San Francisco itinerary for first-timers

The 1898 ferry terminal with its clock tower at the foot of Market Street, now a food hall, and the palm-lined waterfront promenade that runs north from it along the bay.

• Ferry Building clock tower
• Embarcadero promenade
• Exploratorium on Pier 15

On market days the plaza in front of the Ferry Building fills with farmers' stalls.

The busiest pier on the waterfront, with a carousel, shops, views across the water to Alcatraz and the colony of sea lions that lounges on the floating docks.

• Sea lion docks
• Alcatraz views
• Pier 39 carousel

Alcatraz tours leave from Pier 33 and sell out days ahead in summer, so book early.

The old fishing harbour between Pier 39 and Ghirardelli Square: seafood stands, the antique arcade machines of the Musée Mécanique, a Second World War submarine and Liberty ship, and the beach at Aquatic Park.

• Musée Mécanique
• USS Pampanito
• Ghirardelli Square
• Aquatic Park

The orange suspension bridge across the mouth of the bay, which you can walk onto from the viewpoint at its southern end. The video crosses it by car from the Marin side into the city.

• Bridge walkway
• Welcome Center viewpoint
• Views back to the city

Fog often hides the towers in summer afternoons; mornings and autumn days are usually clearer.

The central square of the shopping and theatre district, with department stores on every side and the Powell Street cable car turnaround a block away on Market Street.

• Union Square
• Powell Street cable cars
• Market Street

The queue for the cable car at the Powell and Market turnaround can be long; walking up a few stops and boarding there is often quicker.

The hilltop where the railroad fortunes built their mansions, now grand hotels around the Gothic Grace Cathedral and the small green of Huntington Park, with views down the steep streets.

• Grace Cathedral
• Huntington Park
• California Street cable car

The oldest Chinatown in North America, founded in 1848, entered through the Dragon Gate on Grant Avenue, with lantern-hung streets, temples, bakeries and herb shops.

• Dragon Gate
• Grant Avenue
• Stockton Street markets

San Francisco's Little Italy, the old haunt of the Beat poets: cafés and bakeries around Washington Square, overlooked by the twin spires of Saints Peter and Paul Church and by Coit Tower on Telegraph Hill.

• Washington Square
• Saints Peter and Paul Church
• Columbus Avenue

The city's sunniest neighbourhood and its Latino heart, with painted murals in the alleys, taquerías, the old Mission Dolores and the lawns of Dolores Park.

• Mission Dolores
• Dolores Park
• Valencia Street
• Mural alleys

A small, walkable neighbourhood of boutiques, cafés and a green strip of park, just west of City Hall and the concert halls of the Civic Center.

• Hayes Street shops
• Patricia's Green
• City Hall dome

The Painted Ladies, the row of Victorian houses at Alamo Square, are a walk of about 15 minutes west.

After dark the waterfront south of the Ferry Building looks out on the Bay Bridge and the lights of the downtown towers. The video drives in across the bridge from Oakland with the skyline ahead.

• Bay Bridge
• Rincon Park
• Downtown skyline