Must-see attractions in The Marina, Fisherman’s Wharf & the Piers

  • Alcatraz Island in San Francisco, USA.

    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…

  • Golden Gate Bridge at the golden hour from Baker Beach.

    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 like The Maltese Falcon to not one but two emojis…

  • The well-known Pier 39 in San Francisco with sea lions. Animals are heated on wooden platforms

    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…

  • Cycle race at Musee Mecanique, housing collections of mechanically operated musical instruments and antique arcade machines.

    Musée Mécanique

    The Marina, Fisherman’s Wharf & the Piers

    A flashback to penny arcades, the Musée Mécanique houses a mind-blowing collection of vintage mechanical amusements. Sinister, freckle-faced Laughing Sal…

  • Fountain in Ghirardelli Square.

    Ghirardelli Square

    The Marina, Fisherman’s Wharf & the Piers

    Willy Wonka would tip his hat to Domingo Ghirardelli (gear-ar-deli), whose business became the West’s largest chocolate factory in 1893. After the company…

  • Chain, Golden Gate Bridge, San Francisco, America

    Fort Point

    The Marina, Fisherman’s Wharf & the Piers

    This triple-decker, brick-walled US military fortress was completed in 1861, with 126 cannons, to protect the bay against certain invasion during the…

  • Fisherman's Wharf

    The Marina, Fisherman’s Wharf & the Piers

    Fisherman's Wharf – the Embarcadero and Jefferson St waterfront running from Pier 29 to Van Ness Ave – includes Pier 39, the Musée Mécanique, the Maritime…

  • Eadweard Muybridge statue and Palace of Fine Arts from Letterman Digital Arts Center.

    Palace of Fine Arts

    The Marina, Fisherman’s Wharf & the Piers

    Like a fossilized party favor, this romantic, ersatz Greco-Roman ruin is the city's memento from the 1915 Panama-Pacific International Exposition. The…

  • Crissy Field in San Francisco

    Crissy Field

    The Marina, Fisherman’s Wharf & the Piers

    War is for the birds at Crissy Field, a military airstrip turned waterfront nature preserve with knockout Golden Gate views. Where military aircraft once…

  • Presidio of San Francisco

    The Marina, Fisherman’s Wharf & the Piers

    Explore that splotch of green on the map between Baker Beach and Crissy Field and you’ll find parade grounds, Yoda, a centuries-old adobe wall and some…

  • The well-known Pier 39 in San Francisco with sea lions. Animals are heated on wooden platforms; Shutterstock ID 47875621; Your name (First / Last): Josh Vogel; Project no. or GL code: 56530; Network activity no. or Cost Centre: Online-Design; Product or Project: 65050/7529/Josh Vogel/LP.com Destination Galleries

    Pier 39

    The Marina, Fisherman’s Wharf & the Piers

    The focal point of Fisherman's Wharf isn't the waning fishing fleet but the carousel, carnival-like attractions, shops and restaurants of Pier 39 – and,…

  • Maritime National Historical Park

    The Marina, Fisherman’s Wharf & the Piers

    Five historic ships are floating museums at this maritime national park, Fisherman's Wharf’s most authentic attraction. Moored along Hyde St Pier, the…

  • Wave Organ Tourist Attraction

    Wave Organ

    The Marina, Fisherman’s Wharf & the Piers

    A project of the Exploratorium, the Wave Organ is a sound sculpture of PVC tubes and concrete pipes capped with found marble from San Francisco's old…

  • Golden Gate Bridge from Baker Beach

    Baker Beach

    The Marina, Fisherman’s Wharf & the Piers

    Picnic amid wind-sculpted pines, fish from craggy rocks or frolic nude at mile-long Baker Beach, with spectacular views of the Golden Gate. Crowds come…

  • Fort Mason Center

    The Marina, Fisherman’s Wharf & the Piers

    San Francisco takes subversive glee in turning military installations into venues for nature, fine dining and out-there experimental art. Evidence: Fort…

