San Francisco, California
This is an itinerary for San Francisco including routes, points of interest, suggestions for lunch/dinner and other tips.
This itinerary promises a unique experience of the entire city, and surroundings, drawn up from an urban designer’s perspective, myself. The aim is, for the traveller, to experience the unique landscape, natural environment, diverse neighbourhoods, the waterfront, architecture, culture and art through a number of interesting routes.
When travelling, it is important to scratch the surface and go deeper than just looking at the architecture or visiting hot tourist spots. Understanding a place means that one fully embraces all its qualities, both positives and negatives. This is the true ‘sense of place’ and this is what this itinerary offers.
QUICK OVERVIEW – WHAT TO EXPECT
San Francisco is a special place. It is an authentic place. It is the finance capital for the West and a magnet for business, whilst at the same time its dramatic physical beauty, proximity to natural assets, the ocean views, silvery fog, compactness, and cultural diversity, make it an ideal destination for every taste. The entire city could be analysed and thus, explored as a system of flows, each one with its own character and purpose. Those are:
Green flow: This route takes you through a number of green spaces of different scales and characters. Starting from the centre moving west, this flow celebrates the green assets in the city and offers a ticket to paradise. That is not to say that there are not other important green spaces in the area, however this flow picks up a good number of them.
Blue flow: This route takes you for a nice walk along the water offering different experiences from place to place. Starting from one end, Golden Gate, moving to the east and then towards south to Hunters Point, one experiences a range of emotions. One thing to remember is to take some breaks from place to place and appreciate the surroundings, the sea views, the views towards the city and the hills. Enjoy akk of them, not just one!
Orange flow: This route offers an ocean experience starting north from Presidio and then continuing at Baker beach and Ocean beach. Thanks to topography the experience varies with higher and lower points offering a full range of viewpoints.
Grey flows: Those flows take you out of San Francisco to some places worth visiting. To the north, one can get closer to nature, forest, tracks, visit seaside towns or even enjoy a day in a vinyard in Sonoma valley. To the south, one can do a day trip and drive through a number of towns like Redwood City, Palo Alto and Mountain View. Lastly, to the east one can visit Oakland.
Diverse neighbourhoods: There is a great mix of characters in the city and each neighbourhood offers a distinct vibe for literally every taste. They all follow a similar layout, except from the downtown, with the high street in the middle, the beating heart, and residential all around. Those beating hearts are very vibrant, some more than others, and they attract activity throughout the day.
The above flows give a full experience of the city and celebrate the compactness of the urban fabric. My blog post on The spatial dynamics, planning background and many constrasts of San Francisco expands even further on those flows, whilst taking a more critical look towards the contrasts found in the, otherwise authentic, city. Worth checking it before visiting San Francisco to get a better insight of the city.
Please reach out to hello@stelakontogianni.com to share your thoughts about this route or any suggestions/ideas of other places I should talk about next.