Fodor's San Francisco 2000: Expert Advice and Smart Choices, Updated Annually, with a Full-Size Map and Colo r Planning Section (Travel Guide)

A new edition of the title in the GOLD GUIDES series which covers the whole region and incorporates information on activities, trips and shopping and on accommodation for all budgets. A full-colour Rand McNally map is also included.

Destination San Francisco

Few cities enchant their guests like San Francisco. Many of its residents were once visitors who came to see the sights and then, smitten, returned to look for a job and a place to live. However you define the good life -- or the great vacation -- you can find it here, abandoning yourself to the wonderful food and wine, the arts, shopping, café-sitting, people-watching, and the outdoors. The venues for these activities range from Fisherman's Wharf to Baker Beach and are invariably surrounded by a sublime marriage of man-made and natural beauty that is unique to the city.
Hills and Views

Wherever you are around San Francisco and Marin County, you're never far from a dazzling view. One classic is the panorama from Berkeley and Oakland over the Bay Bridge and the San Francisco skyline -- it's particularly magical after dark. Or head to the top of 180-foot Coit Tower, the vintage landmark that's one of the city's favorite viewpoints. Or try taking the ferry to Alcatraz Island: you can see the city, Marin County, and the East Bay en route. The views from the notorious penal island aren't too bad either. Years ago, cable car passengers on Hyde Street, which runs down to Fisherman's Wharf at the base of the hill, must have found all that water between them and the residents of Alcatraz very comforting. The hills of Angel Island, the trail-crossed, bay-washed state park beyond Alcatraz, provide stunning views as well.
Communities

If you miss the city's neighborhoods you will miss much of its soul. In Haight-Ashbury, the '60s still echo (if faintly), and murals in Balmy Alley in the heavily Latino and increasingly hipster Mission District add color to this already vibrant area. The Chinatown Gate marks the entrance to 14 blocks of exotic bustle. The great charm of this city is its offer of community to all. Anyone, from banker to biker to bohemian, gay or straight, from Nob Hill to the Castro, can find a haven here.
Dining

Bay Area residents view good food as a birthright. The sheer number and variety of restaurants make the senses reel. Although fresh ingredients were always at hand, it took Berkeley's Alice Waters, of Chez Panisse, to build a cuisine around them, and her café is now the nucleus of an enclave called the Gourmet Ghetto. That said, food is not the only draw -- the ocean view from the Beach Chalet is as compelling as the frothy drinks and freshly brewed beer. Nor is the food always Californian. At Molinari Delicatessen and Rose Pistola in North Beach, the accent is definitely Italian. And all over town you'll find Indian, Chinese, Vietnamese, French, and Mexican fare, and just about any other cuisine you can name.
Shopping

Given San Francisco's rich patchwork of neighborhoods and lifestyles, shopping for clothing, crafts, art, or just about anything else is as much a travel experience as a transaction. Want something tie-dyed? Head for the Haight. Need a ginseng pick-me-up? Try Chinatown. Fine collectibles? Visit the venerable Gump's or the dealers in gentrified Jackson Square. Boutiques, antiques, and an air of chic dominate Union Street, where browsers can have as much fun as buyers. Note that window-shoppers here often find themselves reaching irresistibly for their plastic. (This is a peril, too, for those who venture into the fancy Union Square shopping zone.) Objects of extraordinary beauty, from kites to kimonos, can be acquired at the Japan Center. Wherever you shop, from the Castro to Pacific Heights, you're certain to discover a fascinating new face of the city.
The Arts

In San Francisco the lively arts sometimes get downright frisky. A case in point is Club Fugazi, home to Beach Blanket Babylon, a long-running send-up of all things San Franciscan. Then there are the refined pleasures of performances by the San Francisco Symphony, led by Michael Tilson Thomas, or of productions at the War Memorial Opera House. Contemplative pleasure is the order of the day at the Asian Art Museum. Cinemaphiles flock to the Castro Theatre. It specializes in flicks your local video store probably doesn't stock, and its programs are eclectic and thoughtfully assembled. There are film festivals all over town, as well as a generous share of movie houses whose selections are decidedly noncommercial. If contemporary painting and photography are your thing, don't miss the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, or SFMOMA to its many friends. Its Mario Botta-designed home is as arresting as the works that hang within it.
Outdoors

In San Francisco you are never far from the great outdoors. The sea air and California sunshine alone are worth the trip to the city. Don't worry: You will see fog, too. The best place to enjoy them is Golden Gate Park, one of the world's great urban preserves. Gloriously landscaped, it's home to some equally glorious biking and jogging as well as a conservatory, a Dutch windmill, a Japanese tea garden, and a paddock full of buffalo. The Pacific, which pounds the park on the west, also washes the windswept beaches of the sprawling Golden Gate National Recreation Area, to the north. Smaller green spaces are scattered all over town; locals greet the day with tai chi in Washington Square. When the water beckons, rent a sailboat in Sausalito if you're up to handling the tricky winds, or just head for Tiburon, in Marin County, to sit on the deck of a bay-view restaurant and watch other people's boats bobbing hither and yon on the glittering waters.
Side Trips

San Francisco puts you within striking distance of many other memorable destinations. Marin County, on the north end of the Golden Gate Bridge, is full of drowsy towns with lovely restaurants, good bookstores, and abundant natural beauty. Point Reyes National Seashore has a famous lighthouse and secluded beaches, and Muir Woods is home to a redwood grove that includes trees dating back more than a thousand years.