San Francisco - Alison Bing [38]
When you see sushi picnics in the fountains, cutting-edge fashion in starchy Victorian storefronts and rock at the legendary Fillmore, you’ll know you’ve arrived in Japantown and Pacific Heights. Just uphill are chic boutiques in a former cow pasture and organic dining along the waterfront of the Marina and the Presidio, where you’ll encounter Shakespeare, Yoda and public nudity at a former army base. Some are drawn to South of Market (SoMa) for high technology, others for high art, but everyone gets down and dirty on the dance floor.
The best way to enjoy the Mission is with a book in one hand and a burrito in the other, amid murals, sunshine and the usual crowd of documentary filmmakers and novelists. Silicon Valley refugees take to Potrero Hill, while barflies and artists lurk in the valley below. Rainbow flags gaily wave their welcome to party boys, career activists and leather daddies in the Castro. Meanwhile, over the hill in Noe Valley, megastrollers brake for bakeries and boutiques, and lesbians load up on uberchic footwear and baby togs.
Hippies reminisce and punks lose their sneers in the Haight, land of flower-power souvenirs, anarchist comic books, free concerts and skateboards. Fashionistas raid boutiques for local designs as Zen monks drift past on the sidewalks of Hayes Valley. Out in the Richmond, the Sunset and Golden Gate Park, hardcore surfers and gourmet adventurers find a home where the buffalo roam, and the MH de Young’s tower rises above it all.
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ITINERARY BUILDER
Choose your neighborhood; scan its sights, shops, eateries and nightlife; then plot the best possible course from one to the next. Maybe you want to break into Alcatraz? Snaffle Wine Country produce at Ferry Plaza Wine Merchant? Linger over delectables at Gary Danko? Run away to the circus at Teatro Zinzanni? Or maybe you’d prefer to stray off the beaten path? It’s up to you.
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HOW TO USE THIS TABLE
The table below allows you to plan a day’s worth of activities in any area of the city. Simply select which area you wish to explore, and then mix and match from the corresponding listings to build your day.
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EMBARCADERO & THE PIERS
Drinking; Eating; Shopping; Sleeping
San Francisco may be defined by its bay, but only sundry sea lions, sailors and exercise freaks spend a majority of their time in San Francisco along Embarcadero and the Piers. You’ll still see local seafood specialties hauled in near Pier 45, but since San Francisco’s old wharves are too narrow for container ships, most seafaring traffic heads directly to the port at West Oakland. Today, the piers function as a point of departure for ferries and pleasure cruises through the bay to the notorious former prison island of Alcatraz (below), the overgrown former immigration station at Angel Island or the hippie houseboats and millionaire mansions of Sausalito.
Embarcadero and the Piers have their ways of making you slow down and stay awhile. Foodies may forget all about their ferries in the movable feast that is the Ferry Building, and gamers can lose all track of time at Musée Mécanique Click here testing their skill against classic games from the 1880s to the 1990s. Anglers and danglers sit at the edge of Broadway Pier, watching the tide ebb from the surprisingly shallow bay, which averages only 6ft to 10ft in depth at low tide.
But for most visitors there’s too much going on in the rest of the city to stay here, as Otis Redding put it, ‘just sittin’ on the dock of the Bay/wasting time.’ Most of the people you’ll see along the Embarcadero are moving at a brisk pace, jogging, biking and skating. When the overhead freeway along the Embarcadero fell in the 1989 earthquake, the city decided not to block these waterfront views with a new freeway, and instead created