Product Description

12 Great Walking Tours Through the Most Colorful Neighborhoods in San Francisco

Follow Frommer’s for an up-close and personal look at the City by the Bay. Discover the dramatic views, stunning architecture, and exotic sights and sounds that make it such a special place.

LET FROMMER’S TAKE YOU TO:

• The North Beach and Russian Hill haunts of the Beat Generation–with tales of the larger-than-life personalities that made it all happen
• The cultural and culinary delights of Chinatown, the birthplace of modern San Francisco
• Funky shopping and Summer of Love flashbacks in Haight-Ashbury
• Roses, redwoods, and rowboats in Golden Gate Park, one of America’s greatest urban playgrounds

With easy-to-use directions and maps–and the best places to take a break along the way.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #804414 in Books
• Published on: 2006-04-17
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 180 pages

From the Back Cover
12 Great Walking Tours Through the Most Colorful Neighborhoods in San Francisco

Follow Frommer's for an up-close and personal look at the City by the Bay. Discover the dramatic views, stunning architecture, and exotic sights and sounds that make it such a special place.

LET FROMMER'S TAKE YOU TO:

• The North Beach and Russian Hill haunts of the Beat Generation—with tales of the larger-than-life personalities that made it all happen.
• The cultural and culinary delights of Chinatown, the birthplace of modern San Francisco.
• Funky shopping and Summer of Love flashbacks in Haight-Ashbury.
• Roses, redwoods, and rowboats in Golden Gate Park, one of America's greatest urban playgrounds.

With easy-to-use directions and maps—and the best places to take a break along the way

Great trips begin at frommers.com

About the Author
Native San Franciscan Erika Lenkert fled the dot-community to find respite and great food and wine in Napa Valley. When she’s not writing about food, wine, and travel for the likes of Four Seasons Magazine or InStyle, or promoting her book The Last-Minute Party Girl: Fashionable, Fearless, and Foolishly Simple Entertaining, she’s in search of Wine Country pleasure to share with Frommer’s readers. She also remains subservient to her owners—two Siamese cats and most recently, her new daughter Viva.
In addition to this guide, Erika authors and co-authors a number of other Frommer’s guides to California, including Frommer’s California and Frommer’s San Francisco.

Customer Reviews

Best way to see San Fran...
My wife and I picked this book thinking it would be a good way to see the city. It was not... it was the BEST. We saw so much of San Francisco thanks to this book. We had 8 days to spend there and managed to do 9 of the 11 walks. We went everywhere and saw so much from Haight Ashbury to Golden Gate Park to Nob Hill, the SoMa district... EVERYWHERE. It was great because we could go at our own pace, and not be rushed like a tourist group. We met lots of friendly, helpful people, too.
Whenever we make a return trip this book will come with us again.
Next we are off to Chicago and are armed with that city's version of memorable walks.
Make sure you are in good shape to do these walks, though!

Excellent fact filled guide, with 12 walking tours to choose from
A woman that loves travel and good food writes this review. We picked up this book to get a feel for San Francisco before a business trip where I would be accompanying my husband and didn't want to be bored.

I have the following comments about the book:

PROS:
1. Small size, packed well
2. Maps of the tours were very useful
3. Nice level of detail regarding the items of interest on the tours
4. With 12 outlined tours there was something for everyone
5. The Golden Gate Park information was extremely useful
6. Included information about ethnic food markets that were very interesting and not something you are likely to find on your own

CONS:
1. The Guided Walking tours section seemed like an afterthought.

Overall, the book was very useful if you are the type of person that likes to explore cities by foot (which I am). There is enough detail in this book that I imagine the authors have included facts that many of the locals do not know. I highly recommend this book to those that love to jump into a city and experience everything.

Always good, never great
This is a good set of walks, all well documented in a concise way and with a good mix of history and local color. It's also a convenient size for carrying. All this makes it a good choice for both tourists who want to do a lot of walking and for locals who want to know and experience more of their city. This guide takes a good shot at being all things to all walkers and it comes about as close as a single, compact guide could.
For tourists who are looking for a single good walk through town, the Barbary Coast Trail Official Guide may be a more entertaining choice (especially in its audio version, see my review) while locals will get more out of both Stairway Walks in San Francisco and Historic Walks in San Francisco: 18 Trails Through the City's Past which, to be fair, are larger and more expensive guides. You can't go wrong with this book, but, if you have some specific things you're looking for out of your walking time in San Francisco, you may be able to do better.