Booking San Francisco's Big Attractions
Most San Francisco attractions sell timed tickets, not walk-up ones, and the two that matter most, Alcatraz and the cable car, work on completely different booking rules.
Alcatraz Island: book weeks, not days, ahead
Alcatraz City Cruises, sailing from Pier 33, is the sole authorized concessionaire; a Day Tour runs $47.95 adult and a Night Tour $56.90, both including the cellhouse audio tour. Summer and holiday dates sell out three to six weeks in advance, and the night tour sells out even faster. Book directly through Alcatraz City Cruises ; anything advertising “exclusive” Alcatraz tickets at $120 or more is a reseller marking up the same seats.
Open-top bus tours
Big Bus Tours and City Sightseeing both run open-top double-deckers from Fisherman’s Wharf, crossing the Golden Gate Bridge to the North Vista Point before looping back through Golden Gate Park, Chinatown and Union Square. A 24- to 48-hour ticket runs $65 to $75. Search current San Francisco hop-on hop-off tours on Viator to compare the routes before choosing one; the value is in the bridge crossing, since most of the rest is walkable.
The cable car, priced by the ride
A single ride on the Powell-Hyde, Powell-Mason or California Street line costs $9 in 2026, with the fare rising to $12 (plus an $18 all-day Cable Car Plus pass) from January 4, 2027. A one-day Muni Visitor Passport, which covers the cable cars along with buses and streetcars, runs $24; check current fares at sfmta.com before you buy, since the increase lands partway through some trips.
Golden Gate Park’s ticketed museums
The California Academy of Sciences (Steinhart Aquarium, planetarium, rainforest dome) runs dynamic pricing from about $42 to $55, and the de Young Museum charges $20, though its Hamon Observation Tower is free without a museum ticket. The Exploratorium at Pier 15 charges $39.95 for its 650-plus hands-on exhibits. SFMOMA in SoMa charges $30, with free entry for anyone 18 and under.
Pier 39’s free attraction
Not everything on this list needs a ticket. The California sea lion colony at K-Dock, resident since the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake, is free to watch from the marina railing, and the Sea Lion Center upstairs adds docent talks on the colony’s population, which swings from a few hundred to over a thousand depending on the winter herring run.
The verdict
Alcatraz is the only booking on this list with a real deadline; everything else can be decided the morning of. For a wider sense of what fills the days around these attractions, see the main activities guide .
Before you go
Print or download Alcatraz boarding passes in advance: cell reception at Pier 33 can be patchy during peak boarding, and paper backups avoid a scramble at the gate.