Pacific Northwest Vacations | San Francisco Travel Guide

San Francisco

From the California Gold Rush on, San Francisco remains the iconic Western American city of our time. Its rolling landscape of street cars, bridges, harbor views and vibrant neighborhoods is more than just a snapshot of bay area life-it captures your spirit and invites you into this dynamic society, full of life and possibility. Long a cultural mecca for intellectuals and visionaries, the city seems in perpetual renaissance from the Beat movement in North Beach to the Haight-Ashbury Summer of Love, the Castro fight for equality and the sustained dot-com boom.

Rated the most walkable city in North America, each street holds a mixture of uses and imparts in own local character whether your taste be the refined or eccentric. This is a city of firsts: dine at Chez Panisse in Berkeley and experience the birthplace of California Cuisine; catch a show at the Fillmore surrounded by the ambiance of the '60s San Francisco Sound; travel back in time amongst Redwoods at Muir Woods National Monument or eating seafood at Fisherman's Wharf. From the Chinese New Year to San Francisco Pride, ethnic and cultural diversity are woven together amongst historic landmarks to create a place unlike anywhere in the world.