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Yerba Buena Gardens
This 5-acre patch of grass and gardens is the centerpiece of Yerba Buena’s cultural activity, and a great place to relax in the grass on a sunny day. The most dramatic outdoor piece is…
Alcatraz Island
If you can only do one tour while in San Francisco, make it Alcatraz. Probably the most famous prison in America, if not the world, this was where the worst of the worst criminals were…
Aquarium of the Bay
Set streetside at Pier 39, this little, overpriced aquarium is a quick tour that you can turn to if you want to indulge the kids. With over 20,000 sea creatures swimming about, you’ll…
Boudin at the Wharf
After more than 30 years of being simply a bread shop in the heart of Fisherman’s Wharf, Boudin Bakery super-sized into this swank, 26,000-square-foot flagship baking emporium into a…
Ghirardelli Square
This National Historic Landmark property dates from 1864, when it served as a factory making Civil War uniforms, but it’s best known as the former chocolate and spice factory of…
Musée Mécanique
Less of a traditional museum and more a source of interactive amusement, this old-fashioned penny arcade (with some modern video games thrown in for good measure) has been one of my…
Pier 39
Anchoring the eastern boundary of Fisherman’s Wharf, Pier 39 is a multilevel waterfront complex constructed on an abandoned cargo pier. It is, ostensibly, a re-creation of a…
USS Pampanito
This storied sub sank six Japanese ships during four tours of the Pacific in World War II. The vessel has been painstakingly restored to its 1945 condition by admirers, who also run a…
Cable Car Museum
Here, in this warehouse that combines a museum experience with a real inside look at the inner machinations of the system, four mighty winding machines work the underground cables that…
Grace Cathedral
Although this French Gothic cathedral, the third-largest Episcopal cathedral in the nation, appears to be made of stone, it is in fact constructed of reinforced concrete beaten to…
Lombard Street
Known (erroneously) as the “crookedest street in the world,” this whimsically winding block of Lombard Street between Hyde and Leavenworth streets draws thousands of visitors each year…
Golden Gate Fortune Cookie Factory
Not much has changed at this tiny Chinatown storefront since it opened in 1963. Workers sit at a conveyor belt, folding messages into thousands of fortune cook-ies—20,000 a day—as…
Coit Tower
In a city known for its great views and vantage points, Coit Tower is one of the best. Located atop Telegraph Hill, just east of North Beach, the round stone tower offers panoramic…
The Exploratorium
Relocated in 2013 to hip concrete-and-glass digs on Pier 15, the “world’s greatest science museum”—according to Scientific American magazine—is cooler than ever, though it’s also…
Ferry Building Marketplace
Completed in 1898, the Ferry Building was, in its heyday, a travel hub serving as many as 50,000 people a day. After the Bay Bridge and Golden Gate Bridge opened in the late 1930s,…
Wells Fargo History Museum
Surprisingly, the Wells Fargo Museum paints a vivid portrait of early California life by using the company’s once-vital stagecoaches as a centerpiece. For generations, the Wells Fargo…
Glide Memorial United Methodist Church
Back in the 1960s, Glide Memorial’s legendary pastor, Texas-born Cecil Williams, took over this 1931 church and began his famed, 90-minute “celebration” services. Williams has since…
The Pacific Heritage Museum
If Asian art is an interest for you, the grandiosely named Pacific Heritage Museum may have something modest to offer. Its several hushed rooms mount displays of artworks by…
The GLBT History Museum
North America’s first full-fledged gay history museum, set in a former storefront in the Castro, is tiny but formidable, and ultimately quite moving. Recent exhibits have included…
California Academy of Sciences
A Golden Gate Park tenant for over 150 years and stunningly renovated in 2008, this fantastic—and yes, shockingly pricy—family-friendly museum is a spectacular mélange of aquarium,…
Conservatory of Flowers
Opened to the public in 1879, this glorious Victorian glass structure is the oldest existing public conservatory in the Western Hemisphere. But it’s not just a place of historic…
de Young Museum
Founded in 1894 for the California Midwinter International Exposition, the de Young evolved from what was originally an eclectic collection of exotic oddities into a quality showcase…
Japanese Tea Garden
While the aquarium across the way is the obvious draw for families with children, this park, with its charmingly intricate pathways and jungle gym of a bridge, will appeal to all ages…
Strawberry Hill/Stow Lake
One of the sweetest ways to spend a few hours is to rent a boat and cruise around circular Stow Lake, watching painters dab at canvasses, joggers pass along the grassy shoreline, ducks…
Mission Dolores
The history of this church, more formally known as Misíon San Francisco de Asís, is the history of the early city, and there is no other surviving building that is more intrinsic to…