Andrew Nash
Vienna Transport Strategies

North Beach - Chinatown - Union Square

This tour is made for eating, San Francisco is filled with great restaurants, but one of the great charms of our city is having an espresso in a North Beach café, having dim sum in Chinatown, and a cocktail in Union Square.

Start this tour at the Ferry Building; take the "F-Line" towards Fisherman's Wharf to Filbert Street. Walk west on Filbert Street until you reach the foot of Telegraph Hill. If you have any second thoughts about climbing the Filbert Street steps, you can always take Muni's #39 Coit bus up to the top of Telegraph Hill from Washington Square.

Telegraph Hill - Coit Tower - The Filbert Street Steps lead to the top of Telegraph Hill. The steps take you through a garden and if you are lucky you will see (or hear) the Hill's famous parrot flock. Coit Tower was built in 1933 and contains superb depression era murals from WPA artists.

North Beach - From Coit Tower you can walk down the west side of the slope into North Beach, the city's Italian neighborhood. Washington Square, located at Columbus and Union is the center of North Beach. On nice days it's full of people soaking up the sun or participating in many different types of activities that take place here.

Perhaps it was the espresso coffee that attracted the Bohemians to this neighborhood in the late 1950s. Walk down Grant Avenue to Columbus, stopping to eat and drink along the way. The City Lights Bookstore at Columbus near Broadway is a center for local publishing and supported many of the most famous Bohemian writers.

Chinatown - Continuing down Grant Avenue you pass through San Francisco's Chinatown. Grant Avenue is full of restaurants and gift shops, but if you walk uphill a block to Stockton you will be on Chinatown's main commercial street - it's crowded but full of sights. Explore the alleys and see if you can find the ones that have been renovated as part of San Francisco City Planning Department's Chinatown Alley Project.

Cable Car fans can visit the cable car museum at the corner of Mason and Washington Streets on the Chinatown-Nob Hill border. The museum is located in the cable-car powerhouse, so you can watch the machinery pulling the cable through the streets. Hours vary so check the Cable Car Museum website for more information.

Union Square - Keep walking through Chinatown and you will find yourself in the Union Square area. Union Square has recently been redesigned and is now an exciting urban place, worth stopping for a coffee and enjoying the city scene. Exclusive stores and department stores will surround you.

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