Japanese Tea Garden
The oldest public Japanese garden in the United States sits inside Golden Gate Park. Five acres of carefully placed stones, koi ponds, and a moon bridge that’s been here since 1894.
Things to Do
Musée Mécanique
Over 300 coin-operated machines from the 1800s to the 1990s crammed into a warehouse at Fisherman’s Wharf. Free to enter. Bring quarters.
Cable Car Museum
The working powerhouse that pulls every cable car in San Francisco. Free admission. You can watch the massive wheels and cables in real time from a catwalk above the machinery.
GLBT Historical Society Museum
The first full-scale museum devoted to LGBTQ+ history in the United States. A small but powerful space in the Castro that traces the movement from persecution to pride.
San Francisco Botanical Garden
Fifty-five acres of plants from every continent tucked inside Golden Gate Park. Free for SF residents. The cloud forest and redwood grove feel like different planets ten minutes apart.
Wave Organ
A sound sculpture on a jetty in the Marina where PVC pipes and stone channels turn the tide into music. Best at high tide. Free, uncrowded, and unlike anything else in the city.
Hippie Hill
The grassy slope in Golden Gate Park where the Summer of Love never really ended. Drum circles, casual vibes, and the best free people-watching in the park.
Balmy Alley
A one-block alley in the Mission covered end to end with murals. The paintings change, the politics don’t. This has been San Francisco’s most concentrated outdoor gallery since the 1970s.
Clarion Alley
A mural-covered alley between Mission and Valencia Streets where the art turns over fast and the politics stay loud. Scrappier and more punk than Balmy Alley, six blocks south.
Urban Putt
Indoor miniature golf in a converted Victorian in the Mission. Fourteen holes designed by local artists, a full bar, and a restaurant. The windmill hole has a real motor.
Seward Street Slides
Two concrete slides in a tiny Castro park that are way faster than they look. Grab a piece of cardboard, sit down, and hold on. Free, fun, and an unexpectedly great time.
Golden Gate Fortune Cookie Company
A tiny fortune cookie factory in a Chinatown alley where they’ve been hand-folding cookies on copper griddles since 1962. Free to watch. Bring quarters for a bag of warm rejects.
Church of 8 Wheels
A roller rink inside a decommissioned Catholic church in the Fillmore. Disco ball where the chandelier was, stained glass still intact. All-ages afternoons, adults-only nights.
San Francisco Columbarium
A neoclassical rotunda in the Inner Richmond where 8,500 urns rest in personalized niches decorated with Giants gear, whiskey bottles, and love letters. Free, quiet, and unlike any other building in the city.
Beat Museum
Original Beat manuscripts, Kerouac’s scroll, Ginsberg’s letters, and Cassady’s car packed into two floors on Broadway. Half a block from City Lights in North Beach.
Parrots of Telegraph Hill
A flock of wild parrots with bright red heads and green bodies lives on Telegraph Hill. Best spotted late afternoon near Coit Tower and the Filbert Steps during nesting season.
Shipwrecks of Lands End
Rusted shipwreck remains visible at low tide along the Lands End Trail. Check tide charts before you go. The 3.4-mile coastal path with Golden Gate views is worth the trip even without the wrecks.
Audium
A sound art theater with 176 speakers where you sit in total darkness for 75 minutes while compositions swirl around you. The world’s first theater of its kind, open since 1967.
Peephole Cinema
A peephole in a Bernal Heights storefront door that screens curated short films 24 hours a day. One viewer at a time. Free, weird, and very San Francisco.
Internet Archive Headquarters
The nonprofit behind the Wayback Machine runs out of a former church in the Inner Richmond. Servers where the pews used to be. Free tours and a public reading room.
Tenderloin National Forest
A narrow alley off Ellis Street transformed into a dense garden of redwoods, murals, and benches. Two minutes to walk through, and a genuine surprise in the Tenderloin.
Cartoon Art Museum
Original Charles Schulz pages, Pixar storyboards, and underground comix in a museum that takes cartoon art seriously. Small space, rotating shows, free first Tuesdays.
Mrs. Doubtfire House
The Pacific Heights Victorian used as the exterior in “Mrs. Doubtfire.” A photo stop on a beautiful block. It’s a private home, so stay on the sidewalk.
