City: San Francisco

The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art is home to an international array of artwork both modern and contemporary that first began in 1935 and was regarded as California’s flagship in art until similar institutions were opened in Los Angeles in the late 1980s. Housing works by great household names both national and international like Matisse, Duchamp, Warhol, and Pollock (the last of which held his first museum show here), the main museum has expanded three times since it first opened with the addition of a design by architect Mario Botta, a rooftop garden, and an expansion designed by Norwegian architecture firm Snøhetta. That last expansion was the museum’s most ambitious, opening in 2016 and growing its space by 235,000 square feet. Over half a million visitors walk through its collections every year.

This famously steep street in San Francisco, with its eight hairpin turns, is claimed to be “the crookedest street in the world”. It’s a famous attraction in the city, seeing upwards of as many as 17,000 visitors per day in the peak summer season. Built in 1922, its notorious design was made to reduce the hill’s original steep quality of a natural 27% grade; way too steep for most vehicles. Despite that discouraging quality, Lombard Street has been host to many car chase scenes in film, like Bullitt starring Steve McQueen and Hitchcock’s Vertigo, in addition to being featured more sombrely in popular television shows, like Full House. Lombard Street stretches from The Presidio in the east—a former U.S. military fort and part of the sprawling San Francisco Recreational Area—and The Embarcadero in the west, a reclaimed three mile-long stretch of seawall. Standing on its and looking down to the east provides a beautiful view of Telegraph Hill and Coit Tower.

Looked to for football at both the premier college and national levels in the San Francisco Bay area, Levi’s Stadium’s maximum capacity of 75,000 fans was stacked when it hosted Super Bowl 50 in 2016. It’s not only used for football either; the stadium had hosted as many as 83,000 when it hosted The Grateful Dead’s Fare Thee Well Tour in 2015. Whatever your preference for events, the scope of Levi’s Stadium’s space has been home to all kinds of entertainments that range from pro wrestling to ice hockey and top tier soccer matches. A considerable achievement when taking into account that it only opened in 2014. There’s a lot to do see and do aside from main events as well. Fans of the 49ers will appreciate a visit to the in-house museum guided tours and field trips for grades K to 8. There’s a team store to supply fans with all of the appropriate hometown swag, as well as the Bourbon steakhouse for the quintessential American steakhouse experience.

The Legion of Honor is part of San Francisco’s series of Fine Arts Museums. This particular collection features art from more than 4,000 years of history. The building itself was designed in the French neoclassical tradition and is a sight to behold. The museum lies within the boundaries of Lincoln Park, which also contains several other memorials and multiple viewpoints from which you can see the Golden Gate bridge.    The California Palace of the Legion of Honor was actually a gift from Alma de Bretteville Spreckels. Having visited the city in 1915, Alma was inspired by the French pavilion built for the city’s Panama Pacific International Exposition. Her inspiration was enough to convince her husband, Adolph B. Spreckels to design a new art museum for the city in the image of the original pavilion.    Several events delayed both the design and construction phases, but the Legion of Honor was eventually completed in 1924. The museum contains a number of profound art exhibitions and consistently updates their collection to display some of the most impressive collections of the times. The museum also offers Free Saturdays, during which visitors can enjoy a variety of engaging art experiences. 

The International Art Museum of America is on a mission to “engage the local community with the greater world.” They do this by creating space for reflection and change and providing an art experience that creates dialogue around diverse cultures. It was founded in 2011 by H. H. Dorje Chang Buddha III who claims to be a reincarnation of the Buddha Vajradhara. At its inception, the International Art Museum of America only featured the works of this renowned Chinese artist but now includes art from around the globe. It has since become a place of peaceful reflection and international exhibits. The museum’s director, Dyana Curreri-Ermatinger, appeared in an interview with Huffington Post to deny speculations that the museum was part of a cult. Museum visitors are welcomed by a permanent garden installation with a pond, waterfall, imitation rock formations, a gazebo, and a tree house sculpture by artist Steve Blanchard.

