Go Citybreak: The home of the Summer of Love leaves good vibes long after the jet lag goes, writes Jason Michael
IT'S EIGHT TIME ZONES, 8,000km and a 10-hour flight away, but San Francisco is a charming city that will leave good vibes long after the jet lag subsides. There's its by-the-bay location, views aplenty thanks to 40-plus hills, and a United Nations of neighbourhoods, as well as the venerable streetcars, rows of Victorian houses (14,000) and the Golden Gate Bridge (one). Even the financial district fails to entirely lapse into tumbleweed territory outside office hours.
The character of the Californian city has been shaped by grand dramas. There was the gold rush of 1849 that made the city and the 1906 earthquake that unmade half of it. Later came the explosion of the hippy movement during 1967's Summer of Love, the emergence of the gay political movement during the 1970s and the dotcom boom and crash of the 1990s.
Today the recession is hitting San Francisco hard, yet the geological elephant in the room – the San Andreas fault – provides people here with a healthy perspective on life, whatever seismic events arrive.
Visitors will find it a compact city that is easily walkable, and if the hills prove a little too much there's the excellent Bay Area Rapid Transit and San Francisco Municipal Railway systems, which provide trains, buses and trams.
Market Street is the main artery of the city and a handy 10km orientation axis that major transport routes run along. To get the rhythm of the city's heart, however, head for nearby Union Square. The area, close to Powell underground station, emerged as San Francisco's premier shopping district in the wake of the 1906 quake, and today it's surrounded by well-known names such as Macy's (170 O'Farrell Street), Tiffany Co (350 Post Street) and Louis Vuitton (233 Geary Street).
Grand hotels and restaurants are also located in the area, as is the theatre district, and historic cable cars pass by up Powell Street. Union Square itself has seated areas, palm trees bordering its corner plazas, duelling chess players and artists exhibiting work, all of which gives a Mediterranean feel and a perfect excuse for people-watching.
If you're after more shopping, however, Old Navy and Gap have big stores on Market, and Westfield San Francisco Centre (Powell/865 Market Street) is a plush addition of recent years.
If anything is a chore about shopping here, it was only that evidence of identity is commonly required when using credit cards. Mine was invariably left at home – my ID, not the card – and one purchase totalling a grand $45 was rescued only when my brother flashed his California driving licence and pointed out the sibling likeness.
It wasn't all plain sailing with cash, either, as brandishing a $50 note elsewhere sparked an appeal over the PA system for change and a not-so-happy queue of campers behind me.
If all that grappling with the US monetary system proves tiring, take a break in nearby Yerba Buena Gardens, at South of Market (or SoMa in local lingo). This green lung amid the skyscrapers has grassy areas for kicking back, water sculptures to soothe the soul and a tea room to quench the thirst.
The Museum of Craft and Folk Art (51 Yerba Buena Lane) is here, with San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (151 Third Street) across the road. There is also more populist fare, in the form of an old-style carousel, ice skating, tenpin bowling and a multiplex cinema.
At the foot of Market Street sits the Ferry Building and busy Embarcadero. The Ferry Building, a rehabilitated city landmark with a tower modelled after a 12th-century structure in Seville, contains a food hall and high-end restaurants, and a farmers' market gives a taster for the city's cuisines. The building is also still a terminal for bay ferries, and there are good views of Oakland Bay Bridge – four times longer but less lauded than the Golden Gate.
Stretching away in both directions from the Ferry Building is the Embarcadero, a thoroughfare on which folk take their recreation: you'll see fashionable locals with small dogs, sleek joggers, phone-wielding rollerbladers and tourists heading for Alcatraz.
The Embarcadero follows the shore to link ferry terminals and piers, including Fisherman's Wharf, traditional home to the city's fishing fleet, and Pier 39, the most tourist-oriented parts of San Francisco. Apparently, 75 per cent of visitors to the city come here; it feels as if the other 25 per cent are around, too, but neglected to tell anyone.
For something a little more retro, drop into the Musée Mécanique (www.musee mecaniquesf.com), on Pier 45, a collection of vintage coin- operated musical instruments and arcade games, and see the zoetropes, quaintly risque puppetry and tests-of-strength kiosks that entertained our grandparents.
Also vintage are the American and Italian streetcars that will shuttle you back from Pier 39 along the Embarcadero. But a stroll back will exercise the senses further as you pass through the Italian North Shore neighbourhood and head into Chinatown. Based around Grant Avenue, the oldest street in the city, Chinatown comprises some 24 blocks of exotic shops, restaurants, temples and museums, where you can browse the weird and wonderful to the weird and not-so-wonderful pentatonic Chinese music blaring from loudspeakers.
If you've any energy left, take a stroll south along Market, past the seedier intersections at Fifth, Sixth and Seventh streets (nothing to worry about during the day), and half an hour should bring you to the rainbow-flagged gay neighbourhood of Castro, where you'll find boutiques and trendy restaurants, with fashionable folk generating buzz long into the night.
All in all, San Francisco provides the sensory and visual treats; all you have to do is keep up. You could do worse than walk several blocks up California Street, turn downtown and enjoy the sight of trams toiling up the incline, the ornate Dragon's Gate to Chinatown just visible, and a backdrop of skyscrapers offering glimpses of the Bay Bridge over turquoise water.
