Great walking tours in San Francisco or Los Angeles

San Francisco City Guides gives free walking tours with knowledgeable and enthusiastic volunteer tour guides. My son lives in the Bay Area and we enjoyed their tours when I visited.

https://sfcityguides.org/

We did a fun food tour that was a walk and eat thru North Beach in SF. Was very interesting and delicious and So Much Food! I think it was called SF food tours . May not be exactly what you were thinking but it was a great experience and I was born in SF! Learned some new history and got to try some new places!

denisek,
SF is a more compact city so walking tours work out there. I haven't taken any so have no recs. LA is very spread out. You can do a walking tour on Hollywood Blvd., but it is pretty tacky, and you can walk along it on your own. Most everything else is not within walking distance. (And I live in LA county.) Best to have a car in the LA area. If we knew what interests you, we could suggest somet hings to see and do and how to get to them.

If I may, depending on how long you have in California, the best parts are not in the LA area, but in the beaches, mountains, forests and
redwoods, lakes, state and national parks, even the farmlands and vineyards. If you rent a car there are more great road trips than you can shake a stick at! How long do you have?

Having lived, and worked, in downtown L.A. I can't recommend wandering around there. You could walk from Olvera St to Chinatown, but it would be "interesting".

You might want to look into a walking tour of Pasadena though.

For something really different take a ride up Hwy 2 (Angeles Crest Hwy) to Chilao or Mt Waterman and walk in the trees.

Thank you all for the great input. Those SF walking tours look great, we will do one of those, and look for other activities if we go to LA. We are generally into: (1) national parks; (2) beautiful scenery; (3) day hikes (<6 miles); (4) walking tours focused on history and architecture; (5) food.
We have some family in San Francisco and LA and are working on a trip that combines seeing them with seeing some of California. Right now thinking of seeing Muir Woods when in San Francisco, then driving some the coastal route, possibly going to Palisades National Park. Other suggestions welcome!
Thank you all.

Forgot to add: we will be there for 10 days.

As noted LA is spread out and to be brutally honest the homeless situation is the absolute worst. I make this statement having lived in LA for nearly 30 years.

Check out to see if the LA Conservancy is still doing walks. https://www.laconservancy.org/tours-events/walking-tours/

A great City By The Bay walk is from Chrissy Field along the Marina and over to fisherman’s wharf…( total tourist trap but it’s a great walk).

I did a Segway tour of Golden Gate Park about 10 years ago. It was a lot of fun and you see much more of the park than you would on foot. You can also do Segway tours of the City. Those might be more challenging because of the hills (one goes to Coit Tower) and the crowded sidewalks.

denisek,
Muir Woods is a good choice for a day trip from SF. Beautiful woods, not too big, very pleasant. If driving down from SF to LA, Hwy 101 is a good choice. Getting out of SF area is a bit of a pain (traffic), but 101 will take you past two nice missions, San Juan Bautista and San Miguel Arcangel (one of my favorites!). It isn't as fast as Interstate 5, but if you want to make it a two day trip you could stop in San Luis Obispo, for example, or Cayucos, or Cambria overnight, then Santa Barbara and Ventura on the second day on your way into LA.
Re Palisades N/P...do you mean Pinnacles N/P? If so, they take you a bit out of the way of your road south, but are worth a stop. I just don't remember how long the detour will take you. Great scenery is all around in California. Take your choice....beaches, rolling hills of wild oats with Califnria Live Oaks and Coastal oaks, mountains, deserts....you just need a car and some time. But a two day drive from SF to LA will let you see some of what is on offer in California.
Have a great trip!

About 10 years ago I was an unwilling guest of downtown LA for a week when I got called for federal jury duty and lived >90 miles from the courthouse. I had to stay downtown for a week and chose a hotel in Japantown, walkable to Union Station and all of downtown. That fall, there was usually filming going on near my central walking area every day or often at night. I looked around the LA Conservancy website found a link to a great self guided walking tour. I see that they also do guided walking tours. Since that jury duty stay I’ve been back several times to walk friends and family, who were skeptical about walking around downtown, to see some iconic places on foot. A favorite supplementary map for me was the very detailed AAA Downtown LA street map.

https://www.laconservancy.org/tours-events/events-calendar/historic-downtown-walking-tour/

San Francisco is known for its amazing stairs - no tour guide needed. Google the Filbert Street Stairs - "a twisty, windy way to summit Telegraph Hill." Amazing views and an excellent cardio workout (we like to go up via the streets, with our nose almost to the pavement in front of us, and then down the stairs.) Also try the Lyon Street Steps, with gorgeous views of the Palace of Fine Arts, SF Bay and the Marina, and the 16th Avenue Tiled Staircase.

Judy, yes I did mean Pinnacles! Thanks much for the suggestions.

The LA Conservancy walking tour looks great, we just have to hope that our schedule aligns with it once we nail down our plans.

denisek,
I seem to have denigrated LA too much, after rereading my comments. Things I have done and enjoy in LA (maybe not as interesting for a visitor) are, in no particular order: Olvera Street, Union Station (art deco), Griffith Park Observatory, Greek Theater in Griffith Park and the Hollywood Bowl (both for performances), Getty Center museum (beautiful views as well as great art and grounds), Long Beach Aquarium of the Pacific (top-notch), Mission San Gabriel, Mission San Fernando (and on the way south, missions in Solvang, San Luis Obispo, Ventura, Santa Barbara, Carmel....), La Brea Tar Pits, whale watching cruises, lots of fantastic botanical gardens (Huntington Gardens, Descanso Gardens, South Coast Botanical Garden, LA County Arboretum, and many more....), many art museums, large and small and some with particular foci, beaches to stroll, numerous ethnic quarters from all over the world, so we are a food wonderland! (I have many favorite and iconic places to eat at.)
Okay, I will stop and not mention the many smaller and more localized things to see and do. I just don't know about guided tours. For me and my husband, I plot out one or two day excursions for us, centering around a neighborhood or town in LA County. (By the way LA County is very large, and you can go to the northern edge to visit Edwards AFB and a NASA museum. In that area is the Poppy Preserve, gorgeous in the spring!
Have a very fulfilling trip!