Children’s Creativity Museum
A hands-on children’s museum at Yerba Buena Gardens with two floors of art, design, and innovation exhibits. $20 admission, open Thursday through Sunday.
Attraction Category: Museums
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.
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.
Walt Disney Family Museum
A museum in the Presidio dedicated to Walt Disney’s life and work, from his early animation experiments through the planning of Disneyland. Founded by his daughter Diane Disney Miller and housed in a converted Army barracks.
Musée Mécanique
A private collection of more than 300 antique coin-operated arcade machines at Pier 45, including the Laffing Sal automaton from Playland at the Beach. 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.
GLBT Historical Society Museum
The first stand-alone LGBTQ history museum in the United States, opened in 2011 in a storefront on 18th Street in the Castro. Rotating exhibitions drawn from the GLBT Historical Society’s archive.
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.
Cartoon Art Museum
Cartoon and comic art museum at 781 Beach Street in Fisherman’s Wharf. Collection of about 7,000 original pieces; rotating exhibitions. $10 adults, free first Tuesdays.
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.