San Francisco can be an expensive city to visit; however, with a little research you will find free activities – everyday!
Below are the things that you can do in San Francisco for free:
1. Free Shows at Amoeba Music – If you have tried living in San Francisco, you would have definitely visited Amoeba Music for a couple times. Located in 1855 Haight St., Amoeba Music is a big record/CD store that’s used to be a bowling alley. Either troll the $1 bins for the splendor of vinyl, or time it for the free shows set up in the corner of the store. Visit their website at www.amoeba.com.
2. Art Galleries – The city of San Francisco is overloaded with wild, exotic and unexpected art shows held in different galleries with free admissions. A visit during weekdays is less crowded but the shows on weekends are simply more fun.
Here are the excellent galleries that are worth a visit:
- 49 Geary (49 Geary St., www.sfada.com) – a great starting place that is packed, four-story gallery downtown.
- Ratio 3 (1447 Stevenson St., www.ratio3.org) – Other favorite located in the Mission whose artists regularly get coverage at Artforum.
- Diego Rivera Galley (800 Chesnut St., www.sfai.edu) – A gallery that features one of the artists’ trompe l’oeil 1931 mural “The Making of a Fresco Showing a Building of a City.”
- Luggage Store Gallery (1007 Market St., www.luggagestoregallery.org) – A bold and fearless gallery located at the Tenderloin.
3. Play Baseball for Free – Everyone loves the Giants AT&T Park for its bay-front views throughout baseball season (April to October). If you can’t get a pass, you can still watch the game for free from the archway along the esplanade on the east side of the park. Location is in McCovey Cove and their website is www.sanfrancisco.giants.mlb.com.
4. Cable Car Museum – Putting the cable car in “cable car,” this museum literally occupies an actively operated cable-car barn, and shows off thee 1870s cable cars as well as those notable cables that pull those adorable open carriages filled with tourists up and over the hills. Location: 1201 Mason St., Website: www.cablecarmuseum.org.
5. Events at Cafe Royale – This Parisian cafe throws different kinds of events: karaoke, jazz music, open-mic poetry slams and film showings several days a week. Location: 800 Post St., Website: www.caferoyale-sf.com
6. City Hall – Inside the enormous beaux-arts dome, the resplendent rotunda of San Francisco City Hall has ringing acoustics – a lucrative place to sit and contemplate about the triumph and tragedy that occurred here, including Harvey’s Milk’s 1978 assassination. There are public art exhibits in the basement, and free tours from the tour kiosk. Location: 400 Van Ness Ave.
7. Clarion Alley Street Art – The Mission’s hot spot for trial by fire is on wee Clarion Alley, where street artworks are peed on or painted over quickly unless they deliver enough to last for a little while. Nothing stays (art) gold here. Even Anrew Schoultz’s mural of gentrifying elephants displacing scraggly birds – a local favorite – vanished over time. Go explore and see what’s new on the place off Valencia Street between 17th & eighteenth Streets.
8. Coit Tower Murals and the Filbert Street Steps – Located in Telegraph Hill Blvd., Coit Tower (1934) is a cherished part of the San Francisco skyline, and not free to go up. But the WPA murals that line the lobby are free to see – glorifying the worker, the murals were curated by 25 artists, many of whom were denounced as communist. It’s a steep walk up from any side, so you might be tempted to give up a few dollars to reach the top, but it’s really worth it.
Speaking of which, the famed Filbert Street Steps up to Coit Tower is quite steep however it taps into a hidden North Beach world of cottages along a boardwalk referred to as Napier Lane, with sculpture tucked in among gardens year-round and sweeping views of Bay Bridge and wild parrots. If you’re heading back down, try the Greenwich St Stairs nearby for a different route and more chances of parrot-spotting, starting from Levi’s Plaza at Sansome St and Filbert St.
9. Fort Point – Built in 1861 to defend the city from Confederate attacks that never came, Fort Point is currently more popular than the spot where Kim Novak jumped into the freezing waters of the bay in Hitchcock’s Vertigo. It’s an ideal vantage point for views of the Golden Gate Bridge if you aren’t up to the walk across. Located at Marine Dr, it is open from 10am to 5pm except on Wednesdays.
10. Golden Gate Bridge – You can bike across, but it’s simply as fun – if you’re dressed right – to strut across the world’s most lovely bridge. It’s 1.7 miles across (it’s attainable to catch a bus back – thogh some travelers simply walk half-way across, take in the scene, and return). The walkway is on the eastern side – facing the bay, Alcatraz and the city – thus it’s arduous to get much of of a Pacific view through the traffic. It’s not open to pedestrians 24 hours. You check the web site for their opening hours on www.goldengate.org.
11. Golden Gate Park – When the weather cooperates, the 1017-acre park of redwood, green meadows, and museums is an unreal setting to unwind half a San Francisco day. Plus a lot of things are for free, including weekly concerts and events like Hardly Strictly Bluegrass and Shakespeare in the Park. But better yet there are free lawn bowling lessons on Wednesdays at noon. Yes, some dreams do come true.
