Sausalito is a charming Marin County coastal town located just across the Golden Gate Strait from San Francisco. Things To Do In Sausalito, Sausalito tour is famous for its breathtaking views of San Francisco and the Golden Gate Bridge, as well as its historic Richardson Bay houseboat community, which was built after WWII by artists and other free spirits.
The city is home to the United States Army Corps of Engineers’ working hydraulic model of the Bay Area. Educational Tall Ship is a volunteer-led project that recreates a historic tall ship in a sustainable manner for the benefit of local schoolchildren. Call the attractions and restaurants ahead of time to confirm the current hours of operation.
List of 16 Things to do in Sausalito, CA Today
1. Mammalian Mammal Center
The Marine Mammal Center, founded in 1975 by Sausalito tourresidents Lloyd Smalley, Paul Maxwell, and Pat Arrigoni, has rescued over 20,000 marine mammals.
The center is a non-profit private organization founded to rescue and rehabilitate marine mammals, as well as to provide marine mammal education and research facilities.
Whales, dolphins, seals, Pacific harbor seals, northern elephant seals, sea lions, and fur seals are among the species they work with. They deal with puppies who have been abandoned or separated from their mothers, as well as those who have been found injured or ill. Animals brought to the center are given veterinary care, treatment, and rehabilitation before being released back into their natural environment, if possible.
Phone: 415-289-7325, 2000 Bunker Rd, Sausalito CA 94965
2.National Monument Muir Woods
Muir Woods National Monument, located north of San Francisco, is part of California’s Golden Gate National Recreation Area. Muir Woods is famous for its magnificent, towering old-growth redwood trees.
Trails meander between the trees along Redwood Creek, from Cathedral Grove to Bohemian Grove, as if through fairytale tunnels. The Dipsea and Ben Johnson trails, which climb up a steep hillside, provide the best views of the treetops, Mount Tamalpais, and the Pacific Ocean.
The woods, which have been used since the Coast Miwok people, have been designated as a National Monument to ensure their protection.
Mill Valley, Sausalito CA 94941, 1 Muir Woods Rd, 415-388-2595
3. Spencer’s battery
Battery Spencer, completed in 1897, is a concrete gun battery located on Fort Baker at Lime Point with spectacular views of the Golden Gate Bridge and the entire city of San Francisco. It is perched high on the Marin Headlands, about eye-level with the north tower of the Golden Gate Bridge.
Battery Spencer was a vital site for guarding the Golden Gate at the time it was built. It was originally equipped with three M1888 12-inch rifles mounted on M1892 barbette mounts. One gun was removed in 1917, and the other two were removed in 1943, when the battery was decommissioned at Sausalito day trip. Today, the battery is a popular tourist destination, both for its historical significance and for the spectacular views of wine country.
415-561-4700, Conzelman Rd, Sausalito, CA 94965
4. Discovery Museum of the Bay Area
The Bay Area Discovery Museum, located in Sausalito on national park land at the foot of the soaring Golden Gate Bridge, sparks the imagination with seven exhibition rooms and six or more drop-in monthly programs for children aged six months to ten years in San Francisco City.
Gravity, laws of motion, friction, and other concepts are taught to the children. At the Fab Lab Open Studio programs, all activities are hands-on and interactive, allowing children to use a variety of tools and technology appropriate to their age when visiting Sausalito.
Art Studios, Discovery Hall, Bay Hall, Lookout Cove, and Tot Spot are also available. Children explore and develop their creative thinking and problem-solving skills through hands-on activities. The Bay Area Discovery Museum is the only children’s museum located within a national park, with both indoor and outdoor spaces at barrel house tavern.
Phone: 415-339-3900, 557 McReynolds Rd, Sausalito, CA 94965
5. Bay Model of the United States Army Corps of Engineers
The US Army Corps of Engineers Bay Model, located in Sausalito, California, is a working scale hydraulic model of the San Francisco Bay and the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta. The bay model is on display at the Sausalito Visitor Center, an education center run by the US Army Corps of Engineers, and is open to the public here at napa valley.
The model’s goal is to give scientists, visitors, and educators interested in San Francisco Bay a unique opportunity to view the entire bay-delta system in one location at Sausalito ferry.
Group tours are welcome and can be guided based on the participants’ technical level. The bay model is fully operational, but it is now used for general public and educational courses about Bay hydrology rather than scientific research at alcatraz island.
415-289-3007, 2100 Bridgeway, Sausalito, CA 94965
6.Blackie’s Pasture
Since 1995, a life-sized beautiful bronze sculpture of a horse has drawn the attention of visitors curious about the horse’s story in Tiburon, near San Francisco. This is a story of love for a horse who lived in the same pasture for 28 years, and it is part of local history and lore near Sausalito boardwalk.
