San Francisco
First planted in 1894, these 5 acres of gorgeous flower gardens are especially delightful in the spring, when the cherry blossoms pop, and also the fall when the maple leaves transition to a fiery red. Year round, visitors wander the Zen Garden and the bonsai grove, and the Tea House provides tea and fortune cookies (which were first introduced to the US right here in San Francisco).
Free daily tours cover the garden's history; for times, see www.sfcityguides.org.
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When Frederick Law Olmsted, architect of New York's Central Park, gazed in 1865 upon the plot of land San Francisco Mayor Frank McCoppin wanted to turn…
1.21 MILES
Was it the fall of 1966 or the winter of ’67? As the Haight saying goes, if you can remember the Summer of Love, you probably weren’t here. The fog was…
3.84 MILES
If you look close today at the clinker-brick buildings lining these narrow backstreets, past the temple balconies jutting out over bakeries, acupuncture…
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No one could have predicted the cultural force City Lights would become when it first opened in 1953. Sure, it had a proletarian ethos suggested by its…
San Francisco Museum of Modern Art
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When the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art expanded in 2016, it was a mind-boggling feat that nearly tripled the institution's size to accommodate a…
4.17 MILES
If you want to really see San Francisco, head to Coit Tower, a 1933 art deco beaut designed by Arthur Brown, Jr. and Henry Howard that sits high up on…
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Few cities boast a structure so iconic as the Golden Gate Bridge, commemorated in everything from films like The Maltese Falcon to not one but two emojis…
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Welcome to San Francisco's sunny side, the land of street ball and Mayan-pyramid playgrounds, semiprofessional tanning and taco picnics. Although the…
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Follow sculptor Andy Goldsworthy's artificial fault line in the sidewalk into Herzog & de Meuron's sleek, copper-clad building that's slowly oxidizing…
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Sonnets dot the flower beds in this romantic gated garden, home since 1928 to more than 200 flowering plants mentioned in Shakespeare's writings. With all…
3. San Francisco Botanical Garden
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There’s always something blooming in these 55-acre gardens, which cover a world of vegetation from South African savanna to New Zealand cloud forest. The…
4. California Academy of Sciences
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This classic research institute and museum has been teaching San Franciscans about natural history since 1853. Right in the middle of Golden Gate Park,…
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When the weather's behaving, pedal boats and rowboats are available daily at the magnificent 1946 boathouse on Stow Lake. Folks also tend to drop by for…
6. National AIDS Memorial Grove
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This peaceful, 10-acre living memorial ringed by redwoods and graced with poetic paving-stone tributes was founded in 1991 to commemorate millions of…
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Flower power is alive and well at San Francisco's Conservatory of Flowers. This gloriously restored 1878 Victorian greenhouse is home to freaky outer…
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When Frederick Law Olmsted, architect of New York's Central Park, gazed in 1865 upon the plot of land San Francisco Mayor Frank McCoppin wanted to turn…