  • Cartoon Art Museum

    The Marina, Fisherman’s Wharf & the Piers

    Founded on a grant from Bay Area cartoon legend Charles M Schultz of Peanuts fame, this bold museum isn't afraid of the dark, political or racy – cases in…

  • Swedenborgian Church

    The Marina, Fisherman’s Wharf & the Piers

    Radical ideals in the form of distinctive buildings make beloved SF landmarks; this standout 1894 example is the collaborative effort of 19th-century Bay…

  • Walt Disney Family Museum

    The Marina, Fisherman’s Wharf & the Piers

    An 1890s military barracks in the Presidio houses 10 galleries that chronologically tell the exhaustively long story of Walt Disney's life. Opened in 2009…

  • Maritime Museum

    The Marina, Fisherman’s Wharf & the Piers

    A monumental hint to sailors in need of a scrub, this restored, ship-shaped 1939 Streamline Moderne landmark is decked out with Works Progress…

  • Presidio Officers' Club

    The Marina, Fisherman’s Wharf & the Piers

    The Presidio's oldest building dates to the late 1700s, and was fully renovated in 2014, revealing gorgeous Spanish-Moorish adobe architecture. The free…

  • Aquatic Park

    The Marina, Fisherman’s Wharf & the Piers

    Everyone loves this easy-access cove at Van Ness Ave's northern end, flanked by the massive comma-shaped Municipal Pier, where fishermen cast their lines…

  • National Park Visitors Center

    The Marina, Fisherman’s Wharf & the Piers

    San Francisco grew from its docks, and this 10,000-sq-ft visitors center for the nearby maritime national historical park details how, with a permanent…

  • Aquarium of the Bay

    The Marina, Fisherman’s Wharf & the Piers

    Sharks circle overhead, manta rays sweep by and seaweed sways all around at the Aquarium of the Bay, where you wander through glass tubes surrounded by…

  • SS Jeremiah O'Brien

    The Marina, Fisherman’s Wharf & the Piers

    It's hard to believe that this 10,000-ton beauty was turned out by San Francisco’s shipbuilders in under eight weeks, and harder still to imagine how she…

  • Vedanta Society

    The Marina, Fisherman’s Wharf & the Piers

    Meandering the Marina, you'll pass Mexican-inspired art deco buildings, Victorian mansions, generic bay-windowed boxes – and, hello, what's this? A…

  • Bay Bridge Lights

    The Marina, Fisherman’s Wharf & the Piers

    Artist Leo Villareal's installation of twinkling LED lights along the western span will make you swear the Bay Bridge is winking at you. In 2013,…

  • Tactile Dome

    The Marina, Fisherman’s Wharf & the Piers

    Slide, climb and feel your way – in total darkness – through the labyrinth of the Tactile Dome at the Exploratorium, the city's standout science museum…

  • Octagon House

    The Marina, Fisherman’s Wharf & the Piers

    Crafty architects are always trying to cut corners on clients, and architect William C McElroy has done so splendidly with this house. This is among the…

  • Church of St Mary the Virgin

    The Marina, Fisherman’s Wharf & the Piers

    You'd expect to see this rustic Arts and Crafts–style building on the slopes of Tahoe, not Pacific Heights, but this Episcopal church is full of surprises…

  • San Francisco Carousel

    The Marina, Fisherman’s Wharf & the Piers

    Your chariot awaits to whisk you and the kids past the Golden Gate Bridge, Alcatraz and other SF landmarks hand-painted on this Italian carousel twinkling…

  • Lyon Street Steps

    The Marina, Fisherman’s Wharf & the Piers

    Two blocks of Lyon St, between Broadway and Green St, are flanked by forests and glamorous mansions – including Senator Dianne Feinstein's – and offer jaw…

  • USS Pampanito

    The Marina, Fisherman’s Wharf & the Piers

    Explore a restored WWII submarine that survived six tours of duty while you listen to submariners' tales of stealth mode and sudden attacks in a riveting…

  • Baker Street Steps

    The Marina, Fisherman’s Wharf & the Piers

    A quiet alternative to adjacent Lyon St's social and fitness scene, Baker St's 200 steep, narrow steps between Broadway and Vallejo St are dense with…