California Welcome Center

It is 10:30 Friday January 5. We just left welcome center. The woman at the desk was super helpful! Very knowledgeable re: Muni transportation and other tips for navigating SF.
Thank you

Hoping this business always offers parking coupons because I'm not going to SF unless they do! I don't recommend SF any more to overseas travelers visiting me due to parking costs, too many unsafe areas apart from that nice tourist friendly area or outlying areas away from the central city which I consider safe.

So so helpful, I'm so glad we came here. Maps, brochures & A very helpful woman pointed us in the right direction and gave us discounts. She even showed us the app for the clipper busses. Tours, boat rides, savings this was the best. We should've started here, this is the place!

The California Welcome Center at Pier 39 is great! It is a nice wide open space on the 2nd level full of pamphlets of ideas for things to do around San Francisco and the state. They also have complimentary maps and has a couple employees inside to help answer any questions you might have.

If you check in on Yelp, you get a coupon book full of savings coupons and one to be redeemed in the welcome center for a free hour of validated parking in the Pier 39 parking garage.

Definitely stop by if you are visiting the Pier!

This is how to save money: come to the welcome center and get yourself a Funpack. A fun pack is a book of coupons to the many restaurants and shops at pier 39. There also is a free 1 hour parking coupon. To get an additional free one hour parking eat at one of the full service restaurants and get your ticket validated. So ideally you can get 2 free hours of parking. You must park in the Pier 39 garage. Surprisingly for a family of 4 we ate at Chowders which isn't a full service restaurant and easily spend $50.00 on food. We should of just eaten at the full service restaurant. At least I could have gotten free parking.

If you are a local you can join the local advantage. You have to live in the surrounding area of SF. They email coupons for buy one get one free every so often. This can be a big money saver. Go to the Pier 39 website and look for local advantage.

This should actually be named the first stop on our Bachelorette weekend since we all lugged our bags up the stairs to this joint to be tagged and stowed. This was probably the best $5 you could spend while in SF day-tripping!

Saturday we couldn't check into our airbnb until 3pm but who wants to carry their bags around until check in? Not me. After a quick google search this place came up as the spot to stow and I couldn't be more pleased. For 5 bucks they will hold your bag from 9am-6pm ($10 for very large bags).

And wait, there's more!

They will also give you a complimentary map of the Pier, point out places of interest, and offer a wide variety of little trinket things to purchase.

If you are 'tourist-ing' in SF for a couple hours and plan to pick up your things before 6pm then stop by here first to drop off a bag (save your check-in ticket!), grab a map, and get a few pointers on where to eat and what to do.

Good luck and happy travels!

I like the California Welcome Center for ONE reason.....they offer AAA members a Pier 39 Fun Pack!!!! In the fun pack it includes discounts for almost every restaurant and several stores at Pier 39. It also includes a voucher for 2 hours of free parking!!!! That is an $18 savings just in parking.

Just go to the Welcome Center with your AAA card and pick up your fun pack!!!

If you're looking for maps all over California or things to do than this is your spot. After stopping by at San Francisco I was going to continue driving up north and wanted to get a map from here to help guide me since I knew I wouldn't have cell phone signal.

As soon as I walked in the place was pretty crowded, but I was still welcomed by someone at the front. I went over the the maps section and grabbed a lot of detailed maps of Northern California. I grabbed an avenue of the giants map as well and some things to do items.

I walked around and saw that they had a lot of informational magazines on Yosemite and maps and camping magazines for Yosemite. I took those to read in the car for later. All of this was FREE!

Also, don't forget to check into Pier 39 to get your FREE Fun Pack with lots of coupons and 2 hours of free parking!

Liona and her assistant (whose name I cannot remember) were incredibly accommodating to us. Two of the warmest and friendliest people I have ever met! They offer quality customer service. Liona clearly knows what she is doing. Ask her and she will do her BEST to help you. Please be nice to everyone who works there. We left our luggages there while we did a tour around SF. Safe place to leave your luggages! I assure you that. Make sure to pick up your luggages at 6:30 pm tho. $5/luggage for the whole day, in my opinion, is definitely worth it!!! If you have questions about spots to visit in SF, ask them too. They have a free map there with coupons printed on the back. Pick it up! Again, ASK if you have any questions, including transportation questions. This center has the most WELCOMING PEOPLE ever! Enjoy SF! Keep up the great job, Liona!

I will definitely come back! I wanted to give them 4.5 but that is not an option. I am not giving them 5 starts ONLY because I do not believe in perfection. There is always room for improvement. Keep it up!

Customer service was so rude! We just came in here to get information and asked if they have anything for military or vets and they looked at us like why are you asking? The lady at the desk called another coworker of hers and rudely said, they need to be active duty. As one of us were about to pull out an ID, the other lady said, I don't care if you are the king, you need to be active. We didn't even have the chance to show anything.

That is not a welcome center! More like a get the eff away from me, why are u bothering me. We don't just give out information to just anyone!

Kinda ruined the whole Pier 39 experience from then on. RUDE!