San Francisco is known for its fog, wind, and cool skies, sure – but sometimes it can actually rain quite a lot, and you might not be ready. You might have had plans that involved a clear day, like checking out the Golden Gate Bridge or a picnic in the park, when stormy skies decided to roll in. Trust me, it happens.
But a rainy day in SF doesn’t have to mean staying in. San Francisco has a lot of interesting things to see that are inside, and the rain is a great reason to take it easy, eat something hot, walk around a museum, and find places you might not have seen otherwise. Even on a day where the hills get slippery and thich fog covers any view, with some flexibility you have make a cozy and even slightly adventurous day out of it.
This guide will tell you about museums, markets, cafes, and some weird things to see in San Francisco on a rainy day. Bring a jacket that can keep you dry, wear shoes that will not slip, and get ready to see a new side of San Francisco.
Best Things to Do on a Rainy Day in San Francisco
The secret to enjoying San Francisco in bad weather is grouping activities by neighborhood. Pick one or two areas to build your day around, and leave space for an unplanned coffee or cocktail in a cool spot you pass by.
Here’s a quick glance to get you started:
- Downtown and SoMa are ideal for museums.
- The Embarcadero works well for science, food, and waterfront views
- North Beach and Chinatown are perfect for bookstores, tea, dim sum, and historic interiors.
- Golden Gate Park Area / Haight & Ashbury has several indoor attractions close together, although you will need a raincoat for the short walks between them.
Option 1: Ideas to Stay In, Relax, and Let the Heaviest Rain Pass
Sometimes the smartest rainy-day activity in San Francisco is simply not rushing outside and deciding to truly make a rest day out of it – sometimes, it’s needed.
Order Food In, Veg Out
Make coffee, order breakfast, sit on the balcony or near the window and watch rain streak across them as you check the forecast and reorganize your plans. SF is known for its fantastic food options, and you can order many of them right to your doorstep to enjoy a day in
Play Games or Use Streaming Services
You can take some chill time to play online games, power up that Xbox or PlayStation that hasn’t been used in ages, watch Netflix (try some San Francisco themed movies for something extra fun), or even try some online gambling. Adult travelers who are eligible might spend part of that downtime exploring Joe Fortune slots online as a casual form of entertainment while waiting out the rain (make sure to set a spending limit first)!
Organize and Edit Photos or Videos
This is the one thing that I normally plan to do as I travel, but literally NEVER actually do… so a rainy day is the ideal opportunity to catch up on organizing your content. Whether you are a content creator or simply want to organize your images or send some to friends and family at home, take a rainy day to start editing photos, sorting them into albums or posts, or making videos of your trip or your day. You’ll thank yourself later.
Journal or Plan the Rest of Your Trip
Rainy days are also perfect for all the travel admin that somehow never gets done while you’re actually having fun. Write in your travel journal, organize tickets and little paper memories you’ve collected, make restaurant reservations, figure out transportation, or finally research the next part of your trip.
I always think I’m going to stay perfectly organized while traveling and then suddenly realize I have 900 photos, six screenshots of restaurants, three confirmation emails I haven’t opened, and absolutely no idea what I’m doing two days from now. A few rainy hours can fix a lot.
Spend Hours in San Francisco’s Best Museums
San Francisco has enough museums to fill several rainy days. I recommend choosing some according to your mood rather than racing between all of them because there are seriously SO many.
For convenience, SFMOMA is the obvious choice around SoMa, while the de Young and California Academy of Sciences are directly across from each other in Golden Gate Park and make an amazing rainy-day combination.
San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA)
The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA) is the giant modern and contemporary art museum in SoMa, with floor after floor of painting, photography, sculpture, design, architecture, and media art. You could easily lose several hours here, especially if the weather outside is horrible enough that you have no motivation whatsoever to leave.
Its downtown location also makes it easy to combine with lunch, indoor games, or some of the other SoMa activities farther down this list.
Exploratorium
The Exploratorium at Pier 15 is technically a science museum, but calling it that makes it sound approximately 400% more boring than it actually is.
This place is FULL of things you can touch, press, spin, test, manipulate, listen to, and experiment with, covering everything from light and sound to human perception and biology. It’s fantastic for kids, obviously, but it’s absolutely not one of those museums where adults spend three hours pretending they’re only pressing all the buttons for the children.
