5 Fun Things to Do in Mission Bay San Francisco, California

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If you are new to my blog, then this may come as a surprise but…me and San Francisco have not historically gotten along. For one reason or another, the SF charm has always eluded me. That is, until earlier this year when I learned of all the fun things to do in Mission Bay. But wait, I’m getting ahead of myself a second, lemme back up.

In July, I attended my first ever kpop concert for, yes predictable, Blackpink. This was in LA, so I flew down to Portland for a girls weekend with – well, the girls! And THE girls! Going to the Blackpink Deadline World Tour was pretty incredible but I was already mourning the end to my pretend SoCal life I crafted in those short four days.

Until I got an email.

This isn’t verbatim, but it was basically, “Hello! This is xxx from xxx-PR team! Would you like to join a press trip to the Bay Area and check out some of the fun new things to do in Mission Bay?”

Now, the Bay Area is a general term for the greater metropolitan area surrounding San Francisco. The Bay Area has some gems, like part of Redwood National Park (universally loved) and the city of Oakland (controversially loved??), but in general when people say the Bay they mean San Francisco.

I was torn. On one hand, I am not a full time blogger/writer and I was running dangerously low on PTO. I was exhausted from back to back travel, going from 48hr work week (in person), my part-time job (remote), the Suenos Music Festival, another 48hr work week, the Blackpink weekend, and an upcoming 48hr work week. I hadn’t cleaned my house or done laundry in almost a month. I was mentally stressed because hadn’t made any progress on my novel. I was physically stressed from not working out or being able to keep up with my usual movement routine. I was going through ittt okay.

On the other hand, it was a press trip.

So I agreed to the press trip.

What was the motto again? YOLO or something like that, right? Anyways, this is a disclaimer that this trip was largely covered as part of a media press trip. Writing a blog post wasn’t part of an agreement (in fact, I should get to the actual articles I need to write from this trip), but wanted to give you some context to some of the VIP-level activities and perks we were allotted due to being part of press. However, I’ll try my best to note differences someone might experience if they were to follow these fun things to do in Mission Bay on their own itinerary!

So without further ado, let’s jump into these things to do in Mission Bay, yah?

What is Mission Bay

Mission Bay is one of San Francisco’s newest neighborhoods, and not in the usual gentrified way. It used to be a very industrial underused railroad scrap yard (literally, the decommissioned trains as moody photoshoot backdrops on Tumblr haha), and then the city decided to clean up the hazardous waste and re-zone the area into livable space.

Welcome to Mission Bay.

Just as a general overview, it’s right along the water with a mix of residents who are students and newly graduated tech workers…but then again, that’s half the population of the city in some capacity. It does make for a very youthful atmosphere. The buildings are low to mid-rise with mixed use, which is honestly really convenient for residents. It is also connected to SF’s larger public transit system.

Lookin’ cute so far, but are there any things to do in Mission Bay?

Where to Stay

For our press trip, we stayed at the LUMA Hotel San Francisco.

It also happens to be the ONLY hotel in Mission Bay so…if you want to stay in the neighborhood, you’ll also be there. So lemme give you the run down real quick. Depending on the day, prices at LUMA SF range from $280ish-$500 USD a night, which…yeah, I know it is quite the range. But it’s also the average for San Francisco. I know. I KNOW.

It’s San Francisco.

If you’re visiting on a random weekday or unassuming weekend, prices will range on the “lower” end, but if there’s a major game or big artist performing in one of the many nearby stadiums (more on that later), then prices will be on the higher end. Usually, this price range is above my casual vacation budget, but again for big US cities, it’s very typical for a hotel in a good area.

In fact, I’m pretty sure I’ve paid more for a Hampton Inn in Seattle once when I visited for a concert. I’ve paid $350 a night for a room in an Airbnb in San Francisco’s Castro District before, and there was no AC. During a freak heat wave. And all of the stores were out of portable fans.

But I digress.

