Things to do in San Francisco when it rains (Popular indoor activities)

So you've planned a vacation to lovely San Francisco by the Bay and the weather forecast informs you that it's going to rain (not a big surprise in San Fran, to be honest). Now what do you do? If you're searching for some ideas, check out our list of included indoor activities, full of cultural and artistic museums, kid-friendly attractions, and much more.

By Katie Sagal
Last updated: August 4, 2026
Raindrops on the windshield on a rainy day, traffic light background, San Francisco, California

A few of our favorites include...

  • SFMOMA
  • Exploratorium
  • The California Academy of Sciences
  • Aquarium of the Bay
  • and many more

Looking for some fun things to do indoors?

Admission to many of these recommended attractions are available on Go City® San Francisco passes. Choose as you go from dozens of fun attractions and save up to 50% off combined admission vs paying at the gate.

Ripley's Believe it or Not! San Francisco

A great family attraction in Fisherman's Wharf, Ripley's Believe It or Not! is perfect for those kids and adults who get a kick out of the weirder side of life. This collection of 400+ oddities features everything from natural and man-made artifacts to exciting local exhibits to see and marvel at, a Candy and Toy Factory, and 18 themed galleries that'll have you awe-inspired (or scared!)

San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA)

skyscrapers-san-francisco-night

While the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art has always been a must-see spot. Originally constructed as the first-ever museum of modern and contemporary art on the West Coast, SFMOMA is now the largest modern art museum in the world and houses a wide array of all art styles, types, and mediums.

The halls and exhibits of SFMOMA are full of works by well-known artists like Paul Klee and Alexander Calder. You'll find everything from sculptures to paintings and multimedia displays projected across the walls. With its ever-changing, cutting-edge exhibits, SFMOMA makes for the perfect rainy-day place. 

Getting in: SFMOMA tickets are included on all Go City® San Francisco passes.

The California Academy of Sciences

Located right in Golden Gate Park, the California Academy of Sciences is the only attraction that combines a planetarium, aquarium, and natural history museum to make one mega-museum. From the lively penguins in African Hall to the wildlife on the Living Roof, the building is full of life. There's even a four-story living rainforest and awe-inspiring coral reef ecosystem to entertain visitors of all ages.

Enjoy daily talks and educational experiences, watch a 4D movie at the Morrison Planetarium, and explore the evolution of the plants and animals that call Earth home to this day. A visit here is a unique opportunity to explore all that the natural world has to offer, presented by some of the best scientific minds in the world. 

Getting In: California Academy of Sciences tickets are included on all Go City® San Francisco passes.

Exploratorium

san-francisco-exploratorium-palace-fine-arts

An art, science, and anthropological museum all in one, the Exploratorium is full of amazing hands-on experiences. It's the only place where you can play and tinker with all the exhibits. With more than 600 interactive exhibits to choose from, your kids will find plenty of opportunities to explore and learn.

Each exhibit inspires creative and scientific thinking and indulges your child's curiosity about the world around them. From large-scale outdoor art installations to learning labs for visitors of all ages, it's a great way to combine learning with fun on a rainy vacation day. 

de Young Museum

de-young-museum

Another great museum to visit on a rainy day is the de Young Museum located right in Golden Gate Park. It's one of the most visited art museums in the country. The museum is full of over 1,000 paintings, sculptures, and fine art pieces. The collections span from the 17th to the 21st centuries, with art hailing from Africa, Oceania, the Americas, and beyond. You'll see textiles, costumes, contemporary paintings, and everything in between. 

Getting In: de Young Museum tickets are included on all Go City® San Francisco passes.

Aquarium of the Bay

silhouette-people-great-aquarium

While you may not be able to enjoy searching for marine life out of doors during a rainy San Francisco afternoon, you can still discover the fascinating sea life native to the San Francisco Bay at this fun and educational institution. There are tons of interactive exhibits, exciting demonstrations like animal feedings and naturalist presentations, and even touch pools filled with sharks, rays, and sea stars.

The Aquarium of the Bay has a clear crystal tunnel system that allows you to actually walk through aquatic exhibits. You'll get to see various sea life, such as sevengill sharks, jellyfish, giant octopi, and more from all angles.

