Last Updated on October 15, 2023
San Francisco is a gorgeous city in Northern California known for its hilly neighborhoods, thriving community of artists, and world-famous landmarks like Alcatraz and the Golden Gate Bridge. San Francisco is an incredibly unique destination that inspires tens of millions of annual visitors who travel there from all over the world. San Francisco is a great place to take some amazing travel photos that will stand out on Instagram, and this list of the Top 165 San Francisco Instagram Captions and Quotes is the perfect resource to take your posts to the next level.
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What is San Francisco Famous For?
San Francisco is best known for being home to the Golden Gate Bridge, an almost two-mile-long suspension bridge across a body of water known as Golden Gate. The Golden Gate Bridge has become an internationally-recognized symbol of San Francisco and California as a whole, and is definitely an amazing landmark to experience in person.
Top 165 San Francisco Instagram Captions and Quotes
We have all of the best San Francisco Instagram Captions and Quotes from short San Francisco captions, to San Francisco puns, to quotes about the Golden Gate Bridge.
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Best San Francisco Instagram Captions
The best San Francisco Instagram captions are just as unique as the city they describe, and we’ve gathered up some favorites that are sure to be a hit!
- I left my heart in San Francisco.
- Current relationship status: in love with a man named San Fran.
- Everyone needs a little San Francisco in their lives.
- Nothing comes close to the golden coast.
- What I like best about San Francisco is everything.
- Seeing the sights in San Francisco.
- Falling in love with San Francisco one cable car at a time.
- San Francisco, you never cease to amaze me.
- Life is better by the bay.
- San Francisco is my happy place.
- San Francisco is always a good idea.
- Time to chill in the San Francisco hills.
- Once upon a time in San Francisco…
- There’s no time to be bored in a city as beautiful as San Francisco.
- Going to San Francisco, coming back never.
Best San Francisco Instagram Quotes
Over the years, countless actors, musicians, artists, and other public figures have spoken about San Francisco and what the city means to them. These are some of the best San Francisco Instagram quotes that perfectly encapsulate what The Golden City is all about!
- “San Francisco is a mad city – inhabited for the most part by perfectly mad people.” -Rudyard Kipling
- “San Francisco is the only city I can think of that can survive all the things you people are doing to it and still look beautiful.” -Frank Lloyd Wright
- “San Francisco is a complex town that lets you be yourself, that accepts you even if your family doesn’t.” -Jack Boulware
- “The thing about coming back to the Bay Area, it’s like coming home for me.” -Richard Serra
- “I have always been rather better treated in San Francisco than I actually deserved.” -Mark Twain
- “The Bay Area is so beautiful I hesitate to preach about heaven while I’m here.” -Billy Graham
- “San Francisco itself is art… every block is a short story, every hill a novel, every home a poem.” -William Saroyan
- “Every morning in San Francisco was a bit like waking up on the edge of the earth: beautiful and damp and wild, full of the strange music people make, open-armed, into the wind.” -Elizabeth Percer
- “Money lives in New York. Power sits in Washington. Freedom sips cappuccino in a sidewalk café in San Francisco.” -Joe Flower
- “San Francisco is a breathtakingly beautiful city, with lots of great contrasts between dark and light, often overlapping each other.” -Christopher Moore
- “It’s simply a very romantic place. Just one look at any of those streets, and you couldn’t be anywhere else.” -Julia Child
- “Every man should be allowed to love two cities, his own and San Francisco.” -Gene Fowler
- “But oh, San Francisco! It is and has everything – you wouldn’t think that such a place as San Francisco could exist.” -Dylan Thomas
- “I love San Francisco. It’s by the sea, there’s a feeling of people being there because they enjoy their life there.” -Brian Eno
- “If you have to be a one-hit wonder, then San Francisco is the one to have.” -Scott McKenzie
Best San Francisco Puns
Using a funny pun as your Instagram caption is a great way to connect with your audience through the power of laughter. There are tons of San Francisco puns you can use for Instagram captions, but these are some of our top picks.
- In a Golden State of mind.
- Every hour is golden hour in San Francisco.
- This trip has been golden.
- A sunny day in the bay.
- Took my bae to San Fran for the day.
- Oh, how I’ve mist you Golden Gate Bridge.
- West coast, best coast.
- I’m going to gate leaving San Francisco.
- I tried to catch some fog, but I mist.
- I’m a fan of San Fran.
- Seas-ing the day in San Francisco.
- Good bay, San Francisco!
- San Francisco is un-fog-ettable.
- Happy as a clam at Fisherman’s Wharf.
- San Fran – frowned upon by many locals.
