I'm from Europe and I have never been in the USA before. I'll be in SF for 5 days at the end of may as a friend is doing the Escape from Alcatraz triathlon, he will be focused on the competition so I'll have to do things alone for the 3 days before the competition, was wondering which are the best recommendations of things to do in and around SF like visiting Alcatraz.

I can do one overnighter somewhere else but we have an hotel booked for all the stay in SF so I don't want to lose more than a night. I don't have a car but I don't mind doing a 5h+ bus/train trip if the views are worth it (I enjoy being in a car with views I don't know).

I'm not a city person, I have a preference for activities in the nature or activities where I can meet people as a foreigner. My goal is to get a glance of California with the least amount of time so if I really like something I can come back and directly go there.

For context, my only nighttime activity is going to bars, and honestly I'm not sure what else people do when they go out at night. My friend is a recovering alcoholic and just moved to the city. He really misses doing things at night, but I don't want to tempt him into drinking at a bar/nightclub.

Any help is much appreciated :)

My family and I are traveling to the Bay Area in August for a week and wanted to know the non-touristy hidden gems people overlook when visiting! Can be restaurants, nature, anything.

Hello - I'll be visiting SF (and California) for the first time from the East Coast this week! I am wondering what events, places, etc. you consider to be "must-see" or "must-do" even if they're touristy lol. Thx!

All of my coworkers are trying to convince me that I'd have a lot more fun if I lived in San Francisco proper (I currently live way out in the tri-valley).

The thing is, when I press them on what there is to do in the city, all these 40-somethings living in Pleasanton can come up with is "night life". That's not a huge draw for me for a number of reasons, mostly because that typically involves having friends to do that with (which I don't yet) or socializing with drunk strangers (I'd rather get sloppy dome from a shark).

So what do you, person who actually lives there, do for fun in San Francisco?

I'm also curious how far you commute to have that fun. Right now its about an hour on Bart + some walking or an uber to get "downtown", and any time I look at reasonably priced places in the peninsula, that number only comes down to maybe 30-40 minutes (which just isn't worth it when it would make my work commute go from 15 minutes to over an hour).