Visitors guide to the Castro District

 

Here is a place where you truly can be anything you want to be, except a religious person who thinks sodomy is not so cool.

 

The Castro District, the gayest neighborhood on earth, one of the first gay neighborhoods in the United States, is also one of the most fun and colorful places in San Francisco. The center of it all is along Castro Street between Market Street and 19th Street. If you see a bunch of rainbow flags, you’re in the right place. Great place for people watching. Fashionistas everywhere.

 

The Castro Theatre is a must-see with its big neon sign lighting up the street outside and its art-deco, Moorish interior beckoning. It mostly plays repertory movies but hosts film festivals and various events, often with an LGBT focus.

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The theater's famous organ music has its own website, www.castroorgan.org. The organist serenades moviegoers before the movie with everything from ragtime to rock ‘n’ roll - on a Wurlitzer organ that, like the building, dates back to 1922.
 

Among the many gay bars, the Twin Peaks Tavern is a nostalgic favorite at the busy corner of Castro and Market streets. Its big glass windows and vintage furniture make for a good spot for late-night pizza.

 

Cafe Flore and Cafe du Nord, both on Market Street, are among the city’s most popular gathering spots. The latter has live music nightly and packs a lot of history between those walls. Cafe Flore has a giant wrap-around patio that runs along Market and Noe streets.

 

A political activism hotbed for folks fighting for gay rights in the 1960s and ’70s, The Castro is now more of a nightclub district where the shopping can be fun. The oddities in some window displays might not be suitable for young audiences.

 

Gay Pride Month livens the area even more than usual during June, with the parade and biggest partying reserved for the last weekend of the month. If you happen to be in town for Halloween, you’re in for another amazing party scene. The Castro Street Fair the first weekend of October also is fun, but in a more calming way.

Good eats: Check out Hot Cookie, a bakery that sells penis-shaped, chocolate-covered macaroons.

 

Getting around: The easiest way (and most fun) way to and from The Castro is on the old F Line street cars, which you can catch anywhere along Market Street.

 

Oddly: Stop by Hand Job Nails & Spa, if you’re into that sort of thing. Hit up the famed Moby Dick bar on 18th Street and gaze at its huge fish tank.

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Hot tip: You can get anonymous HIV and AIDS screenings at Magnet on 18th Street.

 

Nearby: For a taste of how real San Franciscans live, away from the tourists, head over the hill on Castro Street to 24th Street in Noe Valley, where the Noe Valley Bakery ranks as one of the city’s finest.

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Photo ops: The Castro Theatre sign is a must for your Instagram followers. Shots of the huge rainbow flag at the corner of Market and Castro always seem to work out well.