The Hard Rock Cafe in San Francisco offers a one-of-a-kind rock n’ roll experience. They have more than 250 pieces of music memorabilia on display and also celebrate the latest music and videos throughout. The Hard Rock in SF hosts live music sessions every Thursday evening from 6-8pm. Local bands perform and a variety of local craft breweries are available on tap. A percentage of the sales from each Thursday is also donated to a local Bay Area music non-profit. Hard Rock Cafe in San Francisco is also open for breakfast if your group wants to get an early start exploring the piers and Fisherman’s Wharf. Whether you need to keep the fun going with endless mimosas or just want to enjoy a great selection of omelets, the Hard Rock can satisfy your morning cravings. Breakfast is served from 8-11am everyday and certain days feature Acoustic Breakfasts, with live performances by local artists.

Golden Gate Park spans 1,017 acres and is filled with various gardens, playgrounds, lakes, picnic groves, trails, and monuments. It’s also home to an array of cultural venues that host regular events and community activities. The park welcomes more than 13 million visitors every year. When visiting Golden Gate Park, the best place to start is McLaren Lodge. This is where you can grab a map and find out about the events happening in the park that day. Picking and choosing what to see in the park can be difficult. What started as a vast windswept expanse of sand dunes has been carefully manicured into a verdant, horticulturally diverse, and picturesque public space. Park engineer William Hammond hall and master gardener John McLaren sculpted Golden Gate Park into a beautiful space for city dwellers to escape their fast-paced lives and reconnect with the natural world.

This 4,200-foot suspension bridge was the longest in America when it was first opened in 1937, and it held that title for nearly three decades. Named after the Golden Gate Strait, which acts as the entrance to the San Francisco Bay from the Pacific Ocean, the Golden Gate Bridge’s iconic status as a San Francisco landmark has garnered a lot of urban legends and speculations ever since it was first built. For example, some wonder how often it needs to be painted to maintain its red color. The answer? Every day the bridge receives maintenance, painting included. Suspended by two enormous main cables, they contain 80,000 miles of material inside of them, enough material to circle the Earth more than three times. Each of the two towers of the Golden Gate Bridge stand at 742 feet over the sea level. An amazing feat of ingenuity and construction for its time, it originally cost $35 million to build in the 1930s—that translates to $1.2 billion today.

Times have certainly changed since the city’s early days, but visitors can still see fishermen at work at Fisherman’s Wharf everyday. In addition to being home to the city’s fishing fleet, the wharf is also the major launching point for Bay cruises and charters. Fisherman’s Wharf is an ideal location for family entertainment. Take in the famous sea lions basking during the day, visit Ripley’s Believe it or Not! Museum, or view aquatic wildlife at the Aquarium of the Bay at PIER 39. Step back in time with tours of the S.S. Jeremiah and the World War II submarine, as well as the U.S.S. Pampanito. Visitors to Fisherman’s Wharf can also enjoy ample opportunities for shopping and dining. The shopping complexes at PIER 39 and Anchorage Square offer a wide variety of specialty shops and restaurants. The old Ghirardelli Square is now a bustling open air market where visitors can experience the Ghirardelli company’s original chocolate-making machines.

The simple yet iconic tower in northern San Francisco is named after Lillie Hitchcock Coit, a wealthy eccentric patron of the city’s firefighters. When she passed away in 1929, she left a substantial amount of money “for the purpose of adding to the beauty of the city I have always loved.” The funds were used to build a monument to her beloved volunteer firefighters and the Coit Tower. The Coit Tower was designed by Arthur Brown Jr.’s firm. Many people think the tower was designed to resemble a fire hose nozzle, however this rumor is not true. Inside the tower, you’ll find murals painted in 1934 by a group of artists from the Public Works of Art Project. They depict life in San Francisco during the Great Depression. In that same year, violence broke out over some controversial elements of the paintings. Despite the radical content, the frescoes opened to the public in the same year.