Thankfully, LUMA proved to be my favorite stay I’ve ever had in San Francisco. One, because the stay was actually worth the price, but also because of their great amenities. First, The hotel was designed with sustainablity in mind and is and LEED Silver certified. Each room is outfitted with sensors and Bolon flooring, which is made of recycled material and produced with zero climate impact. If you’re here for work, there are plenty of meeting rooms and collaborative spaces as well.

But stats aside, the hotel is truly just gorgeous. Floor to ceiling windows, skyline views, comfortable bedding – it’s a hotel that you WANT to stay in. Plus, they go out of their way to give a little extra love to the neighborhood by stocking the hotel with treats and goodies from local businesses and showcasing art by San Francisco creatives.

Also, they have a fantastic and SPACIOUS gym that’s literally bigger than my house (1,500 square ft). I was sold at the gym, honestly. Is it cheating if I say one of the best things to do in Mission Bay is staying at LUMA??

What to Eat

Now you know that the food is the aspect of a trip that I most look forward to. Cuisine is the tastiest way to explore a place’s culture. And yes, I DO judge a destination based on its food scene.

Good food can turn an otherwise overlooked city into my new recommendation that I can’t shut up about – like Oklahoma City. I would book a flight just to eat at Grey Sweater again. Meanwhile, a destination could be absolutely beautiful with unique and fun attractions but…if the food is bad…eh, I’m docking points *cough Leavenworth cough*

All tea no shade.

When it comes to San Francisco, my previous experiences were lukewarm. I had some really good food, but also disappointing food. That’s not unusual for big cities, but…for the price…San Francisco ranked as my 2nd least favorite big city in the US for food. Mission Bay really had its work cut out for it if it wanted to change my mind.

The following are all walkable from LUMA hotel, by the way! While there are a lot of things to do in Mission Bay, it’s not too big of a neighborhood. So…is eating one of the best things to do in Mission Bay? I was about to find out.

Breakfast

I’m normally a very busy-body traveler, packing my itinerary from dusk to dawn. Or is it from dawn to dusk?

Point is – I’m always on the move. Which means I need fuel right from the get-go. Thankfully, LUMA hotel had great in-room ordering that got delivered on a little robottttt. When robots finally take over the world, I hope the LUMA butler bot takes mercy on me. In the meantime, I quite enjoyed this wakeup call.

We had pretty early days on the press trip, lots of things to do in Mission Bay and whatnot, so this service really came in handy. You can even schedule your breakfast orders which I highly recommend, especially if you happen to be staying on a particularly busy weekend.

I didn’t eat at any traditional breakfast or brunch restaurants (except for a brunch cruise, which was one of my favorite things to do in Mission Bay), but another recommendation I have is the Arsicault Bakery if you’re more of a light muncher. A few other people on the trip grabbed some baked goods and the piece of croissant I tried was levitating.

Lunch

We’ll get into things to do in Mission Bay after the food section, but if you want to make the most of your weekend itinerary, you’ll probably have activities planned in the morning. By the time lunch comes around, you’ll need a tasty pick-me-up to keep your spirits high for the rest of the day.

My first suggestion is Señor Sisig. If you know me, then you know I will find Filipino food ANYWHERE. After being introduced and falling in love with Filipino restaurants in Portland, it has become one of my all time favorite cuisines.

Located in the Chase Center plaza, where you’ll be spending a lot of time if you’re attending a game or concert, Señor Sisig is a Filipino-Mexican fast casual fusion that checks all of the boxes. I really enjoyed my wings and side of chicharrones, but the bowls and burrito would hit the spot if you’re on the hungrier side. They also have an extensive vegan menu too!

My second recommendation also technically doubles as breakfast, but again, my LUMA butler bot had me covered so I stopped Cafe Réveille by for lunch. As a SoCal gal, I loved that they had superfood bowls because I will literally spontaneously decompose if I don’t have a smoothie or acai bowl every three days at minimum. Again, lots of vegan and gluten free bowl options and is overall a very light and refreshing menu.

