Find out what to bring and where to go with your San Francisco bike rental!
Top 5 Things to Know about San Fransico Bike Rentals:
- What You’ll Need While Riding a Bike Rental in San Fransico
- The Most Popular San Fransico Bike Route
- Here’s How to Bike the Golden Gate Bridge
- Trying to Bike to San Francisco from Sausalito
- What to do after your bike rental in San Francisco
Are you an originalist that wants to tackle the mighty hills with regular hybrid bike rental in San Francisco? Or do you want to explore San Francisco comfortably with electric bikes? Knowing which kind of bike rental in San Francisco you want is the first step in finding where to rent bikes in the city.
If you’re looking for the cheapest bike rental in San Francisco, a regular bike will be the most economical option. If you’re looking to do a little San Francisco sightseeing without exerting too much energy in the process, e-bikes will be your perfect fit!
By the way, Dylan’s, one of the best bike tour companies in San Francisco, also offers generous online discounts for both their e-bikes and regular bikes!
Bike rentals in San Francisco with Dylan’s start off at $25 for 7-speed bikes (normally $35), and their e-bike rental in San Francisco is $60 (normally $70) when booking online.
Be sure to use promo code BIKESF for an additional 10% off your bike rentals with Dylan’s. Click here to learn more or book our bike rentals.
WHAT YOU’LL NEED WHILE RIDING A BIKE RENTAL IN SAN FRANCISCO
San Francisco has something called “micro-climates”. This means you can travel about 5-10 minutes on your bicycle rental in San Francisco and experience a temperature difference of up to 10F (that’s 12C). We aren’t kidding when we say bring layers! Read our blog “Hiking in San Francisco” for some layering tips!
When you bike the bridge in San Francisco you’ll want to be prepared with:
- Gloves
- Jacket
- Helmet (provided by your bike hire in San Francisco)
- Bike Lock (provided by your bike hire in San Francisco)
Need to warm up before you bike the Golden Gate Bridge?
Before you bike the Golden Gate Bridge, stop by The Warming Hut or Round House Cafe at the entrance to the Golden Gate Bridge. They serve hot coffee and tea for travelers who didn’t anticipate how cold it would be at the bridge
THE MOST POPULAR SAN FRANCISCO BIKE ROUTE
Even though a lot of travelers enjoy a Golden Gate Park bike rental, one of the best bike rides in San Francisco surprisingly begins in Fisherman’s Wharf!
That’s right, hugging the waterfront is one of the city’s nearly entirely flat San Francisco bike routes. Taking this iconic San Francisco bike trail leads you directly to San Francisco’s Golden Gate Bridge (the route only includes two hills).
While most people initially just want to bike the bridge, they usually end up biking all the way to Sausalito. Since it’s only a short 10 minute downhill ride from the bridge to this quaint waterfront town north of the Golden Gate Bridge.
In fact, it takes most travelers about an hour and a half to two hours to bike to Sausalito from Fisherman’s Wharf San Francisco! (including photo stops along the way). Which makes Sausalito the perfect spot for lunch. After lunch, you can get to San Francisco by ferry.
Blue & Gold Fleet’s Sausalito Ferry accepts both regular bikes and e-bikes to Pier 41 near Fisherman’s Wharf so you don’t have to bike all the way back to the city.
NOTE: The Golden Gate Ferry to the Ferry Building does not allow e-bikes on board, only regular bikes.
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Here’s how to bike the Golden Gate Bridge:
To ride one of the most popular bike paths in San Francisco all you have to do is ride down Beach Street — all the way past the iconic Fisherman’s Wharf crab sign.
Eventually, the road ends at Aquatic Park. That’s where the San Francisco bike map REALLY gets fun since this is where the dedicated bike path to the Golden Gate Bridge begins!
This San Francisco bike path will avoid MOST of the city’s notorious hills. There will be two hills on the way to the Golden Gate Bridge. The first as you enter Fort Mason and the second right before you get to bike the bridge. To avoid these hills, you’ll definitely want to consider an electric bike rental in San Francisco!
The good news is that both hills are spaced pretty far apart. And after the second hill, it’s all downhill into Sausalito — a small waterfront community famed for their quaint houseboat community.
If you opted for an electric bike rental in San Francisco, the battery motor is powerful enough to get you back up the big hill in Sausalito that leads back to the Golden Gate Bridge! This gives you the opportunity to ride across the bridge twice!
Trying to bike to San Francisco from Sausalito?
The biking into San Francisco from Sausalito is definitely possible with a Sausalito bike rental from our friend Mark over at the Sausalito Sports & History Gallery.
Here at Dylan’s, we have a unique partnership that allows you to drop off your Sausalito bike rental in San Francisco — and we’ll return the bike to Sausalito for you! This way you can pick your bike up in Sausalito and bike all the way to San Francisco and drop your bike off at the Dylan’s bike shop located near Fisherman’s Wharf. This means you don’t have to worry about returning your bike to Sausalito!
WHAT TO DO AFTER YOUR BIKE RENTAL IN SAN FRANCISCO
There’s no better way to finish off a day of biking the Golden Gate Bridge than with dinner at one of the best North Beach Italian restaurants.
Still, planning your trip to San Francisco?
Discover where to stay in San Francisco and explore the best tours in San Francisco.
Use our guide to San Francisco with toddlers, find fun things to do with kids in SF, and eat at the most surprisingly kid-friendly restaurants in SF.
Discover San Francisco like never before! Join our Explore S.F. group on Facebook, your ultimate guide to the city’s best-kept secrets. From local tips to monthly adventures, this is where your journey begins. Click here to join and start exploring!
