Free things to do with kids in San Francisco
Written September 2026
Eighteen places that cost nothing to get into, and what they'll cost you once you're there.
San Francisco seems to charge for everything. So where can you actually go for free with kids? The best answers in San Francisco are the sea lions at Pier 39, the Cable Car Museum, the super slide in Dolores Park, the Outpost at Presidio Tunnel Tops and the rooftop park at Salesforce Transit Center, which comes with its own free gondola. Nobody asks for a ticket at any of them, and they're all good enough that you'd happily pay.
But free to get in isn't the same as free. The Musée Mécanique is a whole room of machines that want quarters. The fortune cookie factory charges you to take a photo. And the playground in Golden Gate Park sits right next to a carousel (good luck walking past that). Every entry below tells you where the money sneaks in, so you can bring the right change or steer the stroller the other way.
We kept the list short on purpose and grouped it by part of town, so you can string two or three into one morning. Each place says whether there's a restroom and whether the stroller works, the no's included.
How we picked
Every place here is free every single day it's open, not just one Tuesday a month. We pulled the details from each place's own site and from the park service and Rec and Park pages, and only kept the ones we'd send a friend with a four-year-old to.
So what's missing? Events, for one. Anything that's closed or moved (the historic ships at Hyde Street Pier are off being renovated). And places that are technically free but kind of pointless unless you pay. The museums with free days get their own section at the end, kept apart so they don't muddy the list.
On the waterfront: Fisherman's Wharf and Aquatic Park
The wharf is where visitors end up anyway, and let's be honest, most of it is built to take your money. These three are the exceptions, and they're all within a 15-minute walk of each other.
Pier 39 Sea Lions
Fisherman's Wharf
The sea lions showed up on K-Dock, on the west side of Pier 39, after the 1989 earthquake and basically decided to stay. You'll hear them before you see them (and smell them at about the same moment). Toddlers can see through the railing without being lifted, which sounds minor until you've been carrying one for an hour.
How many you get depends on the season. The record was over 2,100 in the spring of 2024, but most of them swim south to the Channel Islands to breed in early summer, so in June or July you might find a dock with a handful of animals on it. Upstairs, the Sea Lion Center (run by Aquarium of the Bay) is free too, and warm.
Before you get there, tell them feeding the sea lions is against federal law. You'll walk right past the fish stalls on the way.
- Free entry
- Yes
Musée Mécanique
Fisherman's Wharf
More than 300 coin-operated machines packed into a shed on Pier 45: fortune tellers, strength testers, hand-cranked peep shows, player pianos, tiny mechanical dioramas, and then pinball and video games at the back. Laffing Sal, the six-foot cackling woman rescued from the old Playland at the Beach, stands by the door. She terrifies some toddlers and completely delights most six-year-olds.
Walking in is free. Walking out without spending anything? That just doesn't happen. The machines take coins, there are change machines inside, and a pocketful of quarters disappears way faster than you'd think. Settle on a budget out on the sidewalk, not in front of the fortune teller. A lot of the old cabinets are tall, so little kids will need a lift to see in.
It stays open into the early evening, so it's your rescue plan for a foggy afternoon at the wharf.
- Free entry
- Yes
- Wheelchair access
- Yes
National Maritime Museum
Fisherman's Wharf
A 1930s bathhouse built to look like an ocean liner, sitting right on the sand at Aquatic Park. The ship models are fine. What kids actually stare at are the murals and tile work inside, a whole underwater dream world painted in the WPA years. Outside, open-water swimmers head into the cove all year round, which is pretty entertaining on its own.
It's small. The Maritime Visitor Center a block away on Jefferson Street is free too, and its huge lighthouse lens is good for 20 minutes when the fog is in. Just don't promise anyone a boat: the historic ships from Hyde Street Pier are over at Mare Island while the pier gets renovated.
- Free entry
- Yes
- Wheelchair access
- Yes
Downtown, Chinatown and SoMa
This is where the indoor rescues and the rooftop parks live. Most of them are quick, so plan on two or three together. Heads up: the cable car and the F-line streetcar that get you between them are the part you pay for.
Cable Car Museum
Nob Hill
If you only do one indoor thing, make it this one. It's less a museum about cable cars than the working powerhouse that runs them: those enormous wheels turning in the pit are pulling the actual cables under the streets outside, right now. Downstairs you can watch the cables come into the building. Kids who love machines will happily stay a long time.
It's loud, there's no food, and anything that isn't machinery is reading. Toddlers tend to be done in 15 minutes, while five- to ten-year-olds last longer. The step-free way in is up a ramp on the Washington Street side, and there's an elevator between floors.
The Powell lines stop right outside, so ride up and walk in. The ride is the bit you pay for.
