FCUS GUIDES

The native Muwekma Ohlone people (website: www.muwekma.org/) were able to keep this land to themselves until as recently 1776, when the Spanish found their way here and set up a little mission to Saint Francis of Assisi. In 1849 the discovery of gold in the nearby hills brought tens of thousands of treasure-seekers (known in local lore as the Fortyniners), and a makeshift, lawless dockside city sprang up rapidly.  
  The boom years of the Gold Rush left a legacy of pleasure-seeking and a love of entertainment and the good life.
  The city and its people famously have a spirit of independence, and there’s a touch of apocalyptic, devil-may-care hedonism in the air. But that could be due, perhaps, to the constant threat of a major earthquake like that of 1906, which demolished the city centre.
  The city accords an almost mystical reverence to the San Andreas Fault which passes under the Bay and will one day destroy San Francisco. Minor tremors are common, and there was a more damaging one in 1989.
  Yet just ten years after the great quake of ’06, the city had been completely rebuilt and was raring to go again. Imagination, inventiveness, can-do innovation and lateral thinking are in the air. Maybe that’s why not just dope-fuelled Zap Comics and ostentatious Gay Pride have their roots in San Francisco, but also the high-tech creativity of Silicon Valley (which starts in the south-western suburbs).
 

The West Coast’s most westerly big city has a hauntingly beautiful end-of-the-world setting, wrapped in swirling mists and surrounded by water. That mist, lying delicately over the Bay on summer mornings like great rolls of chiffon, forms an ethereal, mysterious backdrop, emphasising the city’s remoteness.
  For all that, the climate is deliciously pleasant and mild. It's a delight to walk and wander, exploring the extraordinary mosaic of neighbourhoods. There  are some striking contrasts, with an extensive Chinatown, a full-on gay district called Castro, and a historic upper-crust area called Nob Hill. The thriving downtown Financial District is surprisingly beautiful, sleek modern glass structures standing side by side with ornate pre-War skyscrapers.
  Many districts have streets of older houses locally known as “Victorians”. However, Queen Victoria wouldn’t recognise the style, a crazy individualistic jumble of American Gothic, American Tudor and American Renaissance, nicely embellished with one or two authentic Art Deco details. But she’d be amused – they look great.
 

The main tourist office is at 201 3rd St., Ste. 900, San Francisco, tel. 415/391-2000. www.sfcvb.org.
 

• Downtown is the Powell/Market/Union Square area.

• Just north of downtown are Chinatown and Nob Hill.

• Continue further north to reach Fisherman's Wharf.

• The Financial District is a few minutes NE along Market.

• Cross Market for the museum quarter.

• South of downtown is "south of Market", known as SOMA.
   

Unless you like a long walk, use public transport to get from Downtown to Fisherman's Wharf and the other neighbourhoods. There's a fast, efficient and inexpensive bus service along the main streets, and taxis are reasonable too, but be sure to take at least one trip by cable car.
www.bart.gov/index.asp
 

San Francisco loves good eating, with a liking for imagination, innovation, fusion and fashion. The best places take advantage of a rich choice of excellent ingredients grown within California.
  In 2007, Michelin published its first Red Guide to San Francisco. The Red Guides are regarded as the world's most authoritative food and lodgings listings, including good quality addresses to suit all budgets. The city certainly warrants such serious attention.
  Michelin's guide, which includes the nearby Bay Area and Wine Country, awards a star to more than a score of restaurants, the exceptional two-star grading to four others, and even the highest accolade of all, three Michelin stars, to city restaurant The French Laundry (www.frenchlaundry.com) under chef Thomas Keller.
  Among the two-star listings, best in the Financial District is the sophisticated fish and seafood specialist Aqua (www.aqua-sf.com)
  Equally acclaimed is Michael Mina's beautiful restaurant in the Westin St Francis hotel on Powell (www.michaelmina.net).
  For up to the minute dining ideas, visit www.sfdowntown.com/

Hotels in San Francisco
For hotels in San Francisco There's a big choice in all price brackets all around the Union Square district, with many unusual, charming, budget places. Several comfortable larger, upscale places are a few minutes further away, including Nob Hill and SOMA. Be aware that staying in a hotel in the Fisherman's Wharf area will mean taking a cab, bus or trolley to reach downtown and other parts of the city.
 

