Mission Street is Excelsior's main commercial drag starting from around Silver Ave and continuing all the way to Daly City. This is one of the most unaffectedly diverse streets in the city, a very Californian mash up of Southeast Asian, East Asian and Latin American businesses, from cell-phone repair shops to pupuserias. Keep an eye out for murals and street art, and anything that smells good.
Lonely Planet's must-see attractions
3.93 MILES
When Frederick Law Olmsted, architect of New York's Central Park, gazed in 1865 upon the plot of land San Francisco Mayor Frank McCoppin wanted to turn…
3.12 MILES
Was it the fall of 1966 or the winter of ’67? As the Haight saying goes, if you can remember the Summer of Love, you probably weren’t here. The fog was…
4.98 MILES
If you look close today at the clinker-brick buildings lining these narrow backstreets, past the temple balconies jutting out over bakeries, acupuncture…
5.16 MILES
No one could have predicted the cultural force City Lights would become when it first opened in 1953. Sure, it had a proletarian ethos suggested by its…
San Francisco Museum of Modern Art
4.5 MILES
When the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art expanded in 2016, it was a mind-boggling feat that nearly tripled the institution's size to accommodate a…
5.5 MILES
If you want to really see San Francisco, head to Coit Tower, a 1933 art deco beaut designed by Arthur Brown, Jr. and Henry Howard that sits high up on…
6.41 MILES
Few cities boast a structure so iconic as the Golden Gate Bridge, commemorated in everything from films like The Maltese Falcon to not one but two emojis…
2.36 MILES
Welcome to San Francisco's sunny side, the land of street ball and Mayan-pyramid playgrounds, semiprofessional tanning and taco picnics. Although the…
Nearby Excelsior attractions
0.97 MILES
At 312 acres, McLaren is the second largest park in San Francisco proper, and arguably the most underrated. There are some 7 miles of trails (including…
1.62 MILES
The breezy, grassland slopes of 475ft Bernal Hill are decidedly non-touristy, and hiking them on a clear day offers 360-degree city views, along with rare…
1.87 MILES
See that hill with the sci-fi forked radio tower at its summit? That's Twin Peaks, with a 925ft summit that's the highest point in SF. A giant pink…
1.98 MILES
Art-fair buzz begins at this trippy gallery that's all black outside and stark white inside for maximum impact. While some artists are recognizable from…
5. San Bruno Mountain State & County Park
2 MILES
Look at a driving map of the Bay Area and you may wonder at an odd island just south of San Francisco where roads are absent. This is San Bruno mountain,…
2 MILES
The prize for SF's steepest street is shared by this street and Filbert St (between Hyde and Leavenworth). Both have 31.5% grades (17-degree slopes), but…
2.13 MILES
Since at least the 1980s, if you stroll through San Francisco's Mission District you've likely noticed the neighborhood's profusion of colorful murals and…
2.29 MILES
No first-time loop through the Castro would be complete without a peek at this window display featuring trans Barbies and Billy Doll, a gay alternative to…