Your drive around San Francisco would not be complete without going to Fisherman's Wharf, Ghirardelli Square, and Aquatic Park. You can drive your rental car, or take a cable car across town from the downtown area. There's nothing like driving the hills of San Francisco! Many fishing boats still dock at the Wharf, but Fisherman's Wharf today is now a center of shops and restaurants. Pier 39 is fun thanks to the delightful colony of sea lions which took over its boat marina. Aquatic Park features a beach, of sorts, and a long pier spiraling well out into the Bay. Don't forget the tall ship Balclutha moored at the Hyde Street Pier. Balclutha and other historic ships are docked near the Maritime Museum. Ghirardelli Square, a tasty chocolate factory-turned-shopping and a restaurant complex, features some of the city's better dining with wonderful views. And don't forget, when you're out to try the Irish Coffee.


Stately Beaux Arts buildings like the Opera House and the domed, renovated City Hall stand next to the newer Louise M. Davies Symphony Hall and the Public Library's Main Branch. Rent a car and look at the homes of Cow Hollow, originally the home for actual cows. The next area is The Presidio where Pacific Heights slopes down to the Marina. Stop your rental car anywhere along the San Francisco hills, where spectacular views are the norm. You'll find such eateries as the Balboa Cafe and Sushi Chardonnay, on Fillmore and Union Streets. While traveling around San Francisco, you may want to take time out at an outdoor cafe in Maiden Lane, or relax at one of the many art galleries on Sutter and Geary Streets.

Having collected your car from San francisco International Airport drive your rental car out to Golden Gate Park. It offers endless recreational possibilities for tourists and locals. And visitors will enjoy the 1000 acres of gardens, meadows, lakes, golf, archery, and internationally recognized art and science museums. The M.H deYoung Memorial Museum, the Asian Art Museum, and the California Academy of Sciences are the main cultural attractions in the Park. You will also want to include the San Francisco Zoo and the Japanese Tea Garden in your travels.

If you're adventurous on your tour, you may want to drive your car the Haight Ashbury area, made famous in the hippie era of the 60s. The area around Haight and Fillmore feels at once more bohemian. Tour the ethnic restaurants, down-home cafes and independent bookstores in this neighborhood. The youthful street life gets going on nights and weekends. And if you're in San Francisco at the right time, catch the Haight Ashbury Street Fair. You'll find on your tour of San Francisco a very different Fillmore Street on the Pacific Heights end. Drive your rental car or van out to the restaurants, epicurean food, and antique shops. Fillmore and Geary has become a popular nightlife destination, thanks to John Lee Hooker's Boom Boom Room. There is the famous Fillmore Auditorium, and the AMC Kabuki 8 Theater multiplex, a favorite for film festivals. The Kabuki 8 Theater and neighboring Kabuki Hot Springs are part of the Japan Center, at the center of Japantown. A sort of miniature Ginza, the Japan Center features a 100-foot pagoda, bonsai gardens, sushi bars and other businesses for the business traveler and tourist. Each spring it holds the Northern California Cherry Blossom Festival.

Travel over to Huntington Park where you'll find Grace Cathedral, a 3/4 replica of Paris' Notre Dame. Adjoining Nob Hill is Russian Hill, where San Francisco's old money has a great view of the Bay. Definitely take your rental car to drive down the "Crookedest Street in the World" which snakes down Russian Hill for the 1000 block of Lombard Street. The traffic is generally impossible but worth it.

North Beach was an area for the Beat Generation writers and poets in the 1950s. City Lights Bookstore and the cafes and shops on upper Grant Avenue still exude Beatnik funkiness.

If you take your rental car out to The Mission District you'll find it the center of Hispanic culture. This Mission now houses increasing numbers of young professionals and their SUVs. Travel to Mission Street a center for Mexican and Central American businesses. Your tour will not be complete without a visit to the popular La Taqueria restaurant, the wait is worth it.

Tourists and students from nearby UCSF Medical School take advantage of the many ethnic restaurants, from Ethiopian to Thai. Take a trip out to the Sunset District. A quiet and intensely foggy residential district.

Having collected a car from San francisco International Airpor there places that you can easily travel to in your rental car that are interesting. Go over the Golden Gate Bridge to Sausalito, Marin County, Mt. Tamalpias, and on up to Bodega Bay made famous by Alfred Hitchcock's "The Birds". Or if you're in a mood for student culture drive over to Berkeley to visit the University of California campus area. Take in a Giants baseball game or an Oakland Raiders football game. There is so much to do and see in the San Francisco Bay area.