Hi - My husband and I have been in San Francisco once before several years ago. Loved it. We are taking another couple on a coastal trip south of the city and will end up with two full days in San Francisco before we have to leave. They have never been to the city. I am voting for a walk over the Golden Gate Bridge. Everyone is voting for Alcatraz. My husband and I think a city tour would be good the first morning to introduce them (and as a reminder for us!) to the city. Definitely cable car/coit tower/walking through neighborhoods. I am thinking city tour first a.m.. Walking and cable car afternoon. Alcatraz second morning. Walking Golden Gate second afternoon and maybe adding something else to this. Does this sound good time wise?

Mainly I would like advice on a city tour that will give our friends a good taste of what is out there without being on a bus the whole day. Has anyone been on the Greyline Deluxe city tour? Is this a good overview? Do they stop and let you out now and then? Or any others that anyone likes? Thanks for any help. We want to get a good taste of the city but not by stressful running from one thing to the next.
sue

We rented a limo for our family of four and had a private tour of what we were interested in seeing. We could get out and walk around whenever we wanted to.
We used Roland Velasquez. He is the partner in RV Limoservice. His direct line is 415-601-7116. We had him for about 4 and a half hours. I believe it was about 60 dollars an hour + whatever you want as a tip. We had a stretch limo for the four of us.
He is a native San Fransiscan and was a good conversationalist.
We went last March so hopefully he is still in the business. We hired him outside of our hotel (Stanford Court). We thought it was a great way to get an overall view of the city.

We took two of the Grayline tours, the Deluxe full day, and Muir woods/alcatraz/pier... as part of the bus ride we stopped at the bridge parking area for a half-hour, as well as several key points along the way and were never disappointed with either tour... there is so much information given during the ride and so much ground covered that you can't possibly do that much on your own...

They pick you up at your hotel, take you worry free around the city and fill you with info... also AAA members get a substantial discount... following the tour we went back to the four or five places we found most interesting...(Chinatown, Fisherman's Wharf, Pier, Ghiardelli, Cable Car, Coit)

Booking Alcatraz through Grayline guarantees you a tough ticket, aride to the pier, plus info you normally don't get on a self tour... they also offer tours that you can hop off and on at your schedule....

No...I do not work for them, but I do take one of these tours in every major city we visit to give us the feel of the city we're in... haven't been dissapointed yet...have fun!!!

If the weather is nice, recommend the Motorized Cable Car Tour. Goes all over (including over the Golden Gate Bridge, with a stop in the park, then back). The open air vehicles are much better for enjoying the scenery all along the way than tour buses.

There's a city bus you can take to the top of Telegraph Hill (so as to avoid that long, long walk uphill) where there's a stop right at the entrance of Coit Tower. Then, you can take the steps down to the Embarcadero and catch a street car in either direction.

My opinion is that there's a lot to see in Sam Francisco in 2 days, that Alcatraz would take up too much time. I like all the other ideas though.

Typo alert: San Francisco! Not Sam, LOL.

There is also a hop-on, hop-off tour now where you get a daily ticket and move around as you will. I think it's greyline. I saw double-deckers.

trippinkpj makes a very good point. With only two day, unless you have an overwhelming desire to walk all over Alcatraz Island and go inside the prison, better bet is to take a boat tour that goes right past. We loved the sunset (or something like that) boat tour.

No question - the very best fun tour is www.fireenginetours.com. You take an open air fire truck through the city and across the bridge to Sausalito. Took 20 years away from our life - SO much fun. The interesting thing is it was all adults but 2 kids. Highly highly recommend - very nice people. Book VERY early though - it is one couple of wonderful people and they only do it three times a day. The website gives you the flavor.