Known for it’s steep rolling hills, cable cars and as the home of the iconic Golden Gate Bridge, San Francisco is sure to be at the top of many of your honeymoon destination wish lists. Which is why, when I was there recently teaching a workshop, I took copious notes on all the awesome things we did and saw for this blog post!

Eat

We really lucked out with our food selections in here, everything we ate was super yummy! Some of my favourites were Mission Picnic, Foreign Cinema (they play movies on a big screen in the outside seating area!), Kitchen Story, La Palma (best tacos ever, seriously) and Sidewalk Juice. Even the take-out was incredible. We ordered from Basil Thai TWICE while we were there because it was probably the best thai food I’ve EVER had.

If you’re a bit of a foodie, San Francisco certainly won’t disappoint you!

Gawk

If there’s one thing that defines San Francisco like nothing else, it’s the houses. Huge, foreboding Victorian buildings… painted all the colours of the rainbow! We had so much fun walking around and deciding who should live in which house. However Gala and I might have to share this one…

Like, literally, my dream home.

I mean, holy shit…

Oh and speaking of rainbow, the council are currently in the process of painting the crosswalks in The Castro, the gay district, RAINBOW!  I am so bummed that it wasn’t done yet because it would have made for the best photo ever.

Sleep

So we didn’t get to stay in the beautiful rainbow house, but the place we did rest our weary heads at night was still pretty damn spectacular. We found it on Air B&B, and even though it was a little more spendy than we’d usually go for, after seeing this place we knew nowhere else would do!

Why yes, that is a pouffe that looks like a giant ball of yarn…

The garden was small, but the awesome spiral staircase leading to the upstairs apartment made for a great photo spot!

The bedroom that Gala and I shared…

Shauna was very at home in the dining room. That light fitting is so incredible. In fact the whole place was decked out to perfection.

The ultra modern, sleek white kitchen made for another great photo spot (posers and proud!) When I grow up I’d love to have a kitchen so clean and tidy.

Shauna was totally obsessed with this weird banana nose painting!

See?!

And we were all kind of enamoured with the boobs salt and pepper shakers!

Drive

Getting around a new city can be a bit of a drag if you don’t have a car (and have no idea where you’re going!) but since discovering Lyft my adventures in The States are a lot easier to navigate! I’ve been meaning to write about it for ages, and I felt this post was the appropriate place because we used it exclusively for all our transportation needs on this trip.

It’s super easy: you download their app, fire it up on your phone and it shows you where you are on on a map, as well as how far away the closest driver is. Then you simply request a “lyft” and it displays a photo of the driver and the car, as well as tracking where they are on the same map. They show up (usually in only a few short minutes) with a pink fuzzy moustache attached to their bonnet, which reassures you that you’re not just getting into a random person’s car!

The drivers are all so friendly and most of them have bottles of water, gum or sweets and photo chargers for their passengers. At the end of the “lyft” you simply say goodbye and hop out because you pay via the app too! I love this the most because I’m always so awkward with paying cab drivers in the US, I never know how much to tip! Oh and as an unexpectedly awesome bonus, they’re pretty much always cheaper than a city taxi too.

Lyft operate in dozens of major cities in America and they’re expanding all the time. I’m hoping they’ll make it to the UK and Europe one day too because it really is the most awesome idea.

If there’s a bright wall somewhere, you bet ya I want to take a photo in front of it!

Shop

We didn’t have much down-time but that didn’t stop us squeezing in a couple of hours shopping!

I loved Vanencia Street for it’s weird, wonderful and sometimes quite random little boutiques, trendy coffee joints and cool bars. One of my favourite stops was Scarlet Sage Herb co. Gala is very much into that kind of ‘stuff’ (“I need to go in here and buy a crystal!”) whereas I’m a bit more sceptical. It was such a cute store though and although I left crystal-free, I did pick up two delicious detoxing bath soaks!

The Haight neighbourhood is known for its history of hippie subculture. In the 60s it was the coolest place to hang out, no doubt while wearing flared jeans and burning incense! If you’re a fan of second-hand buys then this is where you need to come. The streets are quite literally lined with vintage clothes. In a one block walk I think we walked past five shops all next door to each other!

One of my other favourite finds was Miette, which was just around the corner from our workshop venue. Our assistants for the weekend, Paige and Vivian, bought us here and although I don’t have a sweet tooth particularly, I loved stopping by to take some photos of all the colourful candy!

The Must-Sees

Even if your time in San Francisco is limited, there are a few things you simply have to go and see…

A trip to the bay area won’t be complete without stopping by the beautiful Ocean Beach… and yes, it was very, very windy!

… but not as windy as overlooking The Golden Gate Bridge. I swear we were nearly blown away! I had an incredibly embarrassing moment where the wind whipped my tee-shirt ALL THE WAY UP. Yes, full bra exposure and everything. I sure hope none of the other tourists got any photos. CRINGE.

If you’re in a car, you definitely need to drive down Lombard Street! Famous for being the wonkiest street in the world, it has eight incredibly tight hairpin turns in just one block. We gleefully screamed like we were on a roller coaster the whole way down!

…and then took selfies at the bottom. Obviously.

Even though we only had a couple of free days in San Francisco, we sure did pack a lot in. While we didn’t get to see everything (I went to Alcatraz when I was a kid and I would have loved to have gone back) I think we did pretty well with the time that we did have!

If you’re off to SF on your honeymoon you’re in for a treat. You’ll have a blast!