Albion Castle
A stone castle built in 1870 for a brewery, sitting on a hill in Hunter’s Point with hand-carved caves and natural springs underneath. Visits by appointment only.
Conservatory of Flowers
One of the oldest Victorian greenhouses in the country, with tropical galleries that feel like a different climate. Free first Tuesdays. Best on foggy mornings when the warm interior is a perfect contrast.
Garden of Fragrance
A walled garden inside the SF Botanical Garden designed for visitors with visual impairments. Every plant chosen for scent or texture, with raised beds at arm’s height.
Presidio Pet Cemetery
A half-acre pet cemetery in the Presidio with hundreds of graves dating to the 1950s. Headstones range from military-formal to deeply personal.
Loved to Death
A Haight Street curiosity shop selling oddities, antique medical instruments, Victorian mourning jewelry, and death-themed art. Dark, curated, and wholly distinctive.
Institute of Illegal Images
The world’s largest collection of LSD blotter art, housed in a private Mission District residence. Thousands of decorated sheets tracing counterculture visual history. Visits by appointment only.
Isotope Comics Toilet Museum
An independent Hayes Valley comic shop with original artwork painted on toilet seats by comic book artists from around the world. Free to view, wonderfully weird.
Shakespeare Garden
A small walled garden in Golden Gate Park growing all 175 plants referenced in Shakespeare’s works. Each bed labeled with the relevant passage. Peaceful, literary, and usually empty.
Tree Fern Dell (Mescaline Grove)
A sunken hollow of towering tree ferns in Golden Gate Park, nicknamed Mescaline Grove since the 1960s. Dense canopy, prehistoric plants, and a two-minute walk that feels like a rainforest.
Aquatic Park Tombstones
The seawall at Aquatic Park is built with real tombstones from San Francisco’s relocated 19th-century cemeteries. Names and dates still visible in the concrete if you look closely.
Book Club of California
A nonprofit near Union Square dedicated to fine printing, book arts, and California literary history since 1912. Rare books, letterpress exhibitions, and public lectures.
Fort Miley Batteries
Abandoned military gun emplacements on the cliffs near Lands End, covered in graffiti and open to explore. Dark corridors, ocean views, and crumbling concrete from the 1800s.
Portals of the Past
Six Corinthian columns from a Nob Hill mansion destroyed in the 1906 earthquake, standing at the edge of Lloyd Lake in Golden Gate Park. Best at dawn when the reflection is perfect.
Cloudflare Lava Lamps
A wall of 100 lava lamps in Cloudflare’s SoMa lobby generates randomness used to encrypt internet traffic. Five-minute visit to see a retro novelty item doing serious cryptographic work.
Mission Dolores Cemetery
San Francisco’s oldest cemetery, dating to 1776 and featured in Hitchcock’s Vertigo. About 100 graves from early settlers, Ohlone peoples, and Gold Rush pioneers beside the city’s oldest building.
Three Gems (James Turrell Skyspace)
A James Turrell skyspace hidden inside a grassy hill at the de Young Museum. Free to visit, LED lights shift your perception of the sky through an open oculus. Most people walk right past it.
Golden Gate Park Bison Paddock
A herd of American bison has lived in Golden Gate Park since 1891. Small paddock in the western half of the park, free to see from the fence along JFK Drive.
LeRoy King Carousel
A 1906 hand-carved carousel by the creator of Coney Island’s first carousel. 62 wooden animals inside a glass pavilion at Yerba Buena Gardens. $4 a ride.
Lotta’s Fountain
A cast-iron fountain from 1875 that became the city’s central gathering point after the 1906 earthquake. Still the site of an annual predawn ceremony every April 18th at 5:12 AM.
Alvord Lake Bridge
One of the first reinforced concrete bridges in America, built in 1889 and disguised to look like natural stone. Fake stalactites hang from the arch at the Haight Street entrance to Golden Gate Park.
Buena Vista Park Tombstones
San Francisco’s oldest park has 19th-century cemetery headstones built into its footpaths. Fragments of names and dates visible in the stone borders, repurposed when the city moved its dead to Colma.
