San Fran or Washington?

[glasshalfsomething]

Likely in 2020 with a 3 year old.

Both are high on our 'to-do' list.

Has anyone done either? Opinions?

To be honest San Fran is a bit of a dump these days.
Washington is nice though

Washington would be my choice - loads of great museums and shorter flight with the three year old.

Washington is a great city, but I'm not sure it would be high on my list of places to go with a three year old.

been to both and would prefer washington, much more to do imo

We had an amazing family holiday in San Francisco. We were there for a week and did:
Half a day on Alcatraz island - my DC loved the boat trip and the tour was self-guided so we skipped the bits that we didn't feel were appropriate for them.
A full day coach trip to Yosemite - this would be doable with small children because the journey is 3hours each way including a half hour leg stretch/toilet stop and you get 3 hours of your own time to explore Yosemite. We took a picnic, went for a stroll and looked round the visitors centre which is very child-friendly.
Half a day whale watching trip (and yes, we did see whales!)
Half a day at the Walt Disney museum
Half a day at the Academy of Sciences which is an amazing aquarium, living rainforest, natural History Museum and planetarium.
Half a day at the Exploratorium
We also walked half way over Golden Gate Bridge and back again, went to the cable car museum and rode the cable cars, went to watch fortune cookies being made in Chinatown, went boating and spotted the buffalo in Golden Gate park, saw the sea lions, did the amazing mirror maze and rode the famous carousel on Pier 39, shopped in Macy's and visited many playgrounds! Apparently you're never more than 10 minutes from a playground in San Francisco. sanfrancisco.citymomsblog.com/guides/guide-best-playgrounds-and-parks-san-francisco/

@Ricekrispie22 - sounds like a lovely trip. How old were your children ?

@eurochick - why not? (Genuinely curious)

Dc were 5, 8 and 10 when we went to SF.

3 is a terrible age for that kind of holiday imho. You might get the golden child but you are fairly likely to get one that won't stay in a pushchair or walk any distance, won't eat anything slightly different to food at home, etc. My experience of three year olds is that all they want is a beach and soft play. I'd wait until 5+ for US city breaks personally.