The sights of San Francisco, from the waterline to the summits

How the sights are arranged

San Francisco's sights are easier to understand by height than by district. The city sits on a peninsula of more than fifty hills, and the difference between a sight on the waterfront and one on a summit is not only the view but the effort of getting there. So this guide groups its eighteen sights in four bands, from the waterline up, and marks each one Level, Some climbing, or Steep or many steps; the hills page explains the marks and lists the easier ways up.

Each sight has its own page, with what it is, its history, what you see, how to visit and the facts that are most often told wrongly. Every page carries photographs of the place itself, each checked by eye and credited to its photographer, and a short list of the sights nearest to it, so that you can join them into a walk.

Where the city ends

This guide draws its line at the city limits, which are also the county's: the peninsula from the Golden Gate south to the county line, with Alcatraz, Treasure Island, built in the bay for the world's fair of 1939, and Yerba Buena Island beside it. Sausalito, Muir Woods, Berkeley, the Napa Valley and Angel Island are all close and all worth a day, but they are outside the city and are covered on the day trips page, not here.

The Golden Gate Bridge is the exception that proves the rule: its southern end is in the city, its northern end in Marin County, and it belongs on both lists. Likewise the ferries: they leave from the city's piers, but most of what they reach, apart from Alcatraz, lies across the water in other towns and counties.

The waterline

Six sights stand at or near the water. The Ferry Building, completed in 1898 at the foot of Market Street, is the city's front door and its food hall. Fisherman's Wharf, with the sea lions of Pier 39 and the historic ships of the Hyde Street Pier, runs along the northern waterfront. Out in the bay, Alcatraz was a federal prison from 1934 to 1963. On the northern shore, the Palace of Fine Arts, the one survivor of the 1915 exposition on its own site, stands beside a lagoon; the Presidio, a military post for more than two centuries, is now a national park; and the Golden Gate Bridge, opened in 1937, spans the strait.

The ocean edge

Two sights face the Pacific. Lands End is a windswept trail around the city's northwestern corner, above the ruins of the Sutro Baths, with views across the mouth of the Golden Gate. Golden Gate Park, 1,017 acres laid over the sand dunes of the Outside Lands, runs three miles from the Haight to Ocean Beach, with museums, gardens, lakes and meadows along the way. Both catch the fog first on a summer afternoon; see when to come.

The flats and the valleys

Five sights lie on the level ground of downtown and the valleys. Chinatown, the oldest in North America, climbs gently from Grant Avenue. SFMOMA, founded in 1935, fills two landmark buildings in SoMa. City Hall, completed in 1915, crowns the Civic Center with a dome taller than the US Capitol's. Mission Dolores, whose adobe chapel of 1791 is the oldest intact building in the city, stands in the sunny Mission District. And Haight-Ashbury, named for a street corner, remembers the Summer of Love of 1967.

The hills

Five sights mean climbing, or a ride up. The cable cars, the world's last manually operated system, were built for these slopes. Coit Tower, 210 feet tall, stands on top of Telegraph Hill, with fresco murals in its lobby. Lombard Street's one crooked block turns eight hairpins down Russian Hill. The Painted Ladies, the row of Victorian houses at Alamo Square, face a hilltop park with downtown behind them. And Twin Peaks, two summits of about 925 feet, look out over the whole city.

Choosing what to see

For a first visit, most people put the Golden Gate Bridge, Alcatraz, the cable cars and Chinatown at the top of the list, and these four alone make two good days. After them, choose by what you enjoy. For history, Mission Dolores, the Presidio, Alcatraz and the Ferry Building tell the story of the city from its Spanish beginnings to the ferries that carried its commuters before the bridges. For architecture, look at City Hall, the Palace of Fine Arts, SFMOMA and the Victorian houses of Alamo Square and the Haight. For views, climb Coit Tower and Twin Peaks, and walk out on the bridge and around Lands End.

For days that match the sights to the weather and the neighborhoods, see the itineraries.

Tickets and transit

Most of the eighteen are free to see: the bridge, the parks, the streets, the viewpoints and the waterfront cost nothing. Alcatraz is reachable only by the contracted ferry company and must be booked ahead; the cable cars need a fare; and SFMOMA and the museums in Golden Gate Park charge admission, and Coit Tower's viewing deck and the Mission Dolores chapel set their own visiting arrangements, which are worth checking before you go. See booking ahead for what is worth reserving.

Market Street is the spine of the city's transit. The F-line streetcar runs along it and then up the Embarcadero to Fisherman's Wharf; BART and Muni Metro run beneath it; and the Powell cable car lines start at its turntable. From these, most of the eighteen are a single ride and a short walk; the western sights, Golden Gate Park and Lands End, are reached by Muni buses and the N Judah line. See getting around.

What is not here

Eighteen is a selection, not an inventory. The city has many more places worth your time, among them the Legion of Honor, the de Young, the Asian Art Museum, Japantown, the Castro, Grace Cathedral on Nob Hill and the murals of Balmy Alley, and several are described on the pages of the sights beside them, or on the neighborhoods page. The journal adds longer articles on the questions visitors ask.