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Most visitors want to tick off the top attractions in the city, stroll its unique neighborhoods and enjoy its vast cultural offerings. These are some of the best, plus some ways to explore.
Golden Gate Bridge. This magnificent suspension bridge, painted orange to protect it from rust, spans 4,200 feet and crosses the link between San Francisco Bay and the Pacific Ocean. You can enjoy dramatic views from several locations throughout the city. Pedestrians are allowed to access the east sidewalk of the bridge, or you can rent bikes or take a bus tour that stops on both sides of the bridge and allows you to walk out on the toll plaza. The span has been called one of the seven wonders of the modern world, is the tallest bridge in the United States at 746 feet, carries about 3 million vehicles a month and is the No. 1 attraction on every San Francisco sightseeing list.
Alcatraz Island. Alcatraz once housed the most notorious criminals in America. This federal penitentiary, sitting on an island in San Francisco Bay, was in full operation between 1934 and 1963 and garnered the nickname “The Rock.” Legendary prisoners Al “Scarface” Capone and “Birdman” Robert Stroud were just two of the notorious inmates. Tours of the facility give visitors insights into the 19th-century surroundings, subterranean rooms, cannons and Civil War era architecture.
Fisherman’s Wharf. One of San Francisco’s busiest tourist attractions, the wharf offers historic-ship tours, a throng of souvenir shops and a string of restaurants serving steaming crabs, clam chowder and sourdough bread bowls. There are also colonies of sea lions on display and picturesque views of the bay, the Golden Gate Bridge and Alcatraz.
Ghirardelli Square. A landmark public square, Ghirardelli Square has three levels of shops and restaurants with five-star luxury hotels nearby. Originally a chocolate factory built by Domenico “Domingo” Ghirardelli in 1852, the factory was transformed to accommodate unique shops, fine dining and the latest in retail in 1964 and still features the famous Ghirardelli Chocolate Store.
Art/Museums
Celebrating and cultivating art is a part of San Francisco’s DNA, going back to the founding of the San Francisco Art Institute in 1871. For museum lovers, San Francisco’s Big Six are the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA), the largest modern art museum in the country; M.H. de Young Museum, Legion of Honor Museum; Asian Art Museum; Exploratorium; and California Academy of Sciences.
Have a passion? Yes, there’s probably a museum for that — from the Cartoon Art Museum to the Cable Car Museum, from the Contemporary Jewish Museum to the Mexican Museum and more. The Beat Museum celebrates Jack Kerouac, Neal Cassady, Allen Ginsberg, Lawrence Ferlinghetti and other writers, artists and dreamers who created the counterculture of the 1950s. Ferlinghetti’s City Lights Bookstore, which published many of the original Beats, is a beguiling bookstore-cum-museum that attracts literary pilgrims year round.
As befits an art-loving, politically progressive city, the Mission District is a sprawling open-air museum that showcases hundreds of social- and political-themed murals. For a compact sampling, walk along Balmy Alley between 24th and 25th streets, and Clarion Alley between Valencia and Mission streets. Also visit the Precita Eyes Mural Arts and Visitors Center, which has been steward of the Mission’s mural movement for four decades.