It’s right on the Embarcadero too, so you can combine it with the Ferry Building and make an entire rainy day out of this part of the waterfront.
California Academy of Sciences
The California Academy of Sciences might be the ultimate rainy-day attraction in San Francisco because there is an aquarium, planetarium, natural history museum, and an enormous indoor rainforest all under one living roof – no need to even step outside.
You can quite literally escape the rain by walking into a warm tropical rainforest full of plants and butterflies, then head downstairs and look at fish. Give yourself a few hours here because there is a LOT to see. Even better, it’s directly across from the de Young Museum.
de Young Museum
The de Young is the major fine arts museum in Golden Gate Park, with collections spanning American art, textiles, photography, art from Africa and Oceania, and rotating exhibitions.
But one of my favorite parts for a rainy day (or any day really) is the Hamon Observation Tower, an enclosed glass viewing platform with panoramic views across San Francisco. Even if the city is half-covered in clouds, it’s a pretty epic place to watch the weather moving across it.
Combine the de Young with the California Academy of Sciences directly across the Music Concourse if you want to make Golden Gate Park your rainy-day base.
Asian Art Museum
The Asian Art Museum in Civic Center has thousands of works spanning thousands of years of Asian history and culture, from ancient ceramics and sculptures to contemporary art.
This one makes the most sense if you’re already staying around downtown rather than trying to combine it with the Golden Gate Park museums on the other side of the city.
Legion of Honor
The Legion of Honor is in Lincoln Park on the northwestern side of SF, in a beautiful neoclassical building overlooking the surrounding park and Golden Gate.
It’s more out of the way than the other museums on this list, so I’d choose this as the main event for a rainy morning or afternoon rather than trying to squeeze it between downtown attractions.
Museum of Craft and Design
For something smaller and a little different from the huge art museums, check what’s currently showing at the Museum of Craft and Design. Its exhibitions focus more on contemporary craft, design, materials, and how everyday objects are actually made. It’s super interesting.
Do Something Actually FUN Indoors
If you have reached your museum limit or just want to DO something rather than walk around looking at things, San Francisco has plenty of indoor games and activities too.
Play Mini Golf at Holey Moley
I have been to Holey Moley in Melbourne SO many times, and the San Francisco version is the same gloriously ridiculous concept: indoor mini golf mixed with a bar, bright colors, themed holes, cocktails, and enough chaos to turn it into a proper night out.
It’s in the Mission and is an especially good option for couples or groups who want something competitive to do while it’s pouring outside that can also involve some drinks.
Play SF-Themed Mini Golf at Subpar
For mini golf with more of a local twist, Subpar at Ghirardelli Square has an indoor course themed around San Francisco landmarks. IT might be one of the BEST things to do on a rainy day in SF that feels like you’re still exploring.
This is also easy to combine with Fisherman’s Wharf and Musée Mécanique (below), so you can make an entire rainy afternoon around this part of town without moving very far.
Play Arcade Games at Emporium
Emporium is a giant arcade bar inside the old Harding Theater on Divisadero, and the building itself is half the fun. Inside you’ll find arcade games, pinball machines, drinks, DJs and events depending on the night.
It’s a particularly good rainy evening option if you want to do something but don’t necessarily want a structured activity or reservation.
Go Bowling at Mission Bowling Club
If mini golf isn’t your thing, head to Mission Bowling Club for a few games instead. This isn’t a giant suburban bowling alley either – it’s a smaller, more grown-up bowling spot in the Mission with food, cocktails, music, and rotating local artwork.
It’s especially easy to combine with Holey Moley and dinner somewhere in the Mission, so you can basically build an entire rainy afternoon or evening around indoor games without crossing the city.
Try an Escape Room
A rainy day is pretty much the exact circumstance escape rooms were invented for. Grab a few friends, lock yourselves in a room voluntarily, and spend an hour arguing over whether the suspicious-looking painting is a clue.
San Francisco has several highly rated escape rooms around the city, so just have a quick search and choose one near wherever you’re planning to have dinner afterward rather than trekking across town in the rain.
