How Not to See Sausalito

How Not to Visit Sausalito

Here are our top tips for avoiding disappointment when you visit Sausalito.

 

1.  Don't Make Sausalito an Afterthought

"We took the afternoon ferry from San Francisco and had dinner in Sausalito, but we realized we should have taken the first ferry in the morning."

"We stopped by for an hour on our way back from the Wine Country, and we realized we should have spent a whole day here.  We were tired and couldn't really enjoy ourselves apart from having a nice dinner."

Sausalito can easily fill an entire day for visitors who enjoy art and the striking vistas of San Francisco across the Bay.  If you've been on any kind of an extended trip like the long drive to the Wine Country, giving Sausalito its own afternoon is a lot more fun.

Muir Woods and Sausalito in the same day?  This is a frequent guided tour itinerary.  If you just take a short walk in Muir Woods in the morning you can still have lunch in Sausalito and get a chance to see much of the town.  But if you do one of the longer hikes, I think you'll enjoy your trip more if you give Sausalito "its own day."

 

2.  Do Call Ahead for Reservations

"It was a warm summer evening and the restaurants all looked great, but when we walked in we were always told there was a long wait."

Despite being a small town, during the summer getting a good table in downtown Sausalito is the same as it is in New York, London, Florence or Hong Kong during the busy season.  During the evening the top restaurants, especially those with world-class views, may be booked well in advance.  This can produce long, frustrating waits for walk-ins.  During the summer months and on holiday weekends the "view" restaurants downtown near the Ferry can also be booked up at lunch.

If we want to go to one of the top Sausalito places and it's a popular time of year, we try to make reservations a day or two in advance.  If it's a special occasion or holiday we'll book ahead by a week or two, especially if we want to see the sunset from a picture window right on the Bay.

In the fall and winter this is less of an issue, but it still pays to plan ahead.

You can check our restaurant rankings and the restaurant categories at the right side of this page to plan your trip in advance, and we have links and phone numbers for each restaurant so you can reserve your table.

 

3.  Don't Get Caught in the Wrong Hotel

"The travel website said the Water's Edge Hotel in Tiburon was close to Sausalito.  We got there and it's a long drive past Sausalito!"

Tiburon is a beautiful town and is very close to Sausalito... if you're traveling by boat or helicopter!   By car going to Tiburon is a long drive (or a lovely bike ride) around the edge of Richardson Bay. 

This is why OurSausalito.com is moderated by people, not computers.  If Sausalito is the focus of your trip, do not stay in Tiburon.

 

4.  Don't Be Afraid to Improvise

If you're arriving in Sausalito tonight, the streets are full of people and you don't have a reservation yet, don't despair.  Last-minute calls to the top places often score slots from canceled reservations. 

If you're walking around Sausalito at 2:00 PM and see a place that looks great and you didn't plan ahead for dinner, don't give up hope.  It never hurts to walk in and ask in-person if they have an open spot for dinner, or a waiting list for a cell phone call to fill in for any cancellation.

 

5.  It's Like Going to the Louvre: There are Big Crowds in Summer

During June, July and August there are a lot of visitors in the six blocks at the heart of downtown Sausalito, closest to the Ferry.   Other Sausalito neighborhoods remain largely unaffected because only the local residents go there. 

Some people love to come this time of year to be part of all that energy and activity and to be around people from all over the world, but it's less fun for others.  We like walking down Bridgeway and hearing seven or eight different languages spoken in the span of just a few minutes.

The best weather is actually in September and October most years, and by then the crowds have started to thin out.   

 

6.  Don't Be Afraid to Come in Winter

Sausalito is not one of those summer towns that rolls up the sidewalks and locks the shop doors every winter.  November through February are the least crowded months, and all the same great restaurants and art galleries are open then as well.

All four seasons are beautiful here.  It so happens that I'm updating this section of the article on a rainy winter day in January, 2009.  At times today the clouds and fog over the Bay are creating an El Greco sky that is beautiful and inspiring.  Which is, of course, why his View of Toledo is to the left of this paragraph!

 

Have a good suggestion we should add to this article?  Did you have a good time doing exactly what we suggest you shouldn't do?  (Just because we have strong opinions doen't mean we're always right!)  Leave a comment below and let our readers learn from your perspectives!

 

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