Getting to Sausalito & Where to Park

Sausalito is close enough to San Francisco that people day-trip it without a second thought, but how you get here shapes the whole visit more than most guides let on.

By ferry — the way most people should do it

Golden Gate Ferry runs boats from San Francisco's Ferry Building straight to downtown Sausalito, about a 30-minute ride that lands you a two-minute walk from Bridgeway — no parking search, no bridge traffic, and better bay views than the drive. A one-way adult ticket is $14 paid by paper ticket or $8.50 if you tap a Clipper card or a contactless credit card / phone wallet — worth doing, since it's nearly half price. One quirk: riding from Sausalito, you tap or hand over your ticket when you get off in San Francisco, not when you board here. Weekends and summer afternoons get crowded; buy tickets ahead on the operator's site rather than counting on a walk-up spot. Blue & Gold Fleet's separate route from Fisherman's Wharf has been suspended since May 2026 for pier upgrades with no announced return date, so Golden Gate Ferry is currently the only ferry into town — check before you plan around the Fisherman's Wharf option.

By car — over the Golden Gate Bridge

From San Francisco, take Highway 101 north across the bridge and get off at the Alexander Avenue exit, then follow signs down into downtown Sausalito. The bridge carries a southbound toll only — you don't pay heading into Marin, only coming back into the city. There are no toll booths at all; it's all-electronic tolling billed one of three ways: a FasTrak transponder ($10.25 for a regular car), a license plate account or one-time online payment ($10.50), or a mailed toll invoice if you do nothing ($11.25, plus it takes weeks to arrive). If you're in a rental car, ask the rental company how they handle it before you cross, since policies vary and some add their own fee on top. Budget extra time on weekend afternoons; the merge onto Alexander Avenue backs up when the town is busy.

By bike

The Golden Gate Bridge has a dedicated bike path, toll-free and open to cyclists 24 hours a day, and it connects to a flat, well-marked route into Sausalito along the old Bay Trail — genuinely one of the better urban bike rides in the country, and a popular enough day trip that several outfitters rent bikes on both ends so you can ride one way and ferry back. The one thing to know before you go: only one sidewalk is open to cyclists at a time, and which one changes by day and season — generally the east (bay) side on weekday mornings, the west (ocean) side on weekday afternoons and all day on weekends. Watch the indicator lights at the path entrances rather than guessing, since the wrong sidewalk is gated shut.

Parking once you're here

This is more manageable than it looks, but only if you know the rules. Downtown's five paid public lots (numbered 1 through 4, plus a section of the Sausalito Yacht Harbor lot) run $5 an hour with a $50 daily maximum during peak season, May through September — pay by the ParkMobile app, a text-to-pay link, or the pay station in the lot itself. Rates drop by more than half in the off-season, October through April. The one genuinely free option: Lot #5, at the foot of Locust Street, gives you three free hours of parking daily between 6 a.m. and 2 a.m. — worth knowing about, since most visitors never hear of it and default straight to the metered street spots instead. Whichever lot you use, arrive early on weekends; the paid lots and street parking both fill up well before noon.