City Walks: Exploring San Francisco’s Neighborhoods

Activity note: Hotel check-in from 3:00 p.m. If you will be arriving after 5:00 p.m., call the hotel at 415-974-6400 to be sure they hold your room.

Afternoon: Program Registration: 3:30 p.m. After you have your room assignment, join us at the Road Scholar table in the lobby to register with the program staff and get your welcome packet containing the up-to-date schedule that reflects any changes, other important information, and to confirm the time and location of the Orientation session. If you arrive late, please ask for your packet when you check in. Remember to bring your name-tag (sent previously). Orientation. The Group Leader will greet everyone and lead introductions. We will review the up-to-date program schedule, discuss roles and responsibilities, logistics, safety guidelines, emergency procedures, and answer questions. Local experts and Group Leaders will take us on neighborhood explorations. Expect daily hikes of at least 5 miles over the course of 11 hours with terrain including hilly streets, forest paths, sandy trails, and steep, uneven steps without handrails that may be slippery due to weather. Some elevation gains/losses of several hundred feet. Some neighborhood explorations will require standing for several minutes at a time. Transportation for program-related activities will be via public transportation unless specified otherwise. Be sure to bring a refillable water bottle on each field trip. Periods in the schedule designated as “Free time” and “At leisure” offer opportunities to do what you like and make your experience even more meaningful and memorable according to your personal preferences. The Group Leader will be happy to offer suggestions. Program activities, schedules, personnel, and indicated distances or times may change due to local circumstances/conditions. In the event of changes, we will alert you as quickly as possible. Thank you for your understanding.

Dinner: We’ll walk to a restaurant near the hotel and have a 3-course plated meal with beverage choices of soft drinks, coffee, tea, water; other beverages available for purchase.

Evening: Returning to the hotel, we’ll gather in a meeting room where the Group Leader will give us a brief history of San Francisco as further background on the program. Continue getting to know your fellow Road Scholars, settle in, and get a good night’s rest for the day ahead.

Activity note: Use of public transportation including getting on/off cable cars. Hiking 5 miles over the course of 11 hours. Climb to top of Telegraph Hill for Coit Tower involves a gain of about 300 feet; steps, inclined paved walkway. Bring a refillable water bottle for the day.

Breakfast: At the hotel, the daily breakfast buffet offers a variety of choices such as hard-boiled eggs, sausages, waffles, hot and cold cereals, bagels and cream cheese, English and sweet muffins, croissants, fruit, milk, juices, coffee, tea, water.

Morning: We’ll take one of San Francisco’s iconic cable cars to Union Square. With our Group Leader, we’ll learn about the history of the area as we walk through the square and through the Financial District and Barbary Coast featuring Portsmouth Square, the birthplace of San Francisco. Then, making our way to Chinatown, we’ll sample different teas at one of many the tea shops in the area.

Lunch: At a popular Chinese restaurant, we’ll have a family style lunch, sharing platters of food with hot tea and water included; other beverages available for purchase. Sik fan! (Let’s eat!)

Afternoon: Next, we’ll explore the ins and outs of Chinatown with a local expert, walking through alleys, temples, Chinese herbal medicine shops, and unusual food markets in America’s oldest and largest Chinatown. We’ll learn about the history and personal stories that have made this amazing place what it is today. We’ll continue our walk with our Group Leader through North Beach, home to early Italian fishermen as well as the Beatniks of the 1950s. We will learn how the neighborhood has evolved over the last century and scope out restaurants along the way. Then, we take a brisk walk from Washington Square to the top of Telegraph Hill to Coit Tower and enjoy the approaching sunset (weather permitting). The final ascent to the observation deck will be by elevator where we’ll have a 360-degree view of the city, the bay, and the Golden Gate, the strait that connects San Francisco Bay to the Pacific Ocean.

Dinner: This meal has been excluded from the program cost and is on your own to enjoy what you like. The Group Leader will be happy to offer suggestions and give directions. You might like one of the many fine Italian restaurants in North Beach.

Evening: At leisure. For those participants who wish to return to the hotel with the Group Leader via public transportation, an appointed time and meeting spot will be arranged.

Activity note: Getting on/off public transportation. Hiking 5 miles over the course of 11 hours; climbing stairways, forested trails, hills. Bring a refillable water bottle for the day.

