Visitors guide to Lombard Street

 

San Francisco has more than 2,600 streets, but none like the famous Lombard Street. Eight hairpin turns. One block. One-way street. Down a steep hill. It is memorable.

 

That’s why some 17,000 visitors per day stop by to check it out in the summer months, and some 2 million visit “the crooked street” each year. Car trips average around 2,400 daily, so go early before the masses are finished with their eggs Benedict. 

 

The famous section of Lombard Street was too darn steep (27 degrees), making it dangerous for vehicles, so in 1922 it was decided it would be converted to the switchback style.

 

Lombard Street is not the crookedest street in the world and it’s not the steepest street in the city, but it’s a San Francisco icon and a prime photo opp for any visitor.

 

The famous stretch is about 600 feet long and paved with red bricks between Hyde and Leavenworth streets. Great photos can be had from either the top (looking over toward Coit Tower and the bay) of Russian Hill or from the bottom, a view that shows the turns better.

 

If you’re driving down the one-block stretch between Hyde and Leavenworth streets, watch for the local guy who parks his Porsche right in the middle of it.

 

It is one of the city’s most popular sights, so expect lots of people if you go during the day. It doesn’t take much time to check this one off your list. You can walk down it if you want to make it last longer. Walking up it (there are stairs on both sides) will give your heart a boost.

 

It is especially pretty in the spring, when flowers bloom adjacent to Victorian-style mansions on Russian Hill. Much of the color remains throughout the summer. Neighbors added the lush gardens of hydrangeas and roses.

 

If you don’t think Lombard looks very steep, go one street over to Filbert Street and see what it would look like without the switchback turns.

 

The city’s truly steepest route is off the beaten tourist path in the Potrero Hill neighborhood, on Vermont Street between 20th and 22nd streets. It has only seven switchback turns, but it is 4 degrees steeper than Lombard Street.

 

Beware: The line of cars waiting to go down the street can be long, clogging Lombard and cross streets on Russian Hill. … If you’re on foot, watch for cars. Standing in the street and taking photos isn’t smart.

 

Hot tip: San Francisco has an epidemic of car break-ins, and the thieves love tourists’ rental cars, which they spot by the bar code on the windshield. Anywhere tourists gather is a hot spot, including Lombard Street. They can strike and be gone in 30 seconds. Don’t leave valuables in plain view.

 

Oddly: Some of the city’s most costly real estate sits here. Folks pay that much to live in a place overrun daily by throngs of tourists. Some of the tourists are not the nicest. They will go onto your roof to get the best photograph. … The Montandon mansion at 1000 Lombard St. is a famous haunted house.

 

Nearby: If you walk down the curvy section of the street and continue on for a half-block, you come to 949 Lombard St. and the house MTV used to film a Real World season in 1994. In the same block, at 900 Lombard St., is a house Alfred Hitchcock used as Scottie’s home in the film Vertigo.

 

Good eats: Walk down the hill and grab a bite in North Beach, also known as Little Italy, where you will find plenty of sidewalk dining and pasta. Fisherman’s Wharf is a similar walk, about five blocks, toward the bay.

 

Getting around: The Hyde Street cable cars are a great option. Catch one at Ghirardelli Square near Fisherman’s Wharf or Union Square downtown. … If you drive, set your GPS to 1099 Lombard St. That will take you to the top of the hill where the descent begins. … The No. 19 bus runs from Aquatic Park at Fisherman’s Wharf along Polk Street to Lombard Street, stopping two blocks from the curvy section.

 

Photo op: Shoot the crooked street from the top and you get a great view of the skyline, including Telegraph Hill and the bay. Shot from the bottom, you get a better shot of all of the street’s twists.

​

Cost: Free for now. There is talk of charging to access the public street.