Lastly but not leastly, this may be my Portland residency showing but I had to include Spark Social SF as the obligatory food truck pod. This has a beer garden and a rotating lineup of local food trucks and regular events. Even if you live here, there’s even new things to do in Mission Bay as long as Spark Social has a word. Literally, Spark Social SF is one of the best things to do in Mission Bay, but we’ll circle back on that in a bit.

Dinner

And finally we’ve made it to dinner! You’re probably SPENT after a long fun day of all the fun things to do in Mission Bay that you’ve packed into your itinerary. Now we can take our foot off the gas and sink into a comfortable booth and repack the day’s events over delicious dishes.

My first night in Mission Bay, before I even met up with the others on the press trip, I walked to a nearby restaurant that was thankfully open late, House of Tadu Ethiopian Kitchen. Ranked as one of the best cuisines in the world, I never pass up an opportunity to eat Ethiopian food. The portions are plentiful but still manageable for solo diners like myself, and the staff was very helpful for folks dipping their toes into the cuisines for the first time.

I also at at Kayah, by Burma Love, and was pleasantly surprised to find another of my loved cuisines, Burmese, in Mission Bay. OKAY, diversity in the food scene I love ittttt. The appetizers are great, but make sure to leave room for your entree because WOW the green curry!! I wished I had room in my stomach because the salads also sounded delicious.

And of course, you know we had to check out the rooftop restaurant at LUMA, Cavaña. There is both an indoor and outdoor section, so depending on your preference or the weather, you have seating options. You can have a full dinner here, or grab a few smaller plates to share as you catch up with friends. We went with the latter option and basically ordered the entire range. The plates were super fun and the tacos were the overall crowd favorite. I’d love to go back for their oysters which…I’d if it’s controversial or not, but west coast oysters > east coast oysters.

I’m not much of an alcohol gal, but they have a great drink menu too. LUMA also has a wine bar, Trevino, if that’s more your style. Pssttt – there’s a happy hour.

Snacks

And of course, a few snacky snack spots to keep you going between meals. Right across the street from LUMA is Gus’s Community Market, which as the name suggests is a cute community food grocery store with easy grab-n-go meals, snacks, and those last minute items to finish off your dinner. As a visitor, you’ll probably just be grabbing snacks and drinks though. I was delighted to see that a lot of the inventory was from SF and west coast brands.

There’s also a nearby boba spot – necessary – called Plentea. Good boba, good tea, good vibe. The menu features a few small bites too. I’ve been told that calling it boba is very SoCal, and SF and the Pacific Northwest usually refer to it as bubble tea. Just a heads up.

And if you’re in the mood for something sweet, there’s also a Somisomi! The menu features a special Korean dessert known as “Ah-Boong”, which is a Taiyaki (Japanese sweet pancake) filled with various soft serve options, custards, cookie crumbles, fruits, and other treats. For those less familiar with Asian desserts, it’s basically a build your own soft serve.

I truly ate my way through the neighborhood and YAH, I can say eating is one of the things to do in Mission Bay. You go Mission Bay!!

Things to do in Mission Bay

Alright now finally we’re getting into the meat of things. No pun intended since…technically we just finished the “meat” part while we covered restaurants. While the neighborhood is on the smaller side and can get overshadowed by some of SF’s larger districts, but there are a lot of unique things to do in Mission Bay!

See a Game or Show

Now I will say, MOST of the visitors that Mission Bay sees are due to some sort of event. The Chase Center is an indoor arena where you’ll find the Golden State Warriors basketball team, touring artists and comedians, and weekly neighborhood fitness and music classes. There’s also Oracle Park, home to the MLB San Francisco Giants team.

I’d highly recommend checking the event calendars for both the Chase Center and Oracle Park during your travel dates. It’ll either make you want to get a ticket and bask in the neighborhood’s electrifying energy….or make you want to change your travel dates and save some money on prices. On either angle, checking the event calendar is one of the MUST things to do in Mission Bay.

