12 Top Things to Do in San Francisco

Alcatraz Island, 'The Rock', sits in the middle of San Francisco Bay and once held the most notorious maximum-security prison in the United States, home to Al Capone and the site of a famous 1962 escape. Reached only by the official ferry from Pier 33, it is now one of the city's most popular and atmospheric attractions.

The award-winning cellhouse audio tour, narrated by former guards and inmates, walks you through the cramped cells, the dining hall and the recreation yard with the city skyline tantalisingly close across the water. The island also has gardens, seabird colonies and exhibits on its later occupation by Native American activists.

Pro Tip: Book the ferry weeks ahead - it routinely sells out, especially in summer. Choose an early sailing to beat the crowds, or the night tour for a more atmospheric visit, and dress in layers because the wind on the boat and island is cold year-round.

Fisherman's Wharf is the busy heart of the northern waterfront, where the city's fishing fleet still ties up beside seafood stalls selling Dungeness crab and clam chowder in sourdough bowls. Its best-loved sight is the colony of barking sea lions that have hauled out on the docks of Pier 39 since 1989, free to watch from the boardwalk.

The wharf is unashamedly touristy, but it is also the launch point for bay cruises and the Alcatraz ferry, and it links to the historic ships at Hyde Street Pier and the wartime submarine USS Pampanito. The sourdough bakeries and street performers keep it lively all day.

Pro Tip: Watch the sea lions from the K-Dock viewing area at Pier 39, busiest and noisiest in winter. Eat where the locals do, away from the main drag, and use the wharf as your base for the Alcatraz ferry and a bay cruise on the same visit.

San Francisco's cable cars are the last manually operated cable cars in the world and a working national historic landmark, hauling passengers up the city's steepest hills by gripping a continuously moving underground cable. The Powell-Hyde and Powell-Mason lines are the most scenic, clanging down toward Fisherman's Wharf with the bay opening up ahead.

Riding one is a genuine experience rather than a museum piece, with passengers hanging from the running boards as the car crests Nob Hill. The free Cable Car Museum nearby lets you watch the giant winding wheels that drive the whole system from below.

Pro Tip: Queues at the Powell Street turnaround are long; walk a block or two up the line and hop on at a quieter stop instead. The Powell-Hyde line has the most dramatic hills and bay views, and a Muni day pass covers unlimited rides.

The block of Lombard Street between Hyde and Leavenworth on Russian Hill is famous as the 'crookedest street in the world', a steep slope tamed by eight tight hairpin bends lined with flowerbeds and brick paving. The switchbacks were added in the 1920s to make the one-in-four gradient drivable, and the result is one of the city's most photographed spots.

You can drive down the curves at a crawl, or walk the stairs alongside for a closer look at the gardens and the view down toward Coit Tower and the bay. It pairs naturally with a Powell-Hyde cable-car ride, which stops right at the top of the hill.

Pro Tip: Come early morning to photograph the curves without the queue of cars and crowds, and walk the pedestrian steps on either side rather than driving. The view from the top, framing Coit Tower and the bay, is the real reward.

Golden Gate Park is San Francisco's answer to Central Park, only larger - a 1,017-acre rectangle of gardens, lakes, meadows and museums stretching from the city centre out to the Pacific. Within it sit the de Young Museum, the California Academy of Sciences, the Japanese Tea Garden, the Conservatory of Flowers and even a small herd of bison.

It is a place to slow down: rent a rowing boat on Stow Lake, wander the botanical garden, or cycle the car-free roads at weekends. The park rewards a half day or more and links the central neighbourhoods to Ocean Beach at its western end.

Pro Tip: JFK Drive through the park is car-free, so bring or rent a bike to cover the distances comfortably. The Japanese Tea Garden is loveliest and quietest soon after opening, and the Conservatory of Flowers makes a good rainy-day stop.

The row of pastel Victorian and Edwardian houses on Steiner Street, known as the Painted Ladies or 'Postcard Row', is one of the most recognisable sights in San Francisco, their ornate gables framed against the modern downtown skyline behind. They date from the 1890s and survived the 1906 earthquake and fire.

