The Golden Gate Bridge

Overview:

The most icon­ic and most pho­tographed bridge on the Plan­et – the majes­tic Gold­en Gate Bridge is not only an archi­tec­tur­al feat, but with its recog­nis­able orange hue frame tow­er­ing over the almost 2‑mile gap between the strait of the San Fran­cis­co Bay and the pacif­ic Ocean against a back­drop of lush green hills, stun­ning beach­es and the incred­i­ble San Fran­cis­co sky­line it is tru­ly mag­nif­i­cent and beau­ti­ful won­der of the world.  

Con­struct­ed over the course of four years between 1933 – 1937 and named after the Gold­en Gate Strait below it, the Gold­en Gate Bridge was com­plet­ed ahead of sched­ule – which is some feat giv­en that the designs pro­posed by its archi­tect Joseph B. Strauss were round­ly derid­ed as impos­si­ble. Yet so much was the faith of the San Fran­cis­co locals in the design that they front­ed mon­ey to assist with the com­plex design and in 1937 the bridge was offi­cial­ly declared open – and was at the time the longest at 1,280 metres and the tallest 227 meters bridge on the plan­et – a title it held until 1964.  

Rec­og­niz­able now with is mighty arch­es and steel cables, the Gold­en Gate Bridge adopt­ed its famous Red colour (offi­cial­ly Inter­na­tion­al Orange) by mis­take – with the colour kept to assist the bridge in being illu­mi­nat­ed in the noto­ri­ous thick San Fran­cis­co haze.  

The colour now though, adds to the famous ledged of the bridge, and despite the Bridge becom­ing a noto­ri­ous sui­cide spot and threat­ened by earth­quakes, a stroll or cycle along the bridge — tak­ing in all the archi­tec­tur­al won­der of the bridge and beau­ty of the serene nat­ur­al coast­line is a tru­ly expe­ri­ence. As is tak­ing in any of the mul­ti­ple stun­ning view spots that the bridge affords – with the views at sun­rise where the bridge emerges through the famous San Fran­cis­co Fog being an incred­i­ble way to start your explo­ration of the bridge – which after a stroll across it – can then be topped off with wit­ness­ing a glo­ri­ous sun­set on one of the sparkling Cal­i­forn­ian beach­es, as you watch the icon­ic and majes­tic won­der of the world that is the Gold­en Gate Bridge light up against the back­ground of the stun­ning coast­line – for a tru­ly per­fect day.  

Where:

Span­ning the straight between the San Fran­cis­co Bay and the Pacif­ic Ocean, the icon­ic Gold­en Gate bridge is found in the icon­ic city of San Fran­cis­co in Cal­i­for­nia.  

Getting there:

A major hub on America’s west coast and one of the most icon­ic jew­els of Cal­i­for­nia get­ting to San Fran­cis­co and then onto the Gold­en Gate Bridge is incred­i­bly easy.  

For those trav­el­ling out­side from the Unit­ed States or from out­side Cal­i­for­nia state the eas­i­est option is to fly into either San Fran­cis­co or Oak­land Inter­na­tion­al air­ports – with both air­ports being reg­u­lar­ly ser­viced by flights inter­na­tion­al­ly and domes­ti­cal­ly and the air­port being mod­ern and up to date.  

For those with­in the states who don’t fan­cy the has­sle of fly­ing you also have three oth­er options to get to San Fran­cis­co. The first and most relaxed is by the incred­i­ble Amtrak train ser­vice – which gives you a front row win­dow seat to some of the beau­ty of cal­i­for­ni­ca as you make your way towards San Fran­cis­co. Amtrak trains oper­ate across the San Joaquins val­ley, from Los Ange­les, Chica­go, Seat­tle, Port­land and along the west coast of the Unit­ed States to reach Cal­i­for­nia – with book­ing in advance rec­om­mend­ed and tick­ets usu­al­ly cost­ing between $20 usd — $200 usd each way.  

For those on more of a bud­get and want­i­ng to reach San Fran­cis­co from across the Unit­ed States – then the best option is the grey­hound bus – which ser­vices San Fran­cis­co from all across the Unit­ed States. While it may be a lit­tle crowd­ed and you’ll be con­fined to your seat and luck of the draw with your seat part­ner – trips on the Grey­hound are very afford­able and an ide­al way for back­pack­ers and bud­get con­scious trav­ellers to reach the won­der of the Gold­en Gate Bridge.  

