On a lovely afternoon in San Francisco I decided to walk across the Golden Gate Bridge. The goal was to get to Sausalito and take the ferry back. It’s also very popular to bike across. There are lots of bike rental places around Pier 41 (and actually all over the city) if you wanted to get a bike.
If you want to cross by foot you can take the bus to the Golden Gate visitors centre on the San Francisco side. It’s right where the toll road starts. The visitor centre has good views of the bridge and has water and bathrooms. It also sells souvenirs.
Crossing the bridge from here will take 45 minutes by foot. If you continue on to Sausalito you should figure about 2 hours for the whole hike. It’s mostly flat and there is water on both sides of the bridge.
The bridge has a separate walkway that is shared by cyclists and pedestrians. This means that you don’t have to dodge traffic as you cross. Unfortunately, the bridge is also famous for people jumping from it. There are emergency phones along the way and next year the city will install a net under the bridge to catch people.
Once you get to the middle, you will get some great views of Alcatraz and downtown. You can see the ferries running back and forth. I got a very clear day which made for good pictures. I actually wanted some fog to take some interesting pictures, but I got fantastic weather instead, so I won’t complain.
Once you get off the bridge at the other side you basically do a U-turn to go under the bridge and then the hiking trail continues. Eventually it joins a local road (with a sidewalk) as it enters Sausalito. This is quite a nice town, but is quite touristy.
Most people return to the city by ferry (as I did), however you can easily take Lyft or Uber from here (they will add the toll to your bill) or Golden Gate Transit. Golden Gate Transit will drive you back across the bridge. Their busses are quite nice. They have large seats and free wifi.