Take a Whiskey Cocktail Class
If you’d rather learn a new skill while simultaneously drinking, I found this San Francisco whiskey cocktail class on Viator with tons of great reviews. And whiskey cocktails are my favorite!
You’ll learn about whiskey and cocktail-making while creating drinks yourself, which sounds like a significantly more entertaining way to spend a rainy afternoon than staring sadly through your hotel window.
Find San Francisco’s Weirdest and Most Unique Indoor Attractions
Now THIS is where San Francisco gets interesting. If you’ve already done the major museums, use the rain as an excuse to see some of the bizarre little places you might otherwise skip.
Play 100-Year-Old Arcade Games at Musée Mécanique
Musée Mécanique has to be one of the weirdest rainy-day attractions in San Francisco. This huge collection at Fisherman’s Wharf is packed with antique coin-operated arcade machines, mechanical games, music boxes, fortune tellers, old pinball machines, and strange moving figures dating back generations.
Some are charming, some are kind of creepy, and all of them make a normal modern arcade look a lot less interesting. It’s free to enter, and you pay to play the individual machines, so bring some cash and change.
See What Actually Makes the Cable Cars Move
The Cable Car Museum is inside the historic Washington-Mason cable car powerhouse, and it’s quite fascinating because inside, you can actually see the enormous wheels and machinery continuously pulling the cables beneath San Francisco’s streets.
It’s free, it’s genuinely interesting even if you’re not particularly into transportation, and it’s right between Chinatown and North Beach. Afterward, every time you see a cable car you’ll actually understand what the hell is happening underneath it.
Experience Audium
When I heard about Audium, I immediately made plans to visit and wondered how I lived in California for so long without knowing it existed. It’s just the kind of unique and quirky attraction that I adore.
It is an immersive sound experience inside a purpose-built theater where speakers surround you from essentially every direction and sound moves around the completely dark room. They call them ‘sound sculptures…’ and you will understand when you visit. It’s been part of San Francisco’s experimental art scene for decades and is unlike basically anything else you can do in the city.
But, make sure to check the performance schedule before planning around it because this isn’t a walk-in museum.
Enter the Extremely Strange Gregangelo Museum
If you want to go even further down the weird-San-Francisco rabbit hole, look up the Gregangelo Museum… and book a tour as soon as you can as it can fill up.
This immersive art experience takes place inside an incredibly elaborate house filled with themed rooms, installations, tiny details, surreal art, and interactive experiences. Basically like I want my house to look one day, lol. Visits are booked experiences rather than casual museum admission, so this one requires some planning, but it might win the award for the strangest thing on this entire list.
Visit the Walt Disney Family Museum
The Walt Disney Family Museum in the Presidio follows Walt Disney’s life and the development of his work through drawings, animation, photographs, historic artifacts, models, and early Disney technology.
It’s much more about the history and creative process behind Disney than being a Disney theme-park attraction, so it’s interesting either way but especially if you are a Disney fan and are interested in how it all came about.
Escape Into the Conservatory of Flowers
The Conservatory of Flowers in Golden Gate Park is basically the exact opposite of whatever gray, cold mess is happening outside. The beautiful Victorian greenhouse is filled with tropical plants, flowers, aquatic plants, and warm humid air.
It’s not enormous, but that’s actually why it works well combined with the de Young and California Academy of Sciences nearby. If the rain isn’t absolutely torrential, you can easily turn all three into a Golden Gate Park rainy-day itinerary.
Spend a Rainy Afternoon in Chinatown + North Beach
If you don’t want to spend your entire rainy day inside one building, Chinatown and North Beach are probably my favorite neighborhoods to piece together into an actual itinerary.
The neighborhoods sit right next to each other; there are constantly interesting little places to duck into, and somehow Chinatown’s neon signs and North Beach’s old cafés and bars look even better when the streets are wet.
Start in Chinatown with dim sum or a long lunch, then wander through some of the tea shops, bakeries, herbal stores, and wonderfully random little businesses around Grant Avenue and the surrounding streets.
Stop into the Golden Gate Fortune Cookie Factory to see fortune cookies being made in the tiny factory, and pick up a bag while you’re there.
