Fisherman’s Wharf

About Fisherman’s Wharf

Locals love to complain about Fisherman’s Wharf, but show up at 5 AM and watch the fishing boats head out into the fog, or crack a fresh Dungeness crab at a sidewalk stand, and you understand why this waterfront still matters. The tourist crush is real. The working harbor under it is also real.

About Fisherman’s Wharf

Fisherman’s Wharf runs along the northern waterfront from Pier 39 west to Aquatic Park and Ghirardelli Square. Italian and Sicilian fishermen built the neighborhood in the late 1800s and the families who run the boats today can still trace back that far. The fleet at Pier 45 is smaller than it used to be, but it is not a prop — boats head out before dawn for Dungeness crab, salmon, and sea bass that supply restaurants across the city.

The rest of the neighborhood is exactly what it looks like: souvenir shops, t-shirt vendors, a wax museum, an Aquarium of the Bay, and restaurants that trade on the view more than the kitchen. Locals avoid the Jefferson Street strip. Visitors who look past it find a working waterfront, a world-class fleet of historic ships, and some of the best sundaes in the country.

The Character

The Wharf is two neighborhoods laid on top of each other. One is a postcard factory running at full speed from 10 AM to sunset: clam chowder in bread bowls, Alcatraz ferries, cable car tourists, street performers, the works. The other wakes up before sunrise, smells like salt and diesel, and has been operating more or less unchanged for 150 years.

If you only come once, you see the first one. If you come early or late, you catch the second. Pier 39 is pure theater — the sea lions colonized the docks after the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake and have refused to leave, barking and fighting over haul-out space while people lean on the railings. The Hyde Street Pier has the best collection of historic ships on the West Coast, including the Balclutha, a square-rigged sailing ship from 1886 that you can walk around on. Ghirardelli Square occupies the old chocolate factory and the hot fudge sundae actually earns the line.

How to Move Through Fisherman’s Wharf

Start early. Get there before 9 AM if you can, before the tour buses arrive. Walk the working docks at Pier 45 first to see what the neighborhood is actually built on. Head east along the waterfront to Pier 39 for the sea lions, and then loop back west past the street vendors to Hyde Street Pier for the historic fleet. Finish at Ghirardelli Square for a sundae on the terrace overlooking the bay.

Skip the restaurants along Jefferson Street almost entirely. The sidewalk crab stands sell the freshest thing in the neighborhood in season — Dungeness cracked and ready to eat with your hands. For a sit-down meal, walk to Scoma’s on Pier 47, where the fish comes off the boats at the same dock.

Getting There

The Powell-Hyde cable car terminates at the turnaround on Beach and Hyde, which is one of the great arrivals in American transit. The F Market streetcar runs a heritage trolley along the Embarcadero from the Ferry Building to the Wharf. Driving is a bad idea — parking is expensive and the surface streets clog up by mid-morning. If you walk the Embarcadero from the Ferry Building, you get the waterfront without the crowd until you hit Pier 39.