Lonely Planet San Francisco

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Why I Love San Francisco

By Alison Bing, Author

On my way from Hong Kong to New York, I stopped in San Francisco for a day. I walked from the Geary St art galleries up Grant Ave to Waverly Place, just as temple services were starting. The breeze smelled like incense and roast duck. In the basement of City Lights bookstore, near the Muckraking section, I noticed a sign painted by a 1920s cult: I am the door. Its true. San Francisco is the threshold between East and West, body and soul, fact and fiction. That was 18 years ago. Im still here. You have been warned.

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You may have heard that San Francisco has a wild streak a mile wide, but it also happens to be 4.5 miles long. Golden Gate Park lets San Franciscans do what comes naturally: roller-discoing, drum-circling, petting starfish, sniffing orchids and racing bison toward the Pacific. Its hard to believe these 1017 acres of lush terrain were once just scrubby sand dunes, and that San Franciscans have successfully preserved this stretch of green since 1866, ousting casinos and a theme-park igloo village. (Conservatory of Flowers, Golden Gate Park)

Golden Gate Park & the Avenues

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New media art has been collected at San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA) since before anyone knew what to call it. Now the museum is undergoing a $480 million expansion and if that sounds audacious, wait until you see the rest of the neighborhood. The Cartoon Art Museum showcases political cartoons too hot to print, the Contemporary Jewish Museum allows 600 artists to take liberties with Mein Kampf, and Electric Works shows North Korean propaganda posters. (SFMOMA)

The Misson, SoMa & Potrero Hill

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From its 19th century founding to hold Civil War deserters and Native American dissidents to its closure by Bobby Kennedy in 1963, Alcatraz was Americas most notorious prison. No prisoner is known to have escaped alive but after spending even a minute in D-Block solitary, listening to the sounds of city life across the bay, the 1.25-mile swim through riptides may seem worth a shot. For maximum chill factor, book the popular night tour to check out the gloomy jailhouse. On the return ferry to San Francisco, freedom never felt so good.

The Marina, Fishermans Wharf & the Piers

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Other suspension bridges impress with engineering, but none can touch the Golden Gate Bridge for showmanship. On sunny days it transfixes crowds with a radiant glow a feat pulled off by 25 daredevil painters who maintain the bridges luminous complexion by applying 1000 gallons of International Orange paint every week. When afternoon fog rolls in, the bridge puts on a magic show thats positively riveting: now you see it, now you dont and, abracadabra, its sawn in half. Tune in tomorrow for its dramatic unveiling, just in time for the morning commute.