Quotes About the Golden Gate Bridge
The Golden Gate Bridge is not just one of the most popular attractions in San Francisco, but also one of the most famous landmarks that is known around the world. Pair your San Francisco photos with ones of these quotes about the Golden Gate Bridge and your photos are sure to impress!
- “I left my heart at the Golden Gate in San Francisco.” -Tony Bennett
- “The Golden Gate Bridge’s daily showcase from enveloping stoles of mist to full glory is still the most provocative show in town.” -Mary Moore Mason
- “Such was life in the Golden Gate: Gold dusted all we drank and ate…” -Robert Frost
- “The Golden Gate Bridge should be understood symbolically, in the sense that it does not go from America back to America but that it should be something that could possibly open up out of America.” -Simeon Wade
- “Up in the San Francisco, where the forest meets the bridge.” -Foxygen
- “You wouldn’t think such a place as San Francisco could exist, the wonderful sunlight there, the hills, the great bridges, the Pacific at your shoes.” -Dylan Thomas
- “San Francisco, open your Golden Gate. You let no stranger wait outside your door.” -Judy Garland, “San Francisco”
- “San Francisco put on a show for me. I saw her across the bay, from the great road that bypasses Sausalito and enters the Golden Gate Bridge. The afternoon sun painted her white and gold – rising on her hills like a noble city in a happy dream.” -John Steinbeck
- “The Golden Gate Bridge is one of the greatest monuments of all time.” -Irving Morrow
- “San Francisco! City of dreaming spires, people live here… Golden Gate Bridge, ah the Romans came here.” -Eddie Izzard
- “The bridge is a triumphant structure, a testimony to the creativity of mankind.” -Kevin Starr
- “I have known her for 15 years, and she is more beautiful than ever…. Her hair is usually a copper-red, and she has enormous feet, but once you have seen her bathing in the sun, she becomes a woman you will never forget.” -Dean Jennings
- “This bridge needs neither praise, eulogy nor encomium. It speaks for itself.” -J. Strauss
- “The Golden Gate wasn’t our fault either, but we still put a bridge across it.” -Larry Wall
- “The light of San Francisco is a sea light, an island light, and the light of fog blanketing the hills drifting in at night through the Golden Gate to lie on the city at dawn…” -Lawrence Ferlinghetti
Famous Sayings About San Francisco
Using a famous saying about San Francisco as an Instagram caption is a great way to catch people’s attention and draw them into your photo. You can’t go wrong with using one of these famous sayings or quotes about San Francisco!
- The golden city by the bay.
- “To San Franciscans, there’s only one city.” -Ross Macdonald
- The windy city of the west coast.
- “San Francisco is a golden handcuff with the key thrown away.” -John Steinbeck
- San Francisco: The Golden Gate City.
- “The coldest winter I ever spent was a summer in San Francisco.” -Mark Twain
- San Francisco is golden.
- “One day, if I go to heaven… I’ll look around and say ‘it ain’t bad, but it ain’t San Francisco.’” -Herb Caen
- The sun shines bright on the bay.
- “San Francisco only has one drawback – ‘tis hard to leave.” -Rudyard Kipling
- The foggy city.
- “If you’re not alive, San Francisco will bring you to life.” -William Saroyan
- You can’t stop San Francisco.
- “East is east, and west is San Francisco.” -O. Henry
- A trip to San Francisco is always good for the soul.
Funny San Francisco Quotes for Instagram
If you don’t feel like cracking a pun but still want to keep things lighthearted, consider using one of these funny San Francisco quotes for Instagram when posting your travel photos.
- “Two days in this city is worth two months in New York.” -Robert Menzies
- “San Francisco is 49 square miles surrounded by reality.” -Paul Kanter
- “Anyone who doesn’t have a great time in San Francisco is pretty much dead to me.” -Anthony Bourdain
- “San Francisco is a lot like Amsterdam – free, open-minded, and casual – though I expected better weather.” -Marcel Wanders
- “Every window in Alcatraz has a view of San Francisco.” -Susanna Kaysen
- “I think the beauty of San Francisco is that you can skip without really freaking anybody out.” -Chris Reifsteck
- “I prefer a wet San Francisco to a dry Manhattan.” -Larry Geraldi
- “San Francisco has always been a haven for misfits and weirdos. I’m both of these, which is why I came here.” -Michael Franti
- “Los Angeles? That’s just a big parking lot where you buy a hamburger for the trip to San Francisco.” -John Lennon
- “San Francisco is a city where people are never more abroad than when they are at home.” -Benjamin F. Taylor
- “To a traveler paying his first visit, [San Francisco] has the interest of a new planet. It ignores the meteorological laws which govern the rest of the world.” -Fitz Hugh Ludlow
- “It is an odd thing, but everyone who disappears is said to be seen in San Francisco.” -Oscar Wilde
- “San Francisco is where you come when you want to see people looking like who they truly are.” -Mark Childress
- “You are fortunate to live here. If I were your President, I would levy a tax on you for living in San Francisco.” -Mikhail Gorbachev
- “If free speech and individuality are American characteristics, there is no place more American than San Francisco.” -Desi del Valle
Short San Francisco Captions for Instagram
San Francisco is known for being a unique and quirky destination unlike many other towns in California. Let your San Fran photos do all the talking by using one of these short San Francisco captions for Instagram.
