Cheap Date Nights in San Francisco (Under $50 for Two)

San Francisco will happily take two hundred dollars off you for a Tuesday dinner. It will also give you one of the best nights of your year for under fifty. Here are fifteen of the second kind.

Free, or Nearly

1. First Tuesday at the de Young or the Legion of Honor

Both museums are free to everyone on the first Tuesday of the month, and Bay Area residents get in free on Saturdays with ID. The Legion, on its bluff above the ocean, is the more romantic of the two.

Free · famsf.org

2. Sunset at the Sutro Baths

Victorian ruins on the edge of the Pacific, and the best free sunset in the city. Bring a thermos and a flashlight, because the footing gets bad in the dark.

Free · 1004 Point Lobos Ave

3. Twin Peaks After Dark

Drive or take the 37 to the top and watch the grid light up. Free parking, and the fog rolling through the gap is part of the show.

4. A Golden Gate Park Walk at Golden Hour

Blue Heron Lake (renamed from Stow Lake), the AIDS Memorial Grove and the car-free stretch of JFK Drive, an hour before sunset. Free, and quiet in a way the city rarely is.

5. A Bonfire at Ocean Beach

Sixteen designated fire rings at the north end, first come first served, no fee. The season runs March 1 through October 31, fires must be out by 9:30pm, and you must bring your own firewood rather than collecting driftwood. Not allowed on Spare the Air days.

Free · nps.gov

6. Walking the Golden Gate Bridge at Last Light

Free on the east sidewalk, and closer to sublime than anything that costs money. Note that pedestrian access closes in the evening, around 9pm in summer and 6:30pm in winter, so this is a sunset plan, not a midnight one.

Under Twenty Dollars

7. The F-Line at Sunset

Board a 1930s streetcar at the Ferry Building and ride the Embarcadero to the Wharf and back as the Bay Bridge lights come on. Two Muni fares, about five dollars and change total.

8. Ballet Standing Room

San Francisco Ballet sells standing room for ten dollars a person, same day at the box office. Twenty dollars for two, at the War Memorial Opera House. It is the best cheap culture deal in the city.

War Memorial Opera House · Day-of, box office

9. A Cable Car Ride

Nine dollars each, eighteen for two. Take the California Street line in the evening, when the tourists have gone and you can actually get a seat on the outside rail.

10. A Short Bay Crossing

The Sausalito ferry is lovely and fits the budget: the Golden Gate Ferry adult fare is $8.50 each way with Clipper or a contactless bank card ($14 for a paper ticket), so a round trip for two is $34 on Clipper. A San Francisco Bay Ferry hop to Oakland or Alameda gives you the same bay air and skyline for less, with the return leg into the sunset.

11. City Lights and a Dessert

Browse the poetry room at City Lights until 10pm, then gelato or an espresso on Columbus. Twenty-five dollars covers a used paperback each and dessert.

261 Columbus Ave · Daily 10am–10pm

Under Fifty

12. A Neighborhood Movie House

The 4-Star on Clement runs about twelve and a half dollars a ticket, which leaves room for popcorn; the Balboa and the Roxie are the other two to check. All three beat a downtown multiplex on charm and price.

13. Dim Sum or Taqueria Dinner

Two people eat extremely well in Chinatown or the Mission for twenty to thirty-five dollars total. Add the movie above and you still come in under fifty.

14. Live Music, Free

Between the Golden Gate Park Bandshell’s free concert series, Stern Grove in summer, and the free nights that neighborhood bars and cafés run, there is live music most weekends that costs nothing. Check our events calendar for what is on this week.

15. Bowling, If You Split a Lane

Bowling in San Francisco is priced by the lane, not the person, which makes it a great double-date and an expensive couple’s night. Presidio Bowl and Mission Bowling Club are the two; call for current rates before you go.

Local Legend: Irish Coffee at the Buena Vista

What is actually true: The Buena Vista tells it this way: on November 10, 1952, owner Jack Koeppler and Chronicle travel writer Stanton Delaplane set out to recreate a drink Delaplane had loved in Ireland, and only got the cream to float after the city’s mayor, a dairy owner, suggested cream aged 48 hours. KQED says the drink itself was invented about a decade earlier, in 1943, by cook Joe Sheridan at the Foynes flying-boat terminal in Ireland. San Francisco is where it took off in America: a Buena Vista bartender told KQED it serves about 2,000 on a regular day.

Prices and hours were checked in September 2026 and can change, so confirm before you go.

Correction, 15 October 2026: this guide said the Sausalito ferry costs about twenty-eight dollars each way per person. Golden Gate Ferry’s fare table lists $8.50 each way for an adult paying with Clipper or a contactless bank card and $14.00 for a paper ticket (goldengate.org/ferry/fares).