Black Bird Bookstore & Cafe
An independent bookstore and cafe in the Outer Sunset that stocks small presses and underrepresented authors. Coffee from 7am, books from 9am, two blocks from Ocean Beach.
Things to Do
Love Street Vintage
An Outer Richmond vintage shop specializing in 1920s-1970s clothing, southwestern pieces, and vintage jewelry. Off the beaten path with better prices for it.
Golden Gate Bridge
A 1.7-mile walk with views of the city, Marin Headlands, Alcatraz, and the Pacific. Walk the east sidewalk mid-morning after the fog lifts for the best experience.
Tunnel Records
A curated vinyl shop two blocks from Ocean Beach, billing itself as the westernmost record store on the planet. Jazz, soul, and rock across two locations including one inside the 4-Star Theatre.
Grooves Vinyl Attractions
A Market Street record store specializing in 1970s oddities, forgotten soundtracks, soul, funk, and comedy vinyl. The fun is in the unexpected finds.
Groove Merchant Records
A 25-year-old vinyl shop on Haight Street with a curated inventory of jazz, soul, rock, blues, disco, and international records. A collector’s essential stop.
Children’s Creativity Museum
A hands-on children’s museum at Yerba Buena Gardens with two floors of art, design, and innovation exhibits. Named SF’s best children’s museum. $20 admission, open Thu-Sun.
Antique Vibrator Museum
A free museum inside Good Vibrations on Polk Street displaying antique vibrators from the Victorian era onward. Free guided tours on the third Sunday of each month.
WORK Vintage
A curated vintage shop on Grant Avenue in North Beach with balanced menswear and womenswear. Small, well-edited, and close to other Grant Avenue vintage shops.
Pearl Spa & Sauna
A women-only Korean jimjilbang in Japantown with body scrubs, saunas, steam rooms, and hot tubs. The exfoliating body scrub is the reason to book. Appointments only.
Vacation
A North Beach vintage shop on Grant Avenue with vintage t-shirts, shoes, jewelry, and designer pieces. Open daily until 8pm with a fun, wearable selection.
Valencia Street Vintage
A Mission vintage shop carrying both clothing and home goods: mid-century decor, vintage kitchenware, and wearable vintage at accessible prices.
Relic Vintage
A curated vintage shop at Haight and Ashbury with high-quality pieces from the 1920s through 1980s, with particular depth in the 40s, 50s, and 60s. Open daily.
ReLove
A Polk Street shop mixing vintage clothing, designer resale, and independent labels. Curated and browsable, bridging the gap between thrift store and boutique.
No Shop
A well-curated vintage and designer shop on Valencia Street with a tight, intentional selection of clothing and shoes. Open daily in the Mission.
Missing Audrey Vintage
A small, personally curated vintage shop on Stockton Street between North Beach and Chinatown. Handpicked one-of-a-kind pieces, open Thursday through Sunday.
Alchemy Springs
A communal bathhouse and sauna garden on Lower Nob Hill with the largest freestanding sauna in the country, cold plunge pools, and fire pit seating. Social wellness, not solo pampering.
Red Blossom Tea Company
A Chinatown tea shop on Grant Avenue sourcing over 100 single-origin teas from China and Taiwan since 1985. Knowledgeable staff, brewing equipment, and a depth of selection that rewards curiosity.
Dog Eared Books
An independent bookstore on Valencia Street in the Mission, stocking new and used books with a lean toward literature, art, politics, and counter-culture. Open late every night.
Body Philosophy Club
A Clement Street vintage shop specializing in natural-fiber clothing: cotton, linen, wool, silk. Curated estate pieces, vintage dresses, denim, and 90s tees.
Dear San Francisco
A 90-minute acrobatic love letter to San Francisco at Club Fugazi in North Beach. Created by The 7 Fingers circus collective, it replaced Beach Blanket Babylon in 2021 with death-defying circus acts, live music, and spoken word.
Indigo Vintage Cooperative
A multi-vendor vintage cooperative with locations on Haight Street and Chestnut Street in the Marina. Curated clothing, accessories, and home goods from independent sellers.
American Bookbinders Museum
The only bookbinding museum in North America, with historic tools and machinery from the 16th century to modern industrial equipment. Self-guided audio tours, hands-on exhibits, and docent-led visits in SoMa.
The Booksmith
An independent bookstore on Haight Street with a strong community focus, author events, book clubs, and silent reading parties. The selection leans into literary fiction, nonfiction, and graphic novels.
Held Over
A Haight Street vintage shop organized by decade, from 1940s to 1990s. Deep menswear and womenswear selection, European vintage, western wear, and costume rentals.
Fuzz & Sway
A curated vintage shop on Haight Street focused on cool, distinctive pieces rather than volume. Browsable in 20 minutes. Open Thursday through Sunday.
Onsen
A Japanese-inspired communal bathhouse with a 104-degree soaking tub, redwood sauna, steam room, and cold plunge. Reopened in 2025 after a five-year closure. Bathing suit optional on select days.
Decades of Fashion
A Haight Street vintage shop specializing in luxury pieces and formal wear from the 1900s through 1980s, with an extensive hat collection and on-staff stylists.
Chameleon Vintage
A Japantown vintage shop specializing in Japanese designer labels: Comme des Garcons, Yohji Yamamoto, Issey Miyake, and more. Collector-level pieces you won’t find at other vintage shops.
Blue Bin Vintage
A sustainability-focused vintage shop on Haight Street with a broad selection of secondhand clothing at fair prices. Good for everyday wearable finds.
Afterlife Collective
A 20-plus vendor vintage collective on Valencia Street with everything from vintage Levi’s and western wear to antique jewelry. The variety keeps every visit different.
Archimedes Banya
A Russian-style bathhouse in the Bayview with intense saunas, plunge pools, a cafe serving karcho soup and Russian dumplings, and a chess meetup. Happy hour pricing on weekday afternoons.
Kabuki Springs & Spa
A traditional Japanese bathhouse in Japantown with communal soaking pools, a steam room, and spa services. A quiet escape from the city without leaving it.
Tunnel Tops
A 14-acre park built on top of the Presidio Parkway tunnels, with sweeping Golden Gate Bridge views, picnic areas, playgrounds, and food trucks. Over 5 million visitors in its first three years.
Green Apple Books
An independent bookstore on Clement Street since 1967 with over 250,000 titles, new and used, crammed into a maze of creaky rooms. One of the best bookstores on the West Coast.
Amoeba Music
One of the world’s largest independent record stores, filling a former bowling alley on Haight Street. Over 100,000 used CDs, vinyl in every genre, and a buy-sell-trade counter that keeps the inventory turning.
Walt Disney Family Museum
A 40,000-square-foot museum in the Presidio dedicated to Walt Disney’s life, from his early animation experiments to Disneyland. Founded by his daughter Diane Disney Miller and housed in a converted 1897 Army barracks with Golden Gate Bridge views from the gallery.
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.
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.
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 the reason to go even without the wrecks.
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 step you into 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 drops you into 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. Roughly 65 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 good 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
A comprehensive Asian art collection spanning 6,000 years across every major Asian culture. The Civic Center museum 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. Which of the three lines to take, how to skip the worst of the lines, and how the 1873 system actually works.
Alcatraz Island
How to visit 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 deepest food shopping streets in the city. 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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
