Visitors guide to Fisherman's Wharf 

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Locals hate “The Wharf.” Tourists flock to it with the same energy that locals avoid it.

 

It’s a tourist trap, but it’s fun. It offers some of the best views in the city, good clam chowder, and the sea lions at Pier 39 are adorable as long as they're not chomping on your leg.

 

A walk down Jefferson Street is a must for any visitor, if only because it’s the best place to buy souvenirs. It’s Times Square meets Amityville Horror, replete with a Madame Tussaud's Wax Museum and Ripley’s Believe It or Not Museum, side by side midway down the strip.

 

Catch the street performers and people watching here, though most are tourists. For a more eclectic and local batch of people, visit the Mission.

 

Italian immigrant fishermen made the wharf what it was - the center of San Francisco’s fishing universe - when they arrived during the Gold Rush. It remained mostly a smelly fishing port until it was turned into a fine forward-thinking tourist destination in the 1970s and 80s.

 

The historic ships - the USS Pampanito, an old World War II submarine, and 19th-century cargo ship The Balclutha - fascinate many each day at the Hyde Street Pier beside Aquatic Park, part of the San Francisco Maritime National Historical Park. You can walk through both for free.

 

Fisherman's Wharf is a popular place to take a ferry to Alcatraz. There are other sightseeing boats that head out to loop around the bay or the Golden Gate. Some take you fishing, some go to Sausalito, Tiburon or Angel Island – all of which are stunning for photography.

 

The one place every visitor checks out at Fisherman’s Wharf is Pier 39, a two-story open-air shopping-and-restaurant mall with famous singing seals. They don’t really sing, it’s more a harmonious moan that could make Biz Markie blush. The sea lions reliably bathe in the sun and pose for nude pictures for their many admirers from around  the world.

 

Pier 39 is the most visited sight in the city, which is kind of depressing when you consider the many other great places that could/should be No. 1. But Pier 39 has the sea lions and great bay views and it’s a short walk from some of the cheapest T-shirts known to man.

 

Beware: Right across the street from Pier 39 is the most expensive parking garage in America, we assume. At least the most expensive outside of San Francisco’s Financial District. If you have hit the lottery or sold a million records, pull right into the four-story concrete garage with the big blue signs, but expect to pay at least $10 an hour. If you are not there early, set aside 20 minutes to find a parking spot. And the spaces are small. Two SUVs side by side make it impossible to open the doors. The all-day rate is $50, which is more than it costs two people to tour the aquarium across the street.

 

Hot tip: AAA members get two hours of free parking at the Pier 39 garage. Go to the California Visitors Center at Pier 39 and show your card. Also, a lot of restaurants on the Wharf validate your parking stub for at least one hour for free.

 

Hotter tip: A cheap option for parking requires a walk all the way across the Wharf from Pier 39 to nearby Aquatic Park. There at the end of Van Ness Avenue, you can park for free for four hours, alongside Aquatic Park, steps from Ghirardelli Square. From there, walk out onto the Municipal Pier for an up-close view of Alcatraz Island, then turn around for beautiful photos of the San Francisco skyline.

 

Hottest tip: A lot of tourists want to try the famous fast food burger joint In-N-Out. The Wharf has the only one in the city. Long lines are normal at all of them - in the whole state.

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Oddly: "A View to a Kill," a James Bond flick, filmed at Fisherman’s Wharf in 1985.

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Good eats: Eat the Dungeness crab, a San Francisco specialty. They're crustaceans; don't let that stop you. If you get them in salad form on sourdough bread, even better. Skip the overcrowded, overpriced and not-that-great sitdown restaurants and grab a crab po boy (sandwich) at one of the stalls beside the famous Fisherman’s Wharf sign (at the corner of Jefferson and Taylor streets).

 

Getting around: Don’t drive to the Wharf, take one of the vintage street cars on the F Line that runs from Market Street downtown for a mere pittance ($2.25, or $1 if you’re a kid or senior). The cars come from all over, including Italy, Japan, England, Belgium, Germany, Russia, Portugal and Russia and lots of U.S. cities. Two cable car lines have terminals at Fisherman’s Wharf, one at the end of Hyde Street (near Ghirardelli Square) and the Powell-Mason line, which boards three blocks from the waterfront at Taylor Street.

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Nearby: Ghirardelli Square, overlooking Aquatic Park and the bay, is a famous chocolate factory that has been turned into boutiques and eateries. Just outside the square, you can walk along the bay or board a cable car and head downtown. A short walk away is the Municipal Pier, also called the Aquatic Park Pier, from which locals fish, and where you can get great photos of the city skyline and Alcatraz. For a glorious view of the Marina District with the Golden Gate Bridge in the distance, walk up the hill by Aquatic Park Pier and look out over Fort Mason. You won’t be sorry.

 

Photo op: If you don’t get a shot of the sea lions lounging about at Pier 39, you’re not really a tourist.