Old St Mary's Cathedral & Square
North Beach & Chinatown
California's first cathedral was started in 1853 by an Irish entrepreneur determined to give wayward San Francisco some religion – despite the cathedral's…
Must-see attractions in San Francisco
North Beach & Chinatown
What's that – your hometown doesn’t have a street named after an African American Catholic-Jewish-voodoo anarchist street poet? Revered in France as the…
The Marina, Fisherman’s Wharf & the Piers
Founded on a grant from Bay Area cartoon legend Charles M Schultz of Peanuts fame, this bold museum isn't afraid of the dark, political or racy – cases in…
San Francisco
Grassy dunes up to 200ft high at Fort Funston give an idea of what the Sunset District looked like until the 20th century. A defunct military installation…
The Marina, Fisherman’s Wharf & the Piers
Radical ideals in the form of distinctive buildings make beloved SF landmarks; this standout 1894 example is the collaborative effort of 19th-century Bay…
North Beach & Chinatown
Wild parrots, tai chi masters, and nonagenarian churchgoing nonnas (grandmothers) are the local company you'll keep on this lively patch of lawn. This was…
North Beach & Chinatown
Dragons bring this shadowy brick byway roaring to life. The narrow entryway is illuminated with 'Dragon Boats Chasing Moonlight,' a new mosaic mural…
The Marina, Fisherman’s Wharf & the Piers
An 1890s military barracks in the Presidio houses 10 galleries that chronologically tell the exhaustively long story of Walt Disney's life. Opened in 2009…
The Marina, Fisherman’s Wharf & the Piers
A monumental hint to sailors in need of a scrub, this restored, ship-shaped 1939 Streamline Moderne landmark is decked out with Works Progress…
San Francisco Botanical Garden
San Francisco
There’s always something blooming in these 55-acre gardens, which cover a world of vegetation from South African savanna to New Zealand cloud forest. The…
The Marina, Fisherman’s Wharf & the Piers
The Presidio's oldest building dates to the late 1700s, and was fully renovated in 2014, revealing gorgeous Spanish-Moorish adobe architecture. The free…
North Beach & Chinatown
California's earliest high-tech adopters weren't 1970s Silicon Valley programmers – they were Chinatown switchboard operators c 1894. To connect callers,…
The Marina, Fisherman’s Wharf & the Piers
Everyone loves this easy-access cove at Van Ness Ave's northern end, flanked by the massive comma-shaped Municipal Pier, where fishermen cast their lines…
San Francisco
Since the 1870s, SFAI has been at the vanguard of Bay Area art movements – including 1960s Bay Area abstraction, 1970s conceptual art and 1990s new-media…
San Francisco
America's legendary coast-to-coast Lincoln Hwy officially ends at 100-acre Lincoln Park, which served as San Francisco's cemetery until 1909. The city's…
North Beach & Chinatown
Colorful murals hint at the colorful characters who once roamed SF’s oldest alleyway – known during the Gold Rush variously as Mexico, Spanish or Manila…
North Beach & Chinatown
If these copper-clad walls could talk, they'd name-drop shamelessly. The tower's original occupant was political boss Abe Ruef, ousted in 1907 and sent to…
The Marina, Fisherman’s Wharf & the Piers
San Francisco grew from its docks, and this 10,000-sq-ft visitors center for the nearby maritime national historical park details how, with a permanent…
The Marina, Fisherman’s Wharf & the Piers
Sharks circle overhead, manta rays sweep by and seaweed sways all around at the Aquarium of the Bay, where you wander through glass tubes surrounded by…
Harvey Milk & Jane Warner Plazas
San Francisco
Somewhere over the rainbow is Harvey Milk Plaza, where a huge rainbow flag flaps. Rainbow-lit escalators lead toward Castro Muni station and a display…
North Beach & Chinatown
Take the high road from Fisherman's Wharf to North Beach via the urban trailhead between 150 and 155 Francisco St. Cross the courtyard, ascend to Grant…
The Marina, Fisherman’s Wharf & the Piers
It's hard to believe that this 10,000-ton beauty was turned out by San Francisco’s shipbuilders in under eight weeks, and harder still to imagine how she…
The Mission, Dogpatch & Potrero Hill
Upgrade from kitten posters to frame-worthy original SF artworks hand-printed in this working printmakers' studio. Watch prints pulled from a vintage…
North Beach & Chinatown
Sun Yat-sen once plotted the overthrow of China’s last dynasty here at number 36, and during Prohibition, this was the site of turf battles over local…
San Francisco
The crowning jewel of Nob Hill is this posh park – once the exclusive stomping ground of billionaires, now a park enjoyed by all, from gleeful toddlers at…
The Marina, Fisherman’s Wharf & the Piers
Artist Leo Villareal's installation of twinkling LED lights along the western span will make you swear the Bay Bridge is winking at you. In 2013,…
San Francisco
With a 31.5% grade, the honor of steepest street in San Francisco is shared by Filbert St and 22nd St in the Castro. Filbert is shorter, but wins top…
The Mission, Dogpatch & Potrero Hill
Ramp up your art collection at Incline, a sloping gallery at the rear of an ex-mortuary where bodies were once transported for embalming. Today this is…
San Francisco
First planted in 1894, these 5 acres of gorgeous flower gardens are especially delightful in the spring, when the cherry blossoms pop, and also the fall…
North Beach & Chinatown
Chinatown's unofficial living room is named after John B Montgomery's sloop, which staked the US claim on San Francisco in 1846. SF's first city hall…
The Haight & Hayes Valley
True to its name, this hilltop park offers splendid vistas over the city to Golden Gate Bridge and the Bay. Founded in 1867, this is one of the oldest…
San Francisco
When the weather's behaving, pedal boats and rowboats are available daily at the magnificent 1946 boathouse on Stow Lake. Folks also tend to drop by for…
The Haight & Hayes Valley
This legendary intersection was the epicenter of the psychedelic '60s, and 'Hashbury' remains a counterculture magnet. On average Saturdays here, you can…
North Beach & Chinatown
Each parking spot at this garage comes with fortune-cookie wisdom stenciled onto the asphalt: 'The time is right to make new friends' or 'Stop searching…
The Mission, Dogpatch & Potrero Hill
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…
San Francisco
Leave it to San Francisco to plant a dell that's totally punk rock, featuring spiky, in-your-face neon blooms cultivated by the city's many hardcore…
San Francisco
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…
San Francisco
Since 1899, this has been Golden Gate Park's home where the buffalo roam – though technically, they're bison. SF's mellow, well-fed herd rarely moves –…
California College of the Arts
The Mission, Dogpatch & Potrero Hill
A generous endowment and whip-smart curators allow the Wattis Institute to take on ambitious, sweeping shows – for example, an exhibition reimagining…
The Marina, Fisherman’s Wharf & the Piers
Your chariot awaits to whisk you and the kids past the Golden Gate Bridge, Alcatraz and other SF landmarks hand-painted on this Italian carousel twinkling…
