Museums in San Francisco

San Francisco's Old-Fashioned Arcade Museum

"Fun for all ages" isn't a trite expression when describing San Francisco's Musée Mécanique, a truly unique penny arcade museum containing one of the largest privately owned collections of antique coin-operated mechanical musical instruments in the world -- 160 machines dating back from the 1880s through the present (and they still work!). You can pay Grand-Ma Fortune Teller a quarter to see what she has to say about your future, or watch little kids cower in fear as Laughing "Fat Lady" Sal gives her infamous cackle of a greeting. Other yesteryear seaside resort games include antique movie machines, 19th-century music boxes, old-school strength testers, and mechanical cranes. The museum is located at Pier 45 at the end of Taylor Street at Fisherman's Wharf (tel. 415/346-2000; www.museemechanique.org).

Free Culture

To beef up attendance and give indigent folk like us travel writers a break, almost all of San Francisco’s art galleries and museums are open free to the public 1 day of the month, and several never charge admission. You can use the following list to plan your week around the museums’ free-day schedules.

First Tuesday

• Yerba Buena Center for the Arts

• de Young Museum

• Legion of Honor

• Contemporary Jewish Museum

First Sunday

• Asian Art Museum

Free Random Days (Check Individual Websites)

• Exploratorium

• California Academy of Sciences

Always Free

• Cable Car Museum

• Glide Memorial United Methodist Church

• Museé Mechanique

• Maritime National Historical Park & Museum ($5 to board ships)

• Wells Fargo History Museum