Take a journey around San Francisco's top sights in a retro way with this small-group tour by vintage Volkswagen bus, decorated with long eyelashes so you can't miss your tour vehicle. You'll pass by neighborhoods like Chinatown, Union Square, Pacific Heights, North Beach, Haight-Ashbury, the Marina, and Hayes Valley, plus see the Palace of Fine Arts, Golden Gate Bridge, Golden Gate Park, Civic Center, and more.

Enjoy access to San Francisco highlights larger buses can't reach
Stop for photo ops at the Golden Gate Bridge and Painted Ladies
Hear about the city while listening to songs from the 1960s and '70s
Sip California wine and local craft beer on the afternoon tours

Why Travelers Choose This Tour

These VW buses only seat up to eight people—making this a super-fun and intimate San Francisco experience.

What's Included

Small group tour
Professional Tour Guide
Snacks
Bottled water
Local Bottled Craft beer and Wine on the afternoon tours
Access to local vintage points where large buses are banned from
Alcoholic Beverages on the afternoon tours

Gratuities

Meeting and Pickup

Meeting points

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End point

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What To Expect

Haight-Ashbury (Pass By)

Union Square (Pass By)

Civic Center (Pass By)

Palace of Fine Arts Theatre (Pass By)

Painted Ladies

5 minutes • Admission Ticket Free

Golden Gate Bridge

10 minutes • Admission Ticket Free

Lombard Street (Pass By)

Chinatown (Pass By)

Golden Gate Park (Pass By)

Presidio of San Francisco (Pass By)

North Beach (Pass By)

Lower Haight (Pass By)

Hayes Valley (Pass By)

Western Addition (Pass By)

Marina District (Pass By)

Additional Info

Confirmation will be received within 48 hours of booking, subject to availability
Not wheelchair accessible
Minimum number of 3 people applies. There is a possibility of cancellation or rebooking to another time after confirmation if there are not enough passengers to meet requirements. In the event of this occurring, you will be offered an alternative or full refund
Stroller accessible
Portable wheelchair ok
Service animals allowed
Booster seats are available on request if advised at time of booking
Near public transportation

Recommended tip amount :$15-$20 per passenger. (Did you know that tips make up a large amount of our tour guide income in the US?)
Note that each vehicle seats up to 7 people total. We can still accommodate larger groups seated in separate vehicles.
Infants must sit on laps
Most travelers can participate
Everyone in your group needs to complete our digital waiver.
Anyone showing symptoms of COVID 19, including fever, cough or shortness of breath won’t be able to participate.
This tour/activity will have a maximum of 8 travelers

Cancellation Policy

You can cancel up to 24 hours in advance of the experience for a full refund.

For a full refund, you must cancel at least 24 hours before the experience’s start time.
If you cancel less than 24 hours before the experience’s start time, the amount you paid will not be refunded.
Any changes made less than 24 hours before the experience’s start time will not be accepted.

Cut-off times are based on the experience’s local time.
This experience requires a minimum number of travelers. If it’s canceled because the minimum isn’t met, you’ll be offered a different date/experience or a full refund.

Traveler Photos

Reviews

5.0

1,333 reviews

Total review count and overall rating based on Viator and Tripadvisor reviews

Reviews by Viator travelers.

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Showing 1-10 of 1,333 reviews

Thoroughly enjoyable

Julie_W, Apr 2024

Kayo was such a great tour guide. Funny with a great knowledge of San Francisco. My daughter and I thoroughly enjoyed our tour

Fabulous and fun!

John_B, Apr 2024

How personable our guide was, Cao (?) from Brazil. He remembered everyone’s name. He really kept it light and fun!! Tons of facts and great music. This was a great tour!!

Great tour

Randall_S, Apr 2024

We loved the tour. We got to see all the places we wanted to see. Kyle was our tour guide. He is excellent

Vintage Vibes and City Sights: A Group of Six's Guided Tour with Al in San Francisco

Brayden_G, Apr 2024

Our group of six had an unforgettable experience on the San Francisco city tour, led by our charismatic guide, Al. Cruising through the city in the whimsical, eyelash-adorned Volkswagen bus added a touch of retro flair to our adventure. Al was a treasure trove of stories, making the city's history resonate with us as we toured the iconic neighborhoods. The Golden Gate Bridge and Painted Ladies were just a few of the photo-worthy stops we enjoyed. Al's expertise in finding the perfect angles for our pictures was truly appreciated. The afternoon was enhanced by tastings of exquisite local wines and craft beers, which were a big hit among our group. Al's blend of historical knowledge, personable demeanor, and attention to detail catered perfectly to our group's interests, making the tour an exceptional experience. It was the ideal way to discover the essence of San Francisco together.

Fun cruise thru San Francisco’s neighborhoods.

Veronica_M, Apr 2024

Stopping by some of the houses where we were able to get out for a bit. And having a bit of wine was a nice touch! I wished we could’ve stopped a couple more times. It was hard to take pics as the van was driving by. But I really liked our guide’s enthusiasm!