Final­ly – and per­haps the most under­rat­ed option on the list – is to self-dri­ve to San Fran­cis­co. Giv­en San Francisco’s unique posi­tion on the west coast – you’ve got a range of options to self dri­ve – includ­ing tak­ing the incred­i­ble High­way 1 along the Pacif­ic Ocean from Los Ange­les, tak­ing on road trip from Las Vegas across Death Val­ley or even tak­ing on one of the world’s great­est road trips along route 66 and mak­ing a detour north to get to the won­der. Which ever route you choose – self-dri­ving can be a fan­tas­tic way to go at your own pace and bud­get – whilst expe­ri­enc­ing the free­dom of a Road Trip across the Unit­ed States.  

Once you find your­self in San Fran­cis­co you have a range of option to get to the won­der – first­ly for those who want to take on just the walk or view­ing points (dis­cussed below) you can self dri­ve to the bridge – with their being an abun­dance of park­ing lots avail­able at both ends of the bridge.  

For those with­out a car – you have the option of hail­ing a Taxi or Uber and get­ting dropped off at the bridge – which is one of the eas­i­est options. Or you have a range of pub­lic trans­port options avail­able with the Gold­en Gate Bridge being a key stop on the tourist hop on hop off bus­es or you can get the num­ber 28 bus from Fisherman’s wharf or num­ber 30 from the Down­town San Fran­cis­co– which will both drop you off at the start of the bridge walk.  

For those who fan­cy a spot of explor­ing our pick is to walk or cycle from Canary Wharf to the Gold­en Gate Bridge – with both options (dis­cussed in detail below) allow­ing you to explore San Fran­cis­co, take on the incred­i­ble bat­tery east tail before arriv­ing to explore the mag­nif­i­cent won­der of the world that is the Gold­en Gate Bridge.  

Best time to Visit: 

While the Gold­en Gate bridge is an astound­ing archi­tec­tur­al and beau­ti­ful won­der – vis­it­ing it can be a bit of pot luck, with the city of San Fran­cis­co infa­mous for sud­den fog and haze gath­er­ing at any moment – which while adding to the mys­tique of the won­der can take the edge off both a vis­it and the mul­ti­ple view­ing spots of the bridge – so for this rea­son any vis­it to the gold­en gate bridge should be flex­i­ble allow­ing a cou­ple of days to make sure you get a chance to see the Gold­en Gate bride in all its won­der and beau­ty ! 

For a sea­son to vis­it – we would rec­om­mend Autumn and between the months of Sep­tem­ber and Octo­ber — which will give you the best chance to vis­it absent any fog but also avoid the cold of win­ter and avoid the show­ers of sum­mer. With the best time to vis­it being either between 10 – 1am for min­i­mal crowds and those cycling the bridge – or for those who want to walk over the bridge we’d rec­om­mend head­ing over after 3:30 pm when cyclists are only allowed on the west side of the bridge – so it will be you and fel­low pedes­tri­ans trekking along the beau­ti­ful won­der of the Gold­en Gate Bridge.  

Explore:

Stretch­ing over the beau­ti­ful mouth of the San Fran­cis­co Bay and on the cusp of the point where the bay meets the blue warmth of the Pacif­ic Ocean, the Gold­en Gate bridge stands as both the icon of San Fran­cis­co and an archi­tec­tur­al feat – with the great cables and deep red tow­er­ing arch­es com­bin­ing to make the Gold­en Gate bridge not only the most pho­tographed bridge in the world, but also a tru­ly spe­cial and inspir­ing won­der of the world.  

With views from the bridge stretch­ing to the infa­mous Alca­traz Island and to the lush stun­ning view points of Marin Coun­ty and the mag­nif­i­cent Bak­er Bridge, as well as being ful­ly walk­a­ble and explorable on bicy­cle there’s a range of options for you to explore the incred­i­ble Gold­en Gate Bridge: 

By Foot: 

While there’s of course no right point to start walk­ing across the bridge – and you can eas­i­ly take advan­tage of a hop-on off bus or a taxi to take you to the foot of the bridge on either the start point – or to the end point and walk back across the bridge – we’d advise start­ing your walk over the bridge from the icon­ic Fisherman’s wharf – which will give you the expe­ri­ence of cov­er­ing the bridge from both sides.  

So start­ing from the wharf and after a cup of famous clam chow­der, a view of the seals on pier 39 begin to wind your way through the famed streets of San Fran­cis­co over Fort Hill (be sure to accom­mo­date the view­point of fort point into your trip below) and along the Bat­tery east trail with its incred­i­ble and beau­ti­ful beach­es towards the great bridge in the dis­tance– which is hard to miss in the dis­tance.  

As you fol­low the route through the streets of San Fran­cis­co round from the beau­ti­ful pier for around 20 min­utes you’ll then come to the tra­di­tion­al start of the bridge walk – which lies at the Gold­en Gate bridge vis­i­tor cen­tre, the Gold­en Gate Café and at the stat­ue of the large bronze stat­ue of Joseph Strauss – the archi­tect of the bridge.  

