3 Days in San Francisco [with a dog]

Zach and I had only been in California for a little under a month when we scored our first long weekend: Labor Day. Where should we go? What should we do first? Los Angeles? Yosemite? San Diego? Napa Valley? We felt overwhelmed with opportunities. Typically, I am a huge planner. I know exactly what our vacations or day trips are going to consist of down to where we will eat. However, with all of the hustle and bustle of moving from Georgia to California and beginning a job 2 days later, I had not even considered a long weekend until the Friday of Labor Day. I had already been to San Francisco thanks to parents who taught me to love travel (thanks mom & dad), but this time, I wanted to bring my dog, Lady.

Lady has never stayed in a kennel before and if I had chosen to board her, I would have been worried about her the entire time and ready for the trip to be over sooner: that wasn’t an option. So, we loaded up the car, complete with Lady’s crate, food, and toys, and we set out for San Francisco. It was only about a 3-hour drive, but I was able to use that time to find accommodations & do a little bit of research on what we would be able to do with our dog in tow.

Accommodations:

Let me say before I move on, that I use Priceline for most all of my bookings: hotels, flights, etc. I can typically pair it with Ebates order to score some major savings (I’m hoping to get a blog up soon about how I save money on traveling using these websites). When visiting a location with your pet, you can sort through all of the hotels that are pet-friendly. It narrows it down quite a bit, and from there, you can decide where you want to stay based on location and price. We ended up staying at The Westin St. Francis thanks to a great deal from Priceline.

It is located right in the heart of San Francisco in Union Square. It was perfect for walking to nearby shops and the trolley stop was only a few steps away. Also, in order to avoid the hefty valet parking fees at the hotel, we parked our car in a nearby parking garage, so we did not use our car while in the city. So…we utilized the many Ubers around. Now, was The Westin pet friendly? Yes. However, that means you are allowed to bring dogs, it doesn’t necessarily mean it has everything you would need for a trip with your dog: like a place for your pup to go potty. Lady used to use her potty pads all of the time, but once we trained her to go outside, she refused to use the potty pad. Refused. So, every morning, Zach had to roll out of bed, get dressed, and take Lady down 13 floors and on a scavenger hunt to find some grass…in the middle of San Francisco. Luckily, there is Union Square directly across from the hotel and there was a small patch of grass with some trees for her to do her business. It wasn’t super ideal, but considering we were able to stay in the heart of the city, it worked out for our small stay. Just remember to bring bags to clean up after your pup.

Day 1:

Our first day, we headed to breakfast at Honey Honey Café & Crepery (which I highly recommend). It was a short walk from The Westin, but we decided to leave Lady behind because we were not sure if there would be outside seating. Conclusion: There are one or two seats outside, but this is a very popular place and the line typically wraps around the building outside and you stand in line for a good while if you do not arrive early. If you did sit outside, you would need someone else to stay in line while you stayed with your pup & you would have the line of people crowding around you: not ideal. Recommendations: leave the pup in the room if you plan to eat at this location.

After breakfast, we went back to the room, picked up Lady, called an Uber, and headed to Pier 39. Before our Uber picked us up, I would always send a text letting them know we had a small dog and asking if we could bring her along—it was never an issue. However, I still tried to be respectful and keep Lady from painting nose art all over their windows.

Pier 39 was a cool place to explore and it was pet friendly. You can bring your dog and walk around outside, but only one or two shops allow dogs inside. You can also grab lunch at one of the restaurants with outdoor seating. After spending the afternoon out and about, we headed back to the hotel, dropped off Lady, and spent the evening exploring some nearby shops and having dinner. We ended up at a burger joint called Super Duper Burgers & we went back one other time because they had the best homemade pickles. You could always take your dog walking down the street and window shopping, but we decided to let Lady rest after the busy afternoon.

Day 2:

On day 2, we decided to take an Uber and visit the Golden Gate Bridge. We were able to walk around the welcome center and take some obligatory Golden Gate photos. We did not actually walk on the bridge, but there are sidewalks on the bridge where you can walk as much of it as you’d like. After getting our fill of the Golden Gate glamour, we took a relatively short trail (1 mile) down to Baker’s Beach. It is a mile-long beach that lies just west of the Golden Gate.

It’s the perfect beach to take your pup while enjoying views of the bridge. However, be aware, this gives access to the nude beach. We were not aware of this until we were taking pictures and noticed a very naked man walking in the background. *facepalm*

We then took another Uber to see the Painted Ladies-better known as “the houses from Full-House.” It was neat seeing these houses with the city in the background, but the unexpected gem was the nice park across from it: Alamo Square Park.

I was so pleased to find a decent sized dog park. Lady loved it! There were dogs of all shapes and sizes at the park. Lady was so happy, and it gave her some time to get out some energy and meet some friends. Honestly, it was one of my favorite parts of the trip because my dog was happy and loving life and it was a great place to sit, relax, and enjoy the scenery of the city. After a long, adventurous day, we took Lady back to the hotel to rest while Zach and I went back to Super Duper Burgers and did a little bit of shopping.

Day 3:

On our last day, we considered taking a tour of Alcatraz, but I had already visited, and we were really enjoying the slow pace for once. Normally our vacations have us going nonstop. So, on our final day, we visited a local café for some breakfast before walking around Union Square once more before heading out. They actually had to close down the square not long afterwards because some people were protesting (I’m not sure what..) so getting our car was interesting, but it all worked out in the end.

In conclusion, traveling to San Francisco for a short trip with your dog is definitely doable. If you have never visited the city and you have multiple events on your to-do list, you may want to consider leaving your pup only because dogs are not allowed on most major “tourist attractions” such as the trolley cars and the tour to Alcatraz. Our dog, Lady, is crate trained so it made sense for us to bring her crate and leave it in the room whenever we wanted to do something not dog friendly instead of paying extra for a kennel. Plus, it’s always fun to have your fur baby whenever possible. We like to travel out of the country a lot, so taking Lady isn’t an option. When it is an option, we like to try and make it work. So next time you visit San Francisco, take your pup. There are things you can do together and still have a great time! Do you know of other pet-friendly activities or places in San Francisco? Let me know below!