In the words of the late
San Francisco Chroniclecolumnist Herb Caen: "If I do go to heaven I'll look around and say: 'It ain't bad, but it ain't San Francisco.' "
Where to stay, where to eat and where to go if you're taking a break in San Francisco
5 places to stay
The Fairmont. 950 Mason Street, 00-800-04411414, www.fairmont.com/ sanfrancisco. The quintessential San Francisco hotel on Nob Hill. Since opening, in 1907, it has hosted kings, prime ministers and the United Nations – and starred in Vertigoand The Towering Inferno.
Ritz-Carlton. 600 Stockton Street at California Street, 00-1-415-296-7465, www.ritzcarlton.com/en/Properties/San Francisco/Default.htm. A renovated luxury hotel in Nob Hill that provides easy access to Union Square and Fisherman's Wharf.
W San Francisco. 181 Third Street, 00-1-415-777-5300, www.starwoodhotels.com/whotels. A funky hotel with every imaginable comfort – Norwegian Voss spring water, anyone? – and beds crying out for lazy lie-ins.
The Parker Guest House. 520 Church Street, 00-1-415-6213222, www.parkerguesthouse.com. This 21-room Castro hotel caters mainly for gay guests, but all are welcome, and word-of-mouth feedback is excellent.
San Francisco Downtown Hostel. 312 Mason Street, 00-1-415-788-5604, www.sfhostels.com/downtown. Convenient hostel accommodation a block from Union Square. Dorm beds from $25 (€18); private rooms from $60 (€43).
5 places to eat
Slanted Door. 1 Ferry Building, Embarcadero, 00-1-415-861-8032, www.slanteddoor.com. A classy and expensive Vietnamese restaurant at the shore that requires booking well in advance.
Delfina. 3621 18th Street, 00-1-415- 5524055, www.delfinasf.com. A pasta and pizza restaurant in three neighbourhoods: Castro, Mission and Pacific Heights. This is the original branch, and its popularity will likely mean a pre-meal tipple out on the street with other waiting diners, but it's worth the wait.
Foreign Cinema. 2534 Mission Street, 00-1-415- 6487600, www.foreign cinema.com. A venue of choice in the Mission for the hip and trendy seeking dinner or Sunday brunch.
Fresca. 24 West Portal Avenue, 00-1-415-7598087, www.frescasf.com. Peruvian gourmet cuisine that will push your Latin American taste buds beyond Mexico. Ceviche dishes, featuring seafood marinated in citrus, are a speciality.
Carnelian Room. 52nd floor, 555 California Street, 00-1-415- 4337500, www. carnelian room.com. This small lounge is a hidden gem, offering seven tables and vertigo-inducing views between 3pm and 10.30pm. Enjoy the banana profiteroles once you've finished gaping out the window.
5 places to go
Golden Gate Bridge.US Highway 101, 00-1-415-9215858, www.goldengate.org. Walk, cycle or drive across this famous structure, which extends across the Golden Gate Strait to Marin County. The best view is from Vista Point, on the north side of the bridge.
Alcratraz. Boats depart Pier 33. 00-1-415-981-7625, www.alcatrazcruises.com, www.nps.gov/alca. A visit to this former federal jail in the bay is a worthwhile trip despite the crowds. A self-guided narrated tour via headsets takes you around the Rock, once home to Al Capone and the Birdman, Robert Stroud.
Steve Silver's Beach Blanket Babylon. Club Fugazi, 678 Beach Blanket Babylon Boulevard (Green Street), 00-1-415-4214222. www.beachblanketbabylon.com. This long-running music revue and San Franciscan institution features a tale of Snow White seeking love, pop-culture spoofs and political satire, and scene-stealing hats that go beyond big.
California Academy of Sciences. 55 Music Concourse Drive, Golden Gate Park, 00-1-415-3798000, www.calacademy.org. A new €350 million museum in Golden Gate Park that boasts a four-storey rainforest, a one-hectare "living roof" and an eight-metre-deep coral exhibition.
Amoeba Records. 1855 Haight Street, 00-1-415-8311200, www.amoeba.com. Self-proclaimed as the world's largest independent record store, the Haight-Ashbury branch, in a former bowling alley, lives up to the billing. If you're looking for the latest in Japanese electro-folk-two-tone, this is the place.
Where to shop
Westfield San Francisco Centre. 865 Market Street, 00-1-415-5126776, www.westfield.com/sanfrancisco. This plush shopping centre carries an air of cool spaciousness – despite more than 170 stores – and counts Bloomingdale's, Karen Millen, Hugo Boss and Abercrombie Fitch among its tenants.
Hot spot
Martuni's. 4 Valencia Street, 00-1-415-241-0205, http://martunis.ypguides.net. A city institution on the border of Hayes Valley and Castro that remains popular thanks to a mixed crowd of regulars and after-workers, fabulous cocktails and a piano bar for Martini-induced singalongs.
Dos and don’ts
Dobring warm, rainproof clothing, as the city's surrounding geography means summer fog is common.
Don't drive. As well as steep hills, there are the city's drivers and trams to avoid, and the parking is nightmarish.
Go there
Aer Lingus (www.aerlingus. com) flies to San Francisco from Dublin and Shannon, directly until October 25th and via United Airlines and JetBlue hubs over the winter. British Airways (www.ba. com) and Virgin Atlantic (www.virgin-atlantic.com) are among the airlines that fly from Ireland via London Heathrow.