Posing with Pink Lady

Karen_S, Apr 2024

Talking with guide and listening to 60’s music! Riding down Lombard Street! Visiting Golden Gate Park and seeing Golden Gate Bridge. A great way to see entire area of San Francisco and its beauty!

Reliving the 60’s

James_M, Apr 2024

Caio was our guide and driver. He was very knowledgeable and made the tour a lot of fun. We covered a lot of the city and we had fantastic stops.

Wonderful!

Karen_M, Apr 2024

We have been to San Francisco a number of times but this tour took us through parts of the city we’d never seen! The guide was great! Friendly, informative and accommodating! Highly recommend!

Fabulous afternoon tour

Michelle_A, Apr 2024

Lovely afternoon tour exploring the sights of San Francisco. The tour guide was interesting and knowledgeable and the smaller group size made it easy to interact. All the main highlights visited - highly recommended.

Save your money! Do not purchase!

Mariya_S, Apr 2024

I do not recommend taking this tour!! Save your money!! The car is beat up, there was no interior decoration, practically no music, just 2 stops, it was incredibly difficult to hear the driver (recommend getting a microphone). I purchased a tour for a group of 5 of my friends to go for my birthday. I called three times weeks in advance to have the yellow colored car. I explicitly explained that its my birthday! Not only did we not get the yellow car, the tour itself was delayed by an hour. The company did not offer ANYTHING to make up for it even though they are the ones who requested the later start time. I was very disappointed and will not recommend to anyone!! Horrible!!

Response from Host, Apr 2024

Hi Maria, first off happy birthday! We hope you were able to enjoy your day despite the hick ups with us and we are saddened to hear your complaint as we aim to please you. We realize we can’t please everyone but still it’s not a fun review to read on a Monday Morning morning after a hard work weekend and dropping of our kiddo at school. So sorry that we can’t promise specific colored buses for our group tours as we mentioned this to you when you called. We are in the process of rebranding all our buses and we are half way there so hopefully this will be resolved in near future. We knew that it would be a hit with our customers - just didn’t realize how popular it was going to be. We initially did the rebranding of the buses for the private tours as it is costly to do this. But we have had such a demand for those buses that we decided to do them all moving forward. It sounds like a private tour would have been the best match for you and your group. I will leave it at that to honor your privacy as it was a very disruptive tour for the other passengers who complained about some of the behaviors from your group and it was hard to hear the guide. Peace out ✌️

Great experience

Maria_B, Mar 2024

Great way to see all of San Francisco in a short amount of time. Jim was our driver/tour guide and has great knowledge of the city and a lot of patience for a precocious child. Would definitely recommend.

Just ok

Yvonne_M, Mar 2024

Was hard to hear bc we were in the back row. Not enough about the history of SF. Trip ran long by 20 min.

Response from Host, Mar 2024

Hi Yvonne, so sorry to hear you didn’t have a great experience. We will bring this to our guides attention right away. They really aim for you to have a great experience. Looks like the guide even went over time to accommodate you and your group. Please in future bring it to their attention right away if u can’t hear them or if u have to be done at a certain time as the afternoon tours tend to be busier. And for the history - not sure what happened there as they all are getting amazing reviews as you can see from the 99% of 5 star reviews. We do regular quality control checks with the guides to make sure they know their history and we retrain them on new facts daily. May you wake up with ease and know that you supported a small mom and pop business just trying to do their best and spreading joy one tour at a time.

Fun tour!

Nora_G, Mar 2024

I had a wonderful time on the Painted Ladies Tour. I highly recommend it to anyone who enjoys a VW bus and/or is visiting San Francisco.

Great time

Helen_A, Mar 2024

Wr really enjoyed the tour. The view of the Golden Gate Bridge was amazing. We. Saw all of the famous sites in San Francisco. Highly recommend.

Loved it

Rogelio_Q, Mar 2024

Loved the tour, Caio our tour guide is very knowledgeable about the city. The vans/buses are not painted like in the promo

Fantastic!

Phillissa_R, Mar 2024

Armando was fabulous! He was so knowledgeable and entertaining. Loved the vw bus!! Loved seeing Janice joplin’s house and Haight Ashbury.

A perfect way to experience San Francisco in two hours

Lukas_F, Mar 2024

We were a group of colleagues on a business trip in San Francisco, and wanted to explore the city during the one afternoon we had time off. This tour turned out to be the perfect way, and the guides were really great sharing stories about different aspects of San Francisco. If you want to see a lot in a short amount of time, in a cool vehicle and with knowledgeable guides, I recommend this tour!

Fun in San Francisco

ThomasLawrence_K, Mar 2024

Our tour guide was absolutely wonderful. He was funny, imparted a great deal of knowledge, anecdotes and little known tidbits about San Francisco.

Great Tour!

Julia_M, Mar 2024

Armando was fantastic! He was so knowledgeable and personable towards all guests! The tour itself was a great overall introduction to the city of San Francisco!

10/10 Experience

Salvador_V, Mar 2024

great tour , got to see the real beauty of sam francisco. our tour guide was great and well informed. would do again!

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