12. Musée Mécanique – Sinister, freckle-faced Laughing Sal has scared children for over a hundred years at this glorious vintage arcade that’s as fun to watch (for free) as play. If you splurge a few quarters you can probably play everything from start-your-own bar brawls in coin-operated WIld West saloons, peep at belly dancers or feed your inner Ms Pac Man, located at Pier 45 Shed A at the end of Taylor Street. Visit their website at www.museemecanique.org.
13. Free Tours with Public Library City Guides – Local volunteer-historians lead roughly five daily one to two-hour walking tours by neighborhood and theme – starting from Chinatown alleys and Alfred Hitchcock film sites to Coit Tower murals. It’s volunteer-based, with a lot of options, and totally free, though donations are accepted. Visit www.sfcityguides.org.
14. Randall Museum – Located at 199 Museum Way near Corona Heights Park, a 520-foot summit near the Castro with very good views over the town, the Randall Museum is a free, family-ready place with live-animal exhibits and hands-on workshops. Visit www.randallmuseum.org.
15. City Lights and Green Apple Free Readings – At 506 Clement St., the lit scene is legendary, perhaps nowhere more than City Lights at 261 Columbus Ave. Founded by town poet laureate Lawrence Ferlinghetti, next to Jack Kerouac Alley, readings are for free here, or at other cherished bookstores as well as the Richmond District’s Green Apple. Visit www.citylights.com and www.greenapplebooks.com for more info.
16. Murals at Rincon Annex Post Office – Anton Refregier won the WPA’s largest commission to describe the history of Northern California just as WWII flared up. He resumed in 1945, and – as usual – the results were considered ‘communist’ by McCarthyists in 1953. They are now regarded as a National Landmark, located at 101 Spear St.
17. San Francisco Center for the Book – Remember books? The San Francisco Center for the Book does not solely displays elaborate Coptic binding and wooden typing machines used to make the items, but offers a wide display of fixing exhibits and workshops. Everything is for free. Visit them at 300 De Haro St. and explore their website www.sfcb.org.
18. Sea Lions at Pier 39 – Don’t act like you are too cool to gaze at these guys, who canoodle, belch and scratch their backsides on the docks of Pier 39. As many as 1300 come, as they always have since 1990, providing many photo ops from the moths of January to July. Visit www.pier39.com.
19. Seward Street Slides – Lost in the Castro – close to the corner of Douglas St. and Seward St., about five to six blocks southwest of Market St. and Castro – this little park contains a few curving concrete slides that are fun to slide down. There are typically cardboard boxes handy to sit on and go, but you have to bring your own box to be certain. Seriously, does any city have more fun?
20. Concerts at Stern Grove Festival – If you’re visiting in the summer, from late June through late August, definitely look up a town classic: the Stern Grove Festival’s months of free concerts every Sunday has become a local icon for three quarters of a century. Past artists include Neko Case, the English Beat and the San Francisco Opera. Visit them in 19th Ave. at Sloat Blvd. Their website is www.sterngrove.org.
21. Transamerica Pyramid’s Fake Observatory – At 600 Montgomery St., a keystone of the San Francisco skyline is tucked since 1972 – though its blast-off pyramid form is usually dismissed as ‘Pereira’s Pr*ck,’ named after architect William Pereira – the Transamerica Pyramid’s observation deck has been closed since 9/11, but there’s an essential observation deck to see, a half-acre Redwood Park at its base, and a new visitor center staring at the history of the building.
22. Twin Peaks or Bernal Heights Views – Perfectly placed in the geographical center of San Francisco, the twin 922-feet peaks offer lofty views of the city and its bay – typically one the must-sees of holiday makers with cars. Those without, and reluctant to take the steep climb up from Market Street, consider a discreet alternate, Bernal Heights, with lovely views from south of the Mission, and no sights of tour buses.
23. Wave Organ – The Wave Organ is a sound system of PVC tubes and concrete pipes capped with found marble from an an old cemetery constructed right into the tip of the Marina Boat Harbor jetty. Tones change depending on waves, winds and tide – sounding alternately like ghostly breathing on a phone to nervous humming of a dinnertime line chef. Explore it at Yacht Rd. across from the Marina Green. Visit their website at www.exploratorium.edu.
24. Westin St. Francis’ Glass Elevators – It is definitely cheating – and we’re not literally suggesting you do this – however, let’s simply say we’ve ‘heard’ that you can go inside the hotel, walk past the front desk like you are a guest, and take the glass-walled tower elevators up 32 stories for attractive vistas over Union Square and San Francisco. Its. Just. What. We. Heard. Explore the building at 335 Powell St. and visit their website on www.westin.com.
Bonus Tip:
If you’re in San Francisco on the first Tuesday of the month, get to experience a free trip to the museum.
The following waive their admission fees on the first Tuesday:
- Cartoon Art Museum
- Legion of Honor
- MH de Young Memorial Museum
