I've never lived there, but I've visited a few times and I always make a point of driving down Lombard, visiting Ghirardelli chocolates, and taking a walk through the Haight-Ashbury district.

There's so much else to do in SF, but those are always 'must-do's for me.

Budget? Transportation? Time? Ability to navigate on your own? Interests? Tastes?

You may have heard that our old strumpet of a city caters to the tourist trade. So you can very easily spend a lot of dough and waste a lot of time seeing things that you could see just as well or easily right in San Diego.

Some of the "tourist junk" is just that: junk. But some of it is really really worthwhile. Fisherman's Wharf is a gigantic plastic zero. BUT right next door in one direction is the National Maritime Museum, with antique vessels that aren't Disney replicas. In the other direction is more plastic (Pier 39) BUT there's a colony of sea lions that lolls and frolics and barks very amusingly... and they're absolutely live and natural and free. None of the restaurants on the Wharf will actually poison you. You might even get a nearly decent meal. BUT if you really want an old San Francisco Experience, you'll want to go downtown to the Tadich Grill (or Sam's Grill). The food is straight-ahead, relentlessly honest and competent, and the drinks are very good. Both of 'em have been there for 150 years or so. Or you could see the pre-Castro gay community of Polk Street and have the best, freshest crab, shrimp, oysters, and clams in the city at the Swan Oyster Depot.

You want chocolate? Now, I'm always thrilled when I'm in the middle of nowhere and find Ghirardelli's chocolate. But their soda fountain is utterly generic, an assembly line, and unless you're very impressed with working antique chocolate milling machinery, utterly boring to say nothing of crowded and uncomfortable. A short distance away on Columbus Ave is XOX truffles; genuinely world-class chocolates sold out of a tiny storefront with a few tables.

You absolutely need to take in the view from the top of Twin Peaks and from Coit Tower. Don't waste the time and money to go up to the top of the tower; you just get a slight improvement in elevation and a big decrease in visibility due to filthy glass and scratched plastic. If you're up for a stroll, walk down from Coit Tower and look around the Filbert Steps, home to the wild parrots of Telegraph Hill and a charming public garden.

If you have time and transportation you ought to go look at the windmill at the western edge of Golden Gate Park, with a lovely tulip garden and see the view of the Golden Gate from UNDER the bridge at Fort Point.

Then there's the Buffalo Paddock in Golden Gate Park, the Castro district, the Columbarium, the Mission, Bernal Heights, the Haight-Ashbury, Ashbury Heights (San Francisco's best, finest restored Victorian homes), Land's End, The Cliff House....

umm.... depending upon how open of a relationship you have... would I sound like a total slut if I suggested Blowbuddies?

The trolley cars on Market Street (might be weekends only) are a wonderful rolling museum in the livery of transit companies from all over the country. One terminus is right by Castro and Market and the other is somewhere along the Embarcadero, I think. I also like the modern cars that run under Market Street and come to the surface and travel to various points, including all the way out to the Pacific Ocean beach.

It's a minority interest but I love flanged-wheel vehicles that run on rails.

I have memories of meeting men in bars and streets and buses and parks and places and doing funny things with our bodies but I've become older and uglier and less energetic--or I could just say that with age I have acquired better judgement and more discriminating taste.

No doubt Terry has long since made his trip, but just in case someone happens upon this thread, I love to ride the cable cars. Admittedly, the ride is tame, but it's fun to hop on the front of either side of the car and hang on with with the handrail, especially down one of the big hills. I love to watch how the driver operates the controls, and the smell of the gears brings back memories of my youth. I got to initiate a cable car virgin a few months ago when she was visiting me from Denver. Lol. She popped my cherry too--I ate raw oysters for the first time at a great seafood hole-in-the-wall on Polk Street (near Pine or California Streets).