Hav­ing tak­en time to mar­vel and appre­ci­ate the archi­tec­tur­al beau­ty and inge­nu­ity of Strauss’s design and the feat of con­struct­ing and erect­ing the bridge in the 1930’s – it’s time to start the walk and you can eas­i­ly get onto the path and pedes­tri­an walk­way over the bridge by turn­ing right at the stat­ue and fol­low­ing down a small set of stairs from where you can enjoy the expe­ri­ence of tra­vers­ing the Gold­en Gate Bridge.  

Start­ing off gen­tly – you’ll be on the east side­walk which faces the beau­ti­ful bay, and be imme­di­ate­ly upon some incred­i­ble pho­to views look­ing out toward the sky­line of San Fran­cis­co. 

After tak­ing a moment to snap some pho­tos, you’ll car­ry on and come upon the great tow­er of the Gold­en Gate bridge, that serves as both a memo­r­i­al to the builders who fell when con­struct­ing it, a muse­um and as a watch­tow­er over the Bridge – from here the path along the bridge also curves out lead­ing you onto the main path along the bridge.  

Con­tin­u­ing along the main bridge, you’ll find the six lanes of traf­fic rat­tling past you, and the path­way gen­tle and easy – with stun­ning view on your right, mov­ing onwards along the bridge, you’ll pass under­neath great arch­es and observe the bridges study cables – whilst also sad­ly pass­ing through a series of sui­cide emer­gency phones, a sad but nec­es­sary addi­tion to the bridge, as the beau­ty and height of the bridge has sad­ly seen it become one of the world’s lead­ing sui­cide spots.  

Con­tin­u­ing onwards along the path and you’ll come to the halfway point – and notice that the pedes­tri­an walk­way bends out­wards towards the beau­ti­ful bay to allow for some incred­i­ble pho­tos of both the bridge against the hill back­ground, Alca­traz island and look­ing back onto the shore­line of Canary Wharf.  

Mov­ing fur­ther on you’ll begin to see the path­way wind down, pass­ing a series of plaques that denote inter­est­ing facts about the bridge, includ­ing its height (746 feet) width (1.3km) and the com­po­si­tion of the cables (36.5 inch­es) as you pass towards the end of the bridge and after tak­ing one last look back at the incred­i­ble cables and tow­er­ing beau­ty of this bridge from the end point view­ing spot, it’s time to either jour­ney on to the beau­ti­ful town of Sausal­i­to, head to the view point of Bat­ter Spencer for the icon­ic pho­to across the bridge (our pick, see the next sec­tion) or enjoy the plea­sure of trekking back over this incred­i­ble won­der of the world.  

A trek to be tak­en on at a slow pace, a jour­ney over the Gold­en Gate bridge is gen­tle and easy and avail­able to all regard­less of fit­ness lev­els – but explor­ers should note that the path­way – which is strict­ly on the east side­walk of the bridge is only open between 5am – 6:30pm dur­ing the win­ter months – and 5am – 9pm dur­ing the sum­mer months, with the restrict­ed times com­ing in an event to cut down the lev­el of sui­cides.  

For those trekking along the Gold­en Gate bridge dur­ing week­days, you can expect to share the bridge with cyclists up till 3:30pm – so be sure to keep your eyes on them and stray into the cycle line, for our rec­om­men­da­tion we’d advise tak­ing on the bridge in the late evening on a week­day – it’s when the sun is at its best mak­ing for some stun­ning shots – and you’ll be able to stroll along with­out the wor­ry of com­pet­ing with cyclists on the bridge.  

Final­ly for those who are walk­ing across the bridge, be sure to pack an extra lay­ers of clothes – although the walk across the bridge will only take around 45 min­utes, weath­er on the bridge can change pret­ty dra­mat­i­cal­ly and for all its beau­ty giv­en how exposed it is it’s not some­where you want to find your­self when it’s rain­ing 

By Bike 

Along­side trekking across the bridge – the next best way to explore the mighty won­der of the Gold­en Gate bridge is to cycle across it with the bridge being open to cyclists every week­day from 5am – 3:30pm – with a jour­ney across the bridge being an exhil­a­rat­ing and adren­a­line pump­ing expe­ri­ence that can you take from Fisherman’s wharf across the beau­ti­ful bridge and to the quaint town of Sausal­i­to – from where you can then get a fer­ry– which takes you across the beau­ti­ful mouth of the Bay past Alca­traz and back to the wharf.  

