Rough Guides - Pocket Rough Guide San Francisco (Travel Guide eBook)

As inspiring and charismatic as its singular setting, San Francisco stands apart from other US destinations; in fact, youll struggle to find many places like it anywhere in the world. The famed city is surrounded on three sides by churning water and threaded with a grid of streets that courageously tackles thirty-degree gradients, elements that transcend geography to infuse San Francisco with the boldly independent spirit for which its known. This impression is evident not only in the citys clanging cable cars and charming pastel-hued Victorian architecture, but also in its reputation for championing progressive ideals and LGBTQ rights. Even the weather patterns here are idiosyncratic: summer sometimes doesnt arrive until mid-September.

Dolores Park

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When to visit

San Francisco is notorious for its absence of the usual four seasons the city enjoys one of the most stable climates youll encounter anywhere with rain generally confined between November and April, and the only snowfall being rare dustings atop the Bay Areas peaks. Summer in San Francisco proper is often marked (or marred, depending on your perspective) by the citys signature thick fog, while the rest of the Bay Area sees temperatures soar above 27C (80F) and beyond. Early to mid-autumn finds San Francisco enjoying its sunniest weather, when daytime temperatures regularly crest 20C (70F). Regardless of when you visit, its smart to arm yourself with an extra layer in case fog sweeps in unannounced.

San Francisco may be distinctly West Coast in the relaxed perspective and lifestyle it perpetuates, but its laidback atmosphere certainly doesnt breed complacency. This is a city that was built around dynamism a quality that continues to shape it today and helps make it such a compelling destination. In the late 1840s, this once somnolent bay-side hamlet (originally named Yerba Buena) rose almost overnight from its fishing village origins via its crucial role in the Gold Rush of 1849 to become the first great metropolis of the American west. This mass migration of fortune-seekers to the nascent territory of California initiated a turbulent history that has also seen the city endure silver and dotcom booms and busts, a paralysing longshoremen strike, the bulldozing of neighbourhoods in the name of urban renewal, assassinations of political leaders, an AIDS epidemic, and, most infamously, a pair of cataclysmic earthquakes: the first flattened almost the entire city in 1906, the second fatally pancaked a double-decker Oakland freeway and dislodged a section of the Bay Bridge in 1989. In every instance, San Franciscos unflappable character emerged intact.

Youll quickly discover that San Francisco is also unique among western US cities for its compactness and wealth of transport options, to say nothing of its walkability (provided youre not put off by a few hills). For all its major sights, vaunted culinary culture, vibrant arts scene and other visitor-luring credentials, the city can be surprisingly understated a place where you can enjoy a memorable stay by simply wandering the heroic hills and bay-side paths, exploring its discrete neighbourhoods and broad range of cafs and bars, lazily whiling away an afternoon at Dolores Park or Baker Beach and, above all, just doing what happens. Like any truly captivating city, San Francisco suitably rewards visitors impulsiveness.

Point Bonita Lighthouse

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Ice cream heaven

San Francisco has been a sweet-tooth paradise since )--> offer contemporary flavours.

Complementing densely built San Francisco is the greater Bay Area, an ever-growing region thats the fifth most populous metropolitan area in the US. While its suburban communities have expanded up mountainsides and even onto landfill sites on San Francisco Bays shores through the decades, the Bay Area remains home to an uncommonly ample acreage of protected open spaces particularly in Marin County, the Peninsula and the East Bay.

The estimable cities of Oakland and Berkeley are within easy reach of San Francisco via public transport, but to absorb the full scope of the regions allure and explore anywhere of note beyond these communities, youll certainly want your own wheels. Expect to spend most of your days outdoors, whether along the sublime Marin and San Mateo coastlines, in the humbling redwood groves of Muir Woods, cycling or picnicking on Angel Island in the middle of the bay, or trundling between wineries in the oenophile magnets of Sonoma and Napa.

Swan Oyster Depot

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