San Francisco packs an extraordinary variety of neighbourhood character into a compact 7-mile-by-7-mile grid, Victorian houses, steep hills that require actual gear-shifting cable cars, and a fog that rolls through the Golden Gate most summer evenings regardless of how warm the day was.
The Golden Gate and the Bay
Walk or cycle across the Golden Gate Bridge to Sausalito, then take the ferry back across the bay for one of the best half-day activities in the city, rent bikes near Fisherman's Wharf if you don't have your own.
Alcatraz, the former federal prison on an island in the bay, requires advance booking (tickets sell out days or weeks ahead) and is one of the more compelling historical sites in the city, with an audio tour narrated partly by former inmates and guards.
Neighbourhoods
The Mission District has the city's best taquerias and a vibrant mural scene along Balmy Alley, while Chinatown, the oldest in North America, rewards wandering its back alleys beyond the main tourist-facing Grant Avenue.
Pack layers regardless of season, Mark Twain's apocryphal quote about the coldest winter being a summer in San Francisco reflects a real climate quirk, with fog frequently dropping temperatures ten degrees or more within a few blocks.
Recommended Stay · San Francisco · Nob Hill
The Fairmont San Francisco
A 1907 landmark atop Nob Hill with sweeping bay views and a lobby that has featured in decades of film and television, walking distance to a cable car line and Chinatown.
