Human Rights Campaign Action Center
San Francisco
Harvey Milk’s former camera storefront was featured in the Academy Award–winning movie Milk, and now it's home to the civil rights advocacy group…
Must-see attractions in The Bay Area
San Francisco
Looking out from Lands End feels like surveying the edge of the world. Nestled on the point of land between Golden Gate Park and the Presidio, the park's…
North Beach & Chinatown
Halfway through the steep climb up the Filbert St Steps to Coit Tower, you might wonder if it’s all worth the trouble. Take a breather and notice the…
The Marina, Fisherman’s Wharf & the Piers
Slide, climb and feel your way – in total darkness – through the labyrinth of the Tactile Dome at the Exploratorium, the city's standout science museum…
The Mission, Dogpatch & Potrero Hill
Art really ties the room together at nonprofit arts center Southern Exposure, where works are carefully crafted not just with paint and canvas, but a…
San Francisco
This peaceful, 10-acre living memorial ringed by redwoods and graced with poetic paving-stone tributes was founded in 1991 to commemorate millions of…
The Mission, Dogpatch & Potrero Hill
Trancelike states are often induced by Hosfelt, where visitors step from gritty sidewalks into dreamy, finely detailed interior worlds. Close inspection…
The Mission, Dogpatch & Potrero Hill
Elephants created from sewn-together maps, benches made from repurposed shovel handles, factory-floor scenes recreated entirely in duct tape: one-off…
The Mission, Dogpatch & Potrero Hill
All roads in San Francisco's art underground lead to this nonprofit creative community hub under a highway overpass. Shows have featured eviction letters…
San Francisco
Reach staggering heights with spectacular views along this staircase connecting North Beach with Russian Hill – ideal for working off a pasta dinner…
North Beach & Chinatown
Upstart San Francisco artists buck art-world trends and kick out brave new work at the backstreet Mule Gallery. Recent shows have featured artworks by Bay…
Museum of Art & Digital Entertainment
Oakland
If you love video games, the MADE is the heaven you go to when you die and are all out of extra lives. It's a museum of sorts, but more a sort of time…
San Francisco
Scramble up the red rocks of 520ft-high Corona Heights for jaw-dropping, 180-degree views at the summit. Face east as the sun sets, and watch the city…
Oakland
Along the western shore of Alameda Island, Robert W Crown Memorial State Park sees flocks of East Bay locals on a sunny day. The sandy beach stretches 2.5…
The Mission, Dogpatch & Potrero Hill
A curiosity cupboard of major Bay Area talents. Works showcased here are entrancing and meticulous – past shows have featured Dana Hemenway's dazzling…
Downtown, Civic Center & SoMa
Rising from the ashes of the 1906 earthquake, this beaux arts landmark echoes with history. Demonstrators protesting red-scare McCarthy hearings on City…
San Francisco
It's hard to imagine from these ruins, but Victorian dandies and working stiffs once converged here for bracing baths in woolen rental swimsuits…
Powell St Cable Car Turnaround
Downtown, Civic Center & SoMa
Peek through the passenger queue at Powell and Market Sts to spot cable-car operators leaping out, gripping the chassis of each trolley and slooowly…
San Jose
This ridiculous yet fascinating Victorian mansion is filled with 160 mostly non-utilitarian rooms with dead-end hallways and a staircase that runs up to a…
The Marina, Fisherman’s Wharf & the Piers
Willy Wonka would tip his hat to Domingo Ghirardelli (gear-ar-deli), whose business became the West’s largest chocolate factory in 1893. After the company…
The Marina, Fisherman’s Wharf & the Piers
Fisherman's Wharf – the Embarcadero and Jefferson St waterfront running from Pier 29 to Van Ness Ave – includes Pier 39, the Musée Mécanique, the Maritime…
The Marina, Fisherman’s Wharf & the Piers
Like a fossilized party favor, this romantic, ersatz Greco-Roman ruin is the city's memento from the 1915 Panama-Pacific International Exposition. The…
Downtown, Civic Center & SoMa
High-end stores ring Union Sq now, but this people-watching plaza has been a hotbed of protest, from pro-Union Civil War rallies to AIDS vigils. Atop the…
Japantown, Fillmore & Pacific Heights
The spiritual center of Japantown's commercial district is minimalist master Yoshiro Taniguchi's Peace Pagoda. It was donated by San Francisco's sister…
The Haight & Hayes Valley
Like surviving members of the Grateful Dead, this purple Victorian sports a touch of gray – but during the Summer of Love, this was where Jerry Garcia and…
Oakland
An urban respite, Lake Merritt is a popular place to stroll or go running (a 3.5-mile paved path circles the lake), with bonsai and botanical gardens, a…
North Beach & Chinatown
Enter through the Dragon archway donated by Taiwan in 1970, and you'll find yourself on the street formerly known as Dupont in its notorious red-light…
The Marina, Fisherman’s Wharf & the Piers
Explore that splotch of green on the map between Baker Beach and Crissy Field and you’ll find parade grounds, Yoda, a centuries-old adobe wall and some…
The Haight & Hayes Valley
The social center of hip, walkable, tree-lined Octavia Blvd is this pocket park, featuring Burning Man–inspired temporary sculpture installations, picnic…
The Marina, Fisherman’s Wharf & the Piers
The focal point of Fisherman's Wharf isn't the waning fishing fleet but the carousel, carnival-like attractions, shops and restaurants of Pier 39 – and,…
The Mission, Dogpatch & Potrero Hill
Strange fascination is showcased at Jack Fischer Gallery – for example, sketches made by Agelio Batle's graphite skeleton as it jitters across a lab table…
San Francisco
The sun sets over the Pacific just beyond the fog at this blustery beach. Most days are too chilly for bikini-clad clambakes but fine for hardy…
Maritime National Historical Park
The Marina, Fisherman’s Wharf & the Piers
Five historic ships are floating museums at this maritime national park, Fisherman's Wharf’s most authentic attraction. Moored along Hyde St Pier, the…
Berkeley
Officially called Sather Tower, the Campanile was modeled on St Mark’s Basilica in Venice. The 307ft spire offers fine views of the Bay Area, and at the…
The Mission, Dogpatch & Potrero Hill
Welcome to paradise in a parking lot. When the local Pepsi bottling plant closed in the 1970s, neighbors wouldn't let urban blight take over the block –…
The Marina, Fisherman’s Wharf & the Piers
A project of the Exploratorium, the Wave Organ is a sound sculpture of PVC tubes and concrete pipes capped with found marble from San Francisco's old…
San Jose
Opposite Plaza de Cesar Chavez, San Jose's excellent technology museum examines subjects from robotics to space exploration, and genetics to virtual…
Oakland
Franklin D Roosevelt’s ‘floating White House,’ the 165ft USS Potomac, is moored at Clay and Water Sts by the ferry dock, and is open for dockside tours…
San Francisco
Populist millionaire Adolph Sutro imagined the Cliff House as a working man's paradise in 1863, but Sutro's dream has been rebuilt three times. The latest…
San Jose
West of downtown, this educational Egyptian museum is one of San Jose’s more unusual attractions. Its extensive collection includes statues, household…
