Japanese Tea Garden
The oldest public Japanese garden in the United States, built for the 1894 World’s Fair and tended by the Hagiwara family for nearly 50 years.
Activity Type: Historic Site
Musée Mécanique
More than 300 antique coin-operated arcade machines at Pier 45, including Laffing Sal. Free entry; bring quarters.
Cable Car Museum
The working powerhouse for San Francisco’s cable car system. Free admission. The 14-foot sheaves and cables that pull every cable car in the city run continuously under a public mezzanine.
Golden Gate Fortune Cookie Company
A fortune cookie shop in a Chinatown alley, hand-folding cookies on motorized griddles since 1962. Owned by Kevin Chan. Free to watch; bags of flat unfolded cookies are $10.
San Francisco Columbarium
Neoclassical 1898 columbarium in the Inner Richmond at 1 Loraine Court. Over 8,500 niches under a stained glass dome. One of the few places in San Francisco still able to inter remains. Free.
Beat Museum
Two floors of Beat Generation manuscripts, letters, and ephemera at 540 Broadway in North Beach. Half a block from City Lights. $8 adult admission. Daily 10 AM to 7 PM.
Internet Archive Headquarters
Internet Archive headquarters at 300 Funston Avenue, in a former Christian Science church the nonprofit bought in 2009. Servers where the pews used to be. Free public reading room and Friday tours.
Albion Castle
Stone castle built in 1870 for the Albion Brewery at 881 Innes Avenue in Hunters Point. Underground sandstone caves and natural springs. Visits by appointment only.
Conservatory of Flowers
Victorian wood-and-glass conservatory at 100 JFK Drive in Golden Gate Park, opened in 1879. Five galleries of tropical and aquatic plants. $12 adults, free first Tuesdays.
Presidio Pet Cemetery
Half-acre pet cemetery along McDowell Avenue in the Presidio. Hundreds of graves of dogs, cats, and smaller pets; many headstones mimic the format of military grave markers. Free, dawn to dusk.
