DK Travel : San Francisco : Places of interest

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Alcatraz

America’s “Devil’s Island” didn’t operate as a prison for very long, but it can still evoke a chill.
Alcatraz

“The Rock” is always a hit with older children, particularly boys, who relate immediately to the grim, quasi-military aspects of the place. The wildness of the island’s natural beauty, as well as the great ferry ride out and back, will also delight. Smaller kids might find the place a bit frightening.
Angel Island State Park

An ideal place for a full-day family outing. You can picnic, swim, hike, kayak, camp, or take the tram tour that goes all around the island, with a guide who points out sites of historic interest – dating from the days when the place was a rather forbidding immigrant clearing station (see Angel, Treasure, and Yerba Buena Islands).
Angel, Treasure, and Yerba Buena Islands

A trip out to Angel Island, now a state park, can make for a very pleasant day of picnicking, biking, hiking, kayaking, and swimming. But in the early 1900s it was the “Ellis Island of the West,” where would-be immigrants, mostly Chinese, could be detained for months. During World War II, it served as a prisoner of war camp and later as a missile base. Treasure Island was built in 1939 for the Golden Gate International Exposition and was a US Navy base during World War II; it is now once again owned by the city and has recently become San Francisco’s newest suburb. Yerba Buena Island is a Coast Guard station and is mostly closed to visitors.
Aquariums

Part of Golden Gate Park’s California Academy of Sciences (see Steinhart Aquarium), the Steinhart Aquarium is a big hit with kids. The darkened corridors are filled with softly glowing tanks in which some of the weirdest creatures on the planet disport themselves. Then there’s the Touching Tidal Pool if kids want to get up close and personal with their finny friends. At Fisherman’s Wharf, UnderWater World gives an even greater undersea experience, with walk-through transparent tunnels surrounded by sea life (see Aquarium of the Bay).
Bay Area Discovery Museum

This hands-on museum is aimed directly at children. Kids will be able to interact with an underwater sea tunnel, an art studio, a science lab, an engineering lab, the “Maze of Illusions,” and a media center, among other things.
Berkeley

Its days as “Berzerkly,” when student protesters and tear-gas clouds filled the streets in the 1960s, are only a fading memory now, although Telegraph Avenue still keeps some of the countercultural traditions alive. A great university, “Cal’s” faculty boasts some dozen Nobel Laureates, while beautiful parks, tree-lined streets, and unique shops typify this East Bay enclave. Berkeley continues to give more “power to the people” than any other US city, with a host of public services and aid to the disadvantaged that puts other communities to shame.

Sather Tower, Berkeley campus
Bolinas

The next community up from Stinson is a hippie artists’ village that time forgot. Intensely private, the citizens regularly take down all road signs indicating the way to their special place to keep visitors from finding them. Potters and other craftspeople sell their wares in the funky gallery, organic produce and vegetarianism are the rule, and 1960s idealism still predominates.
Broadway

Made famous in the 1960s for its various adult entertainments, the offerings haven’t changed much. Enrico’s, at No. 504, is a great place for dinner.
Caffè Trieste

If you’re in the quarter on a Saturday afternoon, don’t miss the impromptu opera that takes place here. But any time is right for this artists’ and writers’ gathering place.