"Grab the kids and start packing: Here are some fantastic reasons to visit San Francisco!"

by Craig Thompson
(Cincinnati, Ohio)

San Francisco is a wonderful place to visit for a number of reasons, but people sometimes assume that it is impossible to enjoy seeing this area with children.

We also made this assumption, but now that we have experienced visiting San Francisco, and asking the advice of some of the locals, we realized that it can actually be very kid-friendly!

I have a somewhat large family, and each year, the entire immediate family comes together and we take a trip to a new place. Although my wife and I do not have any children as of yet, my sister has three, and nearly all of my cousins have at least one or more kids under the age of 10. So, we were all expecting the absolute worse in terms of chaos when we decided to visit California!

Our biggest concern was that the kids would quickly get sick of all the walking and wouldn’t have any fun. However, I can now say from personal experience that, even though San Francisco does require a lot of walking, there are so many ways to get from one place to another even if you have a large group.

We ended up deciding to rent two big vans from the local airport so that, if all of us wanted to go places together, we would not have to take four or five different cars. Believe it or not, it actually worked out very well because we went during the early fall when it wasn’t nearly as crowded, so we almost always found a place to park within the general vicinity of the activity we were at. Thus, if you have a larger group of children, you might want to consider visiting San Francisco in the off-season.

Also, one thing that we did NOT remember to do was to bring heavier jackets or rain gear, and we DEFINITELY regretted it because it was very windy and rainy part of the time too, so be sure to pack a wide-range of clothing and comfortable tennis shoes for yourself and the kids.

San Francisco can be a very scary for parents in terms of traffic and crowds, so one tip that I would give to any parent (especially if you are going with a larger group like we did), is to assign ONLY one adult per one child and have this adult hold the child’s hands at ALL times. While San Francisco is not a “bad” neighborhood so to speak, it is still a huge area, and it’s always wise to counteract a risk of a child wandering too far away from their parents. So just keep that in mind!

One of our most enjoyable experiences was Pier 39 and Fisherman’s Wharf, but the kids absolutely LOVED the San Francisco Zoo and Golden Gate Park, so I would recommend looking into these activities in advance as well.

The reason I would suggest planning the recreational activities BEFORE you even leave home is that the vacation goes by so quickly, and there just never seems like enough time to pursue everything the kids want to do. So, narrowing it down in advance is always the easiest and less stressful way out.

If you are still apprehensive or have doubts about visiting San Francisco with your kids, request a free travel guide and discuss options together as a family. Trust me when I say that as long as you are organized and plan things in advance, you will be fine and everyone will have a wonderful time!

Other great stops on our San Francisco family vacation.....