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Cable cars, Chinatown and the Beats: San Francisco highlights

Start where the cable cars are turned by hand, cross Union Square, enter Chinatown through the Dragon Gate, follow the Beat poets to City Lights and finish on the curves of Lombard Street, a short walk from Fisherman's Wharf.

  • 6 stops
  • 3.4 km
  • 2 h 15 min
  • Free
Start with GPS Read about this stop 1
The Dragon Gate to Chinatown on Grant Avenue

The route

Stop by stop

  1. 1 The cable car turntableHere the cable cars are turned by hand: climbing the hills since 1873 and saved by a group of determined women.
  2. 2 Union Square, the square of VictoryPro-Union rallies, a goddess with the face of a future patron of the arts and the hotel that watched the city burn.
  3. 3 The Dragon Gate, entrance to ChinatownThe gateway to one of North America's oldest Chinatowns, which survived an exclusion law and a plan to move it away.
  4. 4 Waverly Place, the street of painted balconiesTemples on the top floors, family associations and the most photogenic balconies in Chinatown.
  5. 5 City Lights, the Beat Generation's bookstoreA poet, a poem put on trial for obscenity and the bookstore that made North Beach the capital of the Beat Generation.
  6. 6 Lombard Street, the street of eight curvesAn impossible slope tamed with eight curves of brick and flowers, with the bay as a backdrop.

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Start with GPS

Guide mode

Walk it with GPS.

Open guide mode on your phone: you’ll see your position and the distance to each stop, and we’ll let you know when you arrive. Then read or listen.

Start with GPS

  1. Turn on your location

  2. Walk to the spot

  3. Check the photo and listen

What you’ll discover

Cable cars, Chinatown and the Beats: San Francisco highlights

The cable cars

Watch them being turned by hand and learn how they have climbed the hills since 1873.

Chinatown

The gate, the painted balconies and the story of a neighborhood that refused to disappear.

North Beach and Lombard

The Beats' bookstore and the most photographed street in the city.

Keep exploring

More routes in San Francisco

Back to San Francisco
HistoryFrom Yerba Buena to the city that rose from its ashes Mysteries & legendsEmperors, kidnappings and tunnels: secret San Francisco

Itineraries

How many days do you have in San Francisco?

We’ve planned it day by day for you: which routes to walk and in what order, what else to see and where to eat.

1

San Francisco in 1 day

All three routes in one full day: the highlights, the history and the legends at dusk.

See the itinerary 2

San Francisco in 2 days

A gentler pace: the three routes over two days, plus extra sights and where to eat.

See the itinerary 3

San Francisco in 3 days

The city in depth: one route a day, extra museums and neighbourhoods, and a day for good food.

See the itinerary