Many San Franciscans shared their city secrets with us for this book. Special thanks are due to Barbara Roether and Mark MacNamara, who contributed not only suggestions but history, background, and literary inspiration. — F.P.
The Deutsche Nationalbibliothek lists this publication in the Deutsche Nationalbibliografie; detailed bibliographical data are available on the internet at http://dnb.d-nb.de.
Design: Eva Kraskes, based on a design by Lübbeke | Naumann | Thoben
Maps: altancicek.design, www.altancicek.de
Printing and binding: sourc-e GmbH
Printed in Europe 2025
ISBN 978-3-7408-2882-0
First edition 2016
Revised 13th edition, December 2025
Guidebooks for Locals & Experienced Travelers
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Foreword
In all my years living in San Francisco, I have never stopped discovering new places, hidden stairways, unexpected vistas, and stories embedded in every crevice. Strolling the city’s rolling terrain brings you face-to-face with these charming details, like the scrollwork on an old Victorian, an overgrown garden of jasmine in a concealed alley, or the lively salsa rhythms drifting out of an open window.
For a city that is only seven miles wide and seven miles long, the diversity here is stunning; from musicians, artists, and hippies, to hipsters and entrepreneurs, its population reflects every human shape, color, and spirit. It’s not only the people who have defined the neighborhoods, but the land itself: there are 14 hills across which the city rises and falls.
In San Francisco, each hill, from Telegraph to Potrero, and every valley, from Noe to Hayes, has its own architecture, its own history, and even its own weather. Visitors often find it hard to comprehend that the sunny blue skies of the Mission District turn to cold and fog just over Twin Peaks. Locals know to dress for the many microclimates, and expect the sudden shifts in temperature. In many ways, extremes are in the DNA of San Francisco, a notion that becomes ever clearer as you delve into the city’s storied past. During the Gold Rush, the population went from around 1,000 in 1848 to 30,000 in 1850; and by 1855, almost 300,000 people lived here. For decades San Francisco was the only outpost of real civilization west of the Rockies. 1848 may seem new by European standards, but for the American West, this is the old mother city.
All cities change; the recent boom in Silicon Valley has made the Bay Area a new playground for young millionaires.People,and wealth, come and go quickly here, but the landscape – the purple headlands jutting into the Pacific, the island-scattered bay, the fog pouring over the Golden Gate Bridge – is as stoic and enduring as Nature itself.
Alhambra Theater
A cinematic workout
In the 1920s, elaborate movie palaces sprang up in cities across America, creating fantastical architectural wonders to match the fantasies of Hollywood. The Alhambra Theater on Polk Street, incorporating all the excesses of true Islamic design, was one of the city’s finest examples. Designed by Timothy Pflueger in 1926, the Alhambra’s iconic “minarets”originally glowed red to beckon viewers in to its 1,500 seats. After Charlie Chaplin had shuffled off, after Greta Garbo had whispered her final words, the lights would come up on the dreamy Arabian interior of the auditorium: horseshoe arches floating over sapphire-colored niches, a central dome decorated with a flower of arabesques, and filigree plasterwork trailing over everything.
In the 1960s, this neighborhood was the center of gay culture in San Francisco. The first openly gay business association in America, the Tavern Guild, was created by bar owners on Polk Street, which is still dominated by small storefront shops and cafes. When the gay scene shifted to the Castro District in the early seventies, the street fell on hard times. The Alhambra tried to keep its doors open by dividing the theater into two auditoriums, then briefly returned to a single screen again in the late eighties, but finally closed in 1998.
And yet, in the true spirit of Arabian Nights, or of happy Hollywood endings, the story of the Alhambra goes on. Since 2001, the theater has been home to Crunch Fitness, a popular gym. A careful restoration and conversion to workout space has retained most of the interior detail. The projection room has been reimagined as a yoga studio and the area behind the screen is now a spinning room. A second tier contains weights and machines, but in the balcony some thirteen original seats from the old theater remain.
Best of all, there is still a movie screen to watch as you stretch, sweat, and tone.
Address 2330 Polk Street, San Francisco, CA 94109 | Getting there Bus: 19 (Polk St & Union St stop) | Hours Mon – Fri 5am – 10pm, Sat & Sun 7am – 8pm | Tip With its little stores and delightful cafes, the north side of Polk Street is perfect for a windowshopping stroll.
Angel Island Immigration Station
Exclusion runs in the blood
The Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882, signed into law by America’s “most forgotten president,”Republican Chester Arthur, is a reminder that the United States has a long and sordid relationship with immigrants — not least with the Chinese laborers who were originally welcomed into America to build the 1,900-mile Transcontinental Railroad in the 1860s. The Chinese, originally thought to be physically unfit for the work, turned out to be tough, tenacious, and above all, efficient. At one point, tens of thousands of Chinese laborers prepared the land, bored tunnels, and laid track, working at a record setting pace, all for between $1 and $3 a day, much less than their white counterparts.
After building the railway, Chinese laborers found other work in agriculture and mining. But when the Gold Rush subsided and panning for gold lead to the more grueling and competitive business of mining for gold, along with the recession of 1870, the public began to resent cheap labor. A flurry of federal laws was passed to discourage Chinese immigration, particularly in California. In 1910, the Angel Island Immigration Station, also called the “West Coast Ellis Island,” opened.