Breakfast: Hotel buffet.

Morning: We will take public transportation to Fisherman’s Wharf where we’ll see active fishing boats in their docks surrounded by restaurants and shops that attract visitors from all over the world. Fisherman’s Wharf was established by Italian immigrants shortly after the Gold Rush as they fished the waters of San Francisco Bay. The Group Leader will focus on the history of the wharf, showing us a floating national park, fishing vessels, and the Fishermen’s and Seamen’s Memorial Chapel. We will continue our hike along the San Francisco waterfront, learning about the history of the San Francisco Maritime National Historical Park, Ghirardelli Square, and Fort Mason, an army fort now home to many cultural groups and small museums. We’ll then take a bus to the Presidio where both the oldest and the newest parts of San Francisco exist side-by-side. For many years, this wonderful urban park area was the center of military activity in the city and is now open to the public for all to enjoy. The Group Leader will take us through noted artist Andy Goldworthy’s “Wood Line,” a trail of eucalyptus trunks lining the trail of a eucalyptus grove. We’ll also see a newly reforested area of Monterey cypress trees.

Lunch: In the Presidio at El Polin Spring, we’ll have box lunches with a sandwich, salad, fruit, and fruit drink. This was the first populated portion of the Presidio where civilians lived, making it the first neighborhood in San Francisco.

Afternoon: We’ll be joined by a Presidio archaeologist and a biologist for a presentation on the excavation findings at El Polin Spring and the effort to bring the area back to its original state. Next, the Group Leader will take us to see another Andy Goldsworthy work of art, “Spire” — a sculpture of 37 Monterey cypress tree trunks. Then, overlooking the San Francisco National Cemetery, we’ll take in breathtaking views of the Golden Gate Bridge and Marin Headlands. We’ll leave the Preisdio and head to the Marina District, the area of San Francisco created with the landfill of the 1906 earthquake. Residents along the main street have enviable views of the Golden Gate Bridge, Alcatraz, Angel Island, sailboats, and cargo ships. The architectural highlight of the Marina is the Palace of the Fine Arts, one of the buildings erected for the 1915 Panama-Pacifica Exhibition. When the exhibition was over, all of the temporary buildings were torn down except for the Palace that was eventually reconstructed as a permanent and most beautiful structure.

Dinner: We’ll return to Fisherman’s Wharf for dinner at a restaurant popular with locals and have a 3-course plated meal with choice of soup or salad, entrée, dessert, and beverage choices of coffee, tea, water included; other beverages available for purchase.

Evening: We will take public transportation back to the hotel. The remainder of the evening is at leisure.

Activity note: Getting on/off public transportation; walking 3 miles over the course of 4 hours, mostly level with some slight inclines. Bring a refillable water bottle for the day.

Breakfast: Hotel buffet.

Morning: We will begin our morning with a brief visit to the Civic Center area with our Group Leader to admire the majestic San Francisco City Hall. The dome is the fifth largest in the world, taller than the U.S. Capitol by 42 feet. Via public transportation, we’ll take a short ride to Alamo Square, home to one of the most iconic shots of San Francisco: seven classic Victorian homes in front of the modern San Francisco skyline. Next, we will explore the Haight-Ashbury neighborhood that began as a Victorian-era resort site subsequently developed for the merchant class, whose gingerbread homes still grace its streets. While there are many reminders of the 1960s counter-culture revolution, “The Haight” today is very different from the hippie enclave that sprang up in the neighborhood around the corner of Haight and Ashbury streets. With our Group Leader, we’ll get acquainted with its colorful history, architecture, and contemporary ambience characterized as much by boutiques, bookstores, and cafés as vintage clothing stores and hipster hangouts. Our field trip will continue as we walk to Golden Gate Park. Larger than New York’s Central Park, it once consisted of sand dunes, but is now covered with more than 75,000 trees. This ultimate haven away from urban chaos was deeded to the people in 1870 out of the prescient notion that San Franciscans would one day feel overcrowded. We’ll also stroll through the five acre Japanese Tea Garden, the oldest public Japanese garden in the country, to learn about its icons and the family that lived there. From the tea garden, we will go to the Hamon Observation Tower of the de Young Fine Arts Museum. At nine stories high, we will have the opportunity to see many views of San Francisco with the Group Leader showing us points of interest.