Then find Li Po Cocktail Lounge, an old-school Chinatown bar that is famous for its Chinese Mai Tai. This place is dark, red, slightly bizarre, and exactly the sort of establishment I want to accidentally end up in while it’s raining outside. Check out my vlog from it below!
From there, continue toward North Beach and City Lights Booksellers, the legendary independent bookstore closely connected to San Francisco’s Beat Generation. Buy something interesting and walk through tiny Jack Kerouac Alley next door.
On the other side you’ll find Vesuvio Cafe, which opened in 1948 and became a hangout for writers and artists associated with the Beat scene, including Jack Kerouac and Allen Ginsberg. I recommend sitting on the upper balcony to have a view of all the wierd, wildm and wonderful things decorating the space – it’s colorful, cluttered, historic, and a fantastic place to hide from the rain with a drink.
If you have room for one more stop, finish at Caffè Trieste for an old-school North Beach espresso.
Dim sum → fortune cookies → Chinese Mai Tai → books → Beat history → cocktail → espresso. THAT is a rainy day I can get behind.
Browse Indoor Markets, Bookshops, and Local Stores
For some rainy days in SF, you don’t need another formal attraction; you just want somewhere interesting to wander around for a few hours without getting soaked. Here are some of those.
Ferry Building Marketplace
The Ferry Building is one of my favorite places to wander around in San Francisco anyway, and rain is an excellent excuse to stay longer. Inside you’ll find local food producers, bakeries, coffee, chocolate, cheese, restaurants, and specialty shops, so grab a few different things to snack on as you explore.
The famous farmers market extends outside on market days, so obviously that part depends on how hard it’s raining.
Japan Center Malls
Japantown is one of the easiest places to spend a rainy afternoon because so much of it is indoors. Wander through the Japan Center malls between Japanese bookstores, beauty and specialty shops, snacks, and restaurants, then get ramen when you’re hungry. You can also combine this with Kabuki Springs later in the day.
City Lights Booksellers
If you aren’t doing the full Chinatown/North Beach itinerary above, City Lights is worth visiting on its own. This legendary independent bookstore has been around since the 1950s and is closely connected to San Francisco’s Beat literary history.
Go to the Mall
Sometimes you just want a mall. No historical significance or immersive cultural experience required. 😂 If the weather is truly horrible, Stonestown Galleria has shops, tons of food, a movie theater, and plenty to keep you inside for a few hours.
Spend a Few Hours in a Cool San Francisco Café
Coffee shops and rainy days are obviously a perfect match, but SF has plenty that are interesting enough to become part of the day’s itinerary. Grab your journal or a book and sit by the window.
Caffè Trieste
This old-school North Beach café has been around since the 1950s and has a long history with the writers, artists, and musicians of the neighborhood. It’s particularly easy to combine with City Lights, Jack Kerouac Alley, and Vesuvio.
The Interval at Long Now
This might be the coolest one on the list. The Interval is part café, part cocktail bar, part library, and full of books and strange objects connected to the Long Now Foundation and the idea of thinking VERY far into the future. You could easily come in for coffee and accidentally spend two hours here.
Sightglass Coffee + Réveille Coffee
Both have multiple locations around SF and beautiful vibey spaces where you can actually settle in for a while. Choose whichever one is closest to what you’re already doing rather than crossing the entire city for a marginally better cappuccino.
Go Eat Where Rainy Weather Improves the Food
Some food simply tastes better when it’s cold and raining outside, and San Francisco has plenty of it as a true cultural food capital.
Go to Japantown for ramen, Chinatown for dim sum, or Little Saigon/Tenderloin for a huge steaming bowl of pho. If you’re around Fisherman’s Wharf, this is also as good an excuse as any to embrace the tourist cliché and get clam chowder in a sourdough bread bowl.
And obviously, go to the Mission for a burrito. I will never need an excuse to recommend a Mission burrito, my literal favorite thing ever, but a rainy day seems as good as any.
Find a View and Watch the Rain Come Down
If the clouds aren’t so thick that you literally can’t see anything, I love the idea of getting somewhere high up and watching the rain come down over the city from somewhere warm. Viewpoints are my favorite anyway, whether it’s a sunny day or a rainy one.