Alcatraz Tour

This next one is not exclusive to the neighborhood, but it’s still one of the top things to do in Mission Bay because it is THE top thing to do in the entirety of San Francisco. May even the whole Bay Area.

Taking a tour to Alcatraz Island.

Now there are multiple tour companies you can go with, but the one we chose was City Experiences, and even they have a few options that’ll get you to Alcatraz. I’ll briefly touch on them here and you can decide which would work best for your interests.

• Alcatraz Day Tour – $48 : the most standard tour, you get a roundtrip boat ride to and from Alcatraz Island during the day
• Alcatraz Night Tour – $60 : same thing, but in the afternoon into night. Sunset from the island (and by boat) is really beautiful
• San Francisco CityPASS® + Alcatraz Day Tour – $82 : you get the same admission for the Alcatraz Day Tour, and 3 other San Francisco attractions of your choosing
• Alcatraz & Angel Island Combination Tour – $88 : you get admission to Alcatraz Island during the day as well as a round trip ride to Angel Island on the same day (they’re about 20 minutes away from each other)
• Alcatraz Behind The Scenes Tour – $105 : a NPS ranger will give you a guided tour of exclusive areas of Alcatraz
• Alcatraz Day Tour & Muir Woods Redwood Forest and Sausalito Tour – $147 : one day is the standard Alcatraz day tour, and another day is a tour of Muir woods and Sausalito
• Alcatraz Day Tour & Yosemite and Giant Sequoias One Day Tour – $267 : similarly, this one is one day Alcatraz and another day Yosemite National Park

Before I get into the nitty gritty of what I personally did vs my general recommendation, the first thing you need to know is where to go! Pier 33 Alcatraz Landing is the launch site to Alcatraz Island. You can just put that into your GPS. You’ll see the lines, so just look for City Cruises specifically and if you get lost they will assist!

Alcatraz Landing includes the ticket booth as well as the waiting and boarding areas, all of which are ADA accessible (including the bathrooms at Pier 33 Alcatraz Landing and on all Alcatraz Cruises vessels). Another reason I recommend City Cruises! However, there are no wheelchairs available for loan, so be sure to bring along all the equipment you may need.

If you’re on a budget, feel free to book the Alcatraz Day Tour and call it good. Especially if you spend the whole day there, you really get a lot for the low price. I think some of the other City Cruise options (more on that coming up) could make for a good sunset option, but if you really only have one day for a boat ride, you could do the night tour but it may be spookier for children.

I LOVEDD the Behind the Scenes portion of our trip, so if you can book that I highly highly recommend. That alone is one of the best things to do in Mission Bay. However, the tickets sell out FAST. Angel Island is criminally underrated, so if you like more off-the-beaten path, then I’d say go for that one. However Angel Island is a guided experience so you don’t get to wander.

And of course if you like museums, then choose the CityPass option because it’s a fantastic deal.

City Experiences

Wow, I didn’t expect to talk so much about Alcatraz, I’ll try to keep the rest of these things to do in Mission Bay short and sweet. That said, City Experiences does more than just Alcatraz tours. They have EXPERIENCES. Hence, the name. They have brunch booze cruises, dinner cruises, holiday cruises, and even live performance cruises with reality television stars, musicians, comedians, and even athlete panels.

For our trip, we did both a brunch cruise and a “City Cruises Live” experience, which featured a live intimate concert. Both experiences were smooth and I didn’t feel sea sick which was a huge relief. The brunch cruise is very fun and has a live DJ/emcee and towards the end they put away the buffet tables and the dance floor opens up. If the weather is fair, you get to sail to the Golden Gate Bridge and back. Also, the food was great. Having a birthday or celebration brunch cruise would be one of the best things to do in Mission Bay.

