As much as we love our nature adventures out in the middle of nowhere, we also enjoy exploring interesting cities. But in San Francisco, the pickings are slim when it comes to accommodations for RVs. There’s only one RV park in the city, and with unfavorable reviews and a hefty price tag, it didn’t appeal to us. I had almost given up on the idea of visiting San Francisco with our trailer when I happened upon just what we were looking for, across the bay in Greenbrae.
Taking The Ferry To The City
Marin RV Park is an easy 10-minute walk to the Larkspur ferry terminal, where a high-speed ferry delivers you to the beautifully restored 1890 Ferry Building, the iconic landmark of the San Francisco waterfront.
Arriving at the ferry landing in the city
The ferry building is a gourmet paradise of local food purveyors—from there, the city unfurls before you, and you can explore at leisure on foot or by public transportation.
If you enjoying walking, San Francisco is your place. We racked up at least 12 miles each day, exploring the waterfront, the interesting neighborhoods, beautiful gardens, historic buildings, and museums.
On Lombard Street, the famous crooked street
An alligator sourdough creation
The third day, we gave our feet a break and biked from the RV park to the city, an exhilarating and gorgeous 21-mile ride that took us through Sausalito, across the Golden Gate Bridge, and along the waterfront. We hopped on the ferry with our bikes (after yet another terrific meal at the ferry building) and sailed home.
We spent three full days in the city, exploring from early morning to evening. It wasn’t nearly enough time. Now that we know how easy it is to visit San Francisco from across the bay, we’ll be back!
Here, the highlights of our San Francisco adventure:
The Ferry Building
With an abundance of fabulous cafes, gourmet offerings, and a twice-weekly farmers market, the Ferry Building Marketplace is an attraction in itself. It’s a convenient place for a meal when arriving or leaving by ferry, and the food choices are among the finest in San Francisco. Our favorites: Hog Island Oyster (excellent fresh seafood), The Slanted Door (creative Vietnamese), and il Cane Rosso (Italian style gourmet rotisserie). Blue Bottle Coffee is a good place to start out on chilly San Francisco mornings.
Dinner from il Cane Rosso, overlooking the harbor
Cioppino from Hog Island Oyster Company
San Francisco Maritime National Historic Park
We didn’t know this existed but were happy to stumble across it in our foray along the waterfront. The San Francisco Maritime National Historical Park includes a Visitor Center with terrific displays of San Francisco’s maritime heritage. Across the street, a variety of interesting historic ships are moored at Hyde Street Pier. Walk a bit further, and you’ll come to a structure that looks like a beached ocean liner. It’s the Aquatic Park Bathhouse building, built in 1939 by the WPA. It’s an extraordinary Art Deco structure, and the inside has recently been fully restored with fanciful brightly colored undersea scenes originally created by WPA artists.
The Golden Gate Bridge
Biking across the Golden Gate Bridge and along the picturesque waterfront is a blast. We biked from the RV park though lovely Sausalito—fair warning: It’s a long and steep uphill climb to the bridge (actually, it’s awful, and I complained all the way). But the scenery is spectacular, and once at the bridge, it’s a long, mellow ride along the waterfront back to the ferry building, where you can hop on the return ferry to Larkspur. If you don’t have your own bikes, you can rent them at the Ferry Building and ride in the opposite direction. It’s a great adventure and I’m happy we did it, Sausalito hill misery and all.
Survived biking the Golden Gate Bridge
The Cable Cars
You have to ride the cable cars at least once. Motoring up the steep hills of the city in the grinding, clanking historic cars is vintage San Francisco. The cable car operators are apparently chosen for their personalities as well as their skills, and their commentary makes for an entertaining ride. The views of the city from the top of Russian Hill are grand.
On the streets of San Francisco
The view from Russian Hill
Coit Tower
Built in 1933, the Art Deco-inspired Coit Tower is renowned for the beautiful rotunda of murals created by WPA artists. The murals were painted by 25 of California’s leading artists of the 1930s, and include images of farmworkers, industry, and city scenes. It’s a fascinating panorama of life in the Great Depression as viewed by the artists, many of whom had radical “leftist” political ideals.
Wonderful murals created during the WPA era
Golden Gate Park
Definitely one of the jewels of San Francisco, Golden Gate Park is an oasis in the city. In a half-day in the park, we explored the Botanical Garden (meandering trails through 55 acres of gardens of plants from around the world) and the Conservatory of Flowers (a gigantic Victorian hothouse filled with ferns, orchids, and other exotica).
We also spent a couple of hours in the lovely de Young Art Museum and wished we had more time there. Golden Gate Park is not walking distance from the ferry building, but a city bus delivers you right to the entrance.
