Fisherman's Wharf

Located at the northernmost tip of San Francisco, Fisherman’s Wharf is the tourist Mecca of San Francisco. The area features picturesque waterfront views, offers family friendly attractions and plots souvenir shops and food vendors all along the main drags (great seafood spots along Beach Street).

Pier 39 in itself is a touristy spot. There you can find a carousel for the kids, a video arcade, a small 3D movie theatre showing the latest animated films and the famous sea lions celebrating their 25th anniversary as a resident of the area. Every afternoon, street artists set up booths, equip themselves with painting tools (usually spray paint canisters) and paint futuristic backdrops of San Francisco. If you walk along the harbor, you can get a tantalizing view of the Golden Gate Bridge. You might want to dress warmly though because the ocean breeze is sure to pick up. If you want to get a better glimpse of the bay, Pier 39 offers boat tours around Alcatraz and Angel Island. Some boats even offer a tour of Alcatraz prison where people can visit the cells and have former residents recount their life experiences. Another tourist hotspot is Ghiradelli square. Known for it’s popular chocolate delicacies, the old chocolate factory has evolved to incorporate many other shops and restaurants worth trying.

Dining out is always a luxury in this neighborhood. Visitors have plenty of options ranging from fresh seafood to delectable bakeries but the prices aren’t cheap. A great restaurant for tourists is Boudin, a quick style bakery where there is an intricate conveyor belt system filled with bread loafs that hover over the customers.

Nightlife in this area is a bit scarce. However, Fiddler’s Green is a trendy two-story spot with a larger than life dance floor. The place is usually overcrowded on weekends, so get there early to secure yourself a spot and avoid the cover.

Fisherman's Wharf isn't a place that the locals like to frequent. It tends to be crowded with tourists and is a slightly stressful and chaotic place. However, if you have visitors coming from out of town, then this is a mandatory area to visit.

The best part of this area has to be Pier 39. There are a lot of shops to browse through and there are many places to grab a meal if you need to (mostly chains though, like Bubba Gump Shrimp Co). After you pass the shopping area, you can walk to the end of the pier. This gives you a great view of the water, Alcatraz, and the towns across the bay. Also at the end of the pier are the famous seal lions and seals lying out on the floating docks.

Some important attractions that I would suggest seeing are the aquarium, the Alcatraz tour (it leaves from this area), and possibly a relaxing cruise or boat ride. There are some great dinner cruises that go under the Golden Gate bridge and come back in a couple hours.

Everyone that has ever come to visit me is always amazed by Fisherman's Wharf. I've seen it a dozen times or so and I am always so amazed at how pleased they are after visiting it. Most recently, my father came for a visit and it reminded me of why everyone who visits San Francisco needs to visit there.

Sure, Fisherman's Wharf is a touristy part of the city. It's filled with gift and souvenir shops, sketch artists, jewelry crafts and food you can eat out of a bread bowl. What's not to love?

What's there to see? Well for starters, a must see is Pier 39. Not only is it like a little boardwalk, which is great if you have kids, but there's also a little amusement carousel, and on the weekends a live magician plus let's not forget the sea lions! They have been a historic part of Pier 39 for decades.

The second thing to do is to stop by Pier 45 for lunch for live seafood that just came in off the docks. Fresh Dungeness crab, lobster, clams, muscles, and much more and don't forget to get the chowder in the famous sour dough bread bowl.

The third thing to see, is also at Pier 45 and is the Musee Mecanique, a large privately owned collection of antique coin-operated automatic mechanical musical instruments, video games and pinball machines. Games cost anywhere from a nickel to fifty-cents and change machines are located throughout.

Just outside the Musee Mecanique at Pier 45 is the USS Pampanito submarine, opened to the public seven days a week. (Check http://www.maritime.org/pamphome.htm for hours of operation). For historians, this is great site to visit since the Pampanito is a historic fleet from World War II that sank six Japanese ships and damaged four others.

As you head West down Beach Street from Pier 39 you can see Alcatraz and Angel Island across the Bay and a view of the Golden Gate Bridge.

Walk a little further West down past the Maritime Museum and to your left is the famous Ghiradelli Square. These days Ghiradelli Square has evolved into much more than just a location for the famous chocolate factory. There is now Kara's Cupcakes, wine tasting at Cellar360, tea and biscuits at Crown and Crumpet, and soon a spin off from San Francisco renowned chef, Chef Gary Danko. You should also check out the variety of shops below the square. If it's cold and you need to warm up, you can always stop by the Buena Vista down the block for one of their famous Irish Coffees.

But before you leave the Wharf, you must do what even the locals do on their way to work some days, which is take a cable car ride up the steep hill of Hyde Street. When you get to Mason St, hop off and check out the Cable Car Museum. The cable car is an essential part of San Francisco history and has been around since 1873.

Enjoy!

