Cycling from Fisherman’s Wharf across the Golden Gate Bridge to Sausalito

After brunch in downtown San Francisco we headed to the cable car line down by the Powell Street Bart station. The queue was too long and we didn’t fancy jumping on the tram a block or two up the street and hoping for a space, so we grabbed a street car a little further along Market Street that took us all the way to Fisherman’s Wharf along The Embarcadero.

We then hired a couple of bikes from the first place we came across, Bike and Roll, for US$32 for the day + US$5 for insurance – US$5 for mentioning we’d seen the hire place mentioned on City Explorer tv. After signing our life away, we were off.

The 9 mile ride starts off flat around the waterfront, past the Ghirardelli building, and we then rode out to the end of the pier. We then cycled / walked up a reasonable-sized hill overlooking Fort Mason,

before descending to a nice long flat ride along Marina Boulevard and the lovely beach along Golden Gate Promenade.

A very friendly ranger then came and ask us if we were lost, since we were looking down at our map, had a chat to us about the area,

and pointed out some pelicans flying nearby.

Continuing along the long promenade towards the bridge, we stopped for a breather

before heading up Long Ave and Lincoln Boulevard to the bridge, with nice views looking back along where we had cycled.

The view near the top of the hill was lovely looking out to the bridge.

We then cycled across the bridge on the only side that was the open (the Eastern side).

Once over the bridge the cycle to Sausalito was mostly downhill, with one uphill.

Sausalito is a lovely seaside village where we grabbed a bite to eat and a slightly overpriced ice-cream, before getting on a ferry back to the city. It is worth noting that there are two ferries that operate from Sausalito to the city, both of which go to different piers in the city that are a decent distance apart (Pier 1 vs Pier 39), one of which you pay for from an automated machine on the wharf, the other on-board.

We ended up getting the boat to Pier 1 due to the schedule and came across this very cool piece of art before returning our bikes to a return point near Pier 1.