So much can be said about San Francisco. The City by the Bay is full of notable buildings, streets and neighborhoods. You can’t miss Coit Tower, which stands tall atop Telegraph Hill, or Lombard Street, famous for its block-long stretch of eight hairpin turns between Hyde and Leavenworth. The Castro District, one of the first gay neighborhoods in the United States, is a prominent LGBT symbol and a host location for activism and events. Colorful Victorian and Edwardian houses, dubbed the “Painted Ladies,” line streets throughout the city, the most famous of which appear on Steiner Street, across from Alamo Square.
The Fisherman’s Wharf began as a hot spot for industries including fishing, construction and railroads and has grown into a major tourist attraction. Though it is still known for its fresh seafood, the fare can now be found at small stands, at chain restaurants and at eateries owned by the same family for decades. The wharf is also the location of Pier 39, a shopping center and home to a sea lion colony as well as the Aquarium of the Bay and the San Francisco Maritime National Historic Park.
Of course, it can be argued nothing says “San Francisco” more than the Golden Gate Bridge. Opened in 1937, the suspension bridge spans 8,981 feet and its towers rise 746 feet above the water. Every day, drivers, bicyclists and pedestrians cross the international orange-hued bridge that spans the Golden Gait strait, connecting San Francisco and Marin County.
One of my favorite ways to view the Golden Gate Bridge is by boat. Blue & Gold Fleet offers a Bay Cruise that takes sightseers underneath the bridge and back again. The narrated cruise provides an excellent overview of the city and its history during the hour-long, Kodak-moment-filled ride. Tickets for the tour are not only available at the Blue & Gold Fleet kiosk at Pier 39 but also through CityPASS, a discounted ticket booklet for select attractions throughout the city.
The Golden Gate Bride isn’t the only sight that stands out in the San Francisco Bay. Alcatraz Island was a prison for racketeers, kidnappers and difficult-to-manage inmates sent from other institutions from 1934 to 1963. Its remote location meant prisoners stayed put one-and-a-half miles from the city and its residents, though a total of 36 inmates reportedly attempted — unsuccessfully — to escape. Today, Alcatraz Cruises leaves from Pier 33 and ferries curious travelers to the island for daily tours of the historic buildings that remain.
Heading farther into the San Francisco Bay, the Bay Bridge links San Francisco and Oakland. Its newly completed Eastern span replacement connects to the marina and bikeway to Treasure Island, a man-made landform built in the San Francisco Bay for the 1939 Golden Gate International Exposition. New residences have been developed on Treasure Island since the turn of the century, and the island is also at the forefront of San Francisco’s growing urban winery movement.
Another iconic San Francisco site that stemmed from a World’s Fair is Golden Gate Park’s Music Concourse, an open-air plaza, which was originally excavated for the California Midwinter International Exposition of 1894. In addition to the site’s stunning Spreckels Temple of Music (also known as the Bandshell), cultural institutions including the M.H. de Young Memorial Museum, the California Academy of Sciences and the Japanese Tea Garden are the main attractions at the plaza.
A sliver of Golden Gate Park called the Panhandle sits above Haight-Ashbury, an intersection famed for its place in hippie subculture. The site began as a collection of farms and sand dunes and, in the late 1880s and early 1900s, evolved into a residential upper-middle class homeowners’ district with the help of a new cable car line. It was hit hard by the Depression, large Victorians were divided into apartments to house workers during World War II, and many buildings were left vacant afterward. This set the stage for a bohemian invasion, when the hippies of the 1960s flocked to the Haight-Ashbury neighborhood and took advantage of the cheap rooms and rentals.
Though the hippie influence still lingers in businesses along the Haight-Ashbury streets, a new scene has moved in. The section known as Upper Haight now boasts hip restaurants, high-end vintage boutiques and Internet cafés, while its grittier neighbor Lower Haight attracts DJs, ravers and music lovers with its record shops and clubs.
Many groups, be they formed by similar interests or ethnicities, have made their home in San Francisco. The city’s Chinatown was established in 1848 and holds the titles as the oldest Chinatown in North America and the largest Chinese community outside of Asia. Located in downtown San Francisco, the microcosm of Asian culture retains its own languages, customs and places of worship. It is one of the city’s most popular stops for visitors, attracting more people annually than the Golden Gate Bridge.
Another hot spot for visitors to San Francisco is Union Square, which draws visitors with its luxury, boutique and department store shopping options as well as to the surrounding theaters, art galleries and hotels. And dessert lovers flock to Ghirardelli Square, a city block of historic brick structures home to restaurants and retail as well as a two-story Ghirardelli chocolate shop.
Nearby, on the corner of Beach and Hyde, the Buena Vista Café has welcomed locals and visitors since 1916. Its hilltop location attracts hungry folks for breakfast, lunch and dinner, though it’s the café’s Irish coffee that really cements its place in San Francisco history. The café perfected its Irish coffee recipe in 1952 and continues to serve this delicious concoction in a special six-ounce, heat-treated glass.
For some of the best views of San Francisco, head to the Twin Peaks, two hills that sit practically at the center of the city. Twin Peaks Boulevard, which links to Clarendon Avenue on one end and Portola Drive on the other, creates a figure eight pattern around the peaks for easy access. Small parking lots are available near the zeniths so you can ditch the car and walk to the tops for the ultimate photo ops.
San Francisco is a special place. Who would have thought you could pack so many icons into 47 square miles on the tip of a peninsula? The city is even known for its thick, low-lying fog — which not only has a name, Karl, but also its own Twitter account. It truly is a city like none other.