About the RV Park
Don’t expect spacious sites, trees, and grassy seating areas at Marin RV Park. What you do get is easy access to the city, a quiet and well-managed park, and friendly hosts. A bonus is that the park backs up to the Corte Madera Wildlife area, where we discovered a variety of shorebirds and waterfowl foraging in the marsh with their young. It was a great place for our adventures in the city.
One of my favorite cities on earth! There are some wonderful stairs near Coit Tower that take you through peoples lush, forested back yards.
Marin Park looks like a great option…I couldn’t tell from their website, do they have full hookups? It’s still quite pricey, but I guess that is typical of San Francisco in general and Marin in particular!
If you go again Picco restaurant in Larkspur is owned by an old friend of Hans and is very good. We’ve only eaten at the casual pizza side of the restaurant, but I have fond memories of scratch made vanilla soft serve ice cream topped with olive oil and sea salt…Delicious!
Lisa, Marin RV Park does have full hookups. We paid $58 per night with Good Sam and AAA discounts. The other option in town is more than $90 and far less appealing, in our opinion. We’ll definitely go again — thanks for the tip on Picco restaurant!
That’s great the discounts got the price down to $58, definitely reasonable for that area. I was floored when I saw the $100/night price on their website!
Our most expensive nightly rate is coming up this fall at Grand Teton: $72.
I’m thinking the rates may go up in June during the summer — we were there mid-May, and I think the rates were somewhere around $75 before the discounts. Summer isn’t actually the best time to visit SF anyway, because it tends to be chilly and gray when it’s warm everywhere else.
This is a great post — thank you for sharing this — it’s exactly what many of us wonder about! I didn’t realize you could bike from Marin all the way into the City — can’t wait to try that!
Thanks, Heather — I’m so glad you found the post helpful. Biking from Marin is a great adventure — I definitely recommend it!
What a great find! I don’t think $58 a night is bad at all for the location which is what it is all about:) The park reminds me of the one in San Diego…a big parking lot. But, hey, it works for seeing a city:) Boy, those seafood dishes are causing me to drool!! I love this city and the crab. Those are such pretty birds. The babies were a bonus. Now I would have loved to join you on that bike ride. How nice to ride across the bridge! You had some gorgeous weather. You don’t see the bridge and a totally blue sky all the time.
Pam, we thought the RV park was a good deal, too, considering the location. It’s a lot less expensive than any other lodging option in San Francisco! I think you guys would love biking across the bridge. And you’re right, we lucked out with the blue sky on our biking day.
Fantastic post accompanied by lovely photos. Hubby and I were just talking about a trip to San Fran the other day and weren’t sure it would be feasible. The big truck isn’t always pleasant to drive in a city environment. Thanks for all the great ideas. Food for thought and FOOD for thought :-)
Thanks, Ingrid. I’m so glad you enjoyed the post — now that we’ve figured out how easy it is to visit San Francisco, we’ll definitely return. We did a lot in three days, but there’s so much more to explore. And it’s wonderful to not have to deal with driving in the city (especially our big truck!).
Steve’s answer is ” Don’t” but apparently you found a spot in Marin.
In all the years we’ve lived in the bay area I have never been to the Coit Tower!
Thank You Laurel for taking me back to San Francisco my city by the bay.
Haha, Steve is hilarious! Eric didn’t want to go to San Francisco either until I found the RV park across the bay. We had a blast since we didn’t have to deal with driving in the city or the nightmare of parking there.
You had me as soon as I saw you were outside the city and could take the ferry. Our toad is no problem in the city, but parking isn’t cheap either. Love the two sailors (?) on the cable car. I walked the GG bridge with a few thousand other activists for healthcare and remember the sound of the wind blowing through the cables and beams – it was amazing up there! Thanks for the great post.
Jodee, what a great experience that must have been to walk the GG bridge for a good cause! I’m glad you enjoyed the post — hope it’s helpful for a future visit to SF. And yes, there was a Japanese vessel docked in SF while we were there and we happened to be on the cable car with some of the sailors.
SF is one of our favorite cities. We will definitely be checking out Marin RV Park the next time we are in the area. Biking over the Golden Gate Bridge is a blast. You can’t help but stay in shape with all the walking and biking that can be done in this city. We found a little Vietnamese restaurant called Pho Garden and went twice the pho was sooo good!
LuAnn, SF is one of our favorites, too — being able to explore by walking and biking is a huge bonus!
Laurel these are fantastic pictures. They are so artistic. I always vow to try harder when I see how beautiful your shots are. Thank you thank you for this idea of how to see San Francisco. It sounds perfect! Who wouldn’t want to ride a ferry or bike across the Golden Gate just to get there. Sure wish we were caravaning with you up the coast.
Sherry, thank you so much! It’s so gratifying to know that you enjoy our photography — we have a lot of fun trying to capture the spirit of a place in photos. You guys would enjoy this city experience for sure.