Distasteful, overfed, smelly, loud, and ill-mannered. Who knew that the seals and tourists had so much in common? If you want a French clown doll, a romanticized whale painting, or a thong that says San Francisco, you have come to the right place. The chocolate, seafood, views, and shopping are supposed to be better all around here. Even though I don’t live in SF, I still understand that the tourist dollars keep people employed and these days that’s a good thing. The Wharf is largely flat and in its offerings, homogenized. If this makes it a more accessible San Francisco for individuals from, say, Wisconsin, that’s a good thing. Go on a weekday if you must go. My two favorite days spent here, of the dozen or so times I have been here, include the time I went on the Alcatraz tour and the second time I went on the Alcatraz tour. The first time, I listened to the audio self-guided tour. The current cost is $26. If you don’t want to listen to the audio, you can get a refund for that part of your ticket price (it’s included). The second time I went, still a day tour – though I’ve heard the night tour is phenomenal, I chose to listen to my own soundtrack of Fugazi, Bauhaus, Muse, and the like. You get tickets for the boat ride out there at Pier 33 (Look for the so-so performance artists). The walk itself in and around the Wharf is brisk with salty sea air. I love to run here when I am staying with friends for the weekend. The people watching is great and I can always catch a good pastry at DeLise (a combination of the owners’ names) on Powell. If I’ve run far enough, I will get two treats. Although they change their menu a little seasonally, I can usually count on finding the bacon maple scone and lavender madelines. Flaky buttery happiness.

Very Busy Location, lots of tourism, lots of shops for souvenirs, nice view of the bay, good view of Alcatraz, good food choices, choices for parking are limited, restroom facilities are not close by, fun for sight seeing and tourist attraction. Lovely place to take your family for vacation to visit in San Francisco area if you are there for visiting or sight seeing. Trolleys, cable cars, buses, and taxis are all available modes of transportation. People seem to be very nice and very helpful.Great view of the bay and Alcatraz. Good place for boat tours around the bay and near Alcatraz.

Fisherman’s Wharf is a part of San Francisco that visitors flock to and most local residents avoid. More of a manufactured version of San Francisco, Fisherman’s Wharf is full of overpriced low-quality restaurants and touristy shops hocking t-shirts and knick-knacks. Almost all tour buses and boats embark from Fisherman’s Wharf and visiting cruise ships off-load visitors by the hundreds. Not that Fisherman’s Wharf does not have its charms. The view of the Bay is lovely, the sunbathing sea lions in the marina are entertaining, and the Musee Mechanique awesomely creepy and definitely worth visiting. Also, be on the lookout for The Bushman, a man who has made a career out of dressing up as a shrub and jumping out of bushes and scaring unsuspecting tourists. It can be quite hilarious to watch.

There is one Fisherman’s Wharf restaurant worth finding, Scoma’s, a seafood restaurant set off of the main strip and located right on the docks. Scoma’s is a classic San Francisco institution and its white tablecloths and tuxedoed waiters harkens back to an earlier era. The seafood is loaded fresh off of boats every morning, and they stir up a mean Manhattan.

Another glorious thing to do—especially on a foggy summer day or chilly winter night is to bundle up and catch the cable car at the Powell Street station, near Union Square. Ride the cable car over Nob Hill, through Chinatown, Russian Hill all the way to the end of the line in Fisherman’s Wharf to the Buena Vista, an establishment that claims to have invented the Irish coffee. Order a round, or two and find yourself a seat near the panoramic window and warm yourself as you gaze dreamily out at the Bay and the Golden Gate Bridge.

At first, Fisherman’s Wharf may just sound like an old dock where there are some fisherman hanging out. However, San Francisco’s Fisherman’s Wharf is nothing at all like that. In fact, this neighborhood is a pretty big tourist attraction. However, in the early days of San Francisco, this region really was where immigrant fisherman fished for crab. Luckily, there are still some fisherman in this part of town. They haven’t all been driven out by the tourists!

This area is situated on the waterfront and the streetcar turns directly though the area. Fisherman’s Wharf is home to a ton of tourist activities including The Aquarium Ripley’s Believe it or Not, Pier 39 and even a Wax Museum. Of course, there are also lots of restaurants serving seafood. Be sure to get the SF experience and get a sourdough bread bowl.

Of course, you will want to eat at Ghirardelli’s. You can eat a sundae, shop for chocolate gifts and see all the machines that make up the chocolate. The chocolate does seem to taste much better when you sit at the “original” Ghirardelli’s!

While there are a variety of upsides to Fisherman’s Wharf and its definitely worth seeing once, its not one of my favorite neighborhoods in San Francisco. It is a bit too touristy for my tastes. When I was there, I found there to be too many noisy families.

Not necessarily a quiet neighborhood for raising a family, Fisherman's Wharf is definitely a must for taking the family for a day or two. One of the most famous attractions of San Francisco, Fisherman's Wharf is located on Pier 39 and very similar to the Seattle Waterfront with novelty stores like Ripley's Believe it or not and restaurants boasting that they serve the best clam chowder in the area. Be careful of the Bushman who hides in bushes and behind branches who has become famous for leaping out and startling unsuspecting passersby for almost 30 years. Grab the family and some spending money and be sure to spend at least a day here!