Expert: Steve Summers - 8/20/2004

Question
Hi. I will be coming to SFO from Indonesia. I won't be travelling with friends nor kid. I am interested in having some information about taking tours in SFO, but I don't want to join a group. I would rather be an fully independent traveller. I will have 2 full days in SFO before flying to Chicago, Il.

thank you,

regina hoo

Answer
Regina,

I think that the best way to see San Francisco is to take a cable car tour of the city. You can also use the MUNI and the BART to get around. Since parking is VERY expensive, it is best to use the excellent public transportation.

San Francisco's cable cars take you to many well-known sights: Fisherman's Wharf, Ghirardelli Square, Chinatown, North Beach, Union Square. They can also take you on a journey of discovery into some of the city's neighborhoods.
This trip on two of the three lines can be done in a day and will take you to three very different neighborhoods: posh Nob Hill, peaceful Pacific Heights and Polk Street, a neighborhood in transition. See the routes at http://www.sfcablecar.com/routes.html Don't miss the gripmen. Like San Franciscans in general, they are a diverse lot.

From the Powell Street turnaround at Market Street, the Powell-Hyde Line ascends past Union Square and up Nob Hill, then turns left onto Jackson Street. A block after the turn, at Mason Street, is the Cable Car Museum. Young and old alike have fun here. Watch the sheaves that control the three continuous loops of cable, and peer down at the machines that turn them. For 25 cents, see stereo photos of the 1906 earthquake and fire.

Reboard the cable car going up Jackson. Get off at Pacific Avenue in Pacific Heights and explore the neighborhood. The quiet here is a striking contrast with noisy-busy Union Square or Fisherman's Wharf. In the Russian Hill Noshery Cafe, neighbors share gossip and photos of their pets, and a frantic search ensues when someone wants chocolate syrup for their cake. The cable car passes like an intruder, crashing through with its load of tourists.
Between Pacific to Filbert, there are many choices for an evening meal. Try Zarzuela for Spanish food and tapas (appetizers), or Hyde Street Bistro. If you have room after dinner, stop at the original Swensen's ice cream parlor for desert. For lunch, try the Russian Hill Noshery Cafe, or stop at a grocery store and take a picnic to the park up the street.

Walk up Hyde or hop on and off the cable car. This is a real neighborhood area and I chuckled at the creativity of the people who named The Missing Sock Laundromat. Walk on Filbert to a view of Telegraph Hill and the bay. The hill crests between Filbert and Greenwich then goes down gently to Lombard Street.

At Lombard, peace is broken. The one-block section called the "crookedest" street, draws flocks of tourists. They're everywhere - walking up and down, taking photos, creating a traffic hazard - some even take a taxi just to go down the street!

The park across Hyde at Greenwich is the opposite of the busy Lombard Street scene. Benches invite you to linger in the shade. Past the George Sterling plaque, views of the Golden Gate Bridge, Palace of Fine Arts and the Presidio await.

At Lombard, the roller coaster ride begins and the cable car plunges sharply downhill toward the end of the line near Ghirardelli Square, the Maritime Museum and Fisherman's Wharf. Hold on tight!

From Powell Street at California (where the cable car lines cross), walk west along California. Nob Hill is even quieter than Russian Hill - quiet like a library. People, even children, are all in a hush. Around 1900, the hill was adorned with the finest homes in San Francisco, built with money earned from the Gold Rush and the railroad. Only the Huntington Mansion survived the 1906 fire and, while the area was rebuilt with grand hotels and buildings, it seems somehow sad and lonely, as if it misses its contemporaries.
In Huntington Park, even the trees are formal. There are artists sketching, classical fountains, and everyone is very civilized. The playground is quiet. Next to the park is Grace Cathedral, a gothic cathedral with Florentine bronze doors. Inside are frescoes of California history, from the Spanish explorers to the twentieth century, secular and religious.

Continue on California and get off at Polk Street for a look at a different kind of San Francisco neighborhood - one in transition. Once the vibrant center of San Francisco's gay culture, Polk Street (and the San Francisco gay population) suffered greatly from the AIDS epidemic. Stores closed. People died. The center of the gay community moved to the Castro. The neighborhood that was left behind is just now beginning to recover.
Stop at Royal Grounds Coffee for a bit of the real San Francisco. San Franciscans loved their coffee long before anyone heard about Starbucks and this is an old-fashioned establishment - they serve great coffee, the sugar is in plastic containers (none of those brown chunks of "natural" sugar here), and milk is served right out of the carton. There are chess boards in back and a bulletin board layers deep in notices. You can tell a lot about a neighborhood by the bulletin boards. This one had notices for the ballet, a beer festival, furniture for sale (the most expensive piece was $40), a Himalayan Fair, voice lessons, a handy man, and an invitation to "Become Miraculous in the New Millennium". The essence of San Francisco was concentrated on that bulletin board - the diversity, the tolerance and the everyday life.

Polk Street is a place where people LIVE. Along it there are a hardware store, a drug store, and the other necessary shops. Acorn Books at 1436 Polk has a great selection of books. The Swan Oyster Depot has been here forever. On California, the Lumiere Theatre shows art and foreign films. Just up California, near Leavenworth, is Zeki's Bar.

At the end of the day, you will have an understanding of San Francisco that few tourists ever achieve. Enjoy your trip.

On your second day, I recommend taking one of the muni busses to the opposite side of the Golden Gate Bridge. Walk back across the bridge, then take the bus back to Fisherman's Wharf. Take the tour to Alcatraz.

Have a great trip!

Steve