- San Francisco is my kind of town.
- Either you love San Francisco or you’re wrong.
- I’m off to explore the city by the bay.
- Paradise found by the bay.
- San Francisco makes my heart sing.
- My favorite place to be is San Francisco.
- You can’t go wrong with San Francisco.
- Having a love affair with San Francisco.
- Checking San Francisco off my bucket list.
- Followed my heart to San Francisco.
- Let’s run away to San Francisco.
- Chillin’ on the best coast.
- Golden Gate Bridge. Golden beach. Golden life.
- I’d rather be in San Francisco.
- Stop saying tomorrow – take a trip to San Francisco today!
Short San Francisco Quotes for Instagram
If you need some more inspiration on the perfect caption for your San Francisco photos, try using a short San Francisco quote for Instagram that is straightforward but attention-grabbing.
- “There may not be a heaven, but there is a San Francisco.” -Ashleigh Brilliant
- “San Francisco is the friendliest city in the world.” -Joe DiMaggio
- “San Francisco is one of the only cities I like to visit.” -LeRoy Neiman
- “San Francisco is exciting, moody, exhilarating. I even love the muted fogs.” -Julie Christie
- “The cool, grey city of love.” -George Sterling
- “This city is a point upon a map of fog.” -Ambrose Bierce
- “My heart is in San Francisco, I will always, always come back.” -Lily Kwong
- “If you’re going to San Francisco, be sure to wear some flowers in your hair.” -John Phillips, “San Francisco”
- “What I like best about San Francisco is San Francisco.” -Frank Lloyd Wright
- “And the sun shines on the bay.” -Journey, “Lights”
- “San Francisco is perhaps the most European of all American cities.” -Cecil Beaton
- “If you’re alive, you can’t be bored in San Francisco.” -William Saroyan
- “I’m just mad for San Francisco. It’s like London and Paris stacked on top of each other.” -Twiggy
- “Like its namesake, San Francisco opens its arms to all sentient beings.” -Jim Crotty
- “I can walk down the streets of San Francisco, and here I’m normal.” -Robin Williams
One Word San Francisco Instagram Captions
Keeping your captions short and sweet on Instagram is becoming an increasingly popular tactic, so hop on the trend with a one-word San Francisco Instagram caption.
- Foggy
- Bay
- Golden
- Chillin’
- Exploring
- Breathtaking
- Beautiful
- Fog
- Rainy
- Inspired
- Artsy
- Adventure
- Travel
- Happy
- Misty
Two Word San Francisco Instagram Captions
Another great challenge to get your creative juices flowing is to come up with a two-word San Francisco Instagram caption, like one of these!
- Bay Area
- Golden Gate
- Golden City
- Fog City
- San Francisco
- Misty day
- Stay golden
- Sanny Franny
- Always wandering
- West coast
- Best coast
- California girl
- California vibes
- California life
- Feeling inspired
Three Word San Francisco Instagram Captions
Three words is the perfect length to come up with a fun and catchy caption, and these three-word San Francisco Instagram captions are some of our favorites.
- The foggy city
- Loving San Fran
- My kinda town
- Bay Area vibes
- Golden Gate Bridge
- Golden Gate City
- Cruising through California
- San Francisco forever
- Sunny bay day
- Everything is golden
- I’m a fan
- Hello, San Fran
- Everyone’s favorite city
- I’m in love
- Never stop exploring
San Francisco Instagram Captions and Quotes Summary
A city as unique and artistic as San Francisco is sure to inspire you to take some amazing photos during your travels. San Francisco as a whole is a very picturesque town with colorful architecture, sweeping views of the bay, and world-renowned museums and historical sites. Taking beautiful photos of San Francisco is the easy part, and the challenge comes with deciding how to caption them.
We put together this list of the Top 165 San Francisco Instagram Captions and Quotes to provide a comprehensive resource that anyone needing some caption ideas can use over and over again! We hope you find this list helpful and would love to hear your favorite San Francisco Instagram caption or quote in the comments.