With plen­ty of option to hire bikes around San Fran­cis­co city cen­tre and at Canary wharf – includ­ing mul­ti­ple options online – our sug­gest­ed route is again to begin in canary wharf and pick up your bike – then head through the streets of San Fran­cis­co across the bridge to Sausal­i­to for a round trip of just under 9 miles – which should take no more than 3 hours – although you can expect the occa­sion­al uphill ped­al.  

Begin­ning from Fisherman’s wharf and hav­ing got your­self a decent bike and hel­met to begin your jour­ney, you can cycle to the west part of the wharf – and into the beau­ti­ful area of Fort Mason – where a steep upward hill awaits you.  

Con­quer­ing the hill you’ll jour­ney through the area of Fort Mason with the bridge then com­ing into view, and from here there’s some of the most scenic cycling on the plan­et as you gen­tly glide along the water’s edge of the bay along the Bat­tery east trail towards the start of the Gold­en Bridge path.  

Approach­ing from the east side­walk – and enter­ing before 3:30pm – and being sure to stick to the des­ig­nat­ed cycle lane you can then enjoy one of the most unique cycle rides on the plan­et – with the wind in your hair you’ll pass through the first arch­way of the Gold­en Gate Bridge and past the main tow­er before gen­tly con­tin­u­ing along the cycle lane towards the cen­tre of the bridge.  

For those that want to snap pho­tos, be sure to keep an eye on your bike – espe­cial­ly if it’s rent­ed and oth­er cyclists and pedes­tri­ans around you before you dis­mount – and hav­ing snapped some incred­i­ble pho­tos of the great mouth of San Fran­sis­co bay – it’s time to trav­el on along the rest of the bridge, admir­ing it’s archi­tec­tur­al feat and the won­der of the clear blue waters accom­pa­ny­ing you as you glide over the path­way towards the incred­i­ble view spot of Vista Point at the end of the bridge.  

Hav­ing dis­mount­ed and tak­en some great pho­tos of the bridge from the view­point of Vista Point – you can then either cycle back over the bridge or take our rec­om­men­da­tion of car­ry­ing on towards the quaint town of Sausal­i­to.  

For those approach­ing Sausal­i­to from Vista Point – you’ll need to head to the under­pass to get onto the cycle route to Sausal­i­to – which is not well marked but is eas­i­ly found as it’s the only set of stairs at vista point, and hav­ing nav­i­gat­ed under way through the under­pass – which can be a tad steep so feel free to dis­mount and push – you’ll come out at the North Tow­er park­ing lot – the reverse sec­tion for trav­el­ling across the bridge.  

From the North Tow­er, it’s a sim­ple mat­ter of check­ing the pave­ment for signs towards the Sausal­i­to bike path – and then fol­low­ing the bike trail down from the bridge head along the path­way. Be sure to keep your car­dio up on this route down as you will hit the occa­sion­al hill that requires some extra ped­dling – but as you climb up the hill you’ll reach the stun­ning view point of Fort Bak­er – for some incred­i­ble views of the bridge before rid­ing into Sausal­i­to – where you can take in a well earned drink at a café before hop­ping on the fer­ry back to the pier.  

A thrill-seek­ing expe­ri­ence and one that lets you head over the bridge with the wind in your hair, be sure that your cycling lev­el is up to a com­pe­tent stan­dard before tak­ing on the ride over the bridge, and be sure to come pre­pared with a hel­met, warm lay­ers and to head along the path­way before it clos­es – noth­ing worse then head­ing to the bridge only to find the cycle lane shut.  

Sunset cruise:

Along­side trekking and cycling over the bridge, anoth­er incred­i­ble way to see the beau­ty of the Gold­en Gate Bridge in all its mag­i­cal glo­ry is by tak­ing a sun­set cruise that takes you from Canary Wharf over the mouth of the Warf and under the bridge and to the edge of the Pacif­ic Ocean – all while you watch the gold­en sun­set of Cal­i­for­nia descend across the bridge mak­ing for incred­i­ble scenes.  

A pop­u­lar way for tourists to take in the Gold­en Bridge and the San Fran­cis­co shore­line, you can eas­i­ly book a cruise at Canary Wharf, and you can expect each cruise to take around 90 min­utes and coast around $50 Usd, with the cruise being a great way for fam­i­lies and all to see the Won­der with­out hav­ing the excur­sion of trav­el­ling over it – and the jour­ney on the boat being as calm as ship jour­neys come.  

