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Condé Nast Traveler picks
 Best of San Francisco
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It's no surprise that San Francisco is a perennial favorite among travelers both foreign and domestic. Often described as almost European in ambience, the City by the Bay packs a panoply of vibes into its surprisingly small 50-odd square miles at the tip of its namesake peninsula. Golden Gate Park, a masterpiece of nineteenth-century urban planning, combines the natural beauty of its gardens with the culture of its museums. The city's Chinatown, the largest in the western United States, serves tastes of the East, and the ever-gentrifying Mission district has some of the nation's best taco shops. Haight-Ashbury clings to traces of its hippie past, while well-heeled hoods such as Pacific Heights claim some of the priciest real estate on the planet.
Attractions & Activities Despite its famously hilly landscape, San Francisco is a walkable city, with a serviceable public transportation system of buses, streetcars, and subways to span the gaps between destinations that are too far apart for hoofing it (sfmuni.com). And, yes, there are those famous cable cars, whose routes along major tourist attractions and past scenic points—and pricey fares—mean few locals will be among your fellow riders (sfcablecar.com). If you simply must drive, be prepared for gridlock, stops at the tops of steep inclines, and parking that may be far from where you want to go. The bustling residential neighborhood of Chinatown is so popular with tourists that it's almost a cliché, but it's still worth a visit for exploring its storefronts for finds from slinky cheongsams to spirited tiger-shaped kites. To get a fuller picture of life in this vibrant community, time your visit to coincide with Chinese New Year (typically in January or February, but dates vary), when parades of local grandees, costumed dancers, and colorful dragons wind through the narrow streets (chineseparade.com). San Francisco's favorite swath of green was not always so verdant. Before the late-nineteenth century, when Golden Gate Park was designed as the city's largest park, this thousand-acre parcel of land was covered with sand dunes (traces of which still exist toward the western edge, where the park meets the Pacific). Romantics rent rowboats on Stow Lake, the botanically inclined stroll among the beds of blooms by the Conservatory of Flowers, the contemplative take tea in the Japanese Tea Garden, and art and architecture lovers alike check out the De Young Museum, which was redesigned by Swiss architects Herzog & de Meuron and reopened in late 2005 (415-863-3330; thinker.org). Undeniably the city's icon, the Golden Gate Bridge links the San Francisco Peninsula to the Marin Headlands. Completed in 1937, its Depression-era construction is so sturdy that the structure easily supported the 300,000 celebrants who stood on it to mark its fiftieth anniversary, flattening the characteristic arch. There will be fewer pedestrians with you if you choose to walk above the bay waters—perhaps the most scenic way to cross the span, thus avoiding the $5 toll for entering the city (goldengate.org). In 2003, San Francisco's 1898 Ferry Building, at the base of Market Street, reopened as Ferry Building Marketplace, a collection of high-end food shops and restaurants (ferrybuildingmarketplace.com). Several times a week, depending on the season, the Ferry Plaza Farmer's Market is held next door. It has some of the best of the Bay Area's seasonal produce and attracts chefs who come to plan their menus du jour (ferryplazafarmersmarket.com). Smack in the middle of the harbor, Alcatraz and Angel Island draw crowds, but few know how rich each island's history really is. They flock to Alcatraz to check out the digs of Al Capone, "Birdman" Robert Stroud, and George "Machine-Gun" Kelly, but the battleship-shaped rock was built as a military fortress, became a jail for Confederate prisoners, and was occupied in protest by Native Americans from 1969 through 1971, during the launch of their national land-claims movement (nps.gov/alcatraz). Meanwhile, the natural beauty of Angel Island (often called the Ellis Island of the West) gives no hint that it was a prisoner of war processing center during World War II (angelisland.org). Lodging San Francisco sees some 16 million visitors each year, and they are spoiled for choice in terms of places to rest their heads. Five hotels in town are on Condé Nast Traveler's Gold