House of Air
An indoor trampoline park inside a renovated military airplane hangar at Crissy Field in the Presidio. Thousands of square feet of trampolines, ninja course, and foam pits.
Legs of Haight Street
Giant mannequin legs in fishnet stockings jutting from a second-story window on Haight Street. The Piedmont Boutique has kept them there since the 1970s. A 30-second photo stop.
Letterform Archive
A hands-on typography and design archive in Dogpatch with 60,000 items from medieval manuscripts to punk zines. Staff pull pieces for you to examine. Free visits by appointment.
Sutro Egyptian Collection
Ancient Egyptian funeral masks, mummy cases, and artifacts collected by SF’s eccentric 24th mayor, housed in a free university gallery at San Francisco State. Small, genuine, and far off the tourist trail.
Golden Gate Park Lawn Bowling Club
One of the oldest lawn bowling clubs in the country, operating in Golden Gate Park since 1906. Free lessons on weekends, no reservation needed. Members hand you a set of bowls and teach you on pristine manicured greens.
Jack’s Record Cellar
A record shop that opens only on Saturdays from 2pm to 7pm in the Haight. Crammed with vinyl, run by an owner who knows every disc in the place. More neighborhood ritual than retail operation.
Heineman Building
A 10-story building only 20 feet wide at 130 Bush Street, covered in glazed terra cotta and hammered copper. Built in 1910 as a garment factory, now dwarfed by towers but still the most decorated facade on the block.
Spark Social SF
A rotating food truck park in Mission Bay with about a dozen trucks, fire pits, lawn games, and bay views. The default gathering spot near Chase Center, especially useful on game days.
Big Eye Keane Paintings
Margaret Keane’s big-eyed paintings were one of the biggest art phenomena of the 1960s, sold from a San Francisco gallery under her husband’s name. The fraud unraveled in a courtroom paint-off in 1986.
Free Gold Watch
A screen printing studio on Waller Street that doubles as one of San Francisco’s best pinball rooms. 15 to 25 machines, 50 cents a game, one block south of Haight Street.
Golden Fire Hydrant
A gold-painted fire hydrant at 20th and Church that reportedly saved the Mission District during the 1906 earthquake fires. Repainted every April 18th at 5:12 AM.
Circus Center
A nonprofit circus school where you can take a single drop-in trapeze or aerial silks class with no experience. Also hosts public performances in a small theater. Founded in 1984.
Cal Academy Herpetology Collection
The California Academy of Sciences houses the sixth-largest herpetology collection in the world with over 315,000 reptile and amphibian specimens. Behind-the-scenes tours occasionally give access to the research storage.
1908 Cistern Circles
Over 170 gold-painted circles on San Francisco streets mark underground cisterns built after the 1906 earthquake. Each holds thousands of gallons of emergency water for firefighting, and they’re still in active use.
Lincoln Park Steps
Mosaic-tiled staircase at the end of California Street climbing to Lincoln Park and the Legion of Honor. Fewer crowds than the 16th Avenue Steps, with ocean views at the top.
Vermont Street
Potrero Hill’s Vermont Street has seven switchbacks between 20th and 22nd Streets, making it curvier than Lombard. No tourists, no flowers, just cracked asphalt and silence.
Lincoln Park
A 100-acre park in northwest San Francisco built over a former cemetery. Home to the Legion of Honor museum, an 18-hole golf course, and access to the Lands End Trail.
Anglers Lodge & Casting Pools
The Golden Gate Angling and Casting Club has offered free fly casting lessons from a stone lodge in Golden Gate Park since 1933. Three concrete pools, patient instructors, and one of the quietest corners of the park.
Claude the Albino Alligator
An albino American alligator at the California Academy of Sciences with white skin and pink eyes. Fewer than 100 albino alligators are known to exist, and Claude has been a resident of the Swamp exhibit since 2008.
Hopper’s Hands
A pair of yellow and black metal hands bolted to a fence behind Fort Point, welded by a Golden Gate Bridge ironworker as a greeting for trail walkers. Give them a high-five as you pass.
16th Avenue Tiled Steps
A 163-step mosaic staircase flowing from the stars down to the sea. Hidden in the quiet Sunset District with ocean views from the top.
