Windswept skycrapers
Adjoining the windy bay on the sunny side of town, San Francisco's downtown (officially "Financial District") provides unusual visual expansiveness and fresh air in a hyper-urban locale.
With a lot to see (including the iconic Transamerica building) and a surprising amount to do - the Embarcadero and/or Yerba Buena Gardens provide good starting points.
Eating options are plentiful, mundane and tend to be expensive - demand surpasses supply. Red's Java House is a fun bay-side exception to this rule (although a ways from Market St). The nearby Union Square area provides much of the city's best high-end shopping, and North Beach and Chinatown are also within easy walking distance.
MUNI and BART also provide faster and cheaper transportation options than driving. Bike lanes have been added to Market St, in addition to the ones 2/3 blocks south on Howard/Folsom.
Around Downtown...
With a lot to see (including the iconic Transamerica building) and a surprising amount to do - the Embarcadero and/or Yerba Buena Gardens provide good starting points.
Eating options are plentiful, mundane and tend to be expensive - demand surpasses supply. Red's Java House is a fun bay-side exception to this rule (although a ways from Market St). The nearby Union Square area provides much of the city's best high-end shopping, and North Beach and Chinatown are also within easy walking distance.
MUNI and BART also provide faster and cheaper transportation options than driving. Bike lanes have been added to Market St, in addition to the ones 2/3 blocks south on Howard/Folsom.
Around Downtown...
111 Minna
On the edge of work and play
A lively calendar of musical parties and strangely compelling business events augment this downtown art gallery.
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Adolph Gasser
Serious Photography
Founded at the dawn of photography on a rich geographic landscape, and now covered in art, architecture and humanity - San Francisco has a long history with cameras.
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Apple Store
Tech Mecca
San Franciscans survive on only three Apple Stores within the city limits - the first (and biggest, busiest) in Union Square, another in the Stonestown Galleria, and the newest on Chestnut in the Marina.
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Bay Bridge
Golden Gate's gray-trussed stepchild
No match for the Golden Gate Bridge, the Bay Bridge does provide a nice view coming into San Francisco ("on top►").
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Belden Place
French Quarter
One tiny block of delicious french restaurants adjoins Downtown, Chinatown and Union Square!
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Cartoon Art Museum
Kapow!
A small colorful action-packed exhibit, the Cartoon Art Museum consistently surpasses expectations. Check the website for exhibits and events... including cartooning classes!
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Children's Creativity Museum
More m than moma
With hands-on animation►, sound and video production►, performance, and visual art - the Children's Creativity Museum (formerly Zeum) spins creative.
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Commonwealth Club
Uncommon talent
Describing itself as "the nation's oldest and largest public affairs forum" the downtown Commonwealth Club hosts a wide spectrum of politicians►, technology luminaries►, writers►, artists►, Nobel laureates►, etc - many familiar and many not - on its busy calendar.
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Contemporary Jewish Museum
Fresh art, fresh building
With 63,000 square feet of lively and diverse Jewish artwork in an eye-popping 2008 building, the CJM lives up to it's namesake and then some.
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Critical Mass
Political mayhem party's greatest hit
San Francisco's urban traffic take-down brake-down inspired 300+ others around the world. Hard to describe, always lively, and mostly legal - the crew roams free the last Friday of every month at 5:30pm (at Justin Herman Plaza). Costumes encouraged (especially for the extra special Halloween/October ride!►) and any human-powered vehicle is good to go.
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Embarcadero
No hills!
Running along the bay from AT&T Park up to Fisherman's Wharf, the Embarcadero provides a break from the city's steep inclinations. As such, it's widely enjoyed by locals and visitors on foot, bicycle, skateboard, rollerskate, etc... although traffic can be an issue both on the sidewalk and off.
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Embarcadero Center
Convenient shopping Downtown
The ankle meat (bottom floors) of four office buildings, the Embarcadero Center (creatively named Embarcadero 1, Embarcadero 2, etc) is a Downtown mini-mall primarily oriented towards workers (many who work on the higher floors) making the most of a tight schedule.
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Ferry Building
Historic outsides, brand new interior
Matching historical resilience (eg, surviving both the 1906 Earthquake and the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake's destruction of the adjoining Embarcadero freeway) and persistent visibility along the Market Street corridor up to Twin Peaks - the Ferry Building enjoys iconic status in the city, and has exploded onto the food scene since its latest renovation in 2003.
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A popular lunch spot at the nexus of Downtown and the Embarcadero corridor, JHP also hosts Critical Mass, an Arts and Crafts Market, and an ice skating rink (during the winter holidays) among other activities.
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Metreon
All your Metreon are belong to us
Like a mall, without many stores - the Metreon does have a 15 screen movie theater (including the largest IMAX screen in the world), a video arcade, a food court and a smattering of other stores and attractions.
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Museum of Modern Art
art.
MOMA augments an exciting permanent collection with vibrant exhibitions, all housed in a delightful building of exo-art. The curation runs to the modern side of modern art (edgier than New York's MOMA), but it's a reputable museum and lags behind the cutting edge of urban art in SF.
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Punch LineSF's longest running and only full-time (every night!) comedy club, the Punch Line combines all-star with newcomers in a relatively small venue... with good visibility (!)
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San Francisco Centre
Shoppers delight
San Francisco's primary upscale shopping location. Stonestown Galleria is the only other mall within the city, and it's much smaller.
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TCHO
Chocolate 2.0
Combining carefully sourced and locally produced with typical San Francisco innovation► (the CEO and President previously co-founded Wired magazine), TCHO (pronounced "Cho") chocolate rewards a visit and/or taste for anyone interested in raising their chocolate game. TCHO products are also available widely around SF as ingredients - eg, Blue Bottle Coffee and Smitten Ice Cream, and as products - eg, Rainbow Grocery and Sports Basement (?!), among others.
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Transamerica Building
Post-rectangular liberation
Piercing the city's skyline like pharaoh's pyramid on a crash diet, the Transamerica Building is primarily a visual landmark, although there is little park with greenery at ground zero.
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Transbay TerminalThe "temporary" terminal for Muni buses (around SF), SamTrans (peninsula), AC Transit (east bay), Golden Gate Transit (Marin), Lynx (Hercules, north east bay) and Greyhound is the closest thing SF has to a central transport station and the best place to get anywhere by bus.
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Vaillancourt Fountain
Art, Politics & Water :)
Wells Fargo History Museum
Back when banking was cool... or at least colorful
Located inside Wells Fargo's first office, this museum-within-a-bank maintains the best collection of California gold rush artifacts in the city.
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Yerba Buena Center for the Arts
Steps ahead
A bipolar museum-theater► with no permanent exhibits, the YBCA's caffeinated calendar demands a peak.
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Yerba Buena Gardens
Some pretty good yerba
Before San Francisco became "San Francisco" it was called "Yerba Buena" - Spanish for "good herb".
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