Pink skies, lollipop trees, a disco-ball room, unicorns, and sugary snacks galore! Did I just describe your childhood day-dream? Yes, this is a real place, and yes, you can go visit. So here is your incentive to get out of your single room in San Francisco for the day and go explore the city; today’s Exploring San Francisco is on the Museum of Ice Cream!

Unless you have been living under a rock, (or haven’t felt the need to leave one of our fabulous San Francisco furnished apartments since you arrived), most likely you have heard that the Museum of Icecream has come to SF. You’ve probably noticed it blowing up your insta feed with images of pink walls, selfies in a sprinkle pool, and banana swings. The museum basically serves as a giant candy land-inspired playground, so grab your San Francisco roommates and get ready for the perfect photo-op.

Photo courtesy of A Jaunt with Joy.

As your leading provider of affordable San Francisco housing, we wish we could offer you a room in this museum. But since it is a temporary museum, that seems to be impossible (trust us, we’ve tried.) Instead, in this blog, we’ll walk you through everything you need to know about this sweet-filled sanctuary.

Below is your virtual tour, complete with lots of pics! At the bottom are our top tips and tricks to make the most of your experience. If this post doesn’t satisfy your sweet tooth, I don’t know what will.

Welcome, ladies and gents, to your inner child’s wildest fantasy: The Museum of Ice-cream! Let’s Get Started.

1) Entering the Ice Cream Vault: Before you are allowed to enter, crowds are whisked away and told that they must pass a very serious trivia quiz on how modern day cream came to be! The staff does a great job of making it fun and interactive. This is the rite of passage completed by all museum goers, so pay close attention, you may even learn something interesting!

2) Candy Carnival: After you successfully pass the trivia quiz, you are welcomed into the first room. Like stepping into a circus tent, you are immediately overwhelmed with colors, smalls, and sights!  The carnival themed room boasts a fun game where you toss rings onto whipped cream cans, and the walls are lined with pink toys, pinwheels, and carnival-style tickets.

3)  Soda Pop and Malt 50’s Diner: The next room will make you feel like you stepped into a time-machine, straight back to the 1950’s. The room looks like a bubblegum pink 50’s diner, complete with a long counter, stools, a jukebox, and records lining the wall. But when you sit at the counter, instead of serving milkshakes and malts, you’ll be handed a Bay-native creamy treat! The Museum of Icecream partners with local businesses including CREAM, Bi-Rite, Salt & Straw, and It’s It, and serves a rotation of delicious SF-made ice cream flavors! The room even has a working jukebox, so be sure to pick your favorite 50’s pop and shimmy as you snack!

Photo courtesy of A Jaunt with Joy.

4) Sugary Script: Next up is a room where self-expression becomes literal. The word room is covered in pink magnetic letters, so you can have fun making your mark and writing your message. But don’t worry, there will be more sugary snacks right around the corner…

5) Cotton Candy Pit Stop: On your way into the next room, be sure to stop and grab some delicious cherry-flavored cotton candy in the hallway! This spun- sugary goodness melts in your mouth like no other.

6) Cherry Skies forever?: The next room is filled with pink skies and floating cherries, and is a great place to snap a few photos. With cherry cotton candy in hand, this room looks like a fruit-filled dreamland! Truly the cherry on top.

7) Real Life Candy Land: Pink hills, lollipop trees, and gummy bears roaming sugary dunes – no, I am not describing the board game.

Photo courtesy of A Jaunt with Joy.

8) Chill Out: By now you are most likely on a sugar high. No worries, you can take a moment to chill out in the popsicle room! Be sure to use the last video booth and send yourself a video so you can remember this sugary afternoon forever.

Photo courtesy of A Jaunt with Joy.

9)Rock (Candy) Climbing: Now that you have had a moment to relax, mine as well get a quick workout in to burn off all of those sugary snacks! The next room has a (pop) rock climbing wall, so try out your athleticism. But don’t worry, you won’t have to go snacks for long, because staff members will hand you some candy cane pop rocks!

                Photo courtesy of Kindly Kimiko.

10) Unicorn Room:  Next up is a room in which rainbow magic and prismatic portals transform into the rainbow room, a magical fantasy space equipped with a unicorn and pink dipped ice cream cones!

11) Disco Ball Room: Don’t miss the small door out of the unicorn room! Because it leads into a giant disco ball – one of the best photo-ops so far.

12) Sprinkle Pool: Ah yes, the insta-famous sprinkle pool. Literally, an entire pool made of sprinkles. Dive in, take your pics, throw some sprinkles in the air. But be aware, the lifeguard is not there for your safety, your time in the room is limited.

Photo courtesy of A Jaunt with Joy.

13) Banana Swings: Finally, the visit ends with one last chance to eat ice cream, play ping pong, or rest your feet as you swing. Be sure to stop for mementos in the gift shop!

That’s all for now folks!

Pro tips: There are no bathrooms before or after you enter, so make sure you come prepared. Keep in mind that you can only move forward, so once you leave a room you can’t go back! That means pace yourself, and make sure you are satisfied with your pictures before moving on. But keep an eye on the clock, because you want to make sure you have plenty of time for everything! !

Tickets are hard to come by, because the museum has been crazy popular since it arrived in San Francisco. Tickets must be purchased in advance, are $38 per person, and are currently sold out for the San Francisco Museum of Ice Cream, but you can get updates when new tickets are available by signing up for their email list. I recommend trying to get tickets for the early morning or early afternoon Monday – Thursday to avoid big crowds of people, and to make sure you have lots of time to perfect your pics!

Almost as good as living in the Museum of Icecream is living in one of our San Francisco short stay apartments! You can view our open listings here.

Want to know more cool spots in the city? You can read similar blog posts here.

Finally, you can find more information about the San Francisco Museum of Ice Cream here!

Hope we satisfied your sweet tooth!

Post made by contributor Isabelle Kaplan.