Exploring San Francisco

The last time I was in San Francisco was over 2 years ago, and I have to admit I didn’t get up to much on that layover! This time I was ready to explore this beautiful city once more, and happily found another English girl to spend the day with.

With such a big time difference from Dubai (12 hours!) we were up bright and early and ready to head out. Unfortunately our crew hotel is right by the airport, which means it’s a bit of a journey to get to the city. 

View Post

An afternoon in Alcatraz


I’ve recently returned from a lovely trip to San Fran! It was my second visit, and this time four of us hired a car and drove into the city. Our main attraction for the day was possibly one of the most infamous prisons in the world – Alcatraz!

DSCN8871

One of the girls had very kindly organised the whole thing, booking the hire car and the tickets for Alcatraz online, so all we needed to do was show up on time! There’s a ferry leaving every half hour, and once we boarded it was a quick ride across the water to the island.

DSCN8765

View Post

Sunny San Francisco!


First of all, my apologies for the long absence from my blog. I literally have not had a minute to sit at my computer and upload anything!
I mentioned a couple of posts ago that I was headed to San Francisco this month. I love exploring new destinations, and San Fran was definitely one on the bucket list! 
After a looooong 15 hour flight we finally arrived at our hotel, and I was greeted by a lovely view of the lake and hotel pool from my room. We made plans to meet up bright and early the next morning for a full day of sightseeing.

Image

After a huuuuge breakfast of eggs benedict and a frothy cappuccino (why do Americans insist on giving such huge portions?!) we were ready to do some exploring.

A quick ride on the BART and we arrived in Union Square. 

Image

Our plan for the day was to take the hop on – hop off bus and get out at any places we liked the look of. The night before I had also tried to arrange for the concierge to get us tickets to Alcatraz but unfortunately it was fully booked until the end of June. We popped into a tourist info centre and the lovely lady suggested going straight to the Alcatraz pier and checking if they had any cancellations, unfortunately this wasn’t the case and it’ll have to be on my to-do list for next time.

We walked on over to Pier 39, which is apparently the 3rd most visited tourist attraction in California!

ImageImageImageImage

We had a lovely stroll down the pier, browsing the shops and taking plenty of pictures.

ImageImageImage

At the end of the pier is a wonderful view out to see. Our first sighting of the Golden Gate Bridge!

ImageImageImage

Before we knew it lunchtime had arrived, and we decided to go for a very typical American lunch…. In-n-out burger!

Image

Not healthy in the slightest, but very delicious!

Image

After lunch the 6 of us who were out decided to split up. The other 3 didn’t want to pay for the hop on-hop off bus so they did their own thing and us girls got on the bus ready to see the Golden Gate Bridge up close!

The bus stops at quite a few places along the way, however we realised that if we got off at each stop we just wouldn’t have enough time. 

ImageImageImageImageImage

Here it is! We stayed on the bus until the other side of the bridge, and got off in the beautiful town of Sausalito.

ImageImageImageImageImageImageImage

Once we were off the bus, we had a leisurely stroll around Sausalito. It’s a gorgeous little town with beautiful houses nestled into the hillside, and lots of palm trees dotted about!

ImageImageImageImageImageImageImage

We decided to stop for a drink by the water and chose a delicious local white wine from Napa Valley to share. Next time I get a flight to SFO I’m definitely going to go there for a wine tasting trip! 

ImageImageImage

Soon enough it was time to head back over the bridge into the city. The bus took us through the main areas (however any street names or significant areas seem to have slipped my mind now!) and we ended up back where we started, at Union Square.

ImageImageImageImageImageImageImageImageImageImage

Just in time for a bit of shopping – we were in America, after all!

What a wonderful layover. I’d love to go back to San Francisco, as there’s so much more to explore, see and do. If only the flight wasn’t such a killer!

 

P.s. If you’d like more regular updates of where I’ve been and what’s going on, please follow me on Twitter and Instagram @rachelwwilson!