Blackie was a cavalry horse stabled at the Presidio in his youth. Every spring, the horse would patrol Yosemite National Park with the cavalry before returning to the Presidio pasture for the winter. After his retirement, he worked as a rodeo horse for a while before returning to the pasture, which had become known as Blackie’s Pasture by that vista point.
Until he died, he was visited on a daily basis by his owner and local children. The sculpture, created by renowned Bay Area artist Albert Guibara, was installed in Blackie’s favorite pasture in 1995, thanks to a gift from the family of Tiburon’s first mayor Gordon Strawbridge vista point.
415-499-6387, Tiburon Blvd, Tiburon, CA 94920
7.The China Cabin
The PS China, a side-wheel steamer also rigged for sail and owned by the Pacific Mail Steamship Company, spent its life transporting mail between San Francisco and Far East destinations such as Hong Kong and Yokohama.
When the ship was decommissioned after only 30 round trips, its most beautiful part, the luxury Victorian saloon, was removed and brought to shore to be set on pilings on the Belvedere waterfront and used as a weekend home heath ceramics.
Locals dubbed this one-of-a-kind structure the China Cabin, and it is now designated as a National Maritime Monument. The Belvedere-Tiburon Landmark Society restored it and brought it back to life with intricate walnut woodwork, floral etched-glass windows, brass chandeliers, painted wood panels with real gold leaf, and period furniture near downtown sausalito.
The China Cabin is now used for weddings, reunions, meetings, and private parties and celebrations, in addition to being a tourist attraction.
Belvedere, 52 Beach Rd 415-435-1853, Tiburon, CA 94920
8. Tall Ships for Education
Call of the Sea, a Sausalito educational nonprofit organization that serves Bay Area youth by cultivating environmental stewardship and celebrating maritime tradition and history, manages the Matthew Turner Educational Tall Ship at Sausalito Art Festival.
They have been running shipboard programs aboard their schooner Seaward for the last ten years, serving nearly 15,000 local high school students.
Today, with the tall ship Matthew Turner, they are constructing a floating foundation for experiential youth education by constructing a replica of the historical wooden tall ship in an entirely novel manner, with the assistance of local volunteers and donors at bay model visitor center.
When finished, the ship will take hundreds of local youth on a voyage of discovery and learning. The Matthew Turner will be a 100-foot-long brigantine with two masts, the first large wooden ship built in the San Francisco Bay Area in nearly 100 years.
Phone: 415-886-4973, 2330 Marinship Way, Sausalito, CA 94965
9. Cronkhite Fort
Fort Cronkhite is a former army post and part of the coastal artillery that defended the San Francisco Bay Area during WWII. It is now part of the Golden Gate National Recreation Area. Soldiers stationed at Cronkhite were in charge of radar stations, gun batteries, and other fort installations located on the ridges above the fort of waldo point harbor.
Fort Cronkhite is now managed by the National Park Service as part of the Marin Headlands and the Golden Gate National Recreation Area. The structure is on the National Register of Historic Places.
There are walking tours of the army buildings, but some of them are now used as offices by non-profit organizations and are not open to the public. Hiking trails surround the fort, and Rodeo Beach, known for great surfing, is also nearby at bay bridge.
Sausalito, CA 94965 Marin Headlands
10. Gates Co-op Houseboat Community 10
The Gates Co-op Houseboat Community fits right in with San Francisco’s eccentric and colorful communities. It is located in Richardson Bay in Sausalito and consists of a collection of houseboats ranging from a pirate ship to a home built on a WWII tug. The neighborhood is surrounded by a different type of “floating home,” luxury floating palaces guarded by locked gates.
Gates Coop is the last surviving example of a once-thriving community of hippies, artists, gallery sausalito, musicians, and other “free-thinking” bohemians who lived in a variety of colorful floating houses. The late 1960s saw the end of the community’s famous week-long parties, and following what became known as the “water wars,” many house boats were cut off from the dock for violating various codes.
The 38 remaining floating houses are all that remain, and the aging of both residents and boats, as well as the law and changing times, indicate that the community’s days are numbered at alcatraz tour.
Sausalito, CA 94965, Gate 6
11.Golden Gate Bridge
The Golden Gate Bridge is a world-famous bridge and the main symbol of San Francisco. This Golden Gate suspension bridge connects San Francisco and Marin County. It is one mile wide and the height of a 65-story building of casa madrona.
Everything about it, from its massive 746-foot-tall towers and vast main cables to its signature orange color and art deco style, makes it one of the Modern World’s Wonders.
