Are you ready to spend Christmas in San Francisco with me and my family? As with most of my itineraries – prepare for a relatively jampacked itinerary filled with walking, food, and FUN!!!

Day 1

• Breakfast at Mama’s
• Coit Tower
• Pier 39
• Lunch at In-N-Out
• Fisherman’s Wharf
• Golden Gate Fortune Cookie Factory
• Dinner at Good Mong Kok Bakery

Breakfast at Mama’s

Mama’s is a San Francisco food institution that’s been around since 1951 – so I knew I had to eat here. When we got there at 8AM on a Sunday morning, a queue had already formed – with 20 people in front of us. We ended up queueing for 45 minutes (supposedly, this is considered pretty short as it was a holiday so most locals were out of the city). Crazy, I know…

Note: The restaurant is a 49-seater, so the goal is to be part of the first 49 people in the morning. If you don’t make it, then you’d simply have to queue like the rest of us – and wait for the early birds to finish their meal

• What we ordered (in order of preference): French toast (got the sampler – really interesting cranberry orange infused toast), dungerees crab benedict (yum! Super lucky this was in season 🦀), our famous monte carlo sandwich (creating it – the french toast way), farmer’s omerlette (goat cheese and crispy bacon goodness) ++ for our Mama’s souvenir, we also bought Olallieberry Jam (an in-breed of blackberry, raspberry, and…. Too many other types of berries I can’t remember)
• Cost: $20-30 per person, including tip

Coit Tower

After that heavy breakfast, it’s time to exercise! Good thing the next stop is Coit Tower – which you can get to only through a ridiculously steep hill!!! But up we went! Once at the top, you’re greeted by… a building that looks like a firehose nozzle haha – it’s not pretty

Now, to ride the elevator and have a chance to snap photos of the panoramic view, you’ll have to pay USD 8. I didn’t care enough about the view to pay. Thankfully, the free murals are well wort a visit as well – as it showcased the history of San Francisco and California in general (including a very realistic depiction of the Great Depression, as well as the optimism of the New Deal that followed). Industries such as newspaper journalism, salami curing, orange picking are all depicted as well

Pier 39 (hello seals!)

Now I had a dilemma –

OPTION 1: Go to Pier 39 early and avoid the tourists, BUT most sea lions would still be asleep (tuckered out from all the play)

OPTION 2: Go around 11, when the seals are finally awake but there’s a bit of a crowd already

In the end, we opted to go at 11. Thankfully, the crowds weren’t that bad yet. Even better, there were loads of sea lions (apparently, there’s a lot more in December, vs July – since that’s mating season therefore the male seals all go away to mate)

Not just that, but we were in for a treat as there was a guide who was happily explaining about the seals while we were there! Some fun facts:

• The sea lions at Pier 39 are mostly male. As such, if you come here in July (during mating season), the ones you’ll see are juvenile males who are leaving late or old males who can’t swim such long distances anymore
• Male sea lions are 2x the size of females but have much shorter lifespans (15-20 yrs vs 25-30 yrs) as males swim for 3mos. without stopping to eat to go to warmer waters and mate with the females
• Female and baby sea lions usually stay in warmer waters because the babies need to be protected for at least 1yr (did you know? female sea lions mate every yr!!). They can survive in warmer waters because they eat less sardines and anchovies. The males can’t because they need to eat more
• Difference between sea lions and seals? Ability to walk on four flippers (sea lions) and the presence of ear tufts
• Sea lions are so-called because the northern sea lions have huge manes and they ROAR!

Lunch at In-N-Out

Okay, now I’m starving again. Thankfully, there was… In & Out – yay!! Fast food at its finest – it is truly amazing how an institution can survive on serving just one dish really really well. In this case, that would be their double double (double the meat, double the cheese – they forgot to mention, double the calories too!)

• What we ordered: Double double (their specialty!), Vanilla milkshake
• Cost: < $5 per person

Fisherman’s Wharf

Fisherman’s Wharf has loads of food as well – but the must-try is the clam chowder <3

Another off-the-beaten path stop you might want to make is also Musee Mecanique (Pier 45) which shows what fun looked like in America during the olden times – and for a quarter, will also allow you to experience it too!

Golden Gate Fortune Cookie Factory

Totally random, but I read about this place that makes fortune cookies and it piqued my interest! For just 50 cents, you get to take photos and watch them make the cookies. Even better, they sell the fortune cookie strips for super cheap and they’re damn yummy too! (We bought ~3 packs, and ate them as snacks throughout the rest of our San Francisco trip haha)

Dinner at Good Mong Kok Bakery

Okay, this is a bad decision – not that the food isn’t great… but at the end of the day, THERE’S NO FOOD LEFT. So we ended up just buying all the remaining items in the store (still yummy, but I knew I had to come back again!!).

And that concludes Day 1 🙂

If you’re planning the rest of your trip, then check out my other San Francisco travel blogs as well!

FIVE DAY ITINERARY

Day 1: Coit Tower, Pier 39, Fisherman’s Wharf

Day 2: Biking across Golden Gate Bridge

Day 3: Hipster areas in San Francisco: Mission District, Painted Ladies, 16th Avenue Tiled Steps

Day 4: Lombard Street, Chinatown, Union Square shopping

Day 5: Farmer’s Market, Land’s End, Baker Beach

SAN FRANCISCO TWO DAY ITINERARY: All the must-see tourist spots in 2 days

FOOD GUIDE: Eating my way through San Francisco – top picks!

BEST PHOTO SPOTS FOR GOLDEN GATE BRIDGE