Battery Spencer
The single best view of the Golden Gate Bridge with the San Francisco skyline behind it. Just across the bridge in the Marin Headlands. Every photographer’s first stop.
Baker Beach
A mile of sand with the Golden Gate Bridge towering overhead. The most dramatic beach view in the city, and the best place to watch the fog roll in.
Coit Tower
An Art Deco tower on Telegraph Hill with 360-degree views from the top and Depression-era murals inside. Take the Filbert Steps up for the full experience.
Twin Peaks
The highest point you can drive to in San Francisco. On a clear day you can see from the Farallon Islands to Mount Diablo. Come at sunset or after dark.
Urban Hike: Stairways of San Francisco
San Francisco has over 600 public stairways, many hidden between houses with secret gardens and jaw-dropping views. The best workout with a reward at every landing.
Painted Ladies Victorian Walk
The famous row of Victorians on Alamo Square is just the start. San Francisco has over 48,000 Victorian and Edwardian homes worth exploring on foot.
Mission Mural Walk
Balmy Alley and Clarion Alley pack more art per square foot than any gallery in the city. A self-guided walk through decades of San Francisco street art.
Chinatown Walking Tour
The oldest Chinatown in North America deserves more than a walk down Grant Avenue. Duck into the alleys, temples, and tea shops most visitors miss.
Crissy Field
A restored tidal marsh and waterfront promenade with the best ground-level view of the Golden Gate Bridge. Flat, easy, and perfect for a morning walk.
Lands End
A rugged coastal trail at the northwest edge of San Francisco. Cypress trees, shipwreck ruins, and Golden Gate Bridge views most visitors never find.
Presidio
A former military base turned national park at the foot of the Golden Gate Bridge. 1,500 acres of forests, beaches, trails, and historic buildings.
Dolores Park
The city’s favorite gathering spot on sunny days. Grab a blanket, a burrito from the Mission, and claim your patch of hillside with downtown views.
Golden Gate Park
Over 1,000 acres stretching from the Haight to the ocean. Gardens, museums, bison, windmills, and more hidden corners than you can find in a week.
Asian Art Museum
One of the most comprehensive Asian art collections in the world, spanning 6,000 years across every major Asian culture. The Civic Center gem most tourists walk right past.
Exploratorium
A hands-on science museum where you touch everything. Over 600 exhibits explore perception, physics, and the natural world. Adults love it as much as kids.
California Academy of Sciences
An aquarium, planetarium, and natural history museum under one living roof. The rainforest dome alone is worth the visit.
de Young Museum
American art from the 17th century to today, plus international textiles and major traveling exhibitions. The observation tower is free and worth the elevator ride.
SFMOMA
The West Coast’s largest modern art museum spans seven floors of painting, sculpture, photography, and architecture. Free first-floor gallery, no ticket needed.
San Francisco Cable Cars
The only mobile National Historic Landmark in America. Everything you need to know about riding San Francisco’s cable cars: which line to take, how to beat the lines, and why this 150-year-old technology is still worth experiencing.
Alcatraz Island
Everything you need to know about visiting Alcatraz: booking tickets (do it early), what to expect from the audio tour, and tips for making the most of your trip to The Rock.
Mission Community Market
Thursday afternoons bring a farmers market to the heart of the Mission. 3pm to 7pm, March through November, at Bartlett and 22nd.
Stonestown Farmers Market
Free parking and easy access make Stonestown the practical choice for Sunset families. Sunday mornings 9am to 1pm at Stonestown Galleria.
Clement Street Farmers Market
Sunday mornings on Clement Street add farm fresh produce to one of the best food shopping streets in San Francisco. 9am to 2pm year round.
Fillmore Farmers Market
A neighborhood farmers market behind the Fillmore Center every Saturday morning. Smaller scale, easier parking, community atmosphere.
Alemany Farmers Market
California’s first farmers market has run since 1943. City operated, no frills, lowest prices in San Francisco. Saturday mornings starting at 6am.
Heart of the City Farmers Market
San Francisco’s only farmer operated nonprofit market fills United Nations Plaza on Sundays and Wednesdays. Lower prices, diverse produce, and a mission to feed the whole neighborhood.
