traveldk.com

The much-loved symbol of the city and of California’s place on the Pacific Rim, the Golden Gate Bridge is the third-largest single span bridge in the world, connecting San Francisco to Marin County.

San Francisco’s little troopers have endured technological progress, and are now the only system of the kind in the world that still plays a daily role in urban life.

Despite rampant tourism and commercialization, the saltiness and authenticity are still to be found here if you take time to look. The views of the bay are unmatched, and you’ll have an opportunity to sample some great seafood.

Although it was a federal prison for just under 30 years, the myth of “The Rock” continues to capture the imagination of visitors. Even if exploring prison life holds no appeal, the ferry ride makes it well worth a visit.

The exotic feel of one of the world’s largest Chinese communities outside of Asia makes this a magnet for locals and visitors alike.

The city boasts one of the largest public parks in the world, with natural beauty and fine museums.

Dominating Nob Hill with its timeless beauty, San Francisco’s favorite cathedral offers a host of awe-inspiring and historic treasures, including Italian Renaissance masterpieces and stained-glass windows.

Second only to New York City’s Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco’s newest architectural landmark houses 20th-century masterworks of painting, sculpture, and photography, and the edgiest digital installations.

The city’s oldest building is also the only intact chapel among the 21 California missions that Father Junipero Serra founded in the late 18th century. Its founding just days before the Declaration of Independence makes San Francisco older than the US.

So internationally recognized have the wines from this region become that French, Italian, and Spanish winemakers have all established vineyards here. A day trip or a longer stay shouldn’t be missed.

This hilly neighborhood around Castro Street is the center of San Francisco’s high-profile gay community. The intersection of Castro and 18th streets is the self-proclaimed “Gayest Four Corners of the World,” and this openly homosexual nexus emerged in the 1970s as the place of pilgrimage for gays and lesbians from all over the country and the world. Unlike other cities, where homosexuals once hid themselves away in dark corners of anonymous bars, the establishments here have full picture windows right on the street and are busy at all hours. Castro Street is closed off every Hallowe’en for the famous gay costume party that most agree is one of the city’s best, second only perhaps to the Gay Pride Parade (see Castro Street Fair).

Castro Theater, Castro District

Since its beginnings in the 1850s, this densely populated neighborhood has held its own powerful cultural identity despite every threat and cajolery. To walk along its cluttered, clattering streets and alleys is to be transported to another continent and into another way of life – a “city” within the city.

Formerly a military base established during the Civil War, some of the army buildings have been devoted to cultural programs of all kinds since 1976. Some 50 organizations now call it home, including museums, art galleries, theaters, shops, festivals, fairs, and performance spaces, as well as libraries and various institutes. Some of the most prominent are the Museum of Craft and Folk Art and the Museo ItaloAmericano, the San Francisco African-American Historical and Cultural Society, the Children’s Art Theater, the Magic Theater, and Herbst Pavilion. The city’s finest vegetarian restaurant, Greens, is also located here, enjoying unique views of the Bay and Golden Gate.

One of the largest, finest parks-cum-cultural centers in world. No visit to the city is complete without taking in some of its wonders.

Renovated in the 1950s, this neighborhood right next to the Transamerica Pyramid contains some of San Francisco’s oldest buildings. In the 19th century the area was notorious for its squalor, and was nicknamed the “Barbary Coast,” but brothels and drinking establishments have given way today to upscale offices and the city’s most lavish antiques shops. The blocks around Jackson Street and Hotaling Place feature many original brick, cast-iron, and granite façades.

Intended as a lively, high-tech, multilevel amusement arcade for adolescents, so far the only thing that seems to have clicked is the superb cinema complex. Here you can see the latest Hollywood blockbusters with full digital sound effects amped up to the highest possible level. Otherwise, the Metreon’s darkened rooms, designed for checking out the latest video games, are largely abandoned by the teens who were supposed to be flocking.

The teeming Hispanic world, with all the accompanying noise and confusion, constitutes the Mission, home to San Francisco’s many Latinos. They have brought their culture with them – bustling taquerias , salsa clubs, Santeria shops, lively murals, and Spanish everywhere you look and listen. It’s a loud, odoriferous place, with edgy crowds dodging each other along the main drags, Mission and Valencia streets and their connecting streets from Market to Cesar Chavez (Army). Its folklórico festivals are not to be missed, especially the Carnaval.

Historically, the southern part of this street, known as “Polk Gulch,” was San Francisco’s first openly gay district, before the rise of the Castro in the 1970s (see Castro District). Since then it has grown shabbier, although it still attracts plenty of younger gays to its clubs, bars, and shops. At the other end, just down from Russian Hill, Polk Street is one of the city’s shopping and dining lures, with a host of fine choices to tempt the eyes and palates of a discerning clientele.

Another of San Francisco’s precipitous heights, one side of which is so steep you’ll find no street at all, only steps. The most famous feature of this hill is the charming Lombard Street switchback – “The World’s Crookedest Street,” – which attests to the hill’s notoriously unmanageable inclines. As with Nob Hill, with the cable car’s advent, Russian Hill was claimed by the wealthy, and it maintains a lofty position in San Francisco society to this day. It supposedly took its name from the burial place of Russian fur traders, who were among the first Europeans to ply their trade at this port in the early 1800s.

San Francisco’s home for its extensive modern art collection is as impressive outside as it is adaptable and awe-inspiring inside. Don’t miss the top floors, featuring the latest digital installations, if you want to know what the cutting edge art world is honing itself on these days.

The city’s erstwhile rough-and-tumble warehouse district has been on the rise for the last few decades and continues to attract arty types as well as a whole range of clubs and cool cafés. Plans are afoot for more major transformations in the wake of the building of Pacific Bell Park.

Named after the semaphore installed on its crest in 1850, the hill’s eastern side was dynamited to provide rocks for landfill. Steps descend its slopes, lined with gardens. At its summit stands Coit Tower.