The Atlas Obscura Guide To San Francisco
215 Cool, Hidden, and Unusual Things to Do in San Francisco, California
Updated October 8, 2024
From the Gold Rush to Silicon Valley, the Bay Area has long attracted people from all over the country and the world. And thatʼs reflected in its collection of hidden wonders, from Japanese tea gardens to a 19th-century church with a second life as a popular roller rink.
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From the exploratorium after dark to a Chinatown culinary tour.
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Hidden Haight-Ashbury
In 1967, 100,000 artists, activists, and hippies gathered in San Francisco’s Haight-Ashbury neighborhood for the Summer of Love. Janis Joplin and Jimi Hendrix played free concerts for fields of college dropouts, and San Francisco established itself as a countercultural capital. More than 50 years later, in a city increasingly known for Twitter and tech rather than art and activism, travelers who come on a pilgrimage are often disappointed to find expensive, skin-deep psychedelia. But if you know where to look, you’ll find a walk down Haight Street to be wonderfully weird, full of historic links to hippiedom and modern takes on the vibe.
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