Ferry Plaza Farmers Market
The best farmers market in California runs Saturday mornings under the Ferry Building clock tower. Tuesday and Thursday bring smaller midweek markets for the lunch crowd.
Camera Obscura
A giant camera projects the ocean onto a table inside a wooden shed. The technology predates photography by centuries. The view never gets old.
Palace of Fine Arts
The only survivor of the 1915 World’s Fair. The rotunda and colonnade were meant to be temporary. San Franciscans loved them too much to tear down.
Z Space
Performing arts development space on Florida Street in the Mission with new theater, dance, and interdisciplinary work. $20-$50, near 16th Street BART.
Yerba Buena Center for the Arts
A contemporary arts center in Yerba Buena Gardens with rotating gallery exhibitions and a performing arts theater. Gallery admission $10, free first Tuesdays. Montgomery BART.
The Warfield
A 1922 vaudeville palace turned 2,300 capacity concert hall on Market Street. Ornate interior, standing floor plus balcony seating. Tickets $35 to $100+. Powell BART nearby.
The Masonic
A 3,300 capacity concert hall with a Venetian glass mosaic facade on top of Nob Hill. Live Nation booking, city views at night, and a cable car stop at the front door. Tickets $40 to $120+.
The Independent
A 500 capacity club on Divisadero Street where touring bands play right before they outgrow it. Standing room, solid sound, and a strong restaurant corridor outside. Tickets $15 to $40.
The Fillmore
Bill Graham’s legendary rock venue still books shows seven nights a week and still hands out free apples and posters after every performance.
The Chapel
A converted 1914 mortuary on Valencia Street with 400 capacity, vaulted ceilings, and an attached restaurant. Indie rock, folk, and electronic acts. Tickets $15 to $35.
Swedish American Hall
A 1907 community hall turned 400 capacity concert venue in the Castro. Hardwood floors, high ceilings, eclectic booking. Cafe du Nord operates in the basement. Tickets $15 to $40.
SOMArts Cultural Center
A nonprofit gallery and event space on Brannan Street in SoMa. Community based art exhibitions, cultural events, and festivals. Usually free or donation based.
SFJAZZ Center
The first building in America designed for jazz. The main hall reconfigures for every show. The smaller downstairs room seats 100 and feels like a living room concert.
San Francisco Playhouse
A 199 seat theater near Union Square producing sharp plays and comedies since 2003. Professional production values in an intimate space. Tickets $30 to $100. Powell BART nearby.
San Francisco Opera
The second oldest opera company in the US, performing since 1923 at the War Memorial Opera House. Season runs September to December. Tickets from $26 standing room to $350+ orchestra. Surtitles for all shows.
San Francisco Conservatory of Music
A music conservatory at 200 Van Ness with a 450 seat concert hall. Free and low cost concerts: student recitals, faculty performances, and visiting artists. Civic Center BART.
San Francisco Ballet
The oldest professional ballet company in the US, performing since 1933 at the War Memorial Opera House. Season runs January through May plus December Nutcracker. Tickets $35 to $250+.
Roccapulco
Latin dance club on Mission Street with salsa, cumbia, reggaeton, and bachata nights. Live bands and DJs, $10-$20 cover, near 24th Street BART.
Robert Moses Kin
Contemporary dance company based downtown, blending modern technique with African American vernacular dance. Performs at venues across the Bay Area, $20-$50.
Rite Spot Cafe
A small Mission District bar on Folsom Street with live music most nights. Jazz, blues, folk, and singer-songwriters in a 50 person room. No cover. Tips for musicians.
Rickshaw Stop
A 400 capacity converted TV studio on Fell Street in Hayes Valley. Indie rock, punk, electronic, dance parties, and comedy since 2003. Tickets $10 to $25.
Red Poppy Art House
Tiny nonprofit art space on Folsom Street in the Mission with live music, poetry, and gallery shows. Sliding scale $10-$20, near 24th Street BART.
PUSH Dance Company
Contemporary dance company in SoMa creating athletic, emotionally direct work. Studio shows and Bay Area venue performances, $20-$40, near Powell BART.
Public Works SF
An electronic and dance music venue on an alley off Mission Street since 2010. House, techno, and bass music until 3 AM. Outdoor patio, big sound system. Cover $10 to $30.
