5 Places to Explore & Exercise in San Francisco
San Francisco is a great city to visit for a 3-day weekend getaway. The hills make it easy to get some cardio in if you walk around the city. There are also plenty of great parks and gyms in the area to get a good workout. Parks that I recommend are the Golden Gate Park and Dolores Park. Golden Gate Park has an awesome walking path, as well as botanical gardens, and a very impressive jungle gym. Dolores Park has tennis courts, a basketball court, and cool play areas too.
Pick a hotel that is in a walkable location. This will encourage your to walk up and down the hills to get to various activities and restaurants. I stayed in Union Square at Hotel Emblem, near the the theater district. I picked Hotel Emblem for several reasons. The hotel allowed you access to a nearby gym, it had a cafe with healthy food options next to the lobby, there were several other healthy and fun food options within 10 minutes of walking from the hotel. Additionally, the hotel was only 4 minutes walking from the theater district. This is great if you plan on seeing a show while in town. I saw Harry Potter & the Cursed Child at the Curran Theater and it was fantastic. Click here for my full review of the play. If you like more information about Hotel Emblem then click here.
If you’d like to go for a swim for exercise, I would say head over to Aquatic Park beach in front of Ghirardelli Square. People gather to watch the swimmers and to enjoy the sand and lovely views of Golden Gare beige and Alcatraz. There are barriers to prevent you from swimming too far out into the bay, so if you enjoy swimming in open water then you may want to give it a try.
One more cool location to explore while in San Francisco, are the Mosaic Steps. The steps are really cool to look at and give you the opportunity to get some great cardio. Feel free to do a few squats, lunges, and pushups, add the bottom and top of the stairs to add a little strength training to your workout.
For those of you who enjoy more condensed reading. Here is my list of 5 places to explore and exercise in no particular order.
Aquatic Park
Union Square
Mosaic Steps
Dolores PaRK
Golden Gate Park