Dubbed the United States’ most European city, San Francisco is a metropolis of icons—the Golden Gate Bridge, roller coaster streets, and clanking cable cars. Its inimitable blend of Old World sophistication and youthful exuberance thrills residents and visitors alike. Museum mavens and fine-dining aficionados have more reasons than ever to fall in love with the foggy city. With new museums and restaurants constantly revitalizing its vibrant urban core, the city packs a cultural and culinary punch that’s tough to beat. Enjoy your three perfect days in the City by the Bay, but be careful—it just might steal your heart.

DAY ONE / On your first perfect morning in San Francisco, wake up at the sleek   W hotel, a towering landmark located at the crossroads of museums and restaurants in the South of Market district. This morning, begin your cultural pilgrimage just steps from your hotel at the Museum of Modern Art, a monolithic brick-and-glass temple to the arts designed by Swiss architect Mario Botta. Breeze into Caffe Museo, a stylish spot to sip coffee before the museum opens at 11 a.m. Stroll the galleries of avant-garde art that never fail to surprise.

More awaits you in the South of Market area, named for its position relative to Market Street, the city’s main artery. Although similar in its warehouse heritage to Manhattan’s SoHo, resist the urge to call this neighborhood SoMa. Locals use its full-figured name: South of Market. The same goes for San Francisco. You’ll earn accolades from taxi drivers and concierges alike if you forgo “San Fran” or (gasp!) “Frisco” and simply call it “The City.” South of Market has dawned as the city’s cultural apex, and within a few blocks there are enough museums and theaters to keep you entertained for a few perfect months.

Local haunts include the Cartoon Art Museum, with exhibits sure to evoke laughs. Across the street, the California Historical Society showcases local history from the pioneer period to the present day. There’s something for everyone at Metreon, a Sony entertainment complex with an IMAX theater, restaurants, shopping, and lots of family-friendly attractions, including 3-D exhibits based on David Macaulay’s The Way Things Work and Maurice Sendak’s Where the Wild Things Are. Nearby, ZEUM is making waves with interactive media and arts exhibits for young people.

After hours of gallery-gazing, you’re ready for lunch. Luckily, A.G. Ferrari is nearby. This family-owned Italian gastronomia has been around almost as long as San Francisco’s Italian heritage. Step into line with locals for superb sandwiches and salads to be enjoyed al fresco at the nearby Yerba Buena Gardens and Center for the Arts, a rambling urban park. From the wide expanses of green and the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Fountain, the view of San Francisco’s skyline is so commanding it deserves a round of applause. After lunch alongside San Francisco office workers, take time to explore the diverse cultural events offered at this civic complex for the visual and performing arts.

This afternoon, hop a vintage trolley (the “F Market”) along Market Street to the Asian Art Museum, which boasts the largest collection of Asian art in the Western world. It has moved permanently from Golden Gate Park to the old San Francisco Library building.

With visions of ancient sculpture dancing in your head, continue your Eastern pilgrimage at Mecca, a stylish place to snag a cocktail. Located near the free-spirited Castro District, Mecca shimmers with hundreds of candles and an elegant local following. Sample an appetizer at the bar, say, the tender pan-roasted day boat scallops with fava bean purée.

Back at W, change for dinner at one of San Francisco’s hottest restaurants, Fifth Floor, housed quietly inside the swanky Hotel Palomar. There’s nothing quiet about the décor here—faux zebra-striped carpet and seductive red-velvet draperies. The hushed atmosphere recalls a speakeasy, but the French-inspired food is worth shouting about. Try the lobster cappuccino with chestnuts and prawns and the rack of lamb with green almonds and spring vegetable ragout.

Returning to your hotel, pause in the lobby to admire W’s swanky lounge called (you guessed it!) XYZ.

DAY TWO / Your first day in San Francisco spotlighted the visual and performing arts. On your second day, shopping is on the agenda. Begin your morning at the new Ferry Building Marketplace, a showcase of culinary delights. This is a great place for breakfast (try Frog Hollow Farms). Pick up supplies to take home from more than a dozen food purveyors, from the Cowgirl Creamery’s Artisan Cheese Shop to Scharffen Berger Chocolates. On Saturday mornings, this is the home of the now legendary Ferry Plaza Farmer’s Market.

After breakfast, stroll the Embarcadero, a waterfront esplanade dotted with public art and palm trees and featuring views of fluttering sailboats and the Bay Bridge. Venture up Market Street, which ends at the Embarcadero, and grab the “F Market” trolley to Union Square, often considered the very heart of San Francisco. Explore the redesigned urban park, a meeting point for visitors and locals alike. Pop culture mavens will enjoy the megastores now surrounding the square, but it was the smaller boutiques and specialty stores that forged Union Square’s reputation as the premier shopping district in San Francisco, home to the world’s priciest purveyors, from Tiffany & Co. to Tissot.

Amid the posh shops of Post Street, stroll into Gump’s, a San Francisco landmark gift store with a distinctively Asian flair. The store’s array of artistic treasures, from glassware to graphics, proves quite tempting.

