20 Attractions to Explore Near Top of the Mark

The Tonga Room & Hurricane Bar is a restaurant and tiki bar in the Fairmont San Francisco hotel in San Francisco, California. Named after the South Pacific nation of Tonga, this dining and entertainment venue opened in 1945. The Tonga Room replaced the Terrace Plunge, an indoor swimming pool that was installed in the Fairmont in 1929. The pool was transformed into the Tonga Room's lagoon.

Grace Cathedral is an Episcopal church in the heart of San Francisco. This is a house of prayer for all as we are a warm, diverse and an inviting congregat.The parish, which was founded in 1849, lost its previous church building in the 1906 San Francisco earthquake. The cathedral is famed for its mosaics by Jan Henryk De Rosen, a replica of Ghiberti's Gates of Paradise, two labyrinths, varied stained glass windows, Keith Haring AIDS Chapel altarpiece, and medieval and contemporary furnishings.

This is the oldest Chinatown in North America and the largest Chinese enclave outside Asia.

The San Francisco Cable Car Museum in the Nob Hill area offers exhibits that trace the history and workings of the iconic San Francisco cable cars. The museum is part of the complex that also houses the cable car power house, which drives the cables, and the car depot.

Union Square is a 2.6-acre public plaza bordered by Geary, Powell, Post and Stockton Streets in downtown San Francisco, California. "Union Square" also refers to the central shopping, hotel, and theater district that surrounds the plaza for several blocks. The area got its name because it was once used for Thomas Starr King rallies and support for the Union Army during the American Civil War, earning its designation as a California Historical Landmark.

The Wells Fargo History Museum is a museum operated by Wells Fargo in its corporate headquarters in San Francisco, California that features exhibits about the History of Wells Fargo. It includes original stagecoaches, photographs, gold nuggets and mining artifacts, the Pony Express, telegraphs and historic bank artifacts. The museum was initially known as the Wells Fargo History Room when it opened in 1927 in San Francisco. In 1935, a museum was opened for public tours.

City Lights Books is a landmark independent bookstore and publisher that specializes in world literature, the arts, and progressive politics. It was founded in 1953 by poet Lawrence Ferlinghetti and Peter D. Martin. It offers three floors of new-release hardcovers and paperbacks from all major publishers, as well as a large selection of titles from smaller, independent publishers

This is a 48-story futurist building and the second-tallest skyscraper in the San Francisco skyline. It was the tallest building in San Francisco from its inception in 1972 until 2018.

The Contemporary Jewish Museum is a non-collecting museum at 736 Mission Street at Yerba Buena Lane in the South of Market. The museum's mission is to make the diversity of the Jewish experience relevant for a twenty-first century audience through exhibitions and educational programs. The museum has no permanent collection. It curates and hosts a broad array of exhibitions each year in collaboration with other institutions.

California Historical Society inspires and empowers Californians to make the past a meaningful part of their contemporary lives. The Society maintains a collection of historical documents, photographs, art and other research materials, awards the annual California Historical Society Book Prize, and publishes California History, an academic journal, in association with the University of California Press.

Swan Oyster Depot is larger than life and arguably, the best seafood restaurant in San Francisco. Swan's menu has remained largely unchanged throughout its history, and it has had exactly the same 18 wooden stools and marble counter that were installed for the post-earthquake reopening in 1912.

Angel Island is the largest natural island in the San Francisco Bay, offers some of the best views of the surrounding Bay Area. It has been used by humans for a variety of purposes, including seasonal hunting and gathering by indigenous peoples, water and timber supply for European ships, ranching by Mexicans, United States military installations, a United States Public Health Service Quarantine Station, and a U.S. Bureau of Immigration inspection and detention facility.

The Yerba Buena Center for the Arts is located at the Yerba Buena Park and is a place of cultural essence to the city. They showcase art, feature films, dance performances, public programs, etc. The center displays exhibits and collaboratively works with other foundations to promote public welfare and eliminate violence from the community. It also features all types of cinematic endeavors, including documentaries on a variety of subjects, art-house movies and foreign films.

The Museum of the African Diaspora occupies 20,000 Sq. Ft. on portions of three floors of the St. Regis Hotel and Residences designed by SOM. It holds exhibitions and presents artists exclusively of the African diaspora, one of only a few museums of its kind in the United States. It does not have a permanent collection and instead works directly with artists or independent curators when developing exhibitions.

This is one of the city's first parks established in 1847. It has been featured in many feature films. The park is bordered by sidewalk cafes and restaurants such as Mama's, Park Tavern restaurant and the Liguria Bakery as well as the Sts. Peter and Paul Church.

Yerba Buena Gardens is the perfect place to play, dine, shop or just relax. This is the name for two blocks of public parks located between Third and Fourth, Mission and Folsom Streets in downtown San Francisco, California.A pedestrian bridge over Howard Street connects the two blocks, sitting on top of part of the Moscone Center convention center. It is a world-renowned cultural destination for Bay Area residents.

A modern art museum located in the heart of San Francisco. A nonprofit organization, SFMOMA holds an internationally recognized collection of modern and contemporary art, and was the first museum on the West Coast devoted solely to 20th-century art. The museum's current collection includes over 33,000 works of painting, sculpture, photography, architecture, design, and media arts and more.

The Children's Creativity Museum offers hands-on, multimedia arts and technology experiences designed to build creative confidence in children ages 2-12. It offers workshops and exhibits that allow children to produce their own media through various interactive, creative processes: stop motion animation, programming robots, music video production, design challenges, art projects, and more.

Coit Tower, is one of the city’s most interesting destinations. Located on top of Telegraph Hill, it provides 360-degree views of the entire city. The tower, in the city's Pioneer Park, was built between 1932 and 1933 using Lillie Hitchcock Coit's bequest to beautify the city of San Francisco. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places.

The Asian Art Museum of San Francisco houses one of the most comprehensive Asian art collections in the world, with more than 18,000 works of art in its permanent collection, some as much as 6,000 years old.