I travel several times a year for work and whenever I’m in a new city, I always try to squeeze some touristy activities in. If you’ve traveled for work, then you know that sometimes that’s a pretty hard thing to do. For me, I usually spend 9-5 inside a convention center and by the time I’m done with work, all the museums are closed or I only have an hour left of opening times. During my latest trip to San Francisco, I managed to fit in all of these activities with just a few hours during my arrival and departure dates, as well as after work.

Coit Tower
Coit Tower is a slender white concrete column rising from the top of Telegraph Hill. The observation deck at the top offers fantastic 360 degree views of San Francisco. There is an elevator, but it can close down unexpectedly due to its age (90+!). To get to the top, it is 234 steps, so not for the faint of heart. On the day that I had visited, the elevator was out of order, so I just walked around the perimeter. It’s a very lovely walk and offers amazing views from the top of Telegraph Hill.

Cable Car Museum
The Cable Car Museum is a free museum in the Nob Hill neighborhood of San Francisco. It contains a collection of historic cable cars, photographs, and mechanical exhibits on the San Francisco cable car system. The Museum is open daily, except on Mondays. It’s not a huge museum, but it’s pretty neat to see the huge engines and winding wheels that pull the cables from the museum deck. It’s also very close to Chinatown, so it was very easy to nip over after my visit and enjoy a delicious meal at Nanking.

Dandelion Chocolate Factory
Dandelion Chocolate is a bean-to-bar chocolate maker in San Francisco’s Mission District. They produce their single-origin dark chocolate using only two ingredients: cocoa beans and organic cane sugar. They run factory tours all week, with weekday tours before 3pm being more active with staff still working in the factory. Weekend tours have no staff in the factory, but you get a more history-based tour, delving into their sourcing and production processes. I did one of the weekend tours, which started at 5pm and ran about one hour. You get a bunch of tastings on the tour and at the end, you can grab a drink of your choice from their cafe menu. It was one of the most informative chocolate factory tours I’ve been on and I loved learning about the engineering behind all the equipment at Dandelion.

Visit Chinatown
San Francisco Chinatown is the largest Chinatown outside of Asia. It’s also the oldest Chinatown outside of Asia! The neighborhood is filled to the brim with dim sum restaurants, bakeries, souvenir stores, herbalists, and a variety of other Chinese shops. The Chinatown Gate, or Dragon Gate, is located on Grant Avenue, the main street of Chinatown with most of the tourist shops. Venture further in and make a stop at Golden Gate Fortune Cookie Factory, where they make fresh fortune cookies daily. I also highly recommend visiting City Lights Booksellers & Publishers, an independent bookstore-publisher that supports innovative writing. And lastly, have an amazing meal at the House of Nanking, a long-standing staple in the neighborhood.

See the Golden Gate Bridge
When one thinks of San Francisco, one often thinks of the Golden Gate Bridge. It’s almost ubiquitous with the city. The Golden Gate Bridge is a suspension bridge spanning the Golden Gate, the one-mile-wide strait connecting San Francisco Bay and the Pacific Ocean. On a clear day, it’s a beautiful sight across the bay. But when there is fog, which I’ve been told was lovingly named Karl, there’s really not much to see. Pro tip: Check out the website, which has a live cam of the current conditions at the Bridge. That way, you don’t head over there to the many viewpoints and see only fog! I have yet to see the Golden Gate Bridge, but my friends who live in the area recommend Chrissy Fields for a great viewpoint to see it in its glory.

Conservatory of Flowers
The Conservatory of Flowers is a greenhouse and botanical garden that houses a collection of rare and exotic plants in Golden Gate Park. The Aquatic Plants Gallery simulates the flow of a river winding through the tropics, with colorful water lilies including the Giant Water Lily. As a member of the New York Botanical Garden, I was able to enter for free. I’ve been to a ton of botanical gardens and conservatories before in the past and this one was absolutely outstanding. There was such a great selection of tropical plants that I have never seen before – and for plants that I have seen before, the variation of colors in the conservatory was remarkable.

And while you’re at the Conservatory of Flowers, be sure to check out the other spots inside the Golden Gate Park. I’ve been to the California Academy of Sciences before and across the park is the de Young Museum, SF’s oldest museum. The Park itself is a great spot to take a morning or afternoon stroll. I definitely enjoyed my late morning walk on my last day in the city.