Offer­ing stun­ning and unique views, a cruise under the bridge and around the bay is also avail­able dur­ing the day, but for our view it’s best to line up a cruise at sun­set – as along­side giv­ing you a unique chance to explore this incred­i­ble won­der from a unique van­tage point – and giv­ing you the chance to take in incred­i­ble views of Alca­traz and Angel Islands as well as Fisherman’s Wharf and the Gold­en Gate Park and San Fran­cis­co Nation­al parks – you’ll get the expe­ri­ence of see­ing one of the best and great­est sun­sets on the plan­et – as you cruise along the beau­ti­ful San Fran­cis­co bay towards the glow­ing won­der of the Gold­en Gate Bridge illu­mi­nat­ed by the incred­i­ble Cal­i­forn­ian sun­set.  

 View the bridge (Sunrise, During the Day and Sunset): 

Along­side the incred­i­ble hike or cycle ride along the bridge, one of the most thrilling and awe-inspir­ing ways to appre­ci­ate the spender of the won­der of the Gold­en Gate Bridge is few the many spe­cial view­points that allow you to take in this archi­tec­tur­al feat from all angles.  

While almost every spot around the Bay could be con­sid­ered a great view­point, the below are our picks to get stun­ning views and icon­ic pho­tos of the incred­i­ble Gold­en Gate Bridge: 

Marin Headlands – Hawk Hill 

Best Views at: Sun­rise 

The best spot to cap­ture the beau­ty of the Bridge at Sun­rise, the Marin Head­lands are a series of lush rolling hills that sit on the edge of the Gold­en Gate Nation­al Park area – and with their unique posi­tion sit­ting to the North and over the mighty won­der it’s here that you can get the icon­ic pho­to of the bridge ris­ing above the clouds on a fog­gy day, with the Hawk Hill in par­tic­u­lar­ly being the place to head to for this incred­i­ble shot of the mighty won­der against the beau­ti­ful back drop of San Fran­cis­co.  

A true pho­tog­ra­phers dream – and a place of inspi­ra­tion you’ll need to be up ear­ly (before sun­rise) to grab the famous shot – and you can get to the great Hawk Hill either by the 76X bus from Down­town San Fran­cis­co at week­ends, or by self-dri­ve or taxi – with crowds a plen­ty expect­ed at this beau­ty spot – espe­cial­ly when it’s cloudy where the unique set­ting of the ris­ing sun glis­tens through the clouds and lights up both the San Fran­cis­co sky­line, the gold­en bay below and the stun­ning Won­der of the Gold­en Gate Bridge for an awe-inspir­ing view­point and one of the most unique and beau­ti­ful van­tage points and pho­tog­ra­phy spots on the plan­et.  

Battery Spencer View 

Best Views at: Day­time and Night Time 

The icon­ic view of the bridge, and one you’ll have seen time and time again – the view from Bat­ter Spencer catch­es the full length of the archi­tec­tur­al won­der of the bridge as you stand on a perched cliff star­ing out over the mag­nif­i­cent bay and the incred­i­ble blue pacif­ic ocean.  

Giv­ing you the best shot of the full scale of the won­der and it’s famous arch­es and red colour, Bat­ter Spencer View is offi­cial­ly an 19th Cen­tu­ry artillery bat­tery – con­struct­ed as part of the defence of Old San Fran­cis­co and strate­gi­cal­ly placed to offer max­i­mum view with a series of can­nons – that were de-com­mis­sioned and removed in world war 2 – hav­ing once stood where the view­ing point now lies.  

An incred­i­ble view, bat­tery spencer view is a great place to view and pho­to the won­der of the Gold­en Gate Bridge at night – and it’s also eas­i­ly reach­able as you can either dri­ve there direct­ly by fol­low­ing the route up Conzel­man Road or for those who don’t fan­cy dri­ving hop on the tourist hop on / hop off bus­es from where you can enjoy the views of Vista Point and then pass under the bridge to find Conzel­man Road  — with the views from Bat­tery Spencer view also mak­ing for an incred­i­ble end for those who trek across the bridge – with the stun­ning sweep­ing views from this remark­able van­tage point giv­ing explor­ers a chance to cap­ture the absolute best of the incred­i­ble won­der of the World that is the Gold­en Gate Bridge.  

Battery East & Battery West Trail 

Best Views at: Day­time  

The pick of the cycling and walk­ing paths to get to or from the bridge the Bat­tery east and west rails lead direct­ly to / from the walk­ways on the bridge – with the east side tak­ing you along an incred­i­ble Cal­i­forn­ian spot where you have the beau­ty of a the Gold­en gate beach  and the warm blue water of the wharf mix­ing with the  Pacif­ic Ocean com­bined with ground lev­el views of the bridge ahead – and the west side tak­ing you along a series of cliff edges that let you take in the shore­line of the east side, the San Fran­cis­co sky­line in the dis­tance and give you stun­ning sweep­ing views of the Gold­en Gate bridge against the back­drop of San Fran­cis­co.  

