San Francisco
From Alcatraz to baseball and Chinatown – see it all in 48 hours
LOS Angeles might be the entertainment capital of California but San Francisco is superior in style and beauty. LA is largely an endless morass of malls and choked freeways; ‘Frisco’ by contrast is small and neat with a gorgeous heart and an enlightened brain.
Nobody is likely to fall in love with LA but, like Tony Bennett, everybody leaves their heart in San Francisco. It has its faults: Mark Twain complained: ‘The coldest winter I ever spent was a summer in San Francisco.’ Thanks to sea mists, the city can shiver in summer, so the best times to visit are spring and autumn.
You will not be disappointed. By the time of flower power and its Summer of Love in 1967, San Francisco had established itself as a unique place not just in songs but in films, books and TV shows. For the past 40 years the city has become indelibly linked to the rise of the computer, being the home of Apple and the place that forged the rise of online operations from airbnb to Uber via Facebook and Google.
Here’s your itinerary for a fabulous 48 hours in the city: DAY ONE MORNING Thanks to jet-lag, you’ll probably be up early. Plenty of time therefore to fine tune your arrangements. After an early breakfast, armed with your vital online reservation (made far in advance via alcatrazcruises. com) you will head to Pier 33 to catch the boat to Alcatraz Island ( 1).
The p r i s o n , whi c h o p e r a t e d here from 1934 to 1963, was once home to some of America’s most notorious criminals and gangsters including Al ‘Scarface’ Capone and the ‘ Bi r d man’ Robert Stroud.
The tour of ‘The Rock’ is fascinating and includes the period of the American Indian Occupation, which began in 1969 and ended in 1971, which is now recognised as an i mportant milestone in t he American I ndian rights movement.
A trip to Alcatraz is the ideal start to your stay because it offers a perfect view of the city and the glorious Golden Gate Bridge ( 2). Return to Pier 33 and stroll along to the iconic
Ferry Building where, at the tourist office, you can buy a MuniMobile pass to travel the cable cars and a Clipper Card for travel on the BART trains and the ferry boats across the harbour.
AFTERNOON After a leisurely lunch ( try the Cowgirl Creamery Sidekick Cafe
& Milk Bar – if only for its name: it’s famous for its cheesy breakfast and lunch items). Take the subway from the Ferry Building to Carl St & Cole St and stroll through the famous
Haight-Ashbury ( 3) district, home of the flower children.
In the evening, it’s time for a little culture combined with history at the San Francisco War Memorial and Performing Arts Center ( SFWMPAC!). The site of the United Nations Charter signing in 1945, it is now the primary venue for many of the Bay Area’s leading cultural organisat i ons, i ncluding San Francisco Performances and the Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra. DAY TWO MORNING You’ll still be rising early from that jet-lag, so after breakfast head back down to the Ferry Building. This time you’re catching the regular Golden Gate Ferry service across the Bay to Sausalito ( 4). It was once a notorious drinking place for hardliving, sea-going folk and you can s t i l l see t he i nfamous brothel. Hire a bike or walk – either way you’re just a few miles from the Golden Gate Bridge. If the bridge looks impressive from a distance, up close it’s stunning. Walk to the top of the hill at the northern end of the bridge (the road tunnels behind you are named after one of SF’s most famous sons, the late actor Robin Williams) for the perfect selfie.
You can either retrace your steps to Sausalito and try one of the toprated restaurants ( Avatar is worth seeking out – it’s especially well known for its luscious desserts such as Avatar’s Dream almond gelato cake with chocolate pistacchios, mango and rose petal sauce), or you can walk over the Golden Gate Bridge and catch a bus on the other side back to downtown SF. AFTERNOON Still plenty of energy left? Then sign up for a walking tour of
Chinatown. Other US cities have Chinatowns but this can claim to be the first, the best and the biggest Chinese community outside
Asia. Step through the famous
Dragon’s Gate and you will enter a busy maze of streets, each full of dim sum restaurants and other traditional eateries.
There are many tours which will explain the history of the area and point out some of its most famous shops, bars and ornate temples, including Tin How and the Chinese Historical Society of America Museum.
If you are in SF from March onwards, for some evening fun treat yourself to a ticket for the San Francisco Giants baseball match at AT& T Park ( 5). Like most US spectator sports, the prime attraction is not so much what happens on the pitch but the pleasures that lie off it: much eating and drinking and ‘ kiss cams’ and the like.
When you get down to it, showbusiness lies at the heart of much of what happens in San Francisco, just as in LA. But in SF, it’s all done with so much more style…