I think the best way to describe  a visit to San Francisco is by quoting lonely planet:

‘Grab your coat and a handful of glitter, and enter the land of fog and fabulousness. So long, inhibitions; hello, San Francisco.

This city is, without a doubt, my favourite city in the United States. The city is the starting point of revolutions and good times, because anything goes in San Francisco. This includes instituting America’s first “ugly law,” which in 1867,  prohibited unsightly people from showing their faces in public. (Don’t worry it has since been repealed). 

Whether you are visiting to endorse the power of flowers or want to attempt your own dramatic escape from one of the worlds most famous prisons, there is plenty to do in this funky town…

• Cross the Golden Gate Bridge: The legend himself, the architectural and engineering masterpiece, The Golden Gate Bridge. Cross over the bridge on foot or bike to the north side and get some stunning photos from one of the many observation spots along the roadside in the winding Marin Headlands.
• Ride on the Cable Cars: Running since the late 1800’s this is by far the best way to get around the city (other than walking of course). The Cable Cars are a living part of the cities history and charm and are the only National Historical Monument that can move . They run on an intricate underground pulley-system, making them environmentally friendly before the ice caps were melting and saving the planet was even “in”.
• Tour Alcatraz Prison: The most notorious prison on the West Coast is only a short ferry ride away (mind the shark-infested waters though). What was once home to Robert Stroud – “Birdman of Alcatraz”, Al Capone and many more of America’s worst criminals, the prison is now open to the public as a historical site and offers daily tours. 
• Visit Pier 39 (AKA Fisherman’s Wharf): Have you heard of San Francisco’s famous sea lions? Well this is where you will find them. They have hijacked the entire dock for essential sea lion purposes. Like soaking up the San Franciscan sun. The best time to visit these loud, smelly, sea beauties try and arrive early in the morning to avoid the crowds. The Pier is touristy and busy. The shops are mostly overpriced and filled with kitschy souvenirs, but you will find some typical San Francisco-esc quirks. Including a left hand shop and a boutique sock store .
• Visit the Aquarium of the Bay: Right around the corner from the Sea Lion lair you can admire the aquatic locals. Fish are always fun to admire but in San Francisco you even get to visit an octopus and an entire room dedicated to jellyfish.
• Have dinner in Chinatown: Across America you will find Chinatown’s, but only in San Francisco will you find the oldest and largest in the country. It is also the city where the Chinese fortune cookie was invented (by a Japanese guy). Pick a seedy looking eatery then have a stroll. I was lucky enough to spend Chinese New Year in San Francisco in 2013, and I can assure you that if are visiting in February, you are in for a treat.
• Peace out at the Haight:  Want to preview San Francisco’s incense-burning, acid-dropping, tie-dye-wearing, peace-and-love-vibing era? This part of the city evokes images of the long-gone ’60s hippie culture. Filled with exclusive boutiques, high-end vintage-clothing shops, second-hand stores, this is the one place in the world where I transform into a compulsive shopper.

You won’t find the  free-spirited, quirky vibe of San Francisco anywhere else in the world. The foggy city’s eccentric charm has something for everybody. 

Don’t believe me? I’m not the only one who has fallen in love with the city:

“If you’re alive, you can’t be bored in San Francisco. If you’re not alive, San Francisco will bring you to life.”~William Saroyan

“Los Angeles? That’s just a big parking lot where you buy a hamburger for the trip to San Francisco.”~John Lennon

“One day if I go to heaven … I’ll look around and say, ‘It ain’t bad, but it ain’t San Francisco.’”~Herb Cain

“San Francisco itself is art, above all literary art. Every block is a short story, every hill a novel. Every home a poem, every dweller within immortal. That is the whole truth.”~William Saroyan

“San Francisco has only one drawback—‘tis hard to leave.”~Rudyard Kipling

“San Francisco is 49 square miles surrounded by reality.”~Paul Kantner

“God took the beauty of the Bay of Naples, the Valley of the Nile, the Swiss Alps, the Hudson River Valley, rolled them into one and made San Francisco Bay.”~Fiorello La Guardia

“I’m just mad for San Francisco. It is like London and Paris stacked on top of each other.”~Twiggy