Inside SF
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The San Francisco Scoop
For locals who want to experience San Francisco like a visitor and visitors who want to experience San Francisco like a local.
The San Francisco Scoop is designed by us to take you inside SF, whether you’re visiting or you live here. From current-affairs inspired articles on California history, to our suggestions on the best things to do in SF every month, via inside information on authentic experiences and events, we give you the essential scoop on the city by the bay.
And if you’re a visitor looking for more specific information related to your trip here, such as filming locations of famous movies in SF, a list of the best family activities in San Francisco, how much to tip here or how to navigate the city using public transport, don’t forget to check S.F. Info.
SF History
San Francisco In Film Noir
Film Noir as a genre was really born in San Francisco, in 1922, when a series of short stories by a writer called Dashiell Hammett appeared in literary magazine The Smart Set. That’s right, it started as a literary genre, but it wasn’t called ‘Noir’ at first, the stories were looked down on as being,…
Founding of San Francisco
If you look at a map of the West Coast of the U.S. it seems logical that there would be a port in the Bay Area. It’s far and away the best natural harbor between San Diego and Seattle, so it seems entirely natural – almost ordained really – that San Francisco exists. However, like…
The Great Fire & How It Changed SF
The 1906 Great Fire is one of the most cataclysmic moments in the history of San Francisco. In many respects it’s the big “before and after” event for the city. Some buildings survived – Union Square’s St Francis Hotel, the Flood Mansion and the Fairmont Hotel, both on Nob Hill, and the Ferry Building were…
Crime Seen: Prohibition in San Francisco
On January 17, 1920, the United States officially went dry as the 18th Amendment came into effect, followed by the Volstead Act. Across the country breweries shuttered, saloons closed their doors and federal agents prepared to enforce what was supposed to be a new moral order. In many American cities, Prohibition arrived with raids, arrests…
Crime Seen: Old Chinatown
San Francisco has the oldest Chinatown in the U.S. and one of the oldest in the West. Chinese emigrants first began moving to the city in 1849, as news of “Gam Saan” (Gold Mountain) spread around the world and reached China, firing the imaginations of thousands of young men who were struggling after years of…
How The Gold Rush Created San Francisco
On May 12, 1848, Mormon pioneer and businessman Samuel Brannan walked onto Portsmouth Square, shouting “Gold! Gold from the American River!”, while holding aloft a phial full of gold flakes. He hadn’t discovered the gold and he never attempted mining it, but it fired the starting gun for the great California Gold Rush. He owned…
How SF & LA Became Queer Capitals of U.S.
When most people think of the birth of the LGBTQ+ rights movement in America, they think of Stonewall, 1969 in New York City. But long before that famous uprising, the earliest sparks of organized queer resistance were already burning in California. By the time of the Stonewall Riots San Francisco and Los Angeles were already…
Fatty Arbuckle Affair: Celebrity Sex Scandal
Location: St Francis Hotel Long before anyone had ever heard of the Fatty Arbuckle Affair (or there was any such thing as a “celebrity sex scandal”) the St Francis Hotel opened in 1904 on Union Square. At that time the film industry was only just blowing up, from being seen as little more than a…
Strength & Skill: The Cable Car Women
San Francisco’s cable cars are more than just a charming relic of the past, they are an enduring symbol of the city’s history and ingenuity. But as these beloved vehicles traverse their well-worn tracks, a vital and often understated chapter of their story unfolds: the remarkable contributions of the cable car women who have mastered…
Maiden Lane: From Brothels To Boutiques
Today Maiden Lane is an upscale, boutique-lined, pedestrian street running east off Union Square, notable chiefly for its gates and for being the home of San Francisco’s only Frank Lloyd Wright designed building. However, the narrow, quiet, street has a scandalous past as one of old San Francisco’s main red-light districts, in the late nineteenth…
Haight-Ashbury: Summer Of Love, 1967
In the mid-1960s, San Francisco exploded with a counterculture movement. A tremendous spontaneous expression of youthful enthusiasm for loving life, allied with opposition to the Vietnam War, attracted an estimated 100,000 young people to San Francisco. More than ten years earlier, in the early 1950’s, another counter-cultural movement, also against materialism and conformism, called the…
