Highlight of my time in San Francisco (Golden Gate Bridge)

Member Name: grey0220

Product:	Golden Gate Bridge
Date:	02/11/09 (8 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Beautiful views, relatively cheap thing to do in a pretty expensive city, great pictures

Disadvantages: Admittedly, requires some level of fitness - though moderate

We planned a week-long trip to California this previous summer - we flew into LAX, and stayed with my sister for a couple of days, before driving up the I-5 to San Francisco. We fell in love with the city instantly, and spent our first night exploring the Fishermans Wharf and Chinatown. Our second day in town, we resolved to walk the Golden Gate Bridge.

We were staying in the Hilton Union Square, which was perfectly placed for walking to the Wharf, Chinatown, Ghiradelli Square, the trolleys and the business district. It was less perfect for getting to the Bridge, however, and after trying to determine whether or not we could get the ferry to Sausalito and then walk from there back to SF, we decided in the end to just grab a taxi up there. The taxi was able to drop us off at the first vantage point, and we started our walk from there.

The view was absolutely stunning - we had the good luck to make our trip on a clear, sunny Labour Day, and the view of Alcatraz and the rest of the city is not to be missed by any traveller to SF. It took us about half an hour total to cross the bridge, as we constantly stopped to take more pictures of the view or even of the bridge itself. Our fellow crossers seemed to be a mixture of tourists and daily commuters, and the vibe was quite chill - though the thoroughfare was wide enough you could easily walk down it, in the instances that you did meet someone in front of you, everyone was very polite, stepping to the side and letting you by.

Once we reached the other side, we took a couple more pictures at that vantage point, and then decided to walk (downhill) to Sausalito. We had been told by someone selling tour bus tickets that this walk was nearly impossible - we took that advice with a grain of salt, knowing he did have good reason to turn us off walking! We are both avid hikers, and found the trail very peaceful - we had both dressed to walk across the bridge (jeans, sneakers, comfortable clothes) so we had no problem making the 30-40 minute walk to Sausalito's pier. From Sausalito, we caught the ferry back to SF, which afforded us some more great views of the bridge and Alcatraz.

I wouldn't recommend it to anyone who saw the walk across the bridge itself to be quite challenging, and I wouldn't recommend it at dusk, at night, or in the rain (you're walking alongside curvy roads for quite a lot of it), but if you're up to burn some of those fudge or chowder calories, then this is a beautiful way to do it! Otherwise, make sure you arrange to have a car/bus/taxi pick you up from the other side of the bridge - it's a busy highway, where taxis aren't liable to be driving by to pick you up.

Summary: There's a reason it's so famous!