Home to art ranging from African masks to Mesoamerican earthenware and modern American paintings, the de Young Museum embodies San Francisco’s eccentric spirit. The museum is housed in a distinctive steel-and-glass building in the heart of Golden Gate Park, making it worth visiting for the architecture and location as well as the art. Inside, you can marvel at international art, explore the unusual contemporary architectural spaces, and take a breather at the outdoor art gallery space and café.

Multiple Jackson Pollock works, Mark Rothko’s red–purplish No. 14 painting, and Andy Warhol’s Puma Invader: SF MoMa’s collection is a who’s who in contemporary 20th-century art. Given the A-list art on view and the museum’s convenient downtown location, this is a great first stop for art lovers. Book admission ahead of time to avoid lines, and prepare to spend half a day or longer on your feet to explore the museum's seven floors of modern art, plus the rooftop sculpture garden.

Perched atop Lincoln Park, not far from Ocean Beach, the Legion of Honor is the most staid (and elegant) museum in a city hooked on innovation. But that doesn’t mean it’s boring—step into the lovely courtyard to sit under a bronze replica of Rodin’s The Thinker sculpture, and head inside to explore European, graphic, and contemporary art. The museum also has a dedicated Hall of Antiquities on the lower level, where you can find ancient art, such as a 4,000-year-old Egyptian wood carving.

Among San Francisco’s art museums, the Museum of the African Diaspora (MOAD) is one of the youngest and most experimental. It tells the grand story of the African Diaspora—the global movement of the people and culture of Africa—through its rotating collection of contemporary art: On one visit you might see silk velvet paintings by a Bermudian-born artist, while on another you could see landscape photographs by a local Oakland–based painter.

With interactive exhibits dedicated to physics and human anatomy and perception, the Exploratorium at the waterfront Embarcadero is quite a popular museum in San Francisco. Here, you can act out the stuff of dreams: Place your hand through a tornado, journey through total darkness, and make shadows in bright colors—just know that the Exploratorium is typically brimming with visitors.

The other half of the San Francisco science museums’ one-two punch, the California Academy of Sciences is a nature lover’s dream. It's a robust natural history museum complete with an aquarium, a planetarium, a four-story rainforest dome, and a living green rooftop populated with native plants. Though the museum is geared toward kids and families, it also hosts "NightLife" adults-only events with cocktails and behind-the-scenes looks at various exhibitions.

The Asian Art Museum is wholly dedicated to Asian and Asian-American art and culture. Here, you’ll encounter traditional Chinese ink paintings, Korean moon jars, and artworks crafted exclusively from bamboo in a grand beaux-arts building that was once San Francisco’s main public library. The museum is also within a few blocks of San Francisco City Hall, Davies Symphony Hall, and the War Memorial Opera House, making it easy to visit on a hop-on hop-off bus tour stopping in Civic Center.

Most of San Francisco’s cultural attractions lie north of Market Street, the main thoroughfare splitting the city in half—but the Museum of Craft and Design, located in the Dogpatch neighborhood east of Potrero Hill, cuts against the grain. Here, you'll find original stained-glass compositions, contemporary culture-critical rugs, hand-sewn clothing, and luxurious art jewelry that blur the line between decorative and art objects.

This free museum explores heritage of San Francisco's cable cars, how they work, and how they changed the city. Local legend has it that British-born Andrew Smith Hallidie created the cable-pulled railway after witnessing horses struggling up Jackson Street. Shortly thereafter, the first system was set up in 1873 and it has remained fundamentally the same since. In addition to learning more about this story, you can see the tracks, grips, cables, and brake systems that are still in use today.