SAN FRANCISCO, CA

If you visit any city in the United States, you must visit San Francisco – no other city in the country can compare.

San Francisco offers visitors spectacular scenery, fantastic food and incredible shopping, all in what is probably the most sophisticated city in America (second only to New York City).

Of course, San Francisco’s best known landmark – and most-loved – is the Golden Gate Bridge. Named for the opening from the Pacific Ocean into San Francisco Bay (the Golden Gate), the graceful orange span opened in 1937 and today averages more than 40 million vehicle crossings each year.

But did you know you also could walk it? It’s just 4,200 feet across and there’s a terrific visitor’s center on the bridge’s north side – plus absolutely breathtaking views of San Francisco itself. In addition, walking across the bridge will give you a true feel for how windy San Francisco Bay can be.

Some of the well-known sites and visitor destinations you’ll want to check out are:

Ghirardelli Square, where the world-famous chocolate company once made its mouth-melting chocolate. You can still purchase Ghirardelli chocolate there – as well as sample its delicious ice cream. You also can shop in wonderful art galleries and clothing boutiques in the refurbished brick warehouse building.

Piers 13 and 39, which are home to more wonderful restaurants – particularly of the seafood kind – as well as shops and boutiques. Don’t forget to check out Ripley’s Believe It or Not and the San Francisco Wax Museum along Fisherman’s Wharf. Finally, a trip to San Francisco really isn’t complete until you visit the sea lions at Pier 39. Once the home to pleasure craft, the sea lions started taking over the docks to sunbathe many years ago. Humans tried for years to shoo them off, but finally gave up and left the docks to the barking, sleeping, bewhiskered giants (most are males, as it turns out). They can give you hours of free entertainment.

San Francisco’s World Famous Cable Cars, in which you can ride over San Francisco’s many steep hills with ease. A ride on one of the city’s historical cable cars is a lovely way to see the city and go up and over from, for example, the Embarcadero area, to the fantastic shopping district that surrounds Union Square. Be forewarned, however, the line to get onto one of the cars can be an hour or more long.

Chinatown, where it’s easy to feel you’ve somehow been transported to China. Many Chinese came to San Francisco and Northern California in the 1850s and 1860s to work on building the Transcontinental Railroad. Many of them stayed in the area and created a large city within San Francisco – Chinatown. A walk along Chinatown’s streets will bring you to many wonderful shops and restaurants. In fact, it’s easy in Chinatown to find restaurants and shops where Chinese still is the main language spoken and you may find it difficult to order a meal unless you, too, speak Chinese!