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San Francisco's 49-mile scenic drive is one of those completely useless devices that each city has one or two of. If you're visiting San Francisco and you've not heard of it, you'll probably miss it entirely - which is a shame because it's a fun way to spend a couple of hours. The original 49-mile drive was first introduced in 1938, and was originally designed to lead you to the 'Golden Gate International Exposition' that was to be opened the following year on the brand new 'Treasure Island' that had been constructed just for the occasion!!
Nowadays the route lead's in a complete loop, meaning of course that you can join at any point, and eventually get back to where you came from. The route is pretty easy to follow in most places - but somewhere near the Palace of Fine Arts there's a really good chance that you'll miss one sign and get off route. Also, the last time I was there the section through the Presidio tried to send me down a closed off road!!!
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So what's it all about then? Well basically the 49-mile scenic drive links up the most obvious scenic points (and a number of not so obvious locations as well) to route you all round the city, leading you to vantage points, scenic (well duh!) views, interesting places to drive through, stop at etc. On route you'll drive past almost every site worth seeing - in fact if you've only got a day, and you've not got the time to make use of the cities better transportation (see our How to get around San Francisco page for details) options, this is the only way you've got of seeing (well at least glancing at) all of the recommended sites:
City Hall and the Civic Center, Japantown, the Union Square area, the Cable Cars on California, Fairmont Hotel + Nob Hill, the Cable Car Museum, Chinatown, Broadway, Coit Tower and North Beach, the whole Fishermans Wharf, Pier 39 + Ghirardelli Square area, Fort Mason, the Marina District, the Palace of Fine Arts, the Presido, the Golden Gate Bridge and Fort Point, the Palace of the Legion of Honor, Cliff House, Ocean Beach, Lake Merced, Golden Gate Park + Haight Ashbury, Twin Peaks (not the David Lynch TV series), Mission Dolores, a section of I-280 (!!), AT&T Park, the Oakland Bay Bridge (well, you go under it!), the Financial District, Market Street before starting all over again (why not go round twice?!)
Everything with a link has a dedicated page - just click the link - for a quick summary of some the rest, read on!!
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Broadway was once (around the end of the 19th century) the home of San Francisco's infamous Barbary Coast - a real den of iniquity!!! Nowadays there's not a whole lot to see - apart from a couple of adult book stores - in fact if you want the modern equivalent you'll need to take a short flight to Las Vegas!! Moving on, North Beach is a relaxed residential community nestled between Columbus Avenue and The Bay, a great place for a stroll and morning coffee!
Fort Mason stretches from just past Ghirardelli Square to Marina Green, and was a military fort for over 200 years before becoming a cultural center for San Francisco. Past Marina Green lies the Palace of Fine Arts (see photo above) and then Crissy Field which was (in part) once an air-strip and has now been partly returned to marsh-land. Carry on and you soon reach the Presidio - another former military base occupied by the US military since 1846, and before that by the Mexican and Spanish armies. Now a park, the Presidio features an unusual mix of residential property, small businesses as well as many historical military buildings representing an eclectic range of styles. (See also the Golden Gate Bridge page.)
Under the southern-end of the Golden Gate Bridge you will find Fort Point (see picture at the top of the page), which in addition to being a great place to visit provides some unique views of the bridge. The best views of the whole drive are from Twin Peaks - although watch out for the wind!!! Back towards the east side of the city you pass through the Castro and then Mission districts, before reaching AT&T Park, passing under the Bay Bridge, and driving through the rapidly regenerating area of South-of-Market - which until recently was not the nicest area of the city. Now though you'll find the Yerba Buena cultural center - gardens, arts center, museum of modern art, and Sony's rather super Metreon Center before starting all over again!
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