Firstly when you plan to visit this city see that you pack warm clothes like long pants, sweaters with hood. However you may leave your ski gloves and mufflers at home because you will be quite comfortable with the climate as the average temperature in SF is about 62° F and that too even in summers!
Do wear shoes that are comfortable as you will be walking a lot on steep hills.
Don’t forget to visit Union Square and Fisherman’s Wharf, but don’t spend all your time there, you can rent a bicycle to cross the bridge or take a ride on the Ferry and visit Sausalito. You may even pedal down to Tiburon and get back by Ferry ride.
The city is a great place for food, a heaven for vegetarians and vegans who are visiting SF city. Don’t forget to try all those yummiest Chinese food and wine, but make reservations; because when it comes to food, restaurant goers take this seriously and you would end up without a table! There are lots of places where you will never get to make reservations and if you are lucky you might get a reservation at any of those restaurants, and if you can get a table then forget the expenses and enjoy the dinner which will be an unforgettable experience!
See that you visit this city’s lovely parks, especially the Golden Gate Park. You might even spend more than a week walking in this park because there’s so much took. You will just enjoy walking in these beautiful parks, there are lovely ponds and lakes where you can paddle across or feed the cute ducks, there are fields where you can play a game of football with your friends or even with the locals, just drop during a weekend for the game. There are also incredible museums in SF; one is the De Young museum so see that you visit.
You need to be patient when it comes to public transportation. It can be rather good or just okay, but don’t compare this with New York or European standards. You need to keep in mind that there are two separate tickets if you are traveling in BART (subway) and MUNI (buses/streetcars). You need to buy separate tickets for BART and MUNI.
If you got a vehicle, note that parking is near impossible in SF. In case if you get a ticket and leave the country without paying, you would regret when you make the next visit! A 20 to 30 minute search for parking isn’t unheard of, budget this into your traveling time.