With both trails being a great place to not only walk but also cycle along and the east trail tak­ing you almost direct­ly from Canary Wharf to the Gold­en Gate bridge – tak­ing on one of the bat­tery trails, — which are eas­i­ly picked up from either side of the Bridge on approach —  is a great way to give your­self no only some incred­i­ble views but giv­en the great scenery that lies along both trails and the stun­ning views of the bridge, they make for a great place to kick back and enjoy the Cal­i­forn­ian sun shine as you mar­vel at tru­ly spec­tac­u­lar views of the won­der of the Gold­en Gate Bridge.  

Fort Point 

Best Views at: Day­time  

A clas­sic view of the Gold­en Gate Bridge – and one that allows you to take in its unique archi­tec­ture in a spot of His­to­ry, the Fort Point view­point lies at the south­ern end of the bridge and com­bines the inter­est­ing Fort Point – a for­mer civ­il War fort with stun­ning views of the bridge.  

Cur­rent­ly a muse­um, that charts the his­to­ry of San Fran­cis­co dur­ing the Amer­i­can Civ­il War – and one that is free to enter – the fort itself should be vis­it­ed not just to walk through the incred­i­ble his­to­ry of the Bay area but also as entry into it allows vis­i­tors to the rooftop of the Fort – from where you can take in and pho­to­graph incred­i­ble views of the great bridge.  

Open from 10am – 5pm each day, Fort Point is a spot that’s often over­looked when it comes to view­ing the bridge, but it’s one that’s well worth it as you get up close and per­son­al to the base of the mag­nif­i­cent Gold­en Gate Bridge.  

Marshall’s Beach & Bakers Beach 

Best Place for: Sun­set 

Along­side the many paths, hills and roads that lead to the Bridge, San Fran­cis­co is also blessed with a series of incred­i­ble beach­es ‑two of which give stun­ning spots to watch the sun­set against the Gold­en Gate Bridge.  

With the bridge light­ing up a vari­ety of colours, you’ve got a choice of two stun­ning beach­es to watch the incred­i­ble sun­set either Marshall’s Beach or Bak­ers Beach, with Marshall’s beach lying at the north of Bak­ers Beach and being small­er and sched­uled (and also being an unof­fi­cial nud­ist beach so be warned! ) and Bak­ers Beach being big­ger and offer wider views of the bridge at sun­set  — but also being more crowd­ed.  

Acces­si­ble by bus or by Car or Taxi and both beach­es reach­able from a trail­head on the Lin­coln Head boule­vard, you can expect both beach­es to get busy towards sun­set, so you’re advised to get there ear­ly, but if you head there on a clear day you’re in for an incred­i­ble sight as the beau­ti­ful pacif­ic ocean crash­es against the Marin Head­lands pro­vid­ing a per­fect back­drop to take in the glow­ing and shin­ing won­der of the Gold­en Gate Bridge illu­mi­nat­ed by the bright Cal­i­forn­ian Sun which is tru­ly the best way to cap a per­fect day vis­it­ing and explor­ing the great won­der of the world that is the Gold­en Gate Bridge.  

How long to stay:

We’d advise bud­get­ing one long day to explore all the sights of the Gold­en Gate bridge. 

With the day start­ing with an ear­ly morn­ing sun rise vis­it to the Marin Head­lands and Hawk Hill – before grab­bing a spot of break­fast and tak­ing on the trek or cycle across the bridge – being sure to approach along the Bat­tery East trail for stun­ning views and mak­ing time to vis­it Fort Point on your way over.  

After a long and awe-inspir­ing jour­ney across the bridge, we’d advise either car­ry­ing on to Sausal­i­to or head­ing or tak­ing on the Bat­tery west Trail and Bat­tery Spencer View trails for more incred­i­ble views – before cap­ping your day off at either Mar­shall Beach or Bak­ers Beach as you watch the incred­i­ble Cal­i­forn­ian sun­set over what will undoubt­ed­ly be one of the most spe­cial and won­der­ous days of your life.  

Top Tip:

It’s impor­tant to be flex­i­ble with your sched­ule when vis­it­ing the Gold­en Gate Bridge, for all of San Francisco’s beau­ty the city is noto­ri­ous for fog and haze instant­ly descend­ing – which can real­ly ruin both the view from pho­to spots and the expe­ri­ence of walk­ing across the bridge, so it’s best to bud­get a cou­ple of days for your trip to the bridge to ensure you get to see it in all of it’s full beau­ty.  

For those tak­ing on the bridge walk or cycle – be sure to come pre­pared with a good back­pack con­tain­ing some extra lay­ers, as regard­less of when you cross the bridge the exposed area of the bridge can leave you vul­ner­a­ble to chills and windy storms.  

