walking/biking Golden Gate
 

I am interested in walking or biking the Golden Gate Bridge on our trip this fall. We are both in pretty good shape, but don't consider ourselves to be overly fit. How big of a deal is the ride/walk. On the bike rental website they suggest riding over into Sausalito for lunch before returning via ferry. Is it easy enough to chain you bike up in Sausalito? Is is a total pain to get the bike back on the ferry? Thanks!!

Hi Bebalm
My husband I rode bikes over the Golden Gate Bridge last summer. It was an incredible experience! The ride to get to the bridge was a little hilly but it was manageable. The hill going down to Sausalito is very steep so you wind up going very fast; it is kind of scary if there is a bus behind you but it is a lot of fun!

At the bike rental places, they give you a lock for your bike. There are plenty of racks to lock your bike. It is not a pain at all to get the bike on the ferry. A lot of people do it.

It is definitley worth doing! It was a highlight of our stay in San Francisco!

Regarding the hill to Sausalito: are you riding on the road or is there a bike path?

never mind i found the answer
"When you ride down into Sausalito there's a long downhill on the road. You'll want to be careful of traffic there. Please wear a helmet! You're sharing the road with cars. "

I walked to Sausalito a couple of times, even with my old parents. Each time we'd take a bus to the bridge and walk.

But once we tried to come back and got lost :) That's why my advice is to go from San Francisco to Sausalito if you don't have anybody local with you.

So many people take their bikes on ferry - no, not a pain!

We rode the bikes from the Fisherman's Wharf area, across the GGB and back. They said that it is actually shorter to ride to Sausalito, but we had been there for lunch the day before. We stopped on the way back at the Palace of Fine Arts and easily chained the bikes up at the bike rack there.

It was a fantastic experience as far as the areas you go through on the way to the Bridge. (if you just want to go over the Bridge, you can park and walk as far as you want) We hadn't been on bikes for years (actually probably decades) and although you pick it up easily enough, pedestrians do not get out of your way -- in fact, we had people actually walk into us while on the GGB. I walked my bike up a couple of hills where the bike path was close to the road (and others were doing the same). People of all shapes, ages and sizes (and children) were riding rented bikes. (and most were not "in shape" -- the in shape ones had their own bikes).