Big Alma: From Poor Nude Model To Rich Art Patron
In the center of Union Square, in downtown San Francisco is a statue of Nike, the Greek Goddess of Victory,. If you read the inscription at the base you’ll find that it’s dedicated to Admiral George Dewey, victor of the Battle of Manila Bay in 1898, during the Spanish-American War. Big deal, you may say,…
Nob Hill: SF’s Posh Neighborhood
San Francisco is one of many cities around the world that claim to be built on seven hills (for some reason it’s always seven), going back all the way to ancient Athens and Rome. In our case the ‘The Seven Hills of San Francisco’ are Telegraph Hill, Nob Hill, Russian Hill, Rincon Hill, Twin Peaks, Mount Davidson and Lone Mountain or Mount…
The Original Chinatown: San Francisco
A Chinatown is defined as an ethnic enclave of people of Chinese background, that is outside China itself. From the 1830’s onwards a large, and growing, number of them have popped up all over the world, in cities like New York, London, Los Angeles and Melbourne. The oldest in the Western world is considered to…
How Maya Angelou Changed San Francisco
For Black History Month I want to highlight the positive influence of one of our most famous former inhabitants, Maya Angelou, and show how she left an indelible mark on San Francisco. Angelou was born in St Louis, Missouri, but while still young her family moved to Oakland, in the East Bay. Like a lot…
SF Experiences
10 Architectural Landmarks Of SF
San Francisco is rightly famous for many of its building and structures, visitors are generally well-aware of many of its architectural landmarks and are determined to see them in person. The city’s brightly-painted Victorian houses, the concrete Transamerica Pyramid, our Chinatown (the first to use Chinese features and designs) and,…
Berkeley, Oakland & Alameda: SF’s East Bay
The San Francisco-facing parts of the wider East Bay region, encompassing Berkeley, Oakland and Alameda, have a lot of attractions and things to see and do. They’re also popular places to stay for visitors to the Bay Area, since they’re reasonably well-connected to the BART and SF ferry systems, as…
Angel Island: SF’s Immigration Station
If you’ve ever taken a ferry across the San Francisco Bay, or stood on the waterfront at Fisherman’s Wharf, and noticed a much bigger island than Alcatraz sitting close by it, then you’ve seen Angel Island. It looks peaceful now, likely a wonderful place to hike, picnic and feel far…
Fisherman’s Wharf: SF’s Famous Neighborhood
Most visitors to San Francisco visit Fisherman’s Wharf while they’re here, it’s our NYC Times Square or Hollywood Walk of Fame. And, just like those two other famous places, Fisherman’s Wharf can be underwhelming: a few too many tourist traps and, well… tourists! At least that’s how many San Franciscans…
Alcatraz: SF’s Prison Island
Originally named after the Pelicans that used to be inhabit the island, Alcatraz, has since become a symbol of San Francisco, as much as the Golden Gate Bridge and our cable cars. Most first-time visitors to the city by the bay will have it on their list of things to…
Castro: SF’s Naughty Neighborhood
The San Francisco neighborhood known as the Castro is one of the best-known in the city. It was a birthplace of the LGBTQ+ rights movement in the U.S. and was where Harvey Milk, the gay-rights activist and politician, began his political career. It’s also a very picturesque and historic part…
North Beach: SF’s Nightlife Neighborhood
North Beach is one of San Francisco’s most storied and picturesque neighborhoods. It’s chiefly known nowadays for being our ‘Little Italy’ and most visitors want to see it while they’re in the city, to eat at one of the many great Italian restaurants and cafes that line its streets. It…
How To Ride SF Cable Cars & Trams
One of the first things that pops into most people’s minds when they hear the words “San Francisco” is an image of a cable car (the other one is the Golden Gate Bridge obviously). It’s considered an indelible element of the city and many visitors coming here already want to…
Crime Seen: San Francisco’s Barbary Coast
Barbary Coast was the name given to a neighborhood of San Francisco, more or less encompassing Pacific Avenue (then known as Pacific Street) between Montgomery and Stockton Streets, from the 1860’s to the 1900’s. Roughly bound by today’s Chinatown, North Beach and the Embarcadero, the area was infamous for the…
Golden Gate Bridge: History & How To Visit
