20 Attractions to Explore Near The Palace Of Fine Arts

The Walt Disney Family Museum is one of the Bay Area’s most inspirational venues, welcoming visitors to an historic building that reveals 40,000 square feet of imagination, which features the life and legacy of Walt Disney. It features the newest technology and historic materials and artifacts to bring Disney’s achievements to life, with interactive galleries that include early drawings and animation, movies, music, listening stations, and a 12-foot diameter model of Disneyland.

The Wave Organ is a wave-activated acoustic sculpture located on a jetty in the San Francisco Bay. There is a panoramic view of the city across the narrow channel into the St. Francis and Golden Gate yacht clubs, bounded on the left by the Fort Mason piers and to the right by a towering eucalyptus grove bordering Crissy Field. The park and trail to it are wheelchair accessible, with the trailhead at the Marina Green park.

The Golden Gate National Recreation Area is one of the largest urban national parks in the world. The total park area is 75,398 acres of land and water. Approximately 28 miles of coastline lie within its boundaries. It is nearly two and one-half times the size of San Francisco.The park is as diverse as it is expansive; it contains famous tourist attractions such as Muir Woods National Monument, Alcatraz, and the Presidio of San Francisco.

Lombard Street is an east-west street in San Francisco, California that is famous for a steep, one-block section with eight hairpin turns. Stretching from The Presidio east to The Embarcadero. The famous one-block section claimed to be "the most crooked street in the world", is located along the eastern segment in the Russian Hill neighborhood. It is a major tourist attraction.

The San Francisco Maritime National Historical Park is located in San Francisco, California, United States. The park includes a fleet of historic vessels, a visitor center, a maritime museum, and a library/research facility.

Aquatic Park Historic District is a National Historic Landmark and building complex on the San Francisco Bay waterfront within San Francisco Maritime National Historical Park. The district includes a beach, bathhouse, municipal pier, restrooms, concessions stand, stadia, and two speaker towers.

A majestic public square with shops and restaurants and a 5-star hotel in the Marina area of San Francisco, California. A portion of the area was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1982 as Pioneer Woolen Mills and D. Ghirardelli Company. ​​​​​​​The square once featured over 40 specialty shops and restaurants. Some of the original shops and restaurants still occupy the square.

The Cartoon Art Museum is a California art museum that specializes in the art of comics and cartoons. It is the only museum in the Western United States dedicated to the preservation and exhibition of all forms of cartoon art. The permanent collection features some 7,000 pieces as of 2015, including original animation cels, comic book pages and sculptures.

Hyde Street Pier is home to the fleet of historic landmark vessels in the collection of the San Francisco Maritime National Historical Park, which is a unit of the National Park System. For a modest admission fee, visitors can board this fleet of turn-of-century historic ships.

Children's Fairyland is America's first storybook theme park, located on the shores of Lake Merritt in the heart of Oakland. It includes 10 acres of play sets, small rides, and animals. The park is also home to the Open Storybook Puppet Theater, the oldest continuously operating puppet theater in the United States.

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.

This small stretch of sand on the southwest side of the Golden Gate Bridge is one of the most beautiful places in California with the massive rocks, waves crashing on the sand, and the staggering Golden Gate Bridge providing a backdrop to it all. It’s incredibly photogenic, offering spectacular views of the Pacific Ocean and the Marin Headlands.

One of the popular tourist attractions in San Francisco. It roughly encompasses the northern waterfront area of San Francisco from Ghirardelli Square or Van Ness Avenue east to Pier 35 or Kearny Street. It is one of the busiest and well-known tourist attractions in the western United States. Other tourist attractions at the wharf include museums, souvenir stores, historical buildings, scenic vistas over the Bay and the famous sea lions at Pier 39.

The SS Jeremiah O'Brien is one of two remaining fully functional Liberty ships of the 2,710 built and launched during World War II. Now based in San Francisco, she is a rare survivor of the 6,939-ship 6 June 1944 D-Day armada off the coast of Normandy, France.

The USS Pampanito is a meticulously restored World War II diesel-electric powered submarine. Located at Historic Pier 45, in the heart of Fisherman's Wharf, Pampanito is both a museum and a memorial to those who served in the "silent service." Built in 1943, Pampanito made six patrols in the Pacific during which she sank six enemy ships and damaged four others. Open daily to the public, offering self-guided audio tours and docent-led tours.

The Musée Mécanique is a for-profit interactive museum of 20th-century penny arcade games and artifacts, located at Fisherman's Wharf in San Francisco, California. With over 300 mechanical machines, it is one of the world's largest privately owned collections.

Alamo Square is a residential neighborhood and park in San Francisco, California. Its boundaries are not well-defined but are generally considered to be Webster Street on the east, Golden Gate Avenue on the north, Divisadero Street on the west, and Fell Street on the south. The well known postcard motif "Painted Ladies" is located in Alamo Square.

Madame Tussauds San Francisco is a wax museum located in Fisherman's Wharf, San Francisco in California. The attraction opened on June 26, 2014 and became the 17th Madame Tussauds museum to open worldwide. The attraction features wax figures of famous figures from movies, music, politics, popular culture and sport. It also celebrates “The Spirit of San Francisco” with wax figures of local artists, musicians and activists from the city's past.

Along the eastern side of Alamo Square Park is one of the most iconic and most photographed sights in San Francisco. These pastel-colored homes, standing shoulder-to-shoulder on the gentle slope of Steiner Street, are called the Painted Ladies. Also known as "postcard row" for their scenic beauty, these Victorian homes are a beautiful reminder of the San Francisco of old, while the gleaming downtown skyline of new San Francisco shimmers in the distance.

This is a public beach on the peninsula of San Francisco. Large waves, undertow and rip currents make the beach unsafe for swimming, but it provides panoramic views of the Golden Gate Bridge, Marin Headlands and Lands End. You can fish or check out the shorelife along the beach and rocky shoreline. Restrooms and picnic tables are nearby.