San Francisco, California

One visit and you'll understand why Tony Bennet sang, "I Left My Heart in San Francisco."

San Francisco is one of the world's premiere vacation destinations, and for good reason. Few cities compare to the unique beauty, energy, and culture of San Francisco. The City By the Bay is famous for its unforgettable sightseeing, entertainment, dining and shopping. Ride the cable cars up and down the hilly streets, take in the Golden Gate Bridge, visit world-class museums or shop at bustling Fisherman's Wharf - the possibilities are endless!

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Search Directly For:  Neighborhoods, Getting Around, Parks and Beaches, Museums, Landmarks, Dining, Shopping, Theatre.

Neighborhoods

San Francisco is incredibly diverse. The city has dozens of unique neighborhoods with their own distinct flavors and attractions. Don't be daunted, however, because the city's compact layout and a great public transportation system make it easy to navigate.

Fisherman's Wharf

One of the most famous tourist attractions in the country, Fisherman's Wharf is a great place to spend an evening. It is home to a wide array of seafood restaurants, dozens of shops, and renowned street performers . If you're looking for something off the beaten path, the Musee Mecanique (Mechanical Museum) is home to hundreds of antique coin operated arcade games and is a fun place to lose yourself for a couple of hours.

Haight Ashbury 

This neighborhood is an intriguing crossroads between San Francisco's past and present. The area blazed its way onto the cultural map as the epicenter of the 1967 Summer of Love; but, since then, the Haight has developed into a fascinating hybrid of posh Victorian homes and grungy street life. The varied influences of The Haight's history are readily apparent while walking the streets; nowhere else can one see such a flavorful cohabitation of '50s lounges, '60s new age spiritualism, punk rock politics and computer culture.

Chinatown 

San Francisco's Chinatown is the the oldest Chinatown in North America and the largest community of ethnic Chinese outside of Asia. Popularly known as a "city-within-a-city", Chinatown was established by Chinese immigrants in the 1840s and its current residents have preserved many of the unique customs and traditions of their forbears. Most residents speak Chinese, celebrate traditional festivals such as Chinese New Year, and almost all Chinatown restaurants cook traditional Chinese food. 

Mission District

The Mission runs from the 101 Freeway to Cesar Chavez Avenue and is famous for its' enormous murals, finger-licking-good Mexican food and hip nightlife. Taqueria Cancun on 19th and Mission is a delicious and wallet friendly place to grab a burrito.

The Castro

The Castro is primarily known as one of the first gay havens in the United States, but the area also claims some of San Francisco's most beautiful Victorian era houses and some of the city's most exciting parades and holiday celebrations - particularly its Halloween celebration which routinely attracts tens of thousands of masquerading partygoers.

Financial District

Also known as SoMa, this area is filled with skyscrapers, hotels, upscale restaurants and art spaces and is the business center for much of the Bay Area and the West Coast. You might also find this part of the city filled with Giants Baseball fans, as the Giants' AT&T Park is located nearby.

North Beach

Also known as Little Italy, this neighborhood was the center of the 1950s beatnik movement and has dozens of amazing Italian restaurants, cafes and bakeries.

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 Getting Around

When most people think of San Francisco transportation they imagine colorful 19th century cable cars with their bells resonating through the hilly streets. Today, most of these historic cable cars have been reengineered or retired, but a few lines remain. The two main lines start downtown at Market Street and then head north along Powell Street for 10-12 blocks before diverging. The Powell-Hyde line traverses the steep hills north before stopping just east of Ghiradelli Square, while the Powell-Mason line carries passengers to North Point which is a mere 4 blocks the shops and restaurants of Pier 39.

Bay Area Rapid Transit, colloquially known as BART, is an extensive metro system that services the entire Bay Area. It's a fast, reliable and relatively cheap way to get around the city or to East Bay or South Bay. Round trip tickets run from $3 inside the city to $17 for trips to San Francisco International Airport.

While BART is good for getting to a general area, the MUNI public bus system is a more precise means of transportation. Many commuters will use BART to get to a district before using MUNI to take them within a block or two of their final destination.

Driving is also an option, but the city of San Francisco is very compact so traffic and parking are often major hassles. Drivers can always try their luck with street parking or park in the lots and structures available in most parts of the city. RedAwning.com also offers a great selection of houses with parking.

 Seasonal Weather

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 Parks

Golden Gate Park is renowned as one of the finest inner city parks in the world. At over 1,000 acres in size, the park is 20% larger than New York's Central Park and has a myriad of activities. Visitors can take paddle boats across scenic Stow Lake, stroll through the tranquil Japanese Tea Garden, be wowed by beautiful rare flowers in the Botanical Garden (above), visit world class museums like the de Young, or simply picnic on the park's sunny lawns. No matter whether you're coming on a short trip or living in San Francisco for years, it's impossible to run out of things to do in Golden Gate park.

Hundreds of less famous, but equally beautiful, parks stud the map of San Francisco. The manicured lawns of Mission District's Dolores Park or the Haight's Duboce Park are splendid places for sunbathing and socializing, while the windy lanes and forested expanses of the Presidio are ideal for hours of exploration.

 Museums

San Francisco has some of the world's finest art museums as well as several fun and interactive science museums. The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, or SFMOMA (left), is known for pushing the limits of fine arts. It routinely attracts exhibitions from leading artists like Frida Kahlo, Andy Warhol, Matisse, and Diego Rivera. Located in a stunning Egyptian style building in the heart of Golden Gate Park, the de Young Museum is known as much for its fine art as its rare anthropological collections. Overlooking the Golden Gate Bridge, the Legion of Honor is most famous for its ancient and European art.

The California Academy of Sciences and The Exploratorium are interactive science museums that guarantee to supply even the most fanatic of science nerds with hours of unadulterated fun.  The Academy of Sciences focuses on biology - even going as far as creating simulated rain forests - while the Exploratorium boggles the mind with fascinating physics experiments (lower right).

Other Notable Museums: The Asian Art Museum, The Cable Car Museum, and The San Francisco Zoo (lower left).

 

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If you have time to take an out of town trip, San Francisco is under an hour from the California Wine Country and only two and a half hours from scenic Lake Tahoe!

*"Golden Gate Bridge-Museum/Attraction View", Frommers, 2006.