San Francisco. USA

After 2 months discovering the East Coast and an 8 hour flight; it was time to discover the West Coast.

San Francisco and I got off to a bit of a rocky start. After finding out that there was no shuttle bus from the airport to our hostel on the night of our arrival, we ended up staying in their partner hostel for one night. This was the most perfect dream hostel ever, called the San Francisco Downtown. The rooms are clean with ensuites, there are large social areas where we quickly made friends and they even organise trips for you to participate in. After one pretty sweet night in San Francisco, we had high expectations for the hostel we were meant to be staying in... any hostel partner to this must be pretty damn amazing right?!

Wrong. We ended up in a situation looking like this...

We had set off the next morning bright eyed and bushy tailed. Turns out the HI Marins Headlands Hostel we were meant to be staying in wasn't "just on the other side of the Golden Gate Bridge" like we had anticipated, but an hour from the Golden Gate with buses only running on weekends. We were leaving San Francisco on a Wednesday and to get a taxi it would cost us $75. Money we couldn't afford. With no supermarkets and no food provided, we knew we had to get out of there the very next day.

The food we had to last us 24 hours...

We booked the only hotel available. The Luz Hotel. DO NOT STAY HERE! The only reason we did was because we were desperate to be in the city centre and we had no other option. There was no doubt some funny business going on here... our first clue being the fact that "pets weren't allowed due to the smell of their POOH". After a quick escape and lack of food we treated ourselves to breakfast at Lexi's diner. The most stereotypical American diner I have been to.. (they do the best oreo milkshakes as well!)

Hostel and hotels disasters aside. San Francisco was easily EASILY my favourite city I have visited in the states so far. It's such a clean, beautiful city with everything you could possibly want in one place.

I think riding a cable car is on everyone's San Francisco bucket list and this was one of the first things we did. Whilst being sat down is definitely the safer option being stood up is basically an extreme sport. THOSE HILLS!

We got off at Fisherman's Wharf. Greeted by live music and mass of seagulls, I instantly got good vibes from this place. There are so many quirky shops, piers and places to visit and explore it's an absolute must go! Pier 39 is INCREDIBLE!

The next day we rented bikes from Blazing Saddle and cycled 20 miles (yes, 20!) to the beautiful Sausalito. We hit up some of the landmarks on the way...

I fell in love with Sausalito pretty much instantly. My words won't do it justice... So I guess you'll just have to visit to see what I mean but here are some pictures to give you a taster.

San Francisco is a truly stunning city and I'd go back in a heartbeat. It's vibrant, lively, beautiful, with so much to do and see. If you have the opportunity to go, GO!