Off the tourist track

My sister and I will be in San Francisco soon and are interested in visiting places that are the ';real San Franscisco';. Meeting the locals and sharing in the culture. We are in our late 30%26#39;s. Any ideas greatly received. Thanks.

Off the tourist track

Good Questions... there are lots of good answers! Try searching for ';off beaten path.'; Here%26#39;s one example, where I recommended the Richmond District. Foggy this time of year, but very *local*. A very eclectic mix of cultures with Chinese, Russian and Korean being dominant.

tripadvisor.com/ShowTopic-g60713-i30-k140731…

For food, Mission/Valencia streets is where a lot of the action is, including a few James Beard awards. I think the culinary cutting edge is happening down there.

Off the tourist track

Come on over to West Portal for breakfast.

Just jump on any K, L, or M subway train: Outbound.

When you reach sunlight again, get out and walk around. We do brunch at Cafe for All Season%26#39;s at least every other month.

West Portal really has that old-fashioned American neighborhood feel.

Reminds me a lot of Willow Glen in San Jose for those in the know.

It really depends on where you are staying, but the idea of getting on a Metro train has a lot of merit. The Mission is eclectic, great for bars %26amp; restaurants- 16th street.

Lower haight-bars like Toronado, Mad Dog in the Fog.

Chestnut St in the Marina for Night Life.

Enjoy

In your previous visits, did you spend much time in Golden Gate Park? There is enough there to keep anyone occupied for days, and it is a big attraction for both local and visiting families and individuals.

A favorite spot of mine (and many others) is Stow Lake. It%26#39;s a nice meander (a bit under a mile around) where you%26#39;ll see walkers, joggers, babies in strollers, and people feeding the waterfowl. Bicycles and skates have to ride on the road, not the foot path, so you can feel safe. There is a small island in the lake with a small waterfall and a Chinese pavilion. At the Stow Lake Boathouse, you can get a snack and rent bicycles, foot-pedal surreys, and paddle or foot-pedal boats.

Other places in GG Park include Spreckels Lake, where many locals walk and feed ducks and there is a model boat club active on weekends; also a bison herd near this lake.

For local neighborhood atmosphere, two areas near GG Park are especially good. One is around the park entrance at 19th Avenue and Lincoln Way, and includes Irving Street out to about 24th Avenue. This is a largely Asian business district with scads of restaurants and bakeries and other small businesses. If you are looking for bargains, there are mom-and-pop discount stores that are the furthest thing from Bloomies, but you may find just about anything imaginable.

The other area of interest is around 9th Avenue and Lincoln Way and includes maybe a dozen blocks of restaurants and independent shops of all kinds, also teeming with people who actually live in the neighborhood. The Irving and Judah Street blocks heading east (diminishing address numbers) are near the University of California-San Francisco campus, a major health sciences school and research institution. You%26#39;ll see lots of people from the school taking a break there.

Speaking of which, most visitors don%26#39;t get around to the colleges unless they are here for academic reasons, but many folks might enjoy them. San Francisco State University, U.C.-San Francisco, the University of San Francisco (Jesuit), and City College (public 2-year community college) are the big ones. Some have libraries, museums, or exhibits of sufficient quality to attract visitors; university bookstores usually have a big selection of general interest material as well as textbooks; and a quick snack in a student union will give you a glimpse at local campus life. As a rule, do not expect magnificently landscaped campuses with ivy-covered walls of stone or brick; colleges here tend to be utilitarian.

Just about all these places are easily accessible on public transit. Buses are more interesting than the Muni Metro because they travel on the street rather than underground, but they take longer. The direct lines to get from Market Street to GG Park, Irving and Judah Streets, and the UC campus are the N-Judah train or the 71-Haight/Noriega bus.

P.S. The 71 bus, as well as the 6-Parnassus and 7-Haight, travel the entire length of the famous ';Haight Ashbury'; stretch of Haight Street, made famous in the 1960s. It has many alternative shoppoing and dining choices, if you reach your limit at Bloomingdale%26#39;s or Nordstrom.

Avoid Fisherman%26#39;s Wharf.

Spend time in the Castro district (Market Street between Church and Castro Streets, and Castro between Market and 20th Street); Bernal Heights (Cortland Street); the Mission (particularly the area bounded by Mission, Valencia, 16th, and 24th Streets); and the restaurants along Clement Street. Beware careful around 16th %26amp; Mission; crime is one aspect of realness.