Taking first time visitors to San Francisco for a day or two. Want to do the Alcatraz tour and Beach Blanket Babylon (not necessarily on same day). My question is do we HAVE to have reservations ahead of time or can we just go and get the tickets on the day we decide to go? They will be here for 2 wks but we don't have an exact itinerary yet.
Thanks in advance for your replies.

The only boat line licensed to take people to Alcatraz, says, in
http://tinyurl.com/3d3jcx
"tours frequently sell out a week or more in advance. Tickets are rarely available for same-day sailings."
Summer is FAR worse a time for getting a ticket on short notice.
Since Alcatraz Tours are the thing for which there is the least amount of flexibility, I'd recommend you fix the date of your tour first, get your tix, and then build everything else around that chosen date.

I would definitely get BBB tickets on line as soon as you know the dates you may want to go. I like the seats on the main floor.

When looking into these 2 events for a trip next year I have made notes that BBB is not on Sun - Tues and the alcatraz NIGHT tour is not on Tues and Weds, don't know if that affects your plans.

Depending on the time of the year, Alcatraz tours may be sold out for up to 3 days in advance.

As for BBB... I don't know about the same day full price tickets, but I often see 1/2 price same day tickets for later shows, like 10 pm

This is where you can see if they are available, and the ticket booth is in the Union Square.

http://www.theatrebayarea.org/tix/tix_halfprice.jsp

I recommended BBB tickets be purchased ahead because my relatives didn't take this advice when they went to SF and were disappointed that the show times they wanted were sold out.

If you really want to see BBB, I suggest you not take a chance that you will be able to get discount or any other tickets at the last minute.

Why set yourself up for possible disappointment?

Thanks for all of your replies and the websites. I think I'll go ahead and get the tickets and then work around those dates for the other things that we will do.

There is an Italian rest. right down the street from BBB. One of my favorite memories--sorry but Texas sun wiped out the name of the place,but try it

Remembered
Monalisa the name of the place--fantastic food.

The MonaLisa is indeed right down from the BBB.

The address is 353 Columbus (just a few doors down from the cross street Vallejo going toward Broadway on the right hand side of Columbus. You can make reservations which is a good idea as they often have a line out on the sidewalk. Their phone no. is 415-989-4917

Thanks for the restaurant tip...is it really expensive or moderately priced? My definition of moderate is a meal can be had for less than $25. Thanks again.