- Free entry
- Yes
- Restroom
- Yes
- Changing table
- Yes
- Wheelchair access
- Yes
Golden Gate Fortune Cookie Factory
Chinatown
One narrow room on Ross Alley, between Jackson and Washington, where cookies have been folded by hand off a hot griddle since 1962. Kids usually get handed a flat, unfolded one that's still warm, and honestly, that's the part they'll remember.
The visit takes about three minutes (the line can take longer). Taking photos costs a little, it's cash only, and pretty much everyone walks out with a bag. The alley is tight, so fold the stroller or wear the baby. Portsmouth Square playground is two blocks away for all the energy those cookies produce.
- Free entry
- Yes
San Francisco Railway Museum
Embarcadero
One room across from the Ferry Building, right at the F-line stop. Why go? For the full-size replica of the motorman's platform from a 1911 streetcar, which kids can stand at and actually operate. Ten or fifteen minutes and you're out.
Think of it as a starting point, not the whole outing: ride a vintage F-line streetcar up the Embarcadero (that part's a paid fare), wander the Ferry Building, then let them loose at the Waterfront Playground in Sue Bierman Park, two minutes' walk away. It only opens in the afternoons, so don't make it your morning plan.
- Free entry
- Yes
- Wheelchair access
- Yes
Salesforce Park
SoMa
A park on the roof of the Salesforce Transit Center (the bus station, not the tower), about four blocks long with a half-mile loop path. For little kids, the free glass gondola up from Mission and Fremont is half the fun. You ride standing up, and it's over way too soon.
Up top, the bus fountain has 247 small jets that fire as buses move underneath, and kids will wait for it with genuinely impressive patience. The play area has rope climbing on soft ground. No dogs allowed, so the lawn is clean enough for a crawling baby. Anyone over eight will probably find the play area a bit small.
The gondola keeps shorter hours than the park, so ride it up early and save the walk for the way down.
- Restroom
- Yes
- Ages
- All ages
Yerba Buena Gardens Children's Garden
SoMa
Up on the roof of Moscone Center, at Fourth and Howard: tall metal slides, a 25-foot tube slide, a hedge maze, a stream, sand and a climbing wall. It's the best free playground downtown, and it's not even close.
The problem is the view. From the top of the slides a kid can spot the 1906 carousel, the ice rink, the bowling alley and the Children's Creativity Museum, and every single one of them costs money. Decide on the way in whether the carousel is happening. In summer, the Children's Garden Series puts on free outdoor shows.
Those metal slides get fast when it's dry, and hot on the rare warm day.
- Restroom
- Yes
- Water play
- Yes
- Ages
- All ages
The Presidio: the bridge end of town
Crissy Field runs along the water between here and the Marina: a flat mile of promenade and beach with the Golden Gate Bridge right in front of you the whole way. It's great for scooters and strollers, and it gets windier by the hour after lunch. At the eastern end, past the yacht club, the Wave Organ is a jetty of pipes that hum with the tide. Go near high tide, or it's almost silent. Both are free, and both are on your way.
Presidio Tunnel Tops
Presidio
The Outpost is why you're here: two acres of logs, boulders, hill slides and a giant bird's nest, with the bridge behind it all. For the two-to-twelve spread it's the best playground in the city, because the big kids can climb high while the little ones run the channels. And those water channels (modeled on the Presidio's old creeks) will get everyone wet, so pack a change of clothes even on a gray day.
Next door, the Field Station is a free hands-on nature room, and there are family restrooms right by the playground. On summer weekends, food trucks set up on the lawn.
The hidden cost? Parking, which you pay for in every Presidio lot. Skip it with the free PresidiGo shuttle from downtown.
- Free entry
- Yes
- Reservations
- No
- Restroom
- Yes
- Wheelchair access
- Yes
- Ages
- All ages
Fort Point
Presidio
A Civil War brick fort tucked directly under the south end of the Golden Gate Bridge, so traffic roars overhead the entire time you're inside. There are cannons, echoey rooms kids can shout in, and spiral granite stairs up to the roof, where the wind will happily steal your hat. Rangers give free history talks on weekends.
Only the ground floor and the theater are step-free. Everything above is stairs, so leave the stroller at the bottom. The inside is closed on some weekdays even though the grounds are open daily, and parking is limited. The seawall gets splashed, and the surfers below are half the show.
- Free entry
- Yes
- Wheelchair access
- Yes
San Francisco Fire Department Museum
Presidio Heights
One room next to a working firehouse on Presidio Avenue, full of hand-pulled and horse-drawn engines, brass helmets and photos of 1906. Volunteers run it, the hours are short (and not always kept), and 20 minutes covers it.