Along­side advis­ing that you bud­get enough time on a clear day to get the sun­rise view at Hawk Hill and the beau­ti­ful sun­set view from either a boat or Bak­ers beach, it’s impor­tant to be on your guard and keep a strong eye on your valu­ables when vis­it­ing the Gold­en Gate bridge and San Fran­cis­co – sad­ly the city has been in a con­stant crime wave for the last few years, so car break ins and theft are com­mon, with tourist areas and rental cars known to be tar­get­ed and you need to be espe­cial­ly on the look our for pick pock­ets in the tourist areas.  

You’ll also like­ly encounter indi­vid­u­als both home­less and high on sub­stances if you ven­ture around down­town San Fran­cis­co on your way to the won­der, again our advice would be to be care­ful and avoid con­fronta­tion where pos­si­ble.  

Yet despite the risks of vis­it­ing San Fran­cis­co – a trip over the Gold­en Gate bridge is a tru­ly spe­cial expe­ri­ence, so as long as you give your­self enough time to catch the bridge on a clear day and have your wits about you – you are in for a tru­ly spe­cial and mag­i­cal expe­ri­ence.  

Cost:

Aside from get­ting to San Fran­cis­co – vis­it­ing the Gold­en Gate bridge can be as flex­i­ble on your bud­get as you wish – with the walk across the bridge and the view­ing points all with­out cost to take on – and you’ll also find access to the bridge being either with­out charge as you walk from down­town San Fran­cis­co or at a min­i­mum as you can take one of the many pub­lic bus­es to reach either the view­ing points at Hawk Hill and Fort Point or the start­ing points for trekking along the bridge.  

For those who fan­cy a cycle or a boat tour under the bridge, you can expect bike hire to start at $10 Usd per hour – with bikes being eas­i­ly rentable from the area around canary wharf, and the boat trip from Sausal­i­to back to the canary wharf (or vice ver­sa) to cost $14 Usd one way – with the boat also being avail­able for non-cyclists and for those who fan­cy a larg­er walk across the Gold­en Gate Park and Bridge back to canary wharf.  

For those who want to cap­ture the beau­ty of both the bridge, the Gold­en Gate Park and the Cal­i­forn­ian shore­line by jour­ney­ing across the mouth of the wharf and the pacif­ic ocean then a sun­set boat cruise is high­ly rec­om­mend­ed – with the boat cruise com­ing in at around $50 Usd for 90 min­utes and offer­ing stun­ning and unpar­al­leled views of the Gold­en Gate Bridge as the sun sets.  

Allow­ing for a cup of clam chow­der and a sou­venir and not includ­ing flights, accom­mo­da­tion or get­ting to San Fran­cis­co – you can expect a trip to the won­der of the Gold­en Gate Bridge to begin from $10 Usd and go up to around $100 usd depend­ing on the route you choose to take across this incred­i­ble won­der of the world.  

Fun Fact:  

Named after the Gold­en Gate Bridge, the offi­cial colour of the Gold­en Gate Bridge is sad­ly not Gold, but is instead “Inter­na­tion­al Orange” – with the colour cho­sen by acci­dent and not intend­ed to be per­ma­nent, but after being vis­i­ble in fog and com­ple­ment­ing the beau­ty of the Gold­en Gate Park, Marin Head­lands and sur­round­ing Pacif­ic Ocean, the inter­na­tion­al Orange colour which is touched up with a new coat every few years was stuck with – giv­ing us the incred­i­ble beau­ty and icon that is the Gold­en Gate Bridge as we know it today.  

Best photo spot: 

The Gold­en Gate bridge is a photographer’s dream – with the icon­ic struc­ture being not only a beau­ti­ful and bright won­der, set against the majes­tic Cal­i­for­nia Coast – but also afford­ing mul­ti­ple and stun­ning van­tage points to cap­ture unique angles and shots of this incred­i­ble bridge as it tran­si­tions through a series of awe-inspir­ing and beau­ti­ful array of colours through­out the day.  

Before set­ting off to our sug­gest­ed pho­to spots below, be sure to give your­self a cou­ple of days in San Fran­cis­co and be flex­i­ble with your sched­ule when it comes to snap­ping the Gold­en Gate Bridge – as the city is noto­ri­ous for smog descend­ing at any moment, which can real­ly take the edge of pho­tos and cloud any shots, we’d also rec­om­mend keep­ing any cam­era gear close to you as unfor­tu­nate­ly areas around the Gold­en Gate Bridge are known to be crime hotspots and tar­get­ed by crim­i­nals.  