 Fisherman's Wharf 
Pier 39 is the Wharf’s focal point, and the main attraction of this tourist quarter. The sea lions, who have lived here since long before the pier itself was built, definitely deserve a visit. They loll around lazily, grunting at each other, lumbering around awkwardly or slipping into the water, where they suddenly become perfectly graceful. The rest of the former docks have become a busy, rather tacky area, though former trade warehouses like Ghirardelli Square and The Cannery have been nicely converted into attractive, unusual shopping and entertainment complexes. 
www.fishermanswharf.org
www.pier39.com
www.ghirardellisq.com

 The Haight  
In the Sixties, the city was the full-on, stoned capital of hippy-dom. “If you’re going to San Francisco,” went the rock song of 1967, “be sure to wear a flower in your hair.”
  More than three decades after the hippy era, there are few flowers in the hair and Peace and Love has become something of a marketing exercise as tourists are bussed in to see the old hippy haunts around the Haight-Ashbury intersection. It's a lively area, with countless little stores and attractive streets of older houses. Maybe surprisingly, it remains a focal point for today's youth culture.

 Museums and Arts
From Cartoon Art to Cable Cars (1201 Mason St., tel: (415) 474-1887), there's a score of fascinating museums in the city. And it's indicative of the cultural East-West imbalance in the US that the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art is the only major art museum in the Western states. The Fine Arts Museums (FAMS), combining the De Young in Golden Gate (the city's oldest museum) and the Legion of Honor in Lincoln Park, is perhaps more about arts and crafts, popular culture and ethnography than fine art in the true sense, and has an eye for imaginative popular exhibitions.
  The Exploratorium is one of several hands-on science museums, while for something really unusual, the Fire Department Museum (655 Presidio Av., tel: (415) 558-3546) tells the dramatic story of firefighting in the city from 1849 to the present.

 The bridges and the Bay 
San Francisco is almost enclosed by water, and its two main entry points are across water. Views of San Francisco Bay are glimpsed everywhere in the city centre. At intersections, look down side turns to catch glimpses of the blue waters, the vistas cut across by the impressive ironwork of the Oakland Bay bridge. This is an exquisite marvel of engineering, 8½ miles of dazzling blue above and below as it steps clear across the Bay from San Francisco to Oakland and Berkeley on the other side. But that does not quite outclass the dignity of the Golden Gate Bridge, which crosses grandly from the city into Marin County, on the north side of the Bay. It's impressive by car, more exhilarating by bike, and it's also possible to cross the Golden Gate Bridge on foot, a breezy, invigorating two miles. City dwellers pour over the Golden Gate at weekends to vanish into Marin’s wilderness, wine towns and bustling waterfronts. From here, the coast highway passes through small communities further north.

 Alcatraz
A trip to a notorious offshore maximum security prison might not be everyone's idea of a holiday treat, but  the ferry crossing to Alcatraz has become one of the most popular and interesting of San Francisco's tourist attractions. Tours guide you through the island-prison's history, with a tales  of some of its more colourful inmates, including Al Capone and Robert Stroud, "the Birdman of Alcatraz." The view alone, looking across the water towards the city skyline, is worth the journey - although inhabitants of the penitentiary presumably would not have agreed.

 Cable cars 
A fun, picturesque piece of San Francisco history, the biggest surprise about the city's rattling, open-sided cable cars is that they remain to this day an excellent way to get around on the city’s steep hills. They're much used by locals, who step on and off them at will. Climbing up and down the roller-coaster streets, the cars give thrilling views.
 

Great casual clothes  Fantastic department stores around Union Square, like Gumps, Macys, Neiman Marcus, Nordstrom and Tiffany & Co, along with such stores as Niketown and Levis, have a huge choice to beat anything you'll find back home. 
Books  Great bookstores in the city and across the Bay in Berkeley will draw you in for hours of pleasant browsing and buying. Music  Among several other excellent music outlets, Amoeba, in Haight St, is one of the world's leading music stores.
 

3rd Sun in May:
May 18 (2008) - Bay to Breakers
Something between a genuine race and a zany piece of street theatre, this famous "footrace" covers 7.46 miles from the shore of San Francisco Bay, through the city, to the Pacific Ocean beach, ending with a party in Golden Gate Park.
www.ingbaytobreakers.com 
 

Large numbers of flights travel to the San Francisco daily from all the world's major cities. London-San Francisco flights cost from around £540pp (incl. taxes). Flight time is 11 hours.