Getting In: Aquarium of the Bay tickets are included on all Go City® San Francisco passes.

The Walt Disney Family Museum

Naturally, the Walt Disney Family Museum is the perfect place to take the kids for a day full of fun and characters. Each exhibit works to tell the story of Walt Disney and how Disney's magic came to be. With over 200 screens, 40,000 sq. ft. of exhibit space, and an intricate model of Disneyland, you'll learn all there is to know about the world of Disney.

You'll see original Disney character drawings, sit at listening stations to hear your favorite Disney songs, and watch short films that explain the process of making the movies and characters come to life. 

Getting in: The Walt Disney Family Museum tickets are included on all Go City® San Francisco passes.

Shop at the Ferry Building Marketplace

 

Embarcadero

Located right on the Embarcadero, the Ferry Building Marketplace serves as both a transit hub and a bustling marketplace. You'll find everything from classic, San Francisco fare (like the sourdough from Acme Bread Company!) and pantry provisions to coffee shops, homewares, and even bookshops.

If you haven't already, this is a great place to pick up souvenirs to take home. Want some more fun shopping destination ideas? Check out of post on where to find some of the best 'discounted' shopping in San Francisco.

Musée Mécanique at Fisherman's Wharf

Musée Mécanique

Visit one of the world's largest privately owned collections of coin-operated mechanical musical instruments and unique arcade machines. Entry to Musée Mécanique is free but the games and instruments cost money to play. Don't worry, though, these games are cheap and change machines are plentiful. They have something that everyone can enjoy at Musée Mécanique!

Rainy day recap

See? You can stay dry all while having plenty of great options for things to do in San Francisco when it's raining out. We hope these ideas helped inspire you to create a fun-filled indoorsy itinerary.

Save up to 50% on San Francisco attractions  

Planning your San Francisco trip? With Go City®, you can explore big-name landmarks, local hotspots, and epic tours, all on one pass, all for one price. Not only that, but you'll enjoy savings of up to 50%, compared to buying individual attraction tickets. Pick a San Francisco attraction pass that suits you, and save while you sightsee! 

☀️See all San Francisco attractions ☀️ – 🌏 Explore other destinations 🌏 – ✈️ Buy a San Francisco pass ✈️ 

Katie Sagal
Go City Travel Expert

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Best Museums in San Francisco

