Bay Area

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The San Francisco Bay Area consists of the East Bay (Berkeley and Oakland), South Bay ("Silicon Valley" down the Peninsula to San Jose), Marin (just across the Golden Gate Bridge), and the city of San Francisco proper. "SF" is a small city bordered on three sides by the Ocean and Bay. Like New York, it varies wildly from neighborhood to neighborhood, and sometimes from street to street. If you're traveling to San Francisco, ask questions about the local neighborhood— is it a trendy boutique-y place? Is it a street lined with old Victorian houses, and are they in good repair or falling apart? Is it bustling at night, or quiet and family-oriented? What are the closest public transit options? All of these might affect whether you would want to stay there, and what you hope to be doing and seeing while you're in town.

Self-Guided Walking Tour of San Francisco (1 Day)

by Layne K

This walking tour requires quite a bit of, um, walking, and it's meant for visitors that want to get a small glimpse of the city (without spending perhaps any money), if you are unfortunate enough to only be spending a short amount of time in the beautiful city of San Francisco.

Without further ado...

• Start in Union Square. This would be near the Powell Station stop on BART. Powell/Market

• The trolley runs here. I don't recommend taking it. But at the trolley info booth, you can get an inexpensive city map for reference. The city is 7x7 miles, so I recommend walking 90% of the time, and only taking transit when there isn't much to see between destinations.

• Not much to check out downtown. Tons of shopping. Walk up Powell North a few blocks to Bush Street (uphill). Go right (East) on Bush St. 2 blocks to Grant. This is the entrance to Chinatown.

• Walk (North/left) up Grant through Chinatown about 12 blocks. Check it out.

• You'll reach North Beach, the Italian neighborhood and home to a number of strip clubs at the intersection. There is the big intersection at Broadway/Columbus (you'll run into it when Grant ends). There's the famous City Lights bookstore (just South of Broadway on Columbus). Check it out. The SF Brew Pub is also near there, pretty historic, and good beer.

• Continue NW (it's a diagonal street) up Columbus through North Beach. You'll pass Washington Square park, which is a nice place to take a rest.

• After a bit of a trek, you'll end up at Bay St. This is Fisherman's Wharf (Pier 39). It's incredibly touristy, but on clear days you can look out onto the North Bay and see the GG Bridge far to the West. Here you can also spot Alcatraz and Angel Island.

• Follow the Embarcadero (that's the street that runs alongside the water) to the East (away from the GG Bridge), you'll curve down (South) to walk along the East Bay. Mostly piers, but a nice walk. You'll soon reach Lombard Street. Go inland, in a few blocks you'll reach Coit Tower (you'll see it). No need to pay to go up in the thing, but there is a beautiful view and garden.

• Take quite a long walk South through the financial/eatery district south back to Market. From there, catch a street car (F) in the middle of the street on Market to take you SW (Market St is diagonal) to Castro Street. The F line is historic and slow, and you'll be able to check out a lot just by taking the ride. All buses/street cars cost $1.50. You'll notice when you arrive at the Castro cuz it's the end of the line and there are lots of rainbow flags. Check out Castro St.

• Catch a Northbound bus on Castro St, the 24 Divisidero, which goes up Castro (which turns into Divisidero). Get off at Haight St. At that point, you'll be in the "Lower Haight," which has notable stops outside the scope of this writing. From here, take a long walk uphill on Haight Street. After taking in all the co-opted 1960s stuff, and maybe stopping in for a drink somewhere, you'll be at the end of Haight. This is also the eastern entrance to Golden Gate Park.

• If you're interested, spend time in GG Park. There are museums and picnics and it's just beautiful in general--and huge. I wouldn't recommend the ~4 mile walk through it to reach the Pacific, but if you felt up to it, it would be rewarding. There are plenty of buses out at the coast (38 Geary) that would take you right back downtown. Or a $25 cab ride.

IMHO, this walk would provide a good intro to the city (while it excludes the Tenderloin, SOMA, and Mission, mostly local digs), and it could be done within a (long) day. I hope that CSers visiting SF find this info helpful. I'm sure your hosts will probably drag you to a variety of such places and you'll have a great time. :)

San Francisco Neighborhoods

• The Mission
• SOMA (South of Market)
• Nob Hill
• Russian Hill
• Noe Valley
• Twin Peaks
• Castro

others...

East Bay

Across the Bay Bridge is the "East Bay", best known for Berkeley and Oakland, those both ~30 minutes from the City by BART. Transformed culturally by the "Dot-Com Boom" of the mid- to late 1990s, the East Bay is now a thriving creative nexus, with a "Burning Man art" scene exemplified by collaborative media art spaces like The Crucible and NIMBY.csgroup:566 wikipedia:San Francisco Bay Area wikitravel:Bay Area (California)