Yosemite National Park
Yosemite & the Sierra Nevada
Yosemite means "killer" in the Indigenous Miwok language, and in today's parlance it's indeed an impressive, awesome site.Everywhere you look in Yosemite…
Golden Gate Park
San Francisco
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…
Haight Street
The Haight & Hayes Valley
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…
Chinatown Alleyways
North Beach & Chinatown
If you look close today at the clinker-brick buildings lining these narrow backstreets, past the temple balconies jutting out over bakeries, acupuncture…
City Lights Books
North Beach & Chinatown
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…
Coit Tower
North Beach & Chinatown
If you want to reallyseeSan Francisco, head to Coit Tower, a 1933 art deco beaut designed byArthur Brown, Jr.and Henry Howard that sits high up on…
Golden Gate Bridge
The Marina, Fisherman’s Wharf & the Piers
Few cities boast a structure so iconic as the Golden Gate Bridge, commemorated in everything from films likeThe Maltese Falconto not one but two emojis…
Dolores Park
The Mission, Dogpatch & Potrero Hill
Welcome to San Francisco's sunny side, the land of street ball and Mayan-pyramid playgrounds, semiprofessional tanning and taco picnics. Although the…
Clarion Alley
The Mission, Dogpatch & Potrero Hill
The Mission District has a long history of street art andmuralismo –an oft-political school of public art prevalent throughout South and Central America…
826 Valencia
The Mission, Dogpatch & Potrero Hill
Avast, ye scurvy scallywags! If ye be shipwrecked without yer eye patch or McSweeney's literary anthology, lay down ye doubloons and claim yer booty at…
Waverly Place
North Beach & Chinatown
Grant Ave is Chinatown's economic heart, but its soul is Waverly Place, lined with flag-festooned, colorful temple balconies and family-run businesses…
Mono Lake
Mono Lake Region
North America’s second-oldest lake is 70 sq miles, and a quiet and mysterious expanse of deep blue water. The glassy surface reflects jagged Sierra peaks,…
Point Reyes National Seashore
Marin County
Point Reyes National Seashoreprotects 100 square miles of pristine ocean beaches and coastal wilderness and has excellent hiking and camping…
Alcatraz
The Marina, Fisherman’s Wharf & the Piers
Alcatraz: for over 150 years, the name has given the innocent chills and the guilty cold sweats. Over the decades, it’s been a military prison, a…
Exploratorium
The Marina, Fisherman’s Wharf & the Piers
Is there a science to skateboarding? Do toilets really flush counterclockwise in Australia? At San Francisco's hands-on science museum, you'll find out…
Balmy Alley
The Mission, Dogpatch & Potrero Hill
Since at least the 1980s, if you stroll through San Francisco's Mission District you've likely noticed the neighborhood's profusion of colorful murals and…
Muir Woods National Monument
Marin County
Muir Woods National Monument is located just a few miles north of San Francisco in Marin County, and is a prime peaceful destination for reflection within…
Grace Cathedral
San Francisco
Is there any church that better embodiesSan Francisco's resilience, inclusivity and activist streak? The Nob Hill gem has been rebuilt three times since…
Lassen Volcanic National Park
Northern Mountains
Lassen Peak, the world’s largest plug-dome volcano, rises 2000ft over the surrounding landscape to 10,457ft above sea level. Classified as an active…
de Young Museum
San Francisco
Follow sculptor Andy Goldsworthy's artificial fault line in the sidewalk into Herzog & de Meuron's sleek, copper-clad building that's slowly oxidizing…
California Academy of Sciences
San Francisco
This classic research institute and museum has been teaching San Franciscans about natural history since 1853. Right in the middle of Golden Gate Park,…
Hearst Castle
Central Coast
Perched high on a hill, Hearst Castle is a wondrous, historic, over-the-top homage to material excess.From the 1920s into the '40s, Hearst and Marion…
Chinese Historical Society of America
North Beach & Chinatown
Picture what it was like to be Chinese in America during the gold rush, transcontinental railroad construction, and Beat heyday in this 1932 landmark,…
Alabama Hills
Lone Pine
The setting for countless ride-‘em-out movies, the popularLone RangerTV series and, more recently, parts ofIronMan(Jon Favreau, 2008) and Quentin…
Monterey Bay Aquarium
Monterey
Monterey is practically synonymous with its world-class aquarium overlookingMonterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary, which protects dense kelp forests and…
Julia Pfeiffer Burns State Park
Big Sur
If you're chasing waterfalls, swing into this state park named for the daughter of some of the earliest European settlers to arrive in Big Sur. The…
Pfeiffer Beach
Big Sur
Pfeiffer Beach is at the heart of what Big Sur is all about – splendid, unusual scenery that's inspired generations of artists, writers, and travelers…
Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk
Santa Cruz
The Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk has been an Americana classic like few others for over a century. Now as in 1907 when the amusement park first opened, the…
Sea Lions at Pier 39
The Marina, Fisherman’s Wharf & the Piers
Sea lions took over San Francisco’s most coveted waterfront real estate in 1989 and have been making a public display of themselves ever since. Some…
Earthquake Fault
Mammoth Lakes
Mammoth Mountain is the product of millions of years of volcanic activity, so it should be no surprise that the region surrounding it is full of…
Mariposa Grove
Yosemite National Park
With their massive stature and multi-millennium maturity, the chunky high-rise sequoias of Mariposa Grove will make you feel rather insignificant. The…
Glacier Point
Yosemite National Park
If you drove, the views from 7214ft Glacier Point might make you feel like you cheated – superstar sights present themselves without your having made…
Women's Building
The Mission, Dogpatch & Potrero Hill
A renowned and beloved Mission landmark since 1979, the nation's first women-owned-and-operated community center is festooned with one of the neighborhood…
Haight Street Art Center
The Haight & Hayes Valley
Jeremy Fish's bronze bunny-skull sculpture hints at the weird wonders inside this nonprofit dedicated to works on paper and San Francisco's signature art…
Yosemite & the Sierra Nevada
Joined by a high-altitude roadway bisecting a national forest and contiguous with a number of wilderness areas, these two parks combined offer vast…
Catharine Clark Gallery
The Mission, Dogpatch & Potrero Hill
Art revolutions are instigated at Catharine Clark, a showcase for such gorgeous provocations as Masami Teraoka's paintings of superheroine geishas and…
Malakoff Diggins State Historic Park
Gold Country
An otherworldly testament to the mechanical determination of the gold hunt, Malakoff Diggins is a place to get lost on fern-lined trails and take in the…
Prairie Creek Redwoods State Park
North Coast & Redwoods
Famous for some of the world's best virgin redwood groves and unspoiled coastline, this 14,000-acre section of Redwood National & State Parks has…
Bodie State Historic Park
Mono Lake Region
At Bodie State Historic Park, a gold-rush ghost town is preserved in a state of 'arrested decay.' Weathered buildings sit frozen in time on a dusty,…
Marshall Gold Discovery State Historic Park
Gold Country
This state park comprises a fascinating collection of buildings in a bucolic riverside setting at the site of James Marshall's riot-inducing discovery…
More destinations you need to see
- California
- Southern California
- The Bay Area