The grassy slope of Alamo Square Park opposite is the place to take in the view, a favourite picnic spot and a famous backdrop from film and television. The surrounding streets of Hayes Valley and the Western Addition are full of more elaborate Victorian facades worth a wander.

Pro Tip: Climb to the top of Alamo Square's lawn for the classic shot of the houses with the skyline behind, best in late-afternoon light. Combine it with a stroll and coffee in nearby Hayes Valley, one of the city's most pleasant shopping streets.

San Francisco's Chinatown is the oldest in North America and one of the largest Chinese communities outside Asia, entered through the green-tiled Dragon Gate on Grant Avenue. Its lantern-strung main streets are crammed with herbalists, tea shops, temples and dim sum parlours, while the quieter back lanes like Ross Alley feel barely changed in decades.

Stockton Street is where locals actually shop for produce and roast meats, far from the souvenir stalls of Grant Avenue, and the Golden Gate Fortune Cookie Factory lets you watch the cookies being folded by hand. It is one of the most atmospheric neighbourhoods in the city and rewards slow wandering.

Pro Tip: Wander Stockton Street and the side alleys for the authentic neighbourhood rather than sticking to touristy Grant Avenue. Come hungry for dim sum, and look out for the tiny Golden Gate Fortune Cookie Factory on Ross Alley.

The 1898 Ferry Building, with its landmark clock tower modelled on the Giralda in Seville, has been reborn as the city's best food hall. Its nave is lined with artisan stalls selling local oysters, cheeses, chocolate, coffee and Vietnamese food, and the famous farmers' market spills onto the plaza outside three days a week.

Behind it stretches the Embarcadero, the revitalised eastern waterfront promenade that runs from the Bay Bridge toward Fisherman's Wharf, ideal for a stroll or a run with bay views. It is the best place in the city to eat your way through a single building.

Pro Tip: Time your visit for the Saturday farmers' market, the biggest and best of the week, and arrive hungry. Grab oysters or a coffee and take them out to the waterfront plaza for a view across the bay to the Bay Bridge.

The California Academy of Sciences is a natural-history museum, aquarium, planetarium and four-storey indoor rainforest all under one living roof, set in the heart of Golden Gate Park. Its green roof, planted with native species and dotted with skylight domes, is a landmark of sustainable architecture in its own right.

Inside, you can walk through a humid rainforest dome of butterflies and free-flying birds, descend to the aquarium beneath it, and recline under the digital sky of the Morrison Planetarium. It is the city's best family attraction and easily combined with the rest of Golden Gate Park.

Pro Tip: Book a timed ticket online and arrive at opening to enjoy the rainforest dome before it gets humid and crowded. The adults-only NightLife evenings on Thursdays turn the museum into a lively after-hours event with a bar.

Crowning Telegraph Hill above North Beach, the 64-metre Coit Tower was built in 1933 with a bequest from socialite Lillie Hitchcock Coit, and its observation deck gives one of the finest 360-degree views in San Francisco - the bridges, the bay, Alcatraz and the downtown skyline all at once. The fluted concrete column is a beloved Art Deco landmark.

Inside, the ground floor is wrapped in vivid 1930s murals painted by local artists under a New Deal programme, depicting California life and labour. The walk up through the Filbert Street Steps and the hidden gardens of Telegraph Hill, home to a flock of wild parrots, is half the pleasure.

Pro Tip: Walk up the leafy Filbert or Greenwich Street Steps rather than driving - parking at the top is very limited - and listen for the wild parrots. Pay for the lift to the observation deck for the full panorama, and go on a clear afternoon.

Just across the Golden Gate Bridge, Muir Woods National Monument protects a valley of towering coast redwoods, the tallest living things on Earth, some more than 250 feet high and over a thousand years old. Easy boardwalk trails loop along Redwood Creek beneath the cathedral-like canopy, where the light filters down green and the air is cool and still.

It is the most accessible old-growth redwood forest from the city and a complete contrast to the urban sights, often combined with a stop in the pretty bayside town of Sausalito on the way back. Parking and shuttle reservations are required to manage the crowds.

Pro Tip: Reserve your parking or shuttle slot in advance - they are mandatory and sell out, and you cannot just turn up by car. Go early for the quietest trails and the best chance of sun breaking through the canopy, and bring a warm layer.