The bridge was built in 1937 and was the tallest and longest suspension bridge in the world at the time. Millions of visitors cross the bridge each year, and photographing it is one of the highlights of any trip to San Francisco bay model.
12. Golden Gate National Recreation Area (12th)
The Golden Gate National Recreation Area is a massive park with 19 different ecosystems that support over 2,000 plant and animal species.
The park, which was created to protect more than 82,027 acres of historically and ecologically significant landscapes, is a collection of unconnected areas stretching from San Mateo County in the south to Marin County in the north is really a fun things.
Many San Francisco attractions are included, including Alcatraz, the Presidio, and Muir Woods. The park is regarded as the world’s largest urban park, attracting millions of visitors who come to hike, enjoy spectacular views, have a picnic, or visit one of the many historic landmarks.
US Highway 101, San Francisco, CA 94109
13. Gourmet Food and Wine Tours
When visiting a well-known wine-producing region, it makes sense to combine a tour of the region with some gourmet meals and great wine tasting. Gourmet Food and Wine Tours combines stories told by a knowledgeable local guide with “1 town, 3 hours, and 4 farm-to-table courses.”
The 3.5-hour Sausalito Food Tour on Bridgeway, which overlooks the bay and offers endless views of the ocean, is one of their most popular tours.
The tour includes a ferry or water taxi ride from San Francisco, a farm-to-table wine tasting of Italian or Napa varietals, and four-course gourmet meals at top Bay Area restaurants with views of Angel Island, Tiburon, and Alcatraz.
Phone: 415-996-3663
14. Harbor Dive Center 14
Harbor Dive Center caters to those who aren’t satisfied with just skimming the surface of San Francisco. The surrounding seas are teeming with spectacular dive sites teeming with marine life that can only be seen with scuba gear.
The PADI five-star scuba center offers all levels of scuba certification, as well as Discover Scuba trips and advanced and specialized courses.
They offer a comprehensive selection of scuba, snorkeling, and swimming equipment. Aside from organizing diving trips in the San Francisco area, the center also organizes annual trips to exotic diving destinations such as Fiji and Iceland, as well as Aggressor liveaboards.
Phone: 415-331-0904, 200 Harbor Dr, Sausalito, CA 94965
15. St. Hilary’s Church
Old St. Hilary’s Landmark, located on the hillside above Tiburon, was once a mission church that was deconsecrated in 1959. It is now a historic landmark and one of the few remaining Carpenter Gothic churches. The Belvedere-Tiburon Landmarks Society now owns and manages Old St. Hilary’s.
It served as a school for a time before becoming a town hall, and it is now a popular venue for weddings, concerts, and other public events. The beautiful former redwood church retains many of its original features, including amber glass windows, a Douglas fir ceiling, and a stained-glass window depicting St. Hilary above the door.
The area around the church, known as the Old Saint Hilary’s Open Space Preserve, has been designated as a Marin County protected area and is home to some rare plants, including the endemic black jewel flower, Marin dwarf flax, Tiburon paintbrush, and Tiburon buckwheat.
Belvedere, 201 Esperanza St 415-435-1853, Tiburon, CA 94920
16. Railroad and Ferry Depot Museum
The Railroad & Ferry Depot Museum is the best place to learn about Tiburon’s rich maritime and railroad history. The museum is housed in the former San Francisco and North Pacific Railroad Station House/Depot, a beautiful 1886 Greek revival building, in Tiburon’s charming waterfront.
The structure was originally intended to be mobile, and it rested in several locations, including the wharf, before settling in its current location. The museum’s ground floor features a detailed model of Tiburon at the turn of the twentieth century, when it was a true railroad town.
Buildings, landscapes, boats, trains, and three ferryboats are all included in the model. The vessels were part of a large fleet that ran from Point Tiburon to San Francisco.
Phone: 415-435-1853, 1920 Paradise Dr, Tiburon, CA 94920
Questions and Answers About Things to Do in Sausalito CA
Is it worthwhile to visit Sausalito?
Sausalito is a popular tourist destination for both city residents and visitors. We’ve visited Sausalito several times and enjoy taking out-of-town family and friends there for the day. Sausalito is well-known for its stunning views of the Bay and the San Francisco skyline.
What is the appeal of Sausalito?
Sausalito is famous for its breathtaking views of San Francisco and the Golden Gate Bridge, as well as its historic Richardson Bay houseboat community, which was built after WWII by artists and other free spirits.
Which is preferable, Sausalito or Tiburon?
Both Sausalito and Tiburon have beautiful Bay views from certain points. Sausalito caters to tourists and lacks excellent dining options (although it has some). Tiburon is a sleepy town with little to offer.