So why is it on this list? Because if you have a three-year-old who talks about nothing but fire trucks, this is the best 20 minutes in the city, and it's free. Donations are welcome.
- Free entry
- Yes
Golden Gate Park and the ocean
The west side is where the fog lives. Bring a layer in August (yes, August), and pick one end of the park instead of trying to see it all.
Koret Children's Quarter
Golden Gate Park
It's thought to be the first public playground in the country, opened in 1888 at the east end of the park. The old concrete slides are the classic here, and they work just like the ones on Seward Street: bring a piece of cardboard. There's also a wave-shaped climbing wall and plenty of rope.
The sneaky part is the 1914 carousel next door. Kids pay to ride (under-fives ride free with a paying adult), and its hours depend on the weather. Park east of Bowling Green Drive by the lawn bowling club, not next to the carousel. If little legs are still going, keep walking to Stow Lake.
- Restroom
- Yes
- Fenced
- No
- Swings
- Yes
- Picnic tables
- Yes
- Accessible play
- Yes
- Wheelchair access
- Yes
- Ages
- All ages
Golden Gate Park
Golden Gate Park
The free stuff that's actually worth crossing the park for is at the west end. Bison have lived in a paddock off JFK Drive since the 1890s (yes, bison, in San Francisco), and you watch them through the fence. Just east, at Spreckels Lake, the model yacht club sails radio-controlled boats on weekends, like it has since 1898. The loop is flat and under half a mile.
Stow Lake is the other big one: walk the loop, cross the stone bridge and climb Strawberry Hill to the waterfall. The pedal boats cost money, and they're very visible. Much of JFK Drive is closed to cars, which makes this the place for scooters and balance bikes.
- Free entry
- Yes
Lands End and the Sutro Baths
Outer Richmond
Start at the Lands End Lookout for the restrooms and the café, then head down to the Sutro Baths ruins, the concrete bones of an 1890s swimming palace that kids scramble around like it was built for them. Past the ruins, a short sea cave opens onto crashing waves. Low tide only, and hold hands, because the rocks are slick.
The coastal trail heads east toward the Mile Rock overlook. The first stretch from Merrie Way is step-free, but later on you get stairs, and the cliffs are unfenced in places, so small kids ride in the carrier. Parking at Merrie Way and the Lookout is free, and it fills up on weekends.
- Free entry
- Yes
- Restroom
- Yes
- Wheelchair access
- Yes
The neighborhood hills: Castro, Corona Heights and the Mission
Sunnier than the west side, and full of people who actually live here instead of people visiting.
Helen Diller Playground, Dolores Park
Mission
The 45-foot super slide drops nearly 30 feet down the hill between boulders, and it's the slide San Francisco kids ask for by name. Around it you'll find separate areas for two-to-fives and five-to-twelves, a sand and water garden with a raised sand table, a shipwrecked boat and a sound garden.
Dolores Park is usually sunnier than the rest of the city, which means busy afternoons, and on weekends the lawn above can turn into a full-on party. The restrooms are a bit of a walk from the playground. The accessible path comes in from the Dolores Street side. And Bi-Rite Creamery is a block away on 18th Street, which is where your money is going to go.
- Restroom
- Yes
- Fenced
- No
- Shade
- Yes
- Water play
- Yes
- Swings
- Yes
- Picnic tables
- Yes
- Accessible play
- Yes
- Wheelchair access
- Yes
- Ages
- All ages
Randall Museum
Corona Heights
A city-run museum on the side of Corona Heights with more than a hundred live animals that can't go back to the wild: snakes, lizards, raccoons, a tarantula. Toddlers make a beeline for the small moving train layout with Bay Area landmarks on it. On Saturdays the model railroad club runs its big layout for the public, so if trains are the whole reason you're going, that's your day.
There's a free parking lot, which fills up on Saturdays, and the aquarium corner is kind of underwhelming. Saturday drop-in art classes cost extra. Outside, the Corona Heights trail is a short, steep scramble to a rocky top with the whole city spread out below. Strong legs only.
- Free entry
- Yes
- Restroom
- Yes
- Wheelchair access
- Yes
- Ages
- All ages
Seward Street Slides
Castro
Two long, steep concrete slides built into a hillside in 1973, designed by a 14-year-old who won a competition run by the sculptor Ruth Asawa. You sit on a flattened piece of cardboard and go way faster than you expected. Bring your own cardboard. Sometimes there's a pile at the top, but don't count on it.
Wear pants, expect a scraped elbow, and keep toddlers on your lap or at the bottom, since the sweet spot is roughly five to twelve. The sign says adults must be accompanied by children, which is exactly the right way around. It's a half-hour stop, not an afternoon, and parking on those steep streets is no fun.