For drinks with a view, try Top of the Mark on Nob Hill, Cityscape, or The View Lounge at the Marriott Marquis. All three are enclosed with huge windows over San Francisco, so a stormy day can actually make the view more interesting.
Work From WeWork at Salesforce Tower
If you’re working while traveling like I often am, you could also turn the rainy day into a coworking day. I’ve actually bought a day pass to the WeWork inside Salesforce Tower before, and it was one of the coolest places I’ve ever randomly spent a workday.
Buy a day pass, follow the instructions to get inside, bring your laptop up, and get some work done with an absolutely ridiculous view over SF – I think it’s on floor 40-something – see my photo above! If you’re going to sacrifice a sightseeing day to rain anyway, this is a pretty epic place to catch up on work.
Hamon Observation Tower at the de Young
Don’t forget the Hamon Observation Tower at the de Young either. It’s completely enclosed with panoramic views over Golden Gate Park and San Francisco, and you can combine it with the museum and California Academy of Sciences while you’re there.
Book a Massage or Spa
Getting a massage while it’s pouring outside might be one of life’s simplest pleasures. For the full spa experience, try Kabuki Springs & Spa in Japantown, which is easy to combine with the Japan Center and ramen.
For something significantly less fancy and a lot more random, I have personally been to JP Massage in the Inner Sunset – I actually went there for my birthday once. 😂 It’s a Chinese massage place with neon lighting, plastic fountains, and a very different atmosphere from your typical fancy spa, but the massage was great, prices are unbeatable in the city, and the whole experience was fun.
If the Weather Suddenly Clears…
SF weather can change ridiculously quickly, so if you’ve spent half the day indoors and suddenly see blue sky, take advantage of it.
If it’s getting toward evening, check out my guide to the best sunsets in San Francisco. You can also switch over to my outdoor activities in San Francisco, find something from my things to do in San Francisco for couples, or save some San Francisco quotes and captions now that you can finally go outside and get some photos.
Sample San Francisco Rainy-Day Itineraries
If you’re staring at this enormous list thinking, great, but what the hell am I actually supposed to do? Here are some easy combinations:
Golden Gate Park + Inner Sunset: Best for museums, nature, views, and a relaxing finish.
California Academy of Sciences → de Young Museum + Hamon Observation Tower → Conservatory of Flowers → food in the Inner Sunset → JP Massage
Chinatown + North Beach: My favorite itinerary on this list for food, drinks, books, and classic SF weirdness.
Dim sum → Golden Gate Fortune Cookie Factory → Li Po Chinese Mai Tai → City Lights → Jack Kerouac Alley → Vesuvio → Caffè Trieste
Mission: Short, easy, competitive, and involves a burrito. What more do you need?
Holey Moley → Mission Bowling Club → Mission burrito
SoMa + Downtown: Best for art, coworking, and watching the weather from somewhere significantly higher and drier.
SFMOMA → WeWork at Salesforce Tower if you need to work → cocktails at The View Lounge or Cityscape
Japantown: might be the easiest itinerary if it’s REALLY pouring because you can spend almost the entire day inside.
Japan Center → ramen → Kabuki Springs & Spa
Fisherman’s Wharf OR Embarcadero
Around the Embarcadero, combine the Exploratorium + Ferry Building.
Around Fisherman’s Wharf, try Musée Mécanique + Subpar Mini Golf + clam chowder in sourdough.
And there you have it! Rain in San Francisco definitely doesn’t mean losing an entire day. Pick an area, choose a few things nearby, and enjoy seeing a completely different side of the city.
Passionate, full-time travel blogger with over 230k on social media and 150kMPV blog. Extraordinary photographer with two DSLR's + a drone with a love for capturing candid moments, epic drone shots, and magical compositions. I'm a natural-born content creator originally from California, but I've been on the road for 9 years living, working, traveling, blogging, and photographing my way around the world. I recommend the most amazingly adventurous and unique + boutique travel experiences/stays and helpful products to my audience and write comprehensive guides on my website that have helped millions of travelers so far. I love to inspire people to plan their dream trips, and many readers have given feedback as such. The reach on my platforms continues to soar, especially when combining cutting-edge social content with optimized articles on my high-authority website.