Lunch: In the de Young Café, we’ll have vouchers to order from the menu with water included; other beverages available for purchase. Relax as we dine with the park as a backdrop.

Afternoon: Free Time. Take this opportunity for personal independent exploration to see and do what interests you most. Please refer to the list of Free Time Opportunities. The Group Leader will be happy to offer suggestions. We have the whole city at our feet!

Dinner: On your own to have what you like. The Group Leader will be happy to offer suggestions. You might like to try one of the restaurants in the Inner Sunset neighborhood with cuisine from Chinese and Japanese to Thai, Mexican, seafood, vegetarian, even American!

Evening: At leisure. This would be a good time to attend a concert or catch a show. If you have something special in mind, it’s a good idea to order tickets in advance. The Group Leader will be available at a designated time and place to accompany those who wish to return to the hotel via public transportation.

Activity note: Getting on/off public transportation. Walking 5 miles over the course of 9 hours. First 2 miles through the Mission District on level terrain; public transportation to Twin Peaks; 100 steps to top of one of the peaks; walking up to 2 miles mostly downhill on forested trails. Bring refillable water bottle for the day.

Breakfast: Hotel buffet.

Morning: Led by a local expert, we’ll explore one of San Francisco’s oldest neighborhood, the Mission District, named for the mission church founded in 1776 under the direction of Father Junipero Serra. Interestingly, this is now perhaps the city’s most “happening” neighborhood with its vibrant diversity and a plethora of galleries, restaurants, and more amid brightly colored murals. Then with our Group Leader, we’ll visit San Francisco’s oldest intact structure, which is also the oldest intact original mission in California. Originally called the Misión San Francisco de Asís (for St. Francis of Assisi), it became known as Mission Dolores after a nearby creek of the same name. We’ll learn about its historic, architectural, and religious significance. The adjoining cemetery is the final resting place of many “First Californians.” The large church next to the old adobe structure was completed in 1918 and is now a basilica.

Lunch: On your own to have what you like. There are numerous small ethnic restaurants in the area.

Afternoon: The Twin Peaks — Eureka and Noe — are situated near the geographical center of San Francisco and are more than 900’ high. They are famed for spectacular views of the city and the Bay Area. Though surrounded by an urban metropolis, the natural topography gives a sense of how the land looked before the people arrived. The diversity of plant life provides habitat for many creatures. The Group Leader will take us to the top of one of the peaks for a breathtaking panoramic view of San Francisco and the surrounding bay to see many points of interest, including areas we have visited. We’ll then walk on trails through Sutro Forest before catching a bus to our final stop at Nob Hill.

Dinner: At a local restaurant, we’ll have a 3-course plated meal with choice of soup or salad, entrée, and dessert. Beverage choices include coffee, tea, water; other beverages available for purchase. Share favorite experiences with new Road Scholar friends during our farewell dinner.

Evening: At leisure. Prepare for check-out and departure after our final field trip tomorrow.

Activity note: Getting on/off public transportation to/from Golden Gate Bridge. Walking 4 miles across the Golden Gate Bridge and back, approximately 2 hours; level terrain, windy conditions. Elevation gain of 50 feet. Hotel check-out 12:00 Noon.

Breakfast: Hotel buffet.

Morning: For our final field trip, we’ll make the quintessential San Francisco pilgrimage: a trek across the Golden Gate Bridge and back. The city’s most iconic landmark is exceptional for its length of 1.7 miles, 746-foot tall towers, sweeping cables, and Art Deco styling, flanked on each side by beautiful parks. The Group Leader will tell us about the construction of the bridge during the 1930s as well as point out significant sights from the bridge including Point Bonita, the Marin Headlands, Angel Island, Alcatraz, harbor porpoises, and the barrier system on the bridge known as the “zipper.” There will also be time to visit the Bridge Pavilion, a welcome center with much historical information about the bridge and surrounding area. We expect to return to the hotel by 11:30 a.m. depending on traffic and public transportation schedules. This concludes our program. If you are returning home, safe travels. If you are staying on independently, have a wonderful time. If you are transferring to another Road Scholar program, detailed instructions are included in your Information Packet for that program. We hope you enjoy Road Scholar learning adventures and look forward to having you on rewarding programs in the future. Don’t forget to join our Facebook page and follow us on Instagram. Best wishes for all your journeys!