some issues to scale 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 most likely talked about 10x already, it’s a very good day bag. You NEED to convey a day bag whilst you’re out exploring town as a result of it holds your down jacket and your hat/gloves/scarf. It’s additionally a helpful place to retailer an exterior battery to your cellphone, sun shades, and no matter souvenirs you would possibly decide 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 nicely look good.
• Exterior Telephone Battery: Your cellphone is crucial 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 hold your cellphone charged all day lengthy.
• Hand Sanitizer: We strongly suggest taking public transit fairly than renting a automobile, and we additionally strongly suggest sanitizing your fingers afterwards. As a result of BART and Muni trains are gross. I imply, they’re cleaned repeatedly all, however nonetheless. We’ve seen sufficient. Stick some in your day bag and use it repeatedly!
• Journey Umbrella: You most likely 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 hold them completely in our day bag, which signifies that each time it begins raining, we all the time have an umbrella able to go! They’re the proper set-it-and-forget-it day bag important.
• Popsocket to your cellphone: These cellphone equipment have been all the fad sooner or later a couple of years in the past, and I now contemplate them a necessary theft-deterrent system to your cellphone – which is a significant theft goal. Telephones are most likely essentially the most generally stolen objects in San Francisco (aside 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 onerous to carry onto. I can’t inform you 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 cellphone and no method to get it again. However the popsocket makes your cellphone actually, actually troublesome to seize out of your fingers (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 hold all of our toiletries organized into this helpful dandy hanging toiletry case. It suits into all of our baggage simply and hangs on any out there 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 dwelling in between journeys!
• Sunscreen: Solar safety is crucial if you’ll be out exploring all day lengthy. We suggest Mineral Sunscreen, which is healthier for the setting and protects your pores and skin with a bodily zinc oxide barrier fairly than chemical compounds 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 set up them in packing cubes.
• Reusable Water Bottle: Don’t go searching for water bottles in San Francsco. Very similar to public restrooms, there aren’t many, and those that do exist, are gross. Deliver your personal 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 huge heavy suitcases in San Francisco – there are approach too many hills to navigate! This stunning carry-on suitcase just isn’t solely beautiful, but it surely’s extremely high-tech. It’s bought two compartments: one for gentle clothes, and one for onerous stuff, like footwear and toiletries and 18 hair instruments although you swore you have been going to attempt to not be additional this journey. It features a built-in transportable charger, which suggests no extra preventing over retailers or digging round to your charger. It’s bought a built-in laundry bag, with a built-in compressor, so to ditch the wadded-up plastic bag and really have room in your suitcase after you’ve postpone doing laundry for a stable 2 weeks. It’s extremely harm resistant and received’t crack beneath the strain of everybody else’s stuff, preserving 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 so much simpler to be carrying a backpack fairly 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 snug to hold (it’s bought 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 nicely organized in your journey. I convey this on most journeys, and it’s one of the crucial snug 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 mainly like a giant 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 establish 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 kind of vacationers since you’re studying this submit 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 residing 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 resort received’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 nicely be if you’re making an attempt 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 carrying 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 wished me to incorporate this: don’t convey something with a Dodger’s brand on it. You’re in Giants territory now 😉 For actual although, carrying a Dodgers hat means inviting soiled seems to be and poor service, so … at your personal 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 can assist you put together to your journey to San Francisco? Drop us a remark beneath!

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

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 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, & one of the 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 for those who’ll unintentionally 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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