Things to see in San Francisco

San Francisco's network of century-old cable cars were introduced in 1873 to replace horse-drawn streetcars and refurbished in the 1980s. The ride is best enjoyed from one of the outside platforms but travellers should hold on tight and watch out for traffic. The Powell-Hyde and Powell-Mason lines, beginning at Powell Street and Market Street, run roughly north-south between Fisherman's Wharf and Union Square. The California Street line runs east-west from California Street and Market Street, near the Embarcadero to Van Ness Avenue. The cars are turned by hand on turntables at the end of the line - all part of the experience

The 412 hectares (1,017 acres) of Golden Gate Park encompass meadows, lakes, myriad gardens, an open-air music concourse, a children's playground and vintage carousel, a buffalo paddock and the tallest artificial waterfall in the West. The park fronts Ocean Beach, which affords spectacular sunset views. You’ll also find the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco (FAMSF), which includes the de Young Museum and the Legion of Honor. Gaze at 5th-century Peruvian artefacts and prized Maori sculptures from New Zealand, then wander through the Rockefeller Collection of American Paintings to dangling collages of modern art.

In the daytime, visitors throng the sidewalks and piers of Fisherman's Wharf - a centre for tacky souvenirs, Bay-view restaurants, shops, attractions and the spectacle of some 500 resident sea lions crowded onto pontoons to sunbathe. In the early hours of the morning, from dawn until 0900, the ambitious visitor can get quite another view - that of a busy fish distribution centre. Pier 39, where Beach Street meets The Embarcadero, is actually one of 29 curiously numbered piers on the waterfront and is now the city's biggest attraction. Not only is it home to the sea lions but also the Aquarium of the Bay, where moving sidewalks are surrounded on three sides by water.

Destined to become a self-sufficient national park, the land and buildings of Presidio surround the approach to the Golden Gate Bridge. Formerly one of the oldest military installations in the country, it now houses a forest, a Civil War brick fortress and a museum. The first fortification was erected in 1776 and the facility was transferred to the National Park Service in 1994. There are some incredibly scenic trails in and around the wooded areas of the park, with views across the Golden Gate Bridge.