Drowning in packages, wade over to Farallon, one of San Francisco’s great restaurant experiences. At this human aquarium, you’ll feel like you’re dining in the water instead of by it. Farallon’s Jelly Bar has jellyfish chandeliers dangling from undersea ceilings. If the splashy, tsunami-strength décor doesn’t rock your boat, the sea-inspired cuisine will. Try the green tea–steamed lobster salad with daikon, cellophane noodles, and seaweed. Supplied with a bounty of fresh fish, organic produce, and local gourmet cheeses and meats, restaurants have long been one of San Francisco’s greatest cultural treasures. After all, California cuisine was born here, and, for many, San Francisco is still the country’s best-eating city.

After lunch, deposit your packages at W and head west in a taxi. Sea breeze is the perfect antidote to a hectic morning of shopping. Savor the precipitous view from the Presidio, an emerald-green swath of land and former military base near the Golden Gate Bridge and Pacific Ocean.

Now sample the institutions collectively known as the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco. Lincoln Park’s brightest jewel is the Palace of the Legion of Honor, home of the European collections. Stand on a bluff outside the museum. You’ll feel like the subject in a Monet landscape.

Next stop is Golden Gate Park. The M.H. De Young Memorial Museum and the Academy of Science are currently closed for renovations, but don’t miss the precious Japanese Tea Garden or the newly restored Conservatory of Flowers, the oldest existing public conservatory located in the Western
Hemisphere. The glowing white-domed building is burgeoning with rare and beautiful tropical plants including orchids, bromeliads, palms, and carnivorous plants.
Tonight, set out early for a cocktail at one of San Francisco’s trendiest watering holes, The Redwood Room at the Clift Hotel. As you sip the signature martinis, watch the backlit faces on the walls very carefully. A few minutes’ walk away is the unforgettable Masa’s, perhaps the most romantic dining room in the city. This small, sumptuous pearl will soothe and seduce you. Try the pan-seared artisan foie gras or the Sonoma duck breast with glazed carrots, white polenta cake, and orange and watercress salad.

If you’re still in a swinging mood, head to Union Square’s zenith nightclub experience, Harry Denton’s Starlight Room atop the Sir Francis Drake Hotel.

DAY THREE / Start another perfect morning with breakfast at Caffe Espresso back in Union Square on the corner of Sutter and Powell. Sip a cappuccino amid conversations in many languages at your outdoor table overlooking the Powell Street cable car line. When the crowd thins, board a clattering car for the ride over Nob Hill on a bona fide National Historic Landmark. Before you go, exchange a wink with Tom Sweeney, the doorman in the red beefeater suit at the Sir Francis Drake Hotel next door. He’s been delighting San Franciscans for more than 20 years with his brand of wit and whimsy.

At California Street, leap from the running boards and climb two steep blocks to the top. An exclusive enclave in bygone days, Nob Hill today holds less cachet than a Pacific Heights address, but the sights are still sublime. Stroll past the famed Mark Hopkins Intercontinental Hotel, promising to return someday for a cocktail in the Top of the Mark. After pausing at Grace Cathedral, one of San Francisco’s most beautiful buildings, test your own brakes as you shuffle downhill to board the cable car again. This leg will send you careening past Lombard Street, “the crookedest street in the world.”

Arriving on the Bay by Aquatic Park, walk along the waterfront past Ghirardelli Square, the site of an old chocolate factory, now a specialty retail-and-dining complex—complete with chocolate shop. Impress the locals with your pronunciation (it’s a hard g as in girl). Then continue east for a ferry ride on the Bay. By now the morning fog has burned off.

At Pier 41, you have the option of boarding a boat to Alcatraz for an eerie glimpse of the infamous prison, but instead, step in line with the locals and board a Blue and Gold Fleet cruise to Angel Island, the largest island on the Bay and once the Ellis Island of the West for arriving Chinese immigrants.

Depending on ferry schedules, consider riding the boat to Tiburon, a chic, seaside enclave of Marin County where you’ll find  Guaymas, one of the Bay Area’s best Mexican restaurants. With mariachi music playing, feast on roast duck with pumpkin seed sauce or shrimp with chipotle sauce, all served with piping hot corn tortillas.

On your way back, watch for the rollicking sea lions at Pier 39, some of the Bay’s best-loved characters, almost as lively as the circus acts at tonight’s event, Teatro Zinzanni. Set up as intimate dinner theater in a glimmering Spiegletent (mirror in German), this zany, vaudevillian circus-cum-cabaret sizzles with European sophistication and savoir-faire. It’s also just plain loony, an endearing mix that truly captures the soul of San Francisco. Scantily clad acrobats hang seductively above the crowd while illusionists and dueling divas stir up fun. Even the dinner is memorable under the big top at Pier 29. Wear your bow ties and boas.

Before tucking in for your last night at W, catch a cab to North Beach, San Francisco’s Italian neighborhood. Amble into Caffe Trieste for a late-night espresso, the sounds of opera, and a taste of a beatnik café of days gone by. Later, slip into Tosca, the famed bar depicted in the movie Basic Instinct. Nestle into the red-leather booths and sip something more comfortable, like the house cappuccino with chocolate, steamed milk, and brandy. As the arias rise from the jukebox, replay your three perfect days in San Francisco and just try to imagine leaving your heart anywhere else.

Sara Hare is a freelance journalist who travels the world but is happy to call the San Francisco Bay Area her home. She is the author of the forthcoming food journeys book Stalking Zanzibar.

Photography by Ray Kachatorian

April 2004