Wave Organ
A 1986 sound sculpture by Peter Richards and George Gonzales on a jetty next to the St. Francis Yacht Club. Twenty-five PVC and concrete pipes turn wave action into low resonant tones. Free, open 24 hours, best at high tide.
Things to Do
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.
Hopper’s Hands
A pair of yellow metal hand outlines bolted to a fence behind Fort Point, made by Golden Gate Bridge ironworker Ken Hopper around 2000. Runners high-five them at the turnaround point on the Bay Trail.
Palace of Fine Arts
The surviving structure from the 1915 Panama-Pacific International Exposition. Designed by Bernard Maybeck and rebuilt in concrete in the 1960s. Free to visit.
Presidio Theater
A renovated 1939 Art Deco theater at 99 Moraga Avenue in the Presidio Main Post, reopened in 2019. About 600 seats. Film, music, theater, and private events.
Fort Mason Center
A 13-acre arts campus in former Army warehouses on the northern waterfront. Theaters, galleries, food events, and views across to the Golden Gate Bridge.
Best of San Francisco
All lists →20 picksBest Things to Do in San FranciscoThe short list. If you only have two or three days, this is what they should be spent on.See and Do19 picksBest Neighborhoods to Explore in San FranciscoChinatown is the oldest in North America. Japantown is one of only three left in the country.See and Do8 picksBest Views in San FranciscoThe de Young's observation tower is free to walk into. Battery Spencer puts the whole bridge below you.See and Do15 picksBest Museums in San FranciscoFrom the two institutions that swallow an entire day to the free oddity on Polk Street that takes about fifteen minutes.See and Do12 picksBest Self-Guided Walks in San FranciscoRoutes with directions, timings and somewhere to eat at the end. Ninety minutes to three hours each.See and Do12 picksBest Things to Do with Kids in San FranciscoPlaces that hold a child's attention for longer than ten minutes, with the free and indoor ones flagged in each write-up.See and Do10 picksFoggy Day San Francisco: Best Indoor Things to DoIndoor plans for when the fog refuses to lift, including which museums are free and on which day.See and Do12 picksWeird & Offbeat San FranciscoA pipe organ played by the tide, tombstones built into a seawall, and gold circles marking cisterns buried under the street.See and Do
