DISCOVER
SAN FRANCISCO CALIFORNIA

Most people are familiar with the nickname, City by the Bay, but locals mostly just call San Francisco, The City. And it's always capitalized, even in our thoughts.

The usage is so common in fact, that if you were to say to friends: "We're going to The City to catch dinner and a play this weekend," it would never occur to them that you were headed to San Jose or Berkeley or Sacramento.

While you're planning your trip to The City, find the best prices on San Francisco hotels at HotelsCombined:

Golden Gate Bridge;
Photo by Suzi Rosenberg

But it's also one of the smallest big cities in the world, making it accessible and user-friendly. The whole city is contained in only 49 compact square miles. You can quite literally walk from one end of San Francisco to the other! (By comparison, New York City is 322 square miles and Los Angeles is 469.)

Yet there are more than 800,000 people living in The City. That's over 16,000 people per square mile!

The homey, small-town half of San Francisco, on the other hand, rises like a Phoenix from the not-quite-buried-ashes of its disreputable and colorful past. A past that includes:

• The California Gold Rush and Emperor Norton
• Fires and earthquakes
• Chinese immigration and the subsequent anti-Chinese laws
• Committees of Vigilance
• The Barbary Coast
• Kearnyism and the Sand-lotters
• The 1906 Earthquake and subsequent Fires
• Municipal corruption and the Graft Prosecutions
• Angel Island (the Ellis Island of the West)
• Anti-Japanese sentiment and the evacuation of Japanese from San Francisco
• The Maritime Strike and Bloody Thursday
• The Bohemianism of the Beat Generation
• The Hippies with their Summer of Love, Haight Ashbury Free Clinic, and Psychedelic music
• The American Indian occupation of Alcatraz

The City's past adds seasoning to its present with a sense of funky fun and disdain for authority that is so much a part of the San Francisco California that we know and love.

You're probably familiar with San Francisco's famous tourist attractions, whether you've been to The City or not: the Golden Gate Bridge, SF's cable cars, Chinatown, Alcatraz Island, Ghirardelli Square, Coit Tower, the Cliff House...

But here are some things you might not know about The City:

• San Francisco California (which was originally called Yerba Buena) was just a small fishing village until James Marshall discovered gold in 1848

Coit Tower;
Photo by Suzi Rosenberg

• There are 43 hills in the City of San Francisco - it's part of the California Coastal Range
• Contrary to popular opinion and local advertising, Lombard Street is not "The Crookedest Street in the World" - or even in San Francisco
• The City and County of San Francisco California are one and the same, making it a sort of city-state
• San Francisco can be very expensive, but there are also many free things to do!
• San Francisco Bay was originally larger (and the land available for building was smaller). During the California Gold Rush, over 600 ships and their cargoes were abandoned in the bay as their owners, crew, and passengers rushed off to the goldfields. Many of those ships became landfill - increasing the size of the new city, and becoming the foundation of San Francisco's Financial District

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But for me, it's the neighborhoods that make San Francisco an unequalled experience! This is the small-town half of The City, and it's by exploring the neighborhoods that you'll get to know the real San Francisco.

Each neighborhood has its own unique character which is constantly evolving - and collectively they have created this amazing city-town that is unlike any other!

Picture yourself:

• Taking an early morning stroll through Chinatown, and watching the Mom and Pop groceries receive the day's fresh produce




Washington Square Bar & Grill;
Photo by Suzi Rosenberg

• Greeting an old Italian couple who are sipping coffee at a sidewalk table outside a North Beach coffee house - the one they've frequented for 50 years
• Window shopping along trendy Union Street in The Marina District before heading out through the neighborhood to end up at the Yacht Club harbor
• Watching fishing boats unload tons of fresh Dungeness crab along Fisherman's Wharf




Irish Coffees at the Buena Vista;
Photo by Suzi Rosenberg

• Stopping in at the Buena Vista for an Irish Coffee - after all, they invented it!
• Searching for the Wild Parrots around Telegraph Hill as you meander down the Filbert Steps and through the gardens below Coit Tower
• Accidentally stumbling on a closed-off street that's sporting artisan booths for a neighborhood street faire

San Francisco's Neighborhoods, its walkability, its excellent public transport, its cafes and squares and parks, its support of art and culture - these are the things that give The City its unique character, which is part American frontier and part European flair.

Are you heading for San Francisco California? Find the best hotel deals at HotelsCombined:

Getting the most out of San Francisco California - Here's where you'll find the best that The City has to offer:

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