Ever since the late nineteenth century San Franciscans had dreamed of a bridge across the Golden Gate, the narrow strait that separate the northern and southern sides of the entrance to San Francisco Bay. However, the practical difficulties of building a Golden Gate Bridge seemed insuperable at the time, and…
Mission District: SF’s Fun Neighborhood
The Mission District is a very well-known neighborhood in San Francisco. It’s popular for a number of reasons: it has some of the best restaurants in the city (it was the birthplace of the Mission Burrito after all), it’s a Mecca for clubbers and others wanting to have fun, it’s…
Bicycling In SF: Rides & Routes
San Francisco has a lot of great opportunities for getting out on two wheels (or more), powered by legs and lungs. It’s true the city, and wider Bay Area, is pretty hilly, but there are ways to avoid them, if you prefer (and no one would blame you for that…
SF Events
10 Best Things To Do In SF In October
October, for most San Franciscans means two things: Halloween and Dia de Los Muertos. As you would expect there are a ton of events based around those holidays this month in San Francisco. However, not everybody wants to go to yet another Halloween themed event, and even if they do…
10 Best Things To Do In SF In September
This might be, perhaps, the best month to be in San Francisco weather-wise. It’s usually the warmest it ever gets here (which can be pretty hot, it is Cali after all) and the elements are just a tiny bit more predictable. When the Bay Area climate gets like this you…
10 Best Things To Do In SF In August
August is a great month to be in San Francisco. It’s usually warm (sometimes even hot, it is California after all) and the weather’s just a tiny bit more reliable, so here in the Bay Area you just have to make the most of that to get OUT! There are…
10 Best Things To Do In SF In July
July marks the height of street fair season in San Francisco, with a lot of outdoor events and concerts, such as the Stern Grove Festival and the Fillmore Jazz Festival. There are always a ton of things happening in the Bay Area during the summer and the onset of July…
10 Best Things To Do In SF In June
June marks the official beginning of Summer and it’s also LGBTQ+ month, so SF Pride has to take (ahem) pride of place in our line-up of the best things to do in SF in June. It’s definitely one of the biggest things happening here next month. Nevertheless, there are plenty…
10 Best Things To Do In SF In May
With the advent of May Spring has become Summer (apart from a few days, when it switches back to deep winter :-) ). This is a great time to be in the Bay Area as the days get warmer and longer, and there are some really fun events happening in…
10 Best Things To Do In SF In April
“San Francisco in the Spring” may not quite have the ring of “Paris in the Spring”, but it is a great time of the year to be in the Bay Area. The weather’s getting warmer and a little more predictable, days are longer, which means San Franciscans want to get…
10 Best Things To Do In SF In March
As San Francisco continues its strong start to the year, events are popping up all over the Bay Area, like flowers pushing their heads up as Spring arrives, or something like that. This month we have a well rounded list of the best things to do in SF in March,…
Fisherman’s Wharf Chocolate & Gold Tour
Explore SF’s most famous neighborhood with a local expert, visiting iconic landmarks and hidden gems, while tasting local treats and learning the area’s rich history. The Fisherman’s Wharf Chocolate & Gold Tour includes a tour of the Musée Mécanique, as well as passing the lovely Maritime Museum, in Aquatic Cove.…
10 Best Things To Do In SF In February
February is a great time to be in San Francisco in terms of events and things to do, there’s the Lunar New Year, Valentine’s Day, dance parties at museums and a beer and comedy festival for God’s sake! It may only be the second month of the year, but SF…
10 Best Things To Do In SF In January
There’s a lot of great events coming to San Francisco this month: Christmas and the New Year don’t slow down the city by the bay! There are cultural celebrations, art exhibitions, comedy shows, film festivals and there’s even a long-distance run (followed by hot chocolate, natch, it’s likely going to…
10 Best Things To Do In SF In December
Christmas is officially coming, the goose is getting fat and the tree has been put up and decorated. Now what? Once you’ve done all the food and gift-shopping that you need to, you’ll probably want to go out and have a little festive fun. But what, exactly, are you going…
10 Best Things To Do In SF In November
The nights are getting longer and – I know we maybe shouldn’t mention it yet, but – Christmas is drawing near. Attention begins to turn to going out: having fun and doing stuff. But what exactly? Which things are the