Whenever we are traveling and wherever we go, I love to experience the city in a different way. Earlier this month I went back to San Francisco, a city I fell in love with while visiting in college over a decade ago. There’s so much to do in the city, and our quick visits don’t always allow time to explore. So while planning an extra day in the city with a friend we decided to take a tour of the city but not in the most conventional way. Yes, you can hop on the tourist bus and go on a few hour tour of San Francisco but there are much more entertaining ways to do it.
When researching different things to do in the city we found Go Cars, a two seated car that allows you to take a self guided GPS tour of the city and get facts along the way. Just from the online listing we were laughing at how fun the tour actually looked – we didn’t know just how much fun would be in store for us.
Driving a Go Car is like driving a motorcycle – there are no peddles and it’s is controlled completely by the throttle on the handle bars. The vehicle is not enclosed so you have to wear a helmet while driving. But everything else you’re given is a map and instructions on how to control the Go Car. Your Go Car will only go up to 35 miles an hour, so it is road legal, but you are not able to take it on bridges, highways and certain hills it does not have the power to go up.
To see the whole Go Car tour you will need the better part of a day. We took the Go Car out for about four hours and saw a large portion of everything the Go Car has access to. There are even areas of the city that you can access with the Go Car that tour buses aren’t allowed in. You are able to stop off anywhere a car can park and visit your favorite tourist locations – but keep an eye on your time for when you need to return your car to the hub.
We had a lot of fun driving the Go Car through the city and stopping off at some of our favorite tourist locations. Driving the Go Car actually made us laugh a lot, and we were smiling the whole way through the city. Now driving a Go Car means that you will get smiles and waves from a lot of different people, including cops and other tourists. Be ready to become part of someone else’s tourist shots if you hop into a Go Car.
As you take your tour around the town, the Go Car will tell you facts about the city that will entertain you. The vehicle seems to have a personality of her own as well and makes jokes as she goes through the city and different areas. One thing to note – the Go Car does not reverse! Be careful where to stop the car, especially in San Francisco since it can get heavy when you’re trying to push it backwards up hill. Thankfully we met a lot of friendly strangers who were willing to help us out when we got stuck.
We spent the whole time laughing our way through the city and creating new memories. I can guarantee the next trip back to San Francisco will include another trip around in a Go Car!
So hop on in and check out a bit of our Go Car Tour around San Francisco!
