San Francisco California

San Francisco: What the City Gets Right and What Gets Overstated

San Francisco is 7 miles by 7 miles on a peninsula, so compact that from Twin Peaks you can see most of the city and both bays simultaneously. It has 900,000 people (city proper), a GDP larger than most countries, the most famous bridge in the United States, a food culture of genuine global standing, and Alcatraz. It also has a persistent homeless and drug crisis in parts of the downtown core, a cost of living that has displaced most of the creative class that made it famous in the 1960s through 1990s, and tourist attractions that do not all deserve the time they usually get allocated.

What follows tries to be specific about what is worth your time and what is honestly overrated.

The Golden Gate Bridge

The bridge is as good as advertised. A pedestrian walkway runs the full 2.7 kilometres, accessible from the north and south ends. Walking the east (bay-facing) sidewalk gives the better views of the city. The crossing takes about 30-40 minutes each way at a comfortable pace. The views from the south tower base, looking up at the cables from directly below, and from the Marin Headlands on the north side (looking back at the bridge with the city behind) are both excellent. Fog on the bridge is common in summer mornings and actually makes it more dramatic. Most tourists stand at the overlook, take photographs, and leave; the small minority who walk it get the genuine experience.

Bike rentals are available near the Embarcadero end and biking the bridge and down to Sausalito (then ferry back) is one of the better full-day activities in the city.

Alcatraz

Worth doing, properly: the audio tour narrated by former guards and prisoners is surprisingly good, the views of San Francisco from the island are the best available, and the physical structure is more atmospheric than it sounds on paper. Book several days in advance (alcatrazcruises.com); summer tours sell out weeks ahead. The night tours have a different atmosphere and smaller crowds.

Honestly overrated: Fisherman’s Wharf, including the sea lions at Pier 39. The sea lions are real and it is briefly entertaining, but the Wharf is otherwise tourist-trap food and tourist-trap shopping without much local character. The clam chowder in the bread bowl is widely sold; it is fine, not exceptional.

The Neighbourhoods Worth Walking

The Mission District (16th and Valencia, then south) has the best burritos in the country (Taqueria La Cumbre and El Farolito are the serious options; La Taqueria on Mission does a different, more expensive version), good coffee shops and bars, and a density of colourful murals along Clarion Alley and Balmy Alley that are worth an hour.

The Castro is San Francisco’s LGBTQ+ historic district, with the Castro Theatre (1922 atmospheric movie palace, still operational) and Harvey Milk’s old camera shop on Castro Street. The neighbourhood is gentrified but its significance in the history of the American gay rights movement is real and still visible.

North Beach has City Lights Bookstore, the famous independent bookshop that published Allen Ginsberg and anchored the Beat Generation literary movement. Still operating, still carrying a good independent selection, worth buying something in.

The Sunset and Richmond Districts are largely residential with good dim sum restaurants and relatively few tourists.

Ferry Building and Food

The Ferry Building Marketplace on the waterfront is legitimately good: Dungeness crab vendors, oyster bars, local bread, cheese, and the Tuesday and Saturday farmers’ markets that supply the city’s best restaurants. This is where San Francisco cooks shop. Hog Island Oyster Company and Acme Bread Company both have stalls here. Prices are market prices, not tourist prices.

Zuni Cafe on Market Street has been an institution since 1979; the roast chicken (ordered 30-40 minutes in advance) and the sourdough crouton Caesar salad are the specific reasons to go.

Tartine Bakery on Guerrero Street in the Mission has a legitimate claim to being the best bread bakery in the United States. The country sourdough comes out of the oven between 4 and 6pm; arrive at 4pm for a wait that turns into an hour-long queue by 5pm.

Practical Notes

Getting around: Muni Metro (light rail and subway), BART (Bay Area Rapid Transit, connecting to the wider Bay Area), cable cars (tourist attraction, not practical transportation), and Uber. The Muni Visitor Passport gives unlimited rides. The cable cars on Powell Street are genuinely historic (1878) and the ride up Nob Hill to the turntable is worth doing once.

Weather: Mark Twain did not say “the coldest winter I ever spent was a summer in San Francisco” (he has been misquoted for decades), but the sentiment is accurate. Summer fog (the “marine layer”) covers much of the city in July and August mornings. September and October are the warmest months. Pack a layer always.