Presidio Theater
A renovated 1940s movie theater on Chestnut Street in the Marina. 600 seats, no resident company. Film, music, theater, and lectures. Ticket prices vary by event.
Potrero Stage
99 seat new works theater on Potrero Hill run by PlayGround. World premieres and original plays, $15-$40, near 22 Fillmore Muni line.
Phonobar
A small listening bar and cocktail lounge on Grove Street in Hayes Valley. Vinyl records, craft cocktails, and a calm atmosphere. No cover. Seats about 30.
Palace of Fine Arts Theatre
A 960 seat theater behind the famous rotunda. No resident company means the calendar is unpredictable. Check what is playing before you go.
Orpheum Theatre
A 1926 Spanish Colonial Baroque theater on Market Street. The ceiling looks like a cathedral. Hosts touring Broadway shows, often the edgier productions.
Oracle Park
The Giants play on the waterfront with the Bay Bridge framing the outfield. The garlic fries are famous. Weeknight games are cheap and easy to get into.
ODC Theater
A 176 seat contemporary dance theater on Shotwell Street in the Mission, built by ODC in 2005. Close seating, resident company, and visiting artists. Tickets $25 to $50.
OASIS
A dedicated drag and cabaret venue in SoMa since 2015. Scripted shows, comedy, bingo, and themed parties. Tickets $15 to $40. Welcoming crowd, R rated humor.
New Conservatory Theatre Center
An LGBTQ focused theater company since 1981 on Van Ness Avenue. Two stages (100 and 50 seats), five to six productions per year. Tickets $25 to $55.
Neck of the Woods
A 150 capacity music venue on Clement Street in the Inner Richmond. Indie rock, punk, and local acts. One of the few dedicated music spaces on the west side. Tickets $10 to $20.
Mr. Tipple’s Jazz Club
A 60 seat jazz bar on Leavenworth styled like a 1940s recording studio. Nightly live jazz, craft cocktails, dim lighting. No cover. Reservations recommended.
Monarch
A cocktail bar and basement dance club on 6th Street in SoMa. Steampunk lounge upstairs, house and techno downstairs. Club cover $10 to $25. Open late on weekends.
Marrakech Magic Theater
A close up magic show in a Moroccan decorated room in the Tenderloin. 40 seats, 90 minute shows, sleight of hand at arm’s reach. Tickets $40 to $75. Reservations required.
Make Out Room
A 150 capacity bar and music venue on 22nd Street in the Mission. Red lighting, live bands, comedy, DJ nights, and literary readings. Free to $10 cover.
Magic Theatre
A 150 seat theater at Fort Mason focused on world premiere plays since 1967. Sam Shepard’s launching pad. Tickets $20 to $60. New work, small room, no safety net.
Madrone Art Bar
An art covered bar on Divisadero with rotating exhibitions and themed dance nights. Motown Mondays, indie dance parties, and rotating live acts. Usually free to $10.
Kilowatt Bar
A Mission District dive bar on 16th Street. Pool tables, jukebox, cheap drinks, and a backyard patio. No cover, no pretense. Open daily.
Keys Jazz Bistro
A jazz bistro on Broadway in North Beach with nightly live performances, dinner service, and craft cocktails. Seats about 100. No cover. Reservations recommended.
Joe Goode Annex
Flexible studio theater on Alabama Street in the Mission run by Joe Goode Performance Group. Experimental dance theater, $15-$35, near 16th Street BART.
Ireland’s 32
Irish pub on Geary Boulevard in the Richmond with regular live traditional music sessions. No cover, standard bar prices, on the 38 Geary Muni line.
International Hotel Manilatown Center
Community cultural center on Kearny Street documenting Filipino American history and the I-Hotel eviction fight. Free admission, near Chinatown BART.
Herbst Theatre
A 928 seat Beaux Arts hall where the UN Charter was signed in 1945. Now hosts City Arts & Lectures, chamber music, and recitals. Tickets $25 to $75. Civic Center BART.
HALCYON SF
A techno and house club in a converted SoMa warehouse on 11th Street. Concrete floors, big sound system, no frills. Cover $10 to $30. Open late on weekends.
