The Haight & Hayes Valley
Can you see sound? The answer is always yes at this music-inspired art gallery, named for the anthem by SF soul supergroup Sly and the Family Stone…
Must-see attractions in The Bay Area
Golden Gate National Recreation Area
Marin County
It's no mystery why this is one of the Bay Area's most popular hiking and cycling destinations. As the trails wind beside the Pacific Ocean and San…
San Francisco
Crafty kids find ways to persuade parents to brave traffic and chilly fog to reach SF Zoo – but everyone ends up enjoying the well-kept habitats,…
San Francisco
The Legion of Honor, or more formally known as the “California Palace of the Legion of Honor”, is a part of the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco. It is…
Sausalito
Bohemia still thrives along the shoreline of Richardson Bay, where free spirits inhabit hundreds of quirky homes that bob in the waves among the seabirds…
Oakland
Every museum has an educational mission, and this one is dedicated to California. You'll find rotating exhibitions on artistic and scientific themes, and…
Angel Island Immigration Station
Marin County
Nicknamed the 'Ellis Island of the West,' Angel Island's early-20th-century US Immigration Station is a 1.5-mile walk or bike ride from the ferry dock…
The Peninsula
Definitely the most interesting tech visitor center in the area. You'll be met by an army of Geniuses in red shirts offering information from how to use…
The Mission, Dogpatch & Potrero Hill
The city's oldest building and its namesake, whitewashed adobe Misión San Francisco de Asís was founded in 1776 and rebuilt from 1782. Today the modest…
San Francisco
'Homeward into the sunset/Still unwearied we go/Till the northern hills are misty/With the amber of afterglow.' Poet George Sterling's poem 'City by the…
Downtown, Civic Center & SoMa
That upended blue-steel box miraculously balancing on one corner atop the Contemporary Jewish Museum is appropriate for an institution that upends…
San Francisco
You’ve seen the eight switchbacks of Lombard St's 900 block in a thousand photographs. The tourist board has dubbed it ‘the world’s crookedest street,’…
The Marina, Fisherman’s Wharf & the Piers
This triple-decker, brick-walled US military fortress was completed in 1861, with 126 cannons, to protect the bay against certain invasion during the…
North Beach & Chinatown
There was no place to go but up in Chinatown in the 19th century, when laws restricted where Chinese San Franciscans could live and work. Atop barber…
Museum of the African Diaspora
Downtown, Civic Center & SoMa
MoAD assembles an international cast of characters to tell the epic story of diaspora, including a moving video of slave narratives told by Maya Angelou…
The Marina, Fisherman’s Wharf & the Piers
War is for the birds at Crissy Field, a military airstrip turned waterfront nature preserve with knockout Golden Gate views. Where military aircraft once…
Downtown, Civic Center & SoMa
Imaginations race from subtle Chinese ink paintings to seductive Hindu temple carvings and from elegant Islamic calligraphy to cutting-edge Japanese…
The Mission, Dogpatch & Potrero Hill
The Bay Area hits the big time here, with gallery director Ed Gilbert continuing Anglim's 30-year legacy of launching art movements, from Beat assemblage…
The Mission, Dogpatch & Potrero Hill
Ever since gold-rush miners captured their newfound wealth with ferrotype portraits, San Francisco has staked claims to artistic fame with photography –…
The Mission, Dogpatch & Potrero Hill
Brave new worlds are captured in celebrated artworks destined for museum retrospectives, international shows and even Marc Jacobs handbags and CB2…
Diego Rivera's Allegory of California Fresco
Downtown, Civic Center & SoMa
Hidden inside San Francisco's Stock Exchange tower is a priceless treasure: Diego Rivera's 1930–31 Allegory of California fresco. Spanning a two-story…
The Marina, Fisherman’s Wharf & the Piers
Picnic amid wind-sculpted pines, fish from craggy rocks or frolic nude at mile-long Baker Beach, with spectacular views of the Golden Gate. Crowds come…
San Francisco
Rock stars and conspiracy theorists alike are mysteriously drawn to the Masonic – a major concert venue and the Masons' main temple for California…
The Marina, Fisherman’s Wharf & the Piers
San Francisco takes subversive glee in turning military installations into venues for nature, fine dining and out-there experimental art. Evidence: Fort…
Transamerica Pyramid & Redwood Park
Downtown, Civic Center & SoMa
The defining feature of San Francisco's skyline is this 1972 pyramid, built atop a whaling ship abandoned in the gold rush. A half-acre redwood grove…
North Beach & Chinatown
The closest you can get to the complete Beat experience without breaking a law. The 1000-plus artifacts in this museum's literary-ephemera collection…
Downtown, Civic Center & SoMa
Urban blight is interrupted by bucolic splendor on one of the Tenderloin's grittiest blocks. Once littered with hypodermic needles and garbage, dead-end…
Downtown, Civic Center & SoMa
Like a dandelion pushing through sidewalk cracks, this plucky nonprofit gallery has brought signs of life to one of the Tenderloin's toughest blocks for…
North Beach & Chinatown
You can see all the way to China from the Hilton's 3rd floor inside this cultural center, which hosts exhibits ranging from showcases of contemporary…
The Haight & Hayes Valley
With its sunny courtyard and generous cased windows, this uplifting 1922 building is an interfaith landmark. Since 1969, it's been home to the largest…
Marin County
Mt Tamalpais State Park encompasses 6300 acres of parklands and 60 miles of trails. Get a map and don't miss the summit of East Peak. Panoramic Hwy climbs…
San Francisco
While adults are asleep downhill, eight-year-olds are making scientific discoveries atop Corona Heights Park. After Josephine Randall became a pioneering…
San Francisco
America's first gay-history museum showcases a century of San Francisco LGBTQ+ ephemera – Harvey Milk's campaign literature, matchbooks from long-gone…
The Haight & Hayes Valley
When the bass thumbs out the opening notes to 'A Love Supreme,' you'll know the Sunday liturgy has begun at San Francisco's legendary Church of St John…
San Francisco
Follow trails of deleted White House tweets, lost Grateful Dead tapes and defunct Nintendo gamer magazines to this 1923 Greek Revival landmark. In a…
North Beach & Chinatown
'The air was soft, the stars so fine, the promise of every cobbled alley so great…' This ode by the On the Road and Dharma Bums author is embedded in his…
Glide Memorial United Methodist Church
Downtown, Civic Center & SoMa
When the rainbow-robed Glide gospel choir enters singing their hearts out, the 2000-plus congregation erupts in cheers, hugs and dance moves. Raucous…
Marin Municipal Water District
Marin County
The bulk of Mt Tamalpais' natural areas are managed by the water district. The five reservoirs provide water to Marin County residents, and are beautiful…
Downtown, Civic Center & SoMa
Since 1974, this nonprofit art organization has championed experimental photo-based imagery beyond classic B&W prints and casual digital snapshots. Since…
San Francisco
On San Francisco's literary scene, all roads eventually lead to Ina Coolbrith. She was California's first poet laureate, editor of Mark Twain, colleague…
