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.
Things to Do
Audium
A sound art theater at 1616 Bush Street with 176 speakers and 75-minute compositions presented in total darkness. Founded by Stan Shaff in 1962; current room opened in 1975.
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.
Book Club of California
Nonprofit dedicated to fine printing, book arts, and California literary history. Founded 1912. Library, rare books, letterpress exhibitions, and public lectures at 312 Sutter Street, Suite 500.
Asian Art Museum
A comprehensive Asian art collection spanning 6,000 years across every major Asian culture. Housed in the former San Francisco Main Library, a 1917 Beaux-Arts building in Civic Center.
Heart of the City Farmers Market
A farmer-operated nonprofit market in United Nations Plaza since 1981. Sundays and Wednesdays year-round. EBT and Market Match accepted.
Feinstein’s at the Nikko
A 140-seat cabaret room inside the Hotel Nikko near Union Square. Jazz vocals, Broadway singers, American Songbook, with dinner service. Tickets $40 to $85.
Center for New Music
Experimental and contemporary music venue in the Tenderloin with concerts and sound installations. Sliding scale $5 to $20, near Powell BART.
Biscuits and Blues
A basement blues club on Mason Street near Union Square, open since 1995. Live blues and soul most nights, Southern food, about 100 seats. Cover $15 to $25.
American Conservatory Theater (ACT)
Regional theater company since 1965, with two downtown venues. Tickets $25 to $110. Powell BART.
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. Larger classic and contemporary productions. 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 smaller-scale work. Tickets $25 to $90. Civic Center BART.
Cable Cars
The only city-operated cable car system still in daily service, with three lines climbing the hills from downtown. Technology patented by Andrew Hallidie in 1871.
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