Great American Music Hall
A 1907 venue with marble columns and frescoed ceilings in the Tenderloin. The room looks like a small European opera house. The booking is eclectic and the acoustics are excellent.
Gray Area Foundation for the Arts
Nonprofit art and technology center on Mission Street with immersive exhibitions, digital art, and creative coding workshops. Free to $20, near 24th Street BART.
Golden Gate Theatre
A 1922 movie palace with a painted sky ceiling, now hosting touring Broadway productions. Hamilton, Wicked, and the big musicals land here.
Fort Mason Center
A former Army base turned arts campus on the waterfront. Theaters, galleries, food events, and Golden Gate Bridge views in converted military warehouses.
Feinstein’s at the Nikko
A 130 seat cabaret venue inside the Hotel Nikko near Union Square. Jazz vocals, Broadway singers, and American Songbook artists with dinner service. Tickets $40 to $85.
El Rio
A queer community bar on Mission Street since 1978 with a large backyard patio. Salsa nights, Sunday parties, live music, and fundraisers. Free to $10 cover.
Eclectic Box SF
Multipurpose art and event space on Valencia Street in the Mission with rotating gallery shows, pop ups, and community events. Near 16th Street BART.
DNA Lounge
A SoMa nightclub on 11th Street since 1985. Two rooms, late night hours, and an unpredictable calendar spanning punk, goth, electronic, burlesque, and comedy. Cover $10 to $25.
Dawn Club
Below street level cocktail bar on Annie Street in SoMa. Well crafted classics and house creations, $15-$18 cocktails, no cover, near Montgomery BART.
Davies Symphony Hall
Home of the San Francisco Symphony since 1980. A 2,743 seat hall on Van Ness with a wraparound balcony. Season runs September through June. Tickets $20 to $150+. Civic Center BART.
Dance Mission Theater
Dance school and performance venue on 24th Street in the Mission with eclectic programming from folk to contemporary. $10-$25, one block from 24th Street BART.
Cowell Theater
A 400 seat waterfront theater at Fort Mason with bay and Golden Gate Bridge views. Rental venue for dance, theater, and music. Ticket prices vary by event.
CounterPulse
A nonprofit experimental performance space on Turk Street in the Tenderloin. Dance, theater, and hybrid work in a flexible black box. Tickets $15 to $30, often sliding scale.
Community Music Center
Music school on Capp Street in the Mission operating since 1921 with sliding scale tuition. Free public concerts and recitals, near 24th Street BART.
Cobb’s Comedy Club
A 400 seat comedy club on Columbus Avenue in North Beach booking national headliners and touring comics. Two drink minimum. Weekend tickets $25 to $50.
Club Fugazi
A 400 seat cabaret style theater in North Beach since 1913. Former home of Beach Blanket Babylon. Now hosts “Dear San Francisco” acrobatic show. Tickets $50 to $150.
Club Deluxe
A cocktail lounge at Haight and Ashbury with live jazz several nights a week and a vintage vibe. No cover. Small room, small stage, good drinks. Open nightly.
Clarion Performing Arts Center
Small performing arts venue on Sacramento Street in the Inner Richmond with chamber music, theater, and recitals. $15-$40, on the 1 California Muni line.
Chase Center
The Warriors’ 18,064 seat arena in Mission Bay, open since 2019. Also hosts major concert tours. Tickets from $50 for basketball. T Third Muni line stops at the door.
Center for New Music
Experimental and contemporary music venue in the Tenderloin with concerts, sound installations, and new compositions. $5-$20 sliding scale, near Powell BART.
Catharine Clark Gallery and BOXBLUR
Contemporary art gallery in Dogpatch at Minnesota Street Project with socially engaged painting, sculpture, video, and installation. Free admission, near T Third Muni.
Cafe du Nord
A 200 capacity basement venue under Swedish American Hall in the Castro, open since 1907. Low ceilings, dark wood, eclectic booking. Tickets $12 to $30. Castro Muni Metro.
Brick and Mortar Music Hall
A 200 capacity room on Mission Street for indie rock, garage, punk, and electronic since 2011. Stage at floor level, no frills, solid sound. Tickets $10 to $20. 16th Street BART.
