Hi I am taking my family next spring to San Francisco. Our girls are 10 and 12 years old . What would be your top five must do's for our family?(PS None of us have ever been in San Francisco!)Thanks.

1. Cable cars
2. Fisherman's Wharf
3. Giant game (and this, from a Dodger fan!)
4. Golden Gate Park
5. Downtown shopping

1. Cable Cars
2. Lombard St
3. Chinatown with a dim sum lunch
4. Fisherman's Wharf
5. Boat ride on the bay - to Alcatraz, Angel Island, or a cruise under the GG bridge

Can't believe you left out The Exploratorium!

Just got back from SF with our two boys, ages 10 & 15. Top 5 for our boys:

1. Cable Cars
2. Chinatown w/ dim sum lunch
3. Alcatraz
4. Goldengate Bridge
5. Fisherman's Wharf

Have Fun!

Thanks Folks! These were all things I was looking at. Any special dining experiences? The girls are well behaved, but any fun dining experiences? Also, anyone been to the Giradelli chocolate factory? Thanks.

Ghirardelli is not a factory, more like a shopping mall for tourists.

I won't name 5 (and I hate Fisherman's Wharf), but the Old Navy in the main shopping area is unbelievable...four full floors, which means a full floor of kids' clothes. My girls would love it (and it's affordable).

Also, my kids love the kitshy stuff they sell in Chinatown.

If you want to take them to a candy factory and you have the time, the Jelly Belly factory is about an hour outside SF.

Are any of the aquariums worth visiting? Also, would you rent a car for a day and take a drive outside of San francisco? And if so, where would you go?

It always depends on your specific interests. The really top-notch acquarium in N California is the one in Monterey. If you have more that two days, I would definitely plan to rent a car and see some of the surrounding area, which is much of the attraction of SF as a destination. North of SF you have the redwoods at Muir Woods and then the scenic Point Reyes area. South, you can go down hwy 1 to Half-Moon Bay and then Santa Cruz and Big Basin redwoods. Further south (stretching it for a day trip) is Monterey and Big Sur.

Walking across the GG bridge (or halfway and then back) is fun for kids of all ages. If the weather is nice, stopping at Ft Funston, just south of SF on the coast is fun for watching the hang gliders (they zoom back and forth in the updrafts along the clifs).

Hey Girl on the Go,
We took our boys to Ghiradelli Square and ate ice cream three times while in San Francisco! It was wonderful ice cream, especially the chocolate dipped waffle cones.

Our kids also loved North Beach Pizza at Pier 39.

Don't make the mistake of going to the aquarium on Fisherman's wharf. We went down to Monterey and went to the aquarium down there. We seen dolphins, and a couple of whales right off the shore of Monterey! We spent two days in Monterey and wished we had allowed more. It was so much fun along the coast.

I can tell you that Alcatraz and the Exploratorium are school field trips for 5th graders in the Bay Area. And they actually like them.

The aquarium at Pier 39 is interesting and there is a tunnel under some of the tanks which is pretty cool. It is nowhere near as comprehensive as the aquarium in Monterey though. The aquarium in Monterey is top notch.

Just returned from a short trip with my daughter, aged 8. Keep in mind that she is a regular city goer (Boston and NYC) so just going to a city is not all that exciting anymore.

She liked the sea lions down by Fisherman's Wharf but was not impressed with the wharf itself -- thought it was dirty and smelly and too crowded. We took the boat around Alcatraz but couldn't get to Alcatraz because the next available cruise was three weeks out from the day we wanted to go. Honestly, we got a great view of the exterior from the boat ride -- about an hour around the harbor -- and got ride under the Golden Gate Bridge. Was a great ride.

We hunted out the Musee Mechanique (sp?) that was in the Princess Diaries -- where the queen arm wrestles with the masked mannequin. She liked that, wrestled the mannequin ("I'm touching the machine that Julie Andrews touched!") and saw Laughing Sal as well as played with other old fashioned games. She liked that a lot much to my surprise. She was disappointed to see that it wasn't exactly set up like the movie, though.

She loved Coit Tower...we walked up the hills to it then the stairs to the building and then up the elevator to the top. Great views of the city and a nice place for taking photos. You can get city views and a nice backdrop of the Bay Bridge for a family photo.

We had dim sum in Chinatown but she thought it wasn't any different than in NYC or Boston. If you have a Chinatown section in the city where you live then it might not be so exciting.

She loved riding the cable cars and the trolleys (old trolleys from other cities). Try to get up front in them...the views are tremendous.

Liked the Exploratorium but reminded her of other science museums she's gone to.

We spent a day in Golden Gate Park....brought a picnic and explored. She loved that. We saw the Japanese Tea Garden, played on the playgrounds, rode bikes, went down to the windmill and ate at the beach. It was lots of fun and a really nice way to experience the city like a resident.

We both loved the Muir Woods...even the ride to get there was beautiful and fun. We also rented bikes and took the ferry over to Sausalito for an afternoon. Another fun adventure.

Do you need to make reservations to go to Alcatraz in advance of your trip? We are traveling Easter break 2005.