Once home to the coastal Miwok tribe, the 750-acre island in San Francisco Bay was used to slow 175,000 Chinese from entering the country between 1910 and 1940. The Chinese Exclusion Act was repealed in 1943. Perhaps the most striking testimonies are the 200 poems written on the detention center walls that have been restored. In 1963, the original detention center became a state park.
You reach Angel Island by small boat, kayak, or ferries from San Francisco, Tiburon, or Vallejo. Bicycles can be rented on the island, along with electric scooters and Segways.
Address Angel Island State Park, Angel Island, CA 94920, +1 415.435.5537, www.angelisland.org | Getting there Check the website for the ferry schedule | Hours Wed – Sat 11am – 3pm | Tip If you camp there, note that charcoal grills and camp stoves are permitted, but no wood fires are allowed.
Balmy Alley Murals
Struggle and change
Up until a few years ago, when gentrification began setting in, residents of the mostly Latino Mission District considered Frida Kahlo their patron saint and Diego Rivera their artistic director.The Mexican mural movement that Rivera brought to the city in the 1930s had a second flowering here in the 1970s, and Balmy Alley was its center. Starting in 1972, a small group of Chicana artists, the Mujeres Muralistas, painted the first large works on the wooden garage doors and fences that abut this narrow residential alleyway. Their murals were political statements against conflict, but from a distinctly feminine perspective, depicting the transcendent power of the earth, women, children, and the cycles of nature. Thousands of immigrants fleeing civil unrest in Nicaragua, Salvador, and Guatemala settled in this neighborhood in the 1980s, and the murals reflected their struggles. Each successive wave of residents has left an indelible artistic imprint on the alley. Recently restored, the painting titled Culture Contains the Seed of Resistance that Blossoms into the Flower of Liberation was one of 25 murals created in 1985. The iconic Naya Bihana (New Dawn) painted by Martin Travers in 2002, depicts the women of Nepal struggling to break the chains of oppression, the theme of so many of the murals here.The gentrification that began in the late nineties is also portrayed in various works, such as Lucia Ippolito’s Mission Makeover, which depicts a day in the life of a Mission teenager who gets searched by a police officer drinking Starbucks coffee; or the fantastic Victorion, by Sirron Norris, in which a giant robot-like character made of Victorian houses is sent to crush the real-estate developers under his feet.
Not long ago, however, one of the larger apartment buildings was renovated; and the garage abutting the alley was clad in painted steel. A surveillance camera now discourages any new creative embellishments.
Address 1-100 Balmy Street, San Francisco, CA 94110 | Getting there Bus: 12, 14 (Mission St & 24th St stop); 48, 67 (Folsom St & 24th St stop) | Tip For an al fresco Mexican dining experience, treat yourself to a couple of tacos at the El Gallo Giro Taco Truck on Treat Street and 23rd Street.
The Cloud Forest
Communing with nature on Mount Sutro
There are many sites with “Sutro”in their names all over the city. For example, there’s the Sutro Baths at Lands End – the relics of a once spectacular indoor swimming pool, the largest in the world of the late 19th century. Across the street, up the hill, on the promontory above the Cliff House, there is Sutro Heights Park, where Adolph Sutro, a gold mining engineer, built his mansion to overlook his baths and the ocean. Now, all that’s left of the magnificent structure is a pair of stone lions and a statue of Venus. And then there’s the “cloud forest” on Mount Sutro, which offers one of the most sensuous and interesting less-traveled paths in the city.
Mount Sutro is an 834-foot-high hill, which, incidentally, supports a 977-foot three-legged steel tower – the Sutro Tower, which is the city’s center pole, literally and figuratively. It transmits all of San Francisco’s essential communications signals, including radio, television, wireless, and mobile. But of all the city’s “Sutros,”perhaps the most magical is to the north, in the Mount Sutro Open Space Preserve, which includes the 100-year-old Mount Sutro Forest. It consists of 80 acres dotted with eucalyptus trees, some of which stand 200 feet tall. It’s a bird watcher’s paradise, with 46 known species, including such characters as the great horned owl, the Pacific slope flycatcher, and the lime-yellow western tanager.
Several hiking trails wind through the woodland – not terribly long paths but satisfying ones, which are accessible from both Stanyan Street and Edgewood Avenue. The forest is a favorite respite from the arid nature of the city in these drought-full years. On those afternoons when the fog rolls in, the vegetation seems particularly lush and scented.
Often people flock to this geographical center of the city to get lost for a few hours, practice a walking meditation, or just to enjoy the lovely tree canopy overhead.
Address Mount Sutro, San Francisco, CA 94131, www.mntsutro.com | Getting there Bus: 6 (Parnassus Ave & Stanyan St stop) 43 (1697 7th Ave stop) | Tip At the East entrance to the forest is Cole Valley, with its many delightful cafes and small stores. Most of the businesses are still of the mom-and-pop variety. Stop for brunch at Zazie, a beloved local haunt, at 941 Cole Street.