Likewise, I also thoroughly enjoyed the City Cruises Live experience. I didn’t actually know the band or artists performing, so I went in a little hesitant, but it was a lot of fun and the crowd really had an infectious energy. So honestly even if you don’t know who is performing, I’d still recommend it. This experience was also catered with great food and I even got to meet the band as part of our VIP passes! This experience however was docked, but that just meant we got a great view of the dazzling city lights in the background.

Spin Out Yacht Club

Oh my goodness, the true superstar of things to do in Mission Bay because it is UNIQUE to this neighborhood! Spin Out Yacht Club is a water bike experience with varying levels of fitness involved. The founder, Damien, realized that for a Bay city…there’s actually not that many people out exploring and enjoying THE BAY, especially the local residents.

So combining his love of cycling and the water, he created Spin Out Yacht Club where he takes small groups out on the water to enjoy the skyline from a different perspective. It may sound a little intimidating at first, but seriously you don’t even have to know how to ride a bike. They’ve taken over 8,000 rides without an incident of someone falling in – you’ll be aight!!

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My favorite part, aside from just being on the water and enjoying the refreshing take on the bay, was seeing all the Sea Lions basking on the docked marina boats haha. Damien was such a fun and engaging host and guide on our tour. There are a few options, like a chill morning glide to a full on Tabata HITT exercise.

100% doing this again when I’m back in the area. Best of all, it’s like a 5-10 minute walk from LUMA hotel! In fact, they’ll be partnering with LUMA hotel to bring special rides and experiences (like watching a baseball game from the waterbikes!) so keep an eye out on their offerings. Definitely one of my favorite things to do in Mission Bay.

Stagecoach Greens

Okay, going back to Spark Social SF! Yes, it is a food cart pod, but it also has mini golf!!! It’s called Stagecoach Greens and it’s really affordable at under $20 (how often can you find an attraction at that price in SF?!?) and is family friendly. Plus, you have food and beer (and potentially live music) all in the same spot!

This mini golf is extra special as it’s San Francisco’s only outdoor mini golf course and each hole tell the story of the city. Seriously, the first hole is about a 17-ton boulder used by the Indigenous Washoe people for food storage. Then it goes into the infamous Gold Rush, mining, and railroad era that brought European and Asian immigrants to the west coast. It’s really dope when you get into the history aspect.

Or you can just putty around. It’s really up to you. Either way, it’s a great time and one of the best things to do in Mission Bay.

Martini Trail

And the last of my suggestions for things to do in Mission Bay is a very new inclusion in the city! The San Francisco Travel Association created SF’s first ever San Francisco Martini Trail, a curated journey highlighting 23 standout martinis at local establishments throughout the city.

If it’s throughout the city, how is it an option for things to do in Mission Bay?

Well there’s a location on the list just a short distance from Mission Bay! If you’re already out on the town and heading back (or heading out), swing by Hi Dive Bar for their charmed cocktail that has made national recognition!

I haven’t done this trail yet since it is BRAND SPANKIN NEW, but as I was writing this and saw the announcement of this martini trail, I knew I had to include it! If you pick up a few drinks from the trail, let me know your thoughts!

Conclusion

YOO this post turned out a lot longer than I expected, but hey, there’s just that many cool things to do in Mission Bay! To sum it up, yes, I visited on a press trip, but wow Mission Bay really blew me out of the water. I’m not a full time travel writer or blogger, so I’m VERY picky on how I spend my weekends and my PTO, and most of the time media press trips aren’t worth it for me.

This one was.

It completely changed my outlook on San Francisco, both for activities and food. Previously, the only other neighborhood I was really into was the Mission District.

Huh…maybe I’m into missions… #noconquistador

ANYWAYSSS, there were so many surprising things to do in Mission Bay and honestly being anchored at the LUMA hotel was the cherry on top. Now it feels like I finally have “a spot” in SF, and that feels good.

What are your thoughts on San Francisco? Have you ever been to the new Mission Bay neighborhood? Let me know which of these things to do in Mission Bay you’d like to add to your itinerary!

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