Seven Hours in San Francisco
Layover in San Francisco? No Problem.
If you don’t have time to read everything, here’s the short version of everything I did in SF:
- Day room at Hotel Caza Fisherman’s Wharf
- Shop at Fisherman’s Wharf/ Pier 39
- Eat at Boudin Bakery and Crepe Cafe
- Walk to Lombard Street to see the iconic Flower Road and Golden Gate Bridge
Now back to the detailed version:
When I was flying back from Hawaii last year, I intentionally booked my return flight to have a seven hour layover in San Francisco. Why? For two reasons mainly. The first reasoning being that I knew I was going to need a break from the long return flight. The second reason, and the real reason was that I just love San Francisco and wanted a chance to visit it again, even if it was just for a layover (the fact that it was the cheapest flight option was also a huge plus.) Now I know what you’re thinking, “what could you possibly do in San Francisco for only seven hours?” and “is it even worth it?” I would say it was definitely worth it and after you read everything I did in the amount of time I had, you’ll wish you had tried doing this earlier. So here’s how I spent seven hours in San Francisco and basically got two trips in one:
When we arrived in San Francisco we felt so gross and needed a recharge, so literally as the plane was landing, my fiancé at the time suggested we get a day hotel. Now I had no idea what this was but nevertheless I started looking up day hotels and apparently so many hotels offer this as an option. A “day hotel, or “day room” is the option of booking the room for a few hours instead of a whole night. In our case this worked out perfectly because I knew we would land around 8 AM and our next flight was around 2 PM, so I found this app called Dayuse and I was able to book a hotel from 9-1 AM called Hotel Caza Fisherman’s Wharf through the app. The best part was, since it was a layover the airport kept our checked luggage so we had all of our essentials with us in our carry-ons. For about $90 we had a place to shower, leave our bags and change clothes and freshen up to go explore the city.
Since our hotel was in Fisherman’s Wharf we were in the best location to walk everywhere, and we were starving by the time we were done freshening up at the hotel. Whenever I visit San Francisco there’s one sandwich I have to eat and my fiancé had never tried it, so I was so excited to show him the best sourdough bread at Boudin Bakery. There’s just something about Boudin Bakery that makes the sourdough bread taste out-of-this world amazing! Maybe it’s because they’ve been making bread since 1849, maybe it’s the ovens or the location that makes the bread taste so crunchy on the outside yet soft and delicious on the inside. Whatever it is, they are famous for a reason and I promise you it’s so good I stuffed my carry-on full of this bread to take home to Houston. It’s also really cool to visit because you can take a tour and see the whole bakery. Obviously we didn’t have time for that but we were able to see them making the bread through a window out front.
After we were full of carbs (and happy) we decided to shop around Pier 39 for about an hour and take advantage of the views. You can actually see the historic prison, Alcatraz from there and they have telescopes for a quarter, if you want to get a better view. As much as I love shopping, since it was just a layover I didn’t have the space to bring a lot back with me. However, I was on the hunt for a specific jacket because the last time I was in San Francisco was 2017 and I bought this super soft, lightweight fleece jacket. It ended up being the best fleece jacket I’ve ever had, but since I was in high school at the time, sadly someone stole my jacket. Ever since then I promised myself when I went back to SF I would search every shop until I found the exact one and buy the jacket again. Lucky for me I found the shop on Pier 39, thankfully they were still alive and well, and I was reunited with the softest fleece jacket that ever existed. Pier 39 is known for not only their cool shops and views but also some delicious bites. As we were passing by this place, called Crepe Cafe, had a window where you could watch them make the crêpes right as you walked by. Talk about genius marketing, it clearly worked because they had a huge line of people waiting to order (including us). I ordered a strawberry and chocolate crêpe and it was delicious, I’m definitely going to stop there again next time.
At this point our layover was coming to an end, so we decided to walk to Lombard Street to see the iconic Flower Road. The walk was full of scenery, even though most of the walk was uphill the views were amazing! We could even see the golden gate bridge from the streets on the way to the flower road. To this day I think viewing the Flower Road is way cooler than driving through it because you don’t have to wait in traffic for everyone to get their pictures, and you can actually see the whole road. After visiting the famous landmark, we walked back to the hotel and headed to the airport for our connecting flight home.
The next time you have a seven hour layover, don’t just stay in the airport bored out of your mind. I hope after reading my “seven hour adventure” you are inspired to explore the city you’re in, even if it’s just for a few hours. That way you can get two trips for the price of one and make more fun memories. If reading isn’t your thing (why are you here? just kidding,) check out my seven hours in San Francisco vlog:
If you made it this far, thank you so much for reading! I hope you enjoyed and/or learned something from this post! Comments are always welcome! What would you like to see more of? Any questions? What did you love, hate, feel inspired by? Let me Know (:
