Twenty percent larger than New York’s Central Park and just as iconic, Golden Gate Park is 1,000-plus acres of rolling hills, groves of trees, gardens and hidden treasures. The park also houses some of SF’s most beloved institutions—the Victorian-era glass-ensconced Conservatory of Flowers, the de Young Fine Arts Museum and the Academy of Sciences, among them—as well as less famous attractions such as the bison paddock, Shakespeare’s Garden and the north and south windmills.

Inside the historic Ferry Building you’ll find tasty merchants like Cowgirl Creamery, Dandelion Chocolate and Fort Point Beer Co. but three days a week, the real action is outdoors. On Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays, regional farmers and ranchers converge to hock fresh veggies, flowers, meats and other small-batch goods as part of the best farmers' market in the city.

Colorful Victorian and Edwardian houses can be found across SF, but there’s one row in particular, so iconic that it’s simply referred to as "the Painted Ladies” (or sometimes Postcard Row). The houses of 710-720 Steiner Street have appeared in an estimated 70 movies, ads and TV shows including, yes, "Full House." Get a great view from Alamo Square across the street.

Converted from a lighthouse station to a military prison in the 1870s, this formidable fortress in the middle of San Francisco Bay was home to the early 20th century’s most notorious criminals. Today, you’ll only make it to "The Rock" via ferry from Pier 33. Once there, the self-guided audio tour narrated by former inmates and guards will fill you in on harrowing escape attempts, prison riots and the 19-month long occupation of the site by Native Americans in 1969.

The world’s most photographed bridge, the Golden Gate's iconic 746-foot-tall orange towers have stood sentinel over the San Francisco Bay since 1937. Even when shrouded in fog, the bridge never fails to impress. The view is spectacular when passing over the span (via car, bike or foot), with downtown SF on one side, nature on the other and a beautiful shock of blue below.

It may be miles from the ocean, but sunny Mission Dolores Park might just be the most popular "beach" in San Francisco. On any weekend above 60 degrees, every green inch of the park is guaranteed to be packed with barbecues, locals lounging on inflatable couches, hula-hoopers and tightrope walkers. Recently expanded restrooms and an updated playground for little ones has made the park even more popular.

Fisherman's Wharf is a tourist playground complete with aquarium, vintage arcade and world-famous bakery, but it's most importantly the best place to see a plethora of playful, barking California sea lions. Why they chose this location is a mystery, but the protected bay, teeming with the fish and squid pinnipeds prefer, has kept them coming back for 30 years.

The Mission-style burrito, invented in the 1960s, is SF’s quintessential dish. There's still some debate as to who created the first Mission-style burrito (a tortilla-wrapped combination of beans, rice, meat and cheese), but our favorite can be found at La Taqueria, which consistently appears on top restaurant lists year after year thanks to its behemoth, rice-free foil-wrapped burritos.

Co-founded in 1953 by poet-artist Lawrence Ferlinghetti, City Lights is where Allen Ginsberg’s "Howl & Other Poems" was first published, putting the Beat Generation on the map. The creaky wooden shop and publishing house is still a center of progressive politics and indie-literary voices, which it stocks alongside a huge inventory of new and used fiction and nonfiction.

This 75-year-old gem covers 55 acres in Golden Gate Park. While the native plants are plentiful, it's particularly known for its assortment of flora from around the world, including the forests of Central America, South America and Southeast Asia. The garden lays claim to the fourth most significant collection of magnolias in the world as well as a fun Garden of Fragrance, where plaques encourage visitors to sniff sweet-smelling plants.

Tartine’s master bakers Chad Robertson and Liz Prueitt have taken home numerous local and national awards for their rustic approach to pastry and bread. The line around the block of food lovers seeking heavenly croque monsieurs, fresh fruit bread puddings, frangipane tarts and their famous crusty country bread hasn’t budged since the bakery opened in 2002. And it’s still worth the wait.

The oldest public Japanese gardens in the country, SF's Japanese Tea Garden bursts with color and beauty in the early spring as maples flame and cherry blossoms bud. Walk stone paths through manicured terraces, through pagodas and over the impossibly-arched drum bridge or meditate on the zen garden before heading to the picturesque Tea House for a cuppa.

Local architect Bernard Maybeck's pièce de résistance, this Greco-Roman rotunda is one of the only surviving structures from the 1915 Panama-Pacific Exposition. You’ll feel like you’ve stepped onto a movie set watching the swans skim across the reflections of the columns and rotunda of the Palace of Fine Arts.

The Buena Vista has been slinging drinks for seafaring folk since 1916, but it wasn’t until 1952 that the cafe got its big break. That year Joe Sheridan, an Irish chef, invented the Irish Coffee. These days, the restaurant’s white-jacketed bartenders serve up to 2,000 of the frothy, whiskey concoctions daily from behind the long, mahogany bar.

This is the place to sample sourdough, period. At the flagship Boudin Bakery on Fisherman’s Wharf, tangy loaves are still made from a mother dough first cultivated in 1849. Watch the bread-making process from the railing overlooking the showcase kitchen, sample it at the café, and buy a few loaves to bring home with you.