NONSTOP

Direct Flights from Houston to San Francisco

San Francisco · California

Nonstop service from IAH to SFO on United. Here's the schedule at a glance — plus what to do once you land.

Airlines
United
Nonstop flights
~10/day
Distance
1,632 mi
Flight time
~3h 45mgate to gate
Elevation
13 ftabout the same as home
Days operated
Daily (all week)
Great-circle flight path from Houston (IAH) to San Francisco (SFO), 1,632 miles nonstop.IAHSFO

How rare is this nonstop?

80 cities have a nonstop to San Francisco, Houston among them.

How long to go to San Francisco for, from Houston

3h 45m in the air, 1,632 miles. A two-night trip loses most of two days to travel; three or four nights is where this one starts to make sense.

With roughly 10 departures a day, you are not tied to one flight: if a meeting overruns or the weather turns, there is another one behind it.

About San Francisco

Plaque commemorating "Emperor Norton I" of San Francisco, from Transbay Terminal.
Photo by Nagle at en.wikipedia · Public domain

The centerpiece of the Bay Area, San Francisco is one of the most visited cities in the world, and with good reason. The cultural center of northern California, San Francisco is renowned for its mixture of scenic beauty and unique culture that makes it one of the most vibrant and desirable cities in the nation, if not the world.

Summary from Wikivoyage (CC BY-SA).

Top things to do in San Francisco

  1. The Internet Archive is an American non-profit library founded in 1996 by Brewster Kahle that runs a digital library website, archive.org.
  2. Golden Gate Park is an urban park between the Richmond and Sunset districts on the West Side of San Francisco, California, United States.
  3. The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA) is a modern and contemporary art museum and nonprofit organization located in San Francisco, California.
  4. United States Penitentiary, Alcatraz Island, also known simply as Alcatraz or The Rock, was a maximum security federal prison on Alcatraz Island, 1.25 miles (2.01 km) off the coast of San Francisco, California, United St…
  5. Lombard Street is an east–west street in San Francisco, California, that is famous for a steep, one-block section with eight hairpin turns. The street stretches from The Presidio east to The Embarcadero.
  6. USS Hornet (CV/CVA/CVS-12) is an Essex-class aircraft carrier built for the United States Navy (USN) during World War II.
  7. The Computer History Museum (CHM) is a computer museum in Mountain View, California.
  8. The de Young Museum, formally the M. H. de Young Memorial Museum, is a fine arts museum located in San Francisco, California, United States, named for early San Francisco newspaperman M. H. de Young.
  9. The California Academy of Sciences is a research institute and natural history museum in San Francisco, California, that is among the largest museums of natural history in the world, housing over 46 million specimens.
  10. The Presidio of San Francisco is a park and former U.S. Army post on the northern tip of the San Francisco Peninsula in San Francisco, California, and is part of the Golden Gate National Recreation Area.
  11. Coit Tower is a 210-foot (64 m) tower in the Telegraph Hill neighborhood of San Francisco, California, overlooking the city and San Francisco Bay.
  12. Kink.com is an independent San Francisco–based bondage internet pornography company that runs a group of websites devoted to BDSM and related fetishes.

Attraction descriptions from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA); place data from Wikidata (CC0).

San Francisco weather, compared with Houston

14° cooler than Houston on average across the year, on daytime highs:

January
San Francisco 57°F · Houston 64°F · 6° colder
April
San Francisco 65°F · Houston 80°F · 15° colder
July
San Francisco 72°F · Houston 94°F · 22° colder
October
San Francisco 71°F · Houston 82°F · 11° colder

San Francisco is the steadier of the two, moving 17° between its coldest and warmest months where Houston moves 31°.

Average daily highs, 1991–2020 station normals from Meteostat (CC BY 4.0), measured at each city's airport.

Planning a trip to San Francisco

Best time to visit
The best time to visit San Francisco is March–November, when daytime highs are a comfortable 62–74°F.
How long to stay
San Francisco rewards a longer visit — a full week lets you explore its many sights, from Internet Archive, Golden Gate Park, and San Francisco Museum of Modern Art and beyond.

Frequently asked questions

Is there a direct flight from Houston to San Francisco?
Yes — you can fly nonstop from Houston (IAH) to San Francisco (SFO) on United.
Which airlines fly nonstop from Houston to San Francisco?
United flies nonstop between Houston (IAH) and San Francisco (SFO).
How many nonstop flights are there from Houston to San Francisco?
There are about 10 nonstop departures per day (roughly 70 per week) from Houston to San Francisco.
How far is San Francisco from Houston?
San Francisco is about 1,632 miles from Houston by air.
What is there to do in San Francisco?
Popular things to do include Internet Archive, Golden Gate Park, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, Alcatraz Federal Penitentiary, and more.

More nonstop destinations from Houston near San Francisco

Airports near Houston