Best San Francisco Souvenirs 

Ideas and tips from a local

Lots of folks want to bring back a memento or two from their visit to San Francisco, so I put together a collection of ideas to check out, beyond the usual souvenir choices.

There are a lot of cool San Francisco souvenirs to be had, if you know where to look. Check out my list, plus where to find them.

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Jump to...

• Attraction-related souvenirs
• Neighborhood souvenirs
• Best museum shops
• Paintings of San Francisco
• Foodie souvenirs
• Souvenirs for kids
• The real touristy stuff
• Miscellaneous souvenirs

SF Attraction Souvenirs

The Golden Gate National Parks Conservancy, the non-profit partner of the National Park Service... that manages the collection of national parks in and near San Francisco...has a lot of good stuff. You can get the items locally, or on the Parks Conservancy website.

The Parks Conservancy covers lots of SF landmarks and attractions: Lands End, Muir Woods, Ocean Beach, Sutro Baths, Cliff House, the Presidio and Alcatraz.

1. Fog Globes. Instead of falling snow in a snow globe, the Park Conservancy has created a very San Francisco scene: fog swirling around the Golden Gate Bridge, Alcatraz Island, or the Muir Woods redwoods. Snow globe collectors, this is for you. Delightfully cheesy. You used to have to go to one of their local SF shops to get these, but you can now get them online from the Park Conservancy shop or Amazon. They're at the Golden Gate Bridge Welcome Center, too.
2. Alcatraz souvenirs. There's a gift shop on Alcatraz itself where you can pick up Alcatraz t-shirts, mugs, posters, or a replica of a cell door key or prisoner's metal food tray. You can also get them from the Park Conservancy website.
3. Odds and ends. The Conservancy has a nice selection of local, national-park-related posters, mugs, key chains, etc., plus some things like Cliff House/Sutro Baths playing cards, and even a Lands End fortune telling deck of cards - have all your questions answered!

More Alcatraz stuff. There is a whole store related to Alcatraz souvenirs on the upper level of Pier 39, the Alcatraz Gift Shop (since 1973).

And there's a board game called Escape From Alcatraz where you can try your luck at getting away.

Japanese Tea Garden. The Japanese Tea Garden has a nice gift shop as well. Totoro night lights, and more!

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Neighborhood Souvenirs

Japantown. San Francisco's Japantown is a also great place to shop. Acres of cool Japanese items and tons of cute kid things to buy. Great spot for lunch, too.

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Haight Ashbury. Hippie stuff galore!. Tie-dye everything, posters, vintage clothing, pipes, and more. See Haight Ashbury for what to see there.

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Chinatown. Not just the tacky souvenirs. All sorts of interesting things like mahjong sets, scarves, tea sets, Chinese dolls, and lots more. See my Chinatown shopping article.

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SF Museum Shops

One of my favorite places to browse in our local museums is their gift shops! They usually have lots of quality items, some of which relate to San Francisco.

Some museums with cool gift shops to check out:

• deYoung Museum. Wide-ranging art museum.
• Legion of Honor Museum. European and Egyptian art.
• Asian Art Museum. Art from all across Asia.
• Exploratorium; sciency gifts.
• California Academy of Sciences 
• Disney Museum. All things Disney.

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Local artists' paintings of San Francisco scenes

There are some lovely paintings of San Francisco available, created by our local artists. There are oil and watercolor paintings of local scenes available for purchase, and they usually do art on commission as well, if you wanted to request a particular scene or subject. 

Pricier, but a really unique souvenir of San Francisco!

Here's my article on some recommended local artists, with examples of their work. I had a portrait of my own house done by one of them; pretty cool.

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San Francisco Food

The Ferry Building. Foodie heaven. Pick up some local gourmet cheeses, olive oils, wines, and chocolates.

Boudin Bakery, on Fisherman's Wharf. Take back some original San Francisco sourdough bread, for yourself and some friends.

Chinese Fortune Cookies, from the original factory in Chinatown. Watch them being made, and take home a bag of fresh cookies.

Ghirardelli Chocolates. Best chocolate fix in the city. They also sell certain packages of Ghirardelli chocolates that are only sold at Ghirardelli Square.

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Souvenirs for Kids

Stuffed animals. The California Academy of Sciences has a great collection of stuffed animals, including our famous albino alligator, Claude, whom you can visit in the Swamp section.

Lots of really cute, nature-related stuffed animals, plus shirts, backpacks, etc. Hard-to-resist sea otter backpacks, Claude tote bags, and more. In their gift shop or online. See CA Academy of Sciences store.

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Japantown. Tons of adorable toys and accessories for kids, plus an entire floor in the bookstore devoted to manga comic books and graphic novels. See Japantown.

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The Walt Disney Museum. Check out the gift shop if you visit the museum in the Presidio. See Disney Museum.

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The really touristy stuff...

At Pier 39, and all over Fisherman's Wharf, you'll see all the touristy souvenirs. This is where you'll find all the SF t-shirts and hoodies, plus all the miniature cable cars and Golden Gate Bridges. I would say that Pier 39 probably has the better quality versions of those things.

For really cheap San Francisco souvenirs, head over to Chinatown, along Grant Avenue.

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Odds & Ends...Miscellaneous Souvenirs

San Francisco Legos. Of course there's a Lego version of San Francisco. This one includes the main attractions like the Bridge, Salesforce Tower, Transamerica building, Alcatraz, Painted Ladies, and more. See SF Lego Set on Amazon.

DIY SF souvenirs. You can upload your own photos to websites like Cafe Press or Zazzle and create mugs, t-shirts, posters, mousepads and lots more, featuring you and your family in San Francisco, or other images.

Souvenir photos. Some of the attractions will offer photos of you as a keepsake when you visit them. A bit touristy, but I have to admit I have several of them;).

Alcatraz Cruises does them, as well as some of the SF Bay cruises. Even the Winchester Mystery House in San Jose has you pose with their Winchesters! It's on my list of haunted Bay Area locations ;)

The City Experiences Hornblower yacht does a fun dinner cruise on SF Bay. Great food and amazing views! We had to get the souvenir photo. More on our trip on the bay.

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