- Wheelchair access
- Yes
- Ages
- All ages
The east side, where visitors don't go: Dogpatch and Bayview
Warmer than the west side, emptier than the wharf, and easiest if you have a car.
Heron's Head Park
Bayview
The city's biggest nature play area, and there isn't a plastic slide in sight: logs, stumps and boulders to climb, a rope bridge, a tree cave and lookouts. More than a hundred local kids had a say in the design, and it won a UNICEF award for it.
Once they're done climbing, walk the flat spit out into the bay through the restored salt marsh, where the shorebirds hang out. The EcoCenter next door runs ecology workshops. The surroundings are industrial and it's out of the way without a car, which is exactly why you'll have it nearly to yourselves.
- Restroom
- Yes
- Picnic tables
- Yes
- Ages
- All ages
Free days at the paid museums
The de Young in Golden Gate Park and the Legion of Honor at Lands End are free for anyone 17 and under, every day, so with kids the only ticket you're buying is your own. Adults get in free on the first Tuesday of the month, and Bay Area residents with ID get in free on Saturdays.
Other museums, including the Academy of Sciences and the Exploratorium, run occasional free or community days, but the terms change often enough that we'd rather not print them here.
If it rains
Your free indoor options are the Cable Car Museum, the Musée Mécanique and the Randall Museum, and the Sea Lion Center on Pier 39 is good for half an hour. The other one is the kids' floor of the Main Library at Civic Center: the whole second floor, with a play space for little kids and storytimes. Head straight in through the Larkin Street entrance.
Questions
What is free to do with kids in San Francisco?
The sea lions at Pier 39, the Cable Car Museum, the Randall Museum, Fort Point, the Outpost playground at Presidio Tunnel Tops, Salesforce Park and its gondola, Lands End and the Sutro Baths ruins, and the super slide at Dolores Park are all free to get into. So are Crissy Field and the kids' floor of the Main Library. The Musée Mécanique is free to walk into, but the machines want coins.
Is the Musée Mécanique really free?
Getting in is free. The 300-plus machines on Pier 45 take coins, and there are change machines inside, so settle on a budget before you walk in the door.
When is the best time to see the sea lions at Pier 39?
Pretty much any time except early summer. Most of the sea lions head to the Channel Islands to breed around June, so the dock can be nearly empty in June and July, while spring has seen more than 2,100 at once. Watching from the K-Dock railing is free, and so is the Sea Lion Center upstairs.
Is the Salesforce Park gondola free?
Yes. It runs from the corner of Mission and Fremont up to the rooftop park on the Salesforce Transit Center (that's the bus station, not the tower). The park is free and dog-free too, with a play area and a fountain that fires when buses move underneath.
Which San Francisco museums are free for kids?
The Cable Car Museum, the Randall Museum, the Railway Museum, the Fire Department Museum and the National Maritime Museum are free for everyone. The de Young and the Legion of Honor are free for anyone 17 and under, and free for adults on the first Tuesday of the month.
What do I need for the Seward Street slides?
A flattened piece of cardboard to sit on and pants you don't mind scuffing. The slides are steep and fast, so they're better for kids from about five than for toddlers, and adults need a kid with them to use them.
Photos
Pier 39 Sea Lions: Larry D. Moore (CC BY 4.0) · Musée Mécanique: Zeljko.filipin (CC BY-SA 3.0) · National Maritime Museum: Ken Lund from Reno, Nevada, USA (CC BY-SA 2.0) · Cable Car Museum: Brendan Riley from Chicago, USA (CC BY-SA 2.0) · Golden Gate Fortune Cookie Factory: King of Hearts (CC BY-SA 3.0) · San Francisco Railway Museum: Eric Fischer (CC BY 2.0) · Salesforce Park Playground: Dead.rabbit (CC BY-SA 4.0) · Yerba Buena Children’s Playground: E mln e (CC BY-SA 4.0) · Presidio Tunnel Tops: Dicklyon (CC BY-SA 4.0) · Fort Point: Daniel Schwen (CC BY-SA 2.5) · San Francisco Fire Department Pioneer Museum: guardiansofthecity.org (Business website) · Koret Children's Quarter Playground: Joe Mabel (CC BY-SA 3.0) · Golden Gate Park: Dennis G. Jarvis (CC BY-SA 2.0) · Lands End: TheTokl (CC BY-SA 3.0 de) · Helen Diller Playground: Nelson Minar (CC BY-SA 2.0) · Randall Museum Friends: Mliu92 (CC BY-SA 3.0) · Seward Street Slides Playground: Franco Folini (CC BY-SA 2.0) · Heron's Head Park Nature Exploration Area Playground: Pi.1415926535 (CC BY-SA 4.0)
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