With that in mind the below is our rec­om­men­da­tion for the best pho­to guide for cap­tur­ing incred­i­ble shots of the amaz­ing Gold­en Gate Bridge from Sun­rise to Sun­set: 

Sunrise – Hawk Hill at the Marin Headlands: 

The best spot for Sun­rise pho­tos of the Gold­en Gate bridge, and home of the icon­ic view of the Gold­en Gate Bridge ris­ing above the clouds – you’ll need to get up ear­ly on a clear day to climb to the lush green Hawk Hill which sits in the stun­ning Marin Head­lands nation­al park to both beat the crowds and the ris­ing sun, but if you do you’ll be reward­ed of an incred­i­ble view and pho­to oppor­tu­ni­ty of the peaks of the Gold­en Gate bridge burst­ing through the clouds as the serene San Fran­cis­co and Cal­i­forn­ian coast line below you comes alive – for a tru­ly stun­ning shot of this incred­i­ble won­der.  

Daytime and Night Time – Battery Spencer View:

The spot for the incred­i­ble icon­ic panoram­ic view of the Gold­en Gate Bridge in all its glo­ry – Bat­tery Spencer view was once a 19th Cen­tu­ry artillery spot – and now offers an incred­i­ble perch from which to get incred­i­ble pho­tos of the full length of the bridge and on a clear day allows for incred­i­ble shots of the Bridge’s archi­tec­tur­al struc­ture, glow­ing red hue and the sur­round­ing beau­ty of the coast­line, pacif­ic ocean and Gold­en Gate Nation­al park – which com­bine togeth­er to make a stun­ning shot.  

You can expect Bat­tery Spencer view to be a lit­tle busy dur­ing peak view­ing times, so it’s advise to get there before mid­day for the day shots – and for those who want an incred­i­ble view of the bridge at night illu­mi­nat­ed against the beau­ti­ful Cal­i­forn­ian moon and lit up with both traf­fic and street lights – bat­ter spencer view is again the place to be – with the panoram­ic views afford­ed here adding a real ele­ment of mag­ic to the beau­ti­ful San Fran­cis­co night and being a great spot to get mag­i­cal pho­tos of the won­der at night.  

Daytime – Crossing the Bridge:

 Fort Point 

For an inspir­ing, ele­vat­ed and unique view of the Bridge that marks a great way to either begin or end a hike along the Bridge – the muse­um and for­mer civ­il war of Fort Point is the place to be. Now a muse­um that sits on the edge of the bridge, you’ll need to be at Fort Point between 10–5pm and after tour­ing the muse­um you can ascent to its top floor and onto the roof of this for­mer fort – to get incred­i­ble views of the under­side of the bridge stretch­ing across the mouth of the great Bay of San Fran­cis­co for a tru­ly icon­ic and beau­ti­ful pho­to.

Battery East & Battery West Trail 

Two icon­ic trails – picked up depend­ing on which side of the bridge you head for – the Bat­tery East & Bat­tery West trails lead along­side the pacif­ic ocean towards stun­ning views of the won­der of the gold­en gate bridge – with the east side tak­ing you along an incred­i­ble Cal­i­forn­ian beach – giv­ing you incred­i­ble pho­tos of the beach, bridge and sea – the absolute best of San Fran­cis­co – and  the west side tak­ing you along a series of cliff edges that let you take in the shore­line of the east side, the San Fran­cis­co sky­line in the dis­tance and give you stun­ning sweep­ing views of the Gold­en Gate bridge against the back­drop of San Fran­cis­co – with both trail mak­ing for incred­i­ble pho­tog­ra­phy spots of the whole of the bridge – and being a great way to take in the full beau­ty of the bridge from behind your lens, before you begin your jour­ney across it.  

Bakers Beach 

Sun­set – Bak­ers Beach  

Our pick of the incred­i­ble beach­es that sit on the out­skirts of San Fran­cis­co – Bak­ers beach is a tru­ly mag­i­cal spot to watch the sun­set against the Gold­en bridge, as the bridge changes through a kalei­do­scope of var­i­ous shades of red reflect­ed against the warm blue pacif­ic ocean under­neath it.  

A beau­ti­ful beach in its own right, and a great spot with clear views of both the San Fran­cis­co shore­line and the Cal­i­forn­ian Coast, Bak­ers Beach is a great place to spend an hour or two lead­ing up to sun­set as you secure a good spot and slow­ly watch the amaz­ing Cal­i­forn­ian sun set against the back­drop of the bridge– mak­ing for a tru­ly spe­cial way to cap off an amaz­ing day spent explor­ing – and pho­tograph­ing the incred­i­ble won­der of the world that is the Gold­en Gate Bridge.