List: the Campton Place Hotel, the Four Seasons, the Mandarin Oriental, the Ritz-Carlton, and the Hotel Palomar. One of the newest arrivals, the Hotel Vitale, is close to AT&T Park, home of Giants baseball, and across the street from the Ferry Building, now a high-rent food hall. The Vitale is the latest from Joie de Vivre, a local chain with 17 properties in the city, 7 of them in historic buildings around Union Square, the practical if not physical heart of San Francisco. Smallish, reasonably priced, and thoughtfully designed, they're also fun, especially the Hotel Bijou, with 65 bright-yellow rooms, each named for a different film that takes place or was shot in San Francisco (from the Harold and Maude to, of all choices, the Shrek), and a ten-seat lobby theater that screens a nightly double feature set in the city by the bay. Another right-priced pick is the Marina Inn: Low-key and friendly, it's considered by many a tight-lipped local to be the best bargain in town. It sits on the non-crooked stretch of Lombard, a busy street—which accounts for the low rates. Dining San Francisco has a reputation for being a food city, and it's easy to see why, with dining options ranging from cheap and authentic, like the taquerias of the Mission, to innovative and pricey, as in the restaurants of the moment. A product of the dot-com era that thankfully wasn't a flash in the pan, Restaurant Gary Danko continues to set the standard for praise-worthy Bay Area dining establishments. The prize-winning menu includes innovative French dishes (horseradish-encrusted salmon, roast squab with couscous), sublime desserts (chocolate soufflé with Grand Marnier sauce), and a 1,500-bottle wine list. Everything arrives perfectly timed but never as you'd expect—it's always better, including the service, which features a team of on-the-ball waiters as sleek as their black three-button suits (800 North Point; 415-749-2060; prix fixes, $61–$89). At Bocadillos, in North Beach, Gerald Hirigoyen serves tapaslike courses—the restaurant's namesake bocadillos, or "little sandwiches"—at a communal table. Most of the offerings are intensely flavored and Basque influenced; the Tai snapper seviche is sublime. Reservations are not accepted, but time flies as you stand at the bar, sipping white wine and nibbling chilled prawns and deviled eggs (710 Montgomery St.; 415-982-2622; entrées, $5–$12). An alum of Berkeley's Chez Panisse, chef Michael Tusk has turned an old Pacific Heights apothecary into Quince, a bright, uncluttered space where he whips up dishes using only the finest seasonal local produce, meat, and fish. Try the satisfyingly hearty, savory, and slightly salty butternut squash gnocchi in lamb ragout, or the tajarin pasta in a light and tasty sage-butter sauce with Parmesan cheese (1701 Octavia St.; 415-775-8500; entrées, $15–$30). At the theater district's mission-style Hotel Adagio, Cortez has an original take on Mediterranean cuisine that's both sophisticated and approachable, serving minicourses that are designed for grazing yet are individually memorable for their novel pairings and complex flavors. Try the silky foie gras terrine on grilled brioche with an herbes de Provence marmalade; the crab cakes breaded with crisped kataifi, or phyllo dough, paired with citrus-marinated cabbage; or the lamb sirloin encrusted with dates and mint, which goes for glory with strips of cumin-infused carrots across a chive puree (550 Geary St.; 415-292-6360; entrées, $7–$17). Forget those notions of Haight Street smoke shops and hippies in tie-dye. RNM is a paean to sleek urban style, with curved chain mail curtains and dark-wood furnishings that provide the perfect backdrop for the black-clad clientele. Chef Justine Miner does a small-plate menu, with playful touches such as an homage to White Castle burgers (white cheddar, caramelized onions, and grilled focaccia) and a homemade Oreo-style cookie paired with a vanilla shake (598 Haight St.; 415-551-7900; entrées, $9–$23). Truth in Travel is the guiding principle for all content published in Condé Nast Traveler. Other travel publications often accept free travel and accommodations. Condé Nast Traveler does not. It is independent of the travel industry. The magazine always pays its way, and, as far as possible, its correspondents travel anonymously. By doing so, they experience the world—both the good and the bad—as other travelers do, and their reports and recommendations are fair, impartial, and authoritative.
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