From the de Young Museum’s striking copper facade to the enormous steel cube that forms part of the Contemporary Jewish Museum, many of San Francisco’s museums are as much a marvel from the outside as they are from the inside. There’s something for everyone here, with plenty of great art, science and historical treasures to keep even the most fatigued museum-goer entertained. Read on to discover our pick of the 10 best museums in San Francisco. De Young Museum Slap-bang in the middle of Golden Gate Park, the de Young Museum cuts a striking figure with its burnished copper skin and 144-foot observation tower. Inside, the extensive collection of American art dates back to the 17th Century, with highlights including Salvador Dalí’s mesmerizing portrait of San Francisco philanthropist Dorothy Spreckels Munn, George Caleb Bingham’s 1846 masterpiece Boatmen on the Missouri and several Ruth Asawa wire sculptures. An impressive collection of art, textiles and costumes from Africa, Oceania and the Americas completes the picture. Be sure to ascend the tower for 360-degree views of Golden Gate Park, downtown San Francisco and the Bay. Walt Disney Family Museum Enter the magical world of Walt Disney at this Presidio museum that's a stone’s throw from the Golden Gate Bridge. Here’s where you can view Walt’s earliest drawings and experience the evolution of Mickey Mouse via sketches, models and toys. There are over 40,000 square feet to explore, with exhibits including artwork that spans the Disney dynasty, from Snow White and The Seven Dwarfs, Walt’s debut 1937 feature, up to the present day. There are over 200 screens showing cartoons, movies and archive footage, as well as listening stations that include narration by Walt himself. There’s even a 12-foot model of Disneyland! Exploratorium Hands-down the best interactive museum in town, the Exploratorium on Pier 15 is chock-full of amazing art and science exhibits that come to life as soon as you get involved. Say hello to Albert as you enter this trippy universe, where you can – deep breath – dance with your very own animated doppelganger, create sandstorms, step inside a tornado, get lost in the fog, explore an enormous model of San Francisco made from thousands of toothpicks and get a whole new sense of perspective in the Distorted Room. And that barely scratches the surface of what to expect here. Don’t miss the Sun Painting, a huge kaleidoscopic work of art made by reflection and refraction of the sun’s rays. Museum of the African Diaspora One of just a handful of US museums that exclusively showcase contemporary art by native Africans and their descendents, the MoAD is a celebration of Black culture and identity that seeks to entertain, challenge and educate visitors in equal measure. Set in San Francisco’s downtown Yerba Buena Arts District, its regularly rotating exhibitions have featured artists as diverse as Romare Bearden, Elizabeth Catlett and Alison Saar, while the emerging artists program also supports upcoming talent from the Bay Area. USS Pampanito Docked at Pier 45 in Fisherman’s Wharf, the USS Pampanito is a designated National Historic Landmark. This huge submarine was in service during World War II, making patrols of the Pacific and sinking several Japanese ships. Step aboard to learn more about the vessel’s storied history, explore the living quarters, see the torpedoes and check out onboard equipment that has been restored to working order, including the engines, periscope and... ice-cream machine. Legion of Honor Located in Lincoln Park, the Legion of Honor is easily one the best art museums in San Francisco, boasting a fine collection that spans over 5,000 years of ancient and European art. There’s a particularly impressive variety of pieces from France, including paintings by Impressionist masters like Degas, Renoir, Monet and Cézanne. Check out the collection of nearly 100 Rodin sculptures and get up close to some of his most famous pieces: The Thinker, The Kiss and The Gates of Hell, to name but a few. The Hall of Antiquities and mummy room are your one-stop shop for mummified Egyptians, ancient and definitely-not-cursed carved figurine, as well as all manner of well-preserved sculptures, ceramics and jewelry from millennia gone by. Musée Mécanique Relive your misspent youth (depending on your particular vintage) at the Musée Mécanique on Fisherman’s Wharf. This curious place is crammed full of coin-operated arcade games, automata and other such strange devices, with some dating as far back as the early 20th Century. Play classic pinball machines and video games, test your strength against a masked arm-wrestler, find out where you rank on the kiss-o-meter (from passionate to disappointingly clammy), see what is perhaps the only steam-powered motorbike on the planet, and be charmed by not-at-all-creepy Laffing Sal, a florid six-foot cackling automaton with a missing tooth. Asian Art Museum A well-preserved bronze Buddha statue that’s nearly 2,000 years old, Chinese Jades from the Neolithic period and Persian ceramics are just some of the highlights to be found in the vast Asian Art Museum. The 18,000-strong collection is largely Chinese in origin, usually representing around half of the 2,000-ish pieces on display at any given time. It’s one of the biggest and most important Asian art collections in the world and can be found inside a gorgeous Beaux Arts building in the San Francisco Civic Center. Not to be missed. California Academy of Sciences This sprawling museum in Golden Gate Park is an aquarium, planetarium, rainforest and one of the world’s largest natural history collections all rolled into one. Inside its epic 400,000-square-floor space are 46 million specimens and residents that include blacktip reef sharks, an elusive giant Pacific octopus, Madagascan chameleons, poison-dart frogs and a towering t-rex. Equally striking is the museum’s architecture: its roof topped with rolling green hills is home to nearly two million plants! San Francisco Museum of Modern Art SFMOMA is the daddy of all art museums in San Francisco, boasting thousands of important works from household names including Jackson Pollock, Henri Matisse, Georgia O’Keeffe, Frida Kahlo, Louise Bourgeois, Andy Warhol, Edward Hopper, Gerhard Richter and Paul Klee. There’s a largely open-air rooftop sculpture garden that’s accessed via a glass-and-steel bridge and, also outdoors, a vast living wall. This dense forest of foliage changes with the seasons so you’ll get a different sensory experience depending on which time of year you visit. Save on the best museums in San Francisco Save on admission to San Francisco attractions with Go City. Check out @GoCity on Instagram and Facebook for the latest top tips and attraction info.
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