DK Travel : San Francisco : Places of interest

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Jackson Square

Renovated in the 1950s, this neighborhood right next to the Transamerica Pyramid contains some of San Francisco’s oldest buildings. In the 19th century the area was notorious for its squalor, and was nicknamed the “Barbary Coast,” but brothels and drinking establishments have given way today to upscale offices and the city’s most lavish antiques shops. The blocks around Jackson Street and Hotaling Place feature many original brick, cast-iron, and granite façades.
Japantown

The Japan Center was built as part of an ambitious 1960s plan to revitalize the Fillmore District. Blocks of aging Victorians were demolished and replaced by the Geary Expressway and this Japanese-style shopping complex, with a five-tiered, 75-ft (22-m) Peace Pagoda at its heart. Taiko drummers perform here during the Cherry Blossom Festival each April. The extensive malls are lined with authentic Japanese shops and restaurants, plus an eight-screen cinema, and the Kabuki Springs and Spa. More shops and restaurants are found along the outdoor mall across Post Street. This neighborhood has been the focus of the Japanese community for some 75 years.
Lake Merced

Located at the beginning of scenic Skyline Boulevard, this attractive lake, set amid verdant hills, extends across the southern end of the Sunset District. Relatively undeveloped and certainly under-used, it nevertheless gets its share of recreation enthusiasts. They come for the municipal Harding Park 18-hole Golf Course, and the biking and running trails that circle the lake’s green shoreline.
Marin County Headlands

To visit these raw, wild hills with astonishingly beautiful views is to enter another world; yet it’s only half an hour’s drive away, by way of the Golden Gate Bridge. The scale of the rolling terrain is immense, and the precipitous drops into the ocean dramatic. This is an unspoiled area of windswept ridges, sheltered valleys, and deserted beaches.
Marina District

This is a pleasant, upmarket zone, featuring bars and trendy boutiques along Chestnut Street. Marina Green is a vast lawn where locals love to jog, skate, fly kites, picnic, or walk their dogs. At the tip of the breakwater that protects the Marina, you can tune in to the bizarre sounds of the Wave Organ, an instrumental structure of underwater pipes through which the tides slosh in a vaguely musical fashion.
Metreon

Intended as a lively, high-tech, multilevel amusement arcade for adolescents, so far the only thing that seems to have clicked is the superb cinema complex. Here you can see the latest Hollywood blockbusters with full digital sound effects amped up to the highest possible level. Otherwise, the Metreon’s darkened rooms, designed for checking out the latest video games, are largely abandoned by the teens who were supposed to be flocking.
Mill Valley

Home to a well-known film festival, but perhaps more famous as the quintessential Marin hometown. It’s wealthy, relaxed, and beautiful, and the well-educated populace is given to progressively liberal views on just about every topic. The old part of town is flanked by wonderful stands of redwoods, lined with old buildings that house restaurants and unusual shops, and the whole centers around an eternally pleasant public square where people come to hang out.
Mission District

The teeming Hispanic world, with all the accompanying noise and confusion, constitutes the Mission, home to San Francisco’s many Latinos. They have brought their culture with them – bustling taquerias , salsa clubs, Santeria shops, lively murals, and Spanish everywhere you look and listen. It’s a loud, odoriferous place, with edgy crowds dodging each other along the main drags, Mission and Valencia streets and their connecting streets from Market to Cesar Chavez (Army). Its folklórico festivals are not to be missed, especially the Carnaval.
Mission Dolores

The original Spanish Misión San Francisco de Asís, from which the city takes its name, is a marvel of preservation and atmospheric charm. It was founded in 1776, just a few weeks before the Declaration of Independence.
Mount Tamalpais

No more breathtaking view exists than that from the summit of mystic “Mount Tam,” sacred to the Native Americans who once lived here. At 2,570 ft (785-m) high, those who hike up to the summit can take in practically the entire Bay Area at a glance. The area all around is a state park, a wilderness nature preserve with more than 200 miles (320 km) of trails that wind through redwood groves and alongside creeks. There are picnic areas, campsites, and meadows for kite flying. The steep, rough tracks here gave rise to the invention of the mountain bike.