San Francisco’s cable cars glide past wonderful sights, but there’s so much more to see by combining rides and walks. Here are some great options.

Self-guided riding-walking tours

The nonprofit Market Street Railway, organizer of 150 Years of Cable Cars, offers a comprehensive field guide to San Francisco’s cable cars and historic streetcars. This pocket-sized guide includes several detailed neighborhood tours that you can combine with rides on Muni’s historic rail vehicles. Chinatown, Telegraph Hill, the historic northern waterfront, Land’s End, the Castro and Mission Districts among them. Buy the guide in advance here, or pick one up at the San Francisco Railway Museum.

The San Francisco Historical Society has created a special free phone app to share the rich history along the California Street cable car line, as you ride. Download “City Explorer San Francisco” from the Apple App Store or Google Play; the California Street cable car ride is the first tour you’ll see when you open it.

The San Francisco Chronicle offers three audio walking tours. Two are close to historic transit lines: a Financial District architectural tour with critic John King, and a Castro tour with Tony Bravo. Details here.

Hosted tours

San Francisco City Guides

This nonprofit offers free walking tours all over the City, including one specifically about the history of the cable cars. The emphasis is on history, and the guides are knowledgeable and engaging. Learn more about all their tours at their website.

San Francisco Historical Society

The San Francisco Historical Society conducts frequent walking tours free to members (easy to join) and those under 13, and $20 for non-members. Regular tours adjacent to the cable car lines include: Chinatown’s rebirth after the 1906 earthquake and fire; the Financial District as “Wall Street of the West”; Gold Rush & Sunken Ships; and Barbary Coast & Jackson Square. This nonprofit exists to uncover, preserve, and present, in engaging ways, the colorful and diverse history of the City from its earliest days to the present. They operate a free museum in what originally served as the first branch US Mint, built in 1854 at 608 Commercial Street. Take a virtual tour of the museum.

Chinatown Alleyway Tours

This nonprofit group provides unique youth-led tours through both the main streets and hidden allies of the oldest Chinatown in the Western Hemisphere. The tours highlight the struggles and triumphs of the Chinatown community,. The young guides share their personal stories about preserving Chinatown. These tours let you see Chinatown as its residents do, a vibrant, authentic community. Find available tours here.

Emperor Norton Tour 

When Andrew Hallidie invented the cable car in 1873, San Francisco had an ‘emperor’, one Joshua Norton, who arrived in the Gold Rush year of 1849 and ten years later, after making and losing a small fortune in speculation, proclaimed himself ‘Norton I, Emperor of the United States’. He issued his own currency, which storekeepers accepted for small purchases. When he died in 1880, 10,000 San Franciscans paid him homage. Local actor Joseph Amster, wearing full Norton regalia, leads regular tours that faithfully convey the flavor (lots of flavor) of the San Francisco Andrew Hallidie knew. He offers a weekly tour, Saturdays, 11 a.m. starting at Union Square. More info here.

Commercial Tours

There are dozens of good tours run by for-profit operators, covering every conceivable topic or area of interest. Here’s a well-reviewed operator that lets you ‘name your own price’. Here’s an extensive list of commercial tours from a Trip Advisor company.

Castro Tours

Cable cars served the Castro neighborhood until 1941, and today you can reach this historic LGBTQ area by Muni’s F-line historic streetcars. A women-owned and operated San Francisco Legacy Business, Cruisin’ the Castro. offers professional walking tours.