Visitors guide to Market Street

 

No visit to San Francisco is complete without a stroll along beautiful Market Street, the main boulevard of San Francisco.

 

Begin your walk along the bay, at the Ferry Building on The Embarcadero, a world-class bayside promenade with up-close views of the Bay Bridge and Treasure Island. Grab a high-priced cup of Joe at Blue Bottle Coffee inside the Ferry Building and walk across The Embarcadero to Embarcadero Center (a huge high-rise shopping mall) and the heavy metal Vaillancourt Fountain, a fine place to drink the coffee.

  

The first section of Market Street, between The Embarcadero and Kearny Street, runs through the Financial District, home to the most expensive garage parking in the city. The Financial District also is home to the tallest skyscraper on the West Coast, the newish Salesforce Tower at the corner of Mission and Fremont streets. Across Fremont Street, check out The Millennium Tower, where a lot of wealthy people spent a lot of money on new condos, only to see all 58 floors sink and lean. At last count, The Millennium Tower sat 18 inches lower than when it opened, and had tilted almost that much to one side. You can get a deal on a condo there these days as groups fight over who will pay to fix it.

 

Market Street runs through the busy downtown shopping district. Between Fifth Street and Kearny Street, including a detour to Union Square two blocks away, is a shopper’s dream. Every trendy store sits along this part of Market Street or near Union Square. The options include a massive Macy’s, Bloomingdales, Neiman Marcus, Marshall's, Forever 21, Ross, Crate & Barrel, Gap, Banana Republic, Armani, Old Navy, Disney, Timberland, Adidas, Apple, Nike, Nordstrom and many others.

 

Stop by the Westfield San Francisco Shopping Centre, also called the Westfield Mall, at Market and 5th Street. It’s huge and a great place for a bathroom break or a few minutes of air conditioning. The Neiman Marcus and Nordstrom discount outlets on each side of the mall are among the best shopping options downtown.

 

A block away, on Mission Street, sits one of the biggest parking garages in the city, and The Metreon, a mini mall built around the most popular movie theater complex in San Francisco. The Metreon opens up onto Yerba Buena Gardens, a beautiful urban park that offers a perfect picnic spot.

​

Across the street from the big Westfield Mall, where Powell Street meets Market Street, get a photo of The Flood Building, a 12-story flatiron that overlooks the cable car turnaround, where thousands of tourists line up daily for the Powell-Hyde cable car line.

​

The walk along Market Street beyond Fifth Street can be risky up to Van Ness Avenue. Homelessness in the area has long been scary, especially at night. The area known as Mid-Market has made a slight comeback since the addition of Twitter headquarters at Ninth Street. The area has some of the city’s finest theaters and music venues, including the Bill Graham Auditorium, the Warfield Theater and the War Memorial Opera House.

 

The Civic Center awaits one block off of Market Street. Take a right beyond Seventh Street and head up Fulton Street, which is closed to vehicle traffic. Beyond the Pioneer Monument, walk up the pedestrian-only street between the San Francisco Library and the Asian Art Museum to get pics of San Francisco City Hall with its eye-catching beau-arts dome that is lit up nightly. This area has one of the city’s best farmers markets on weekend mornings, and it has a homelessness problem to rival its neighbors in The Tenderloin.

 

After crossing busy Van Ness Avenue, take a right onto Octavia Boulevard and enjoy sidewalk dining in the affluent Hayes Valley neighborhood. It's one of the hottest places for people watching these days. The best places are along Hayes Street between Laguna Street and Franklin Street.

 

Back on Market Street, a left onto Valencia Street takes you down to the red-hot Mission District, one of the city’s best areas for nightlife. It’s a world-class destination for burritos (San Francisco style, with avocado) and the most stimulating street life in San Francisco.

 

If you skip the gritty Mission District, which most tourists do, continue up Market Street to the Castro District. To get there, you’ll have to climb a mid-sized hill, but keep going because the Castro - with its famously gay culture, spectacular old theater and bonanza of bars, restaurants and shops - is worth it. Taking the street car back downtown could help your feet be happy.

 

If the nearly 4-mile walk along Market Street, from the Ferry Building to the Castro District, doesn’t tire you out, finish your stroll down Castro Street by taking a left and heading four blocks to Mission Dolores Park, with its memorable skyline views and a gorgeous old mission. You probably will be offered a bag of pot or some form of edible THC in the park. From there, it’s a few more blocks to the Mission District, which has the city's best bar hopping scene.

 

Beware: The homeless make their homes on parts of Market Street. Some are mentally ill and can be scary, especially beyond 5th Street toward the Civic Center. Whatever you do, don’t walk down 6th Street. The area around Sixth and Mission streets is notorious for crime, and that’s just one block off Market Street. You might step on human waste or a used needle.

 

Hot tip: The best way to ride a famous San Francisco cable car is from an outside perch, sitting or standing. To improve your chances of getting one of the coveted spots, line up where the line terminates instead of jumping on mid-route. Also helpful: Avoid mid-day rides.

 

Oddly: Some of the best comedians of our time - including Robin Williams, Ellen Degeneres, Chris Rock and Drew Carey - got their starts at 444 Battery St. in the Financial District, a few blocks from Market Street. The Punch Line still offers first-rate comedy acts there nightly.

 

Good eats: Grab brunch in the bright and airy Garden Court restaurant inside the luxurious Palace Hotel on New Montgomery Street. It looks and feels high-class, but not in a pretentious way, and the prices are not bad. Their Sunday brunch, from noon to 2 p.m., is popular for good reasons.

 

Getting around: A walk along Market Street is a good idea, as are the F Line street cars that traverse Market Street from the Ferry Building to the Castro District. The old cars were brought in from cities around the world and fully refurbished. You can hop on a cable car at the corner of California Street and Market Street (near the Ferry Building) or at the corner of Powell Street and Market Street. The California line is shorter and goes up Nob Hill to Van Ness Avenue. The Powell-Hyde line takes you past Union Square, through Chinatown, Nob Hill, Russian Hill and North Beach before you get to the bayfront at Fisherman’s Wharf.

 

Nearby: If you’re walking Market Street from the Ferry Building, take a right onto Montgomery Street and head six blocks to the iconic TransAmerica Pyramid. The viewing platform atop the pyramid is no longer open to the public. Some of the best places to photograph the pyramid: Up Columbus Avenue at the edge of North Beach, and toward The Embarcadero from little Sydney Walton Square Park on Jackson Street. The small redwood park beside the pyramid offers a nice respite from the city. It’s a good place to rest your feet or have a takeout lunch.

​

Also nearby: Next door to Embarcadero Center, you can board a famous San Francisco cable car on the California Street line. Take it up to Chinatown or farther on to Van Ness Avenue (downtown San Francisco’s other main street). Along that way, you scale Nob Hill and take in its gorgeous views across the city. At the top of the hill sits the eye-catching Grace Cathedral as well as the city’s two most famous and picturesque hotels, the Fairmont and the Mark Hopkins International.

 

Photo op: Stand on the corner of Market and Second streets and get a shot looking toward the Ferry Building. Just before sunset is good. Or a shot of the cable car turnaround at Powell Street.