Brava Theater
300 seat theater on 24th Street in the Mission presenting work by women, LGBTQ, and artists of color. $15-$40, near 24th Street BART.
Blue Shield of California Theater at YBCA
The 750 seat performing arts theater at Yerba Buena Center for the Arts. Dance, experimental theater, and music by visiting companies. Tickets $20 to $60. Montgomery BART.
Black Cat
A jazz club and restaurant at 400 Eddy in the Tenderloin. Live jazz nightly around a baby grand piano, upscale dinner service, craft cocktails. No cover. Reservations recommended.
Biscuits and Blues
A basement blues club on Mason Street near Union Square since 1994. Live blues and soul nightly, Southern comfort food, 100 seats. Cover $15 to $25.
Bindlestiff Studio
Filipino American theater on Sixth Street in SoMa with original plays, comedy, and spoken word. About 60 seats, $10-$25, near Powell BART.
Bimbo’s 365 Club
A 1951 North Beach supper club with Art Deco booths, a mirror trick mermaid behind the bar, and 700 capacity. Rock, jazz, soul, and indie acts. Tickets $25 to $60.
Bill Graham Civic Auditorium
An 8,500 capacity Beaux Arts hall from 1915 in the Civic Center, named for promoter Bill Graham. General admission standing for most concerts. Tickets $40 to $120+. One block from Civic Center BART.
Beaux
A two story gay nightclub on Market Street in the Castro. Dance floor, lounge, outdoor patio. DJs on weekends, drag shows during the week. Free to $15 cover.
Bayview Opera House
San Francisco’s oldest operating theater, on Third Street in Bayview since 1888. Community driven programming: dance, theater, music, and neighborhood events. Tickets $10 to $25. T Third Muni.
August Hall
A 1,000 capacity standing room venue on Post Street near Union Square. Mid-size touring acts across genres. Tickets $25 to $60. Powell BART two blocks away.
Audio SF
A 200 capacity electronic music club on Natoma in SoMa built around a Funktion One sound system. House and techno, Friday and Saturday nights. Cover $10 to $30.
American Conservatory Theater (ACT)
San Francisco’s major regional theater company since 1965, running two venues downtown. Polished productions of classics and new work. Tickets $25 to $110. Powell BART.
Alonzo King LINES Ballet
Contemporary ballet company founded in 1982 by Alonzo King, blending classical technique with global music collaborations. Performs at YBCA and Bay Area theaters, $30-$95.
A.C.T.’s Toni Rembe Theater
ACT’s flagship 1,000 seat theater on Geary Street, built in 1910 and restored after the 1989 earthquake. Bigger productions, classic and contemporary plays. Tickets $25 to $110. Powell BART.
A.C.T.’s Strand Theater
ACT’s 280 seat second stage on Market Street, built as a 1917 movie theater. New plays, adaptations, and adventurous work. Tickets $25 to $90. Civic Center BART.
1015 Folsom
A 20,000 square foot nightclub on Folsom Street since the early 1990s. Five rooms, three levels. Electronic, hip hop, and special events. Cover $15 to $50. Late night.
Fisherman’s Wharf
San Francisco’s most touristy area still holds a working fishing fleet, historic ships, and seafood worth seeking out among the souvenir shops.
Ferry Building
The restored 1898 terminal houses San Francisco’s best food marketplace and hosts the region’s finest farmers market.
Cable Cars
The only mobile National Historic Landmark still operates daily. Three lines climb San Francisco’s hills using 1870s technology.
Mission Dolores
San Francisco’s oldest building survived the 1906 earthquake intact. The 1791 adobe chapel and its historic cemetery anchor the Mission District.
Golden Gate Bridge
The defining symbol of San Francisco spans 1.7 miles and looks spectacular from every angle. Walk it, bike it, or just stand and stare.
Golden Gate Fortune Cookie Factory
Watch fortune cookies get folded by hand in this tiny Ross Alley workshop. A Chinatown institution since 1962.
Washington Square Park
The heart of North Beach since 1847. Morning tai chi, afternoon lounging, and the best people watching in the neighborhood.
City Lights Bookstore
The legendary North Beach bookstore that published the Beats and changed American literature. Three floors of carefully curated books in a historic setting.
