Whenever I visit a new city, I like to take the city tour to get the lay of the land. Then I spend the rest of my trip doing my own thing.

Do you think this is a good idea in SF?

It seems very expensive for a 3-4 hour tour.. $46.
In NYC it might have been a similar price, but it was good for 3 days..and 3 different tour routes.

Being a resident, its hard to advise, never having done an organized tour of the City. I assume they go to the usual tourist places: Wharf, Chinatown, Nob Hill, Lombard St., Alamo Square and the Japanese Tea Garden in GGP. I know you have done quite a bit of research for your trip and in my opinion, with a good map you can easily get the lay of the land without a tour.

Stu Dudley is our resident SF tour expert. He's right on. Do not hesitate to follow his recommendations:

http://www.fodors.com/forums/threads...1&tid=35129049

Double-decker hop-on, hop-off $22.99 adult, good for 48 hours, you can either make a full loop or get off at any stop.

http://www.inetours.com/Tours/City_Loop.html

I'm always against bus tours in walking cities like SF - you look too much at the outside of things - and miss all the life at street level.

Have done SF 3 times with a map and guidebook and enjoyed it immensely - without being packed on a bus and hearing a lot of usually inane commentary.

We took a half day Grey Line city tour of SF which then included Alcatraz tickets for second half of the day - not something we had planned on but did not make Alcatraz reservations in advance and it was the only way we could go.

I would recommend it - we were spending 4 days in SF and doing this on the first day gave us a good overview of the city and some history - something we could have gotten on our own but had not.

We then selected places we wanted to return to for the next 3 days from what we saw from the bus window.

Riding on the open air upper deck, when the weather is favorable, of the double deckers is great fun and the views are magnificent.

Obviously, you can cover a LOT more territory riding than walking. And, you can see all over much better from seats on the upper deck than by walking around. And, those hills! It's almost as difficult walking down steep sidewalks as up!

Before the double deckers were available, we really enjoyed the motorized cable car tour, which includes going over the Golden Gate, stop for photo ops, and back, but is not hop on/hop off.

Faina, thank you . That sounds more like it.
I was looking at Grayline and it was so expensive.

Betsy, I have printed out the wonderful guide written by Stu. It looks SO good.

Gail we also are spending 4 days and thought the tour would give us a good overview. I enjoy the open air buses.
I'll save my legs for the next 3 days.

We have tickets for the evening Alcatraz tour on our first day.

Thanks everyone. Not long to go now!

We were in San Francisco in mid-July and enjoyed the San Francisco Movie Tour. It was a great city tour and also highlighted locations used in films set in SF. Our guide, Wylie, was terrific.

http://sanfranciscomovietours.com/index.html

Have you thought about a Segway Tour? It is sort of a cross between walking and bus. We did one in Paris and had a great time.

http://www.electrictourcompany.com/index.html

I think there are other companies as well.

Takemealong, what a fun idea!!! Thanks. And I love your screen name.

Kellie, I'm almost positive I'd break my neck...or at the very least , somehow poke my eye out....proving my mother right all those years ago!! But it does look like fun.

Actually my husband drove his right into a wall during the practice portion and broke the handle. He was terribly embarrassed not to mention our 400 euro deposit out the window. But when we got home I ran it through our home owners insurance and they gave us the whole thing back with no deductible! I don't think they could really classify the Segway and just gave us the money to get rid of us.

They are easy to get the hang of and really fun. It would be so cool to zip up those San Fran hills by all the walkers huffing and puffing! And Lombard Street would be a blast. That would probably be where you'd lose the eye though.

LOL Kodi, as a kid I couldn't even skate without crashing to the ground. I would be a disaster on a Segway Tour also.

Faina suggestion sounds like a good idea kodi. Being a native of this area I have never taken that tour but in that this is your first visit it probably will give you a good overall look of SF.

Kellie, if your husband bashed into the wall, I'm even more convinced that I'd poke my eye out!!!

I'm glad to hear your insurance settled it. I'm sure they don't get a lot of Segway crashes!