My aunt is from there, so when I decided to go, she said: be prepared to be cold and there will be lots of homeless people. She was right on both accounts there.
I travelled with a friend and stayed near Union Square and, as two females on our own, we had no concerns. We stayed at Hotel Rex, which was a literary-themed small hotel and it was really nice, but I guess it's gone now. There's Emblem Hotel in its place, which is also literary themed. There's a lot of interesting places in the area. We found a tiny little basement bar that did improv shows right across the street from the hotel.
Alcatraz was great but we bought our tickets months ahead. That was pre-pandemic. I found Fisherman's Wharf really cheesy touristy and was probably our least favourite part. We went to Ghirardelli's for ice cream sundaes (another recommendation from my aunt) and it was great! We did a lot of wandering around - cable car, that twisty road (Lombard street), took a couple walking tours of different areas. We went out to Napa one day and took the Napa Valley Wine Train, which was a winery tour on an old-fashioned train.
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