I spent last week in sunny San Francisco, taking in the sights and hanging out with the Airbnb team. I was over to hear about the company’s latest updates, which was super exciting because, as you’ll know, I use Airbnb often when I travel.
I spent a lot of time exploring the beautiful city of San Francisco, so I thought I’d introduce a few of my favourite finds. I pretty much wandered around the city, since it’s only 7 x 7 miles. There’s a lot of hills, but it’s so fun to explore – so, so many pretty houses!
I was lucky enough to be able to sit in on the announcement with Airbnb’s co-founder Brian Chesky; the release of an updated App, and the news of the company’s ‘Live There’ campaign – the idea that we should ‘live like a local’. Instead of visiting a new city and checking out those mobbed tourist spots, we should become a local for the duration of our stay. Live and breathe the culture!
I hate crowds and tourist traps, so I was cheering it on! I’m always trying to find out what to see in a new city, without ending up at hideous, packed, underwhelming sights.
The new Airbnb App is more in-tune with its user – selecting neighbourhoods, homes and experiences based on their preferences. You can now also pick your ‘property type’ and browse through treehouses, castles, boats, dorms and more!
I wouldn’t be able to travel nearly as much as I do without Airbnb, and I always recommend it to everyone who has a lust for exploring but not always the funds for a hotel.
The Mill
This is a cute, beautifully decorated coffee shop and bakery located pretty central in SF. The owner of the bakery side of things is called Josie Baker, and he is himself a baker. He also lives on Baker Street. Thought that was worth mentioning.
Incredible bread, amazing iced coffee and a strong tile game.
The Perish Trust
Located right next to The Mill is The Perish Trust, a ‘modern day general store’ selling everything from cushions to jewellery to taxidermy animals. It’s a bit of a treasure trove, one of those places you can spend hours browsing and still not taken it all in.
SF has a lot of these cute stores, they’re great for inspiration and always laid out perfectly.
The houses in SF are like no other. I mean, I’ve seen Full House, I’ve watched Mrs Doubtfire, but nothing can truly prepare you for the sight that is these colourful, characteristic homes! They come in every colour.
You can walk around the whole city and never get bored of the beautiful buildings, every single one is different. It’s a very unique city, with so much life and culture.
I wandered for hours whilst I was there, walking along the Marina, checking out Lombard Street and even hopping to In-N-Out for a burger. Everyone says this is the best burger in the world, and I have to say – it’s a good ‘un!
The Golden Gate bridge isn’t often seen until you’re right next to it, but it’s a breathtaking sight. Seeing it in person was next level – it’s always been a dream of mine to witness it in the flesh, and it really didn’t disappoint!
Tacolicious
This was one of my favourite finds of the trip… tacos! The decor here was unreal – a whole table full of plants? Oh yes. We ordered tequila-based cocktails and loaded up on fish tacos and incredible tortilla chips, while taking in the amazing tiles. Seriously SF, your tiles are unreal!
Tacolicious was situated in Mission, which is a great place to explore if you’re into trendy but awesome restaurants and crazy shops!
San Fran is one of those places you can walk round and find so many hidden gems… so that’s what we did! It’s the sort of city that most things are in walking distance, but you can also Uber for super cheap.
You usually stumble across another ‘must see’ place every ten minutes of walking, so it’s the best city to get out in and take many, many photos. As you can see.
The Painted Ladies
These must be the most photographed houses in the world, they’re pretty as a postcard! They’re near Alamo Square, a beautiful park that is absolutely packed with dogs.
It’s also one of those popular places that everyone seems to photograph, but it was never all that busy when we went. There’s a few other houses around here that are even prettier, in my humble opinion. Instagram at the ready.
The Golden Gate Bridge at dusk is magnificent! We jumped in an Uber and asked our driver to take us to the ‘best spot for awesome views of the bridge!’ and that’s exactly what he did. It was unreal, so much closer and breathtaking in real life. I’m the kind of person that truly appreciates a good bridge, so I was snapping away and lapping it up. There’s no words for how amazing it is in real life.
In terms of shops, I loved shopping around Mission and also Hayes Street. Mission had plenty to offer, especially in terms of gifts and interiors.
Paxton Gate was definitely one of the best shops I’ve ever seen – an entire floor loaded with crystals, blown eggs, terrariums, air plants, taxidermy, bones and books! It was unreal… I tried to photograph the shop but it just didn’t do it justice. If you’re in to the weird and wonderful, this is the place for you.
Down the street a little was a shop called Black & Gold, which was basically a dream come true for an interiors lover like me!
The Flower Mart
I make no secret of my love of flowers, so naturally I just had to have a browse around the Flower Mart in the city. This was amazing, it’s more for florists and wholesalers, but the amount of blooms in one space was incredible!
The dull Scottish weather means we never really see flowers like this, so it really was an experience.
Loving Cup
The weather in SF was amazing, so naturally I had to stop somewhere and grab a little something to cool me down. This was another totally Instagrammable spot, and I was lapping up the wall of Nutella.
I went for pretzel and salted caramel (with sprinkles, of course) and it was wicked! A delicious combo, well picked Kate.
This is near Hayes Street, so it’s a great area for browsing.
Mr Holmes Bakehouse
I kept seeing this place pop up on Pinterest, so it was high on my to-do list. I was not disappointed! The donuts were incredible, but the bakery also sell ‘cruffins’, a combination of a croissant and a muffin. It looked interested!
I settled for a raspberry and chocolate donut… dreamy.
This was another snappable shop, all tiles and neon signs. Swoon!
SF, you are unreal! I had such a good trip and I recommend it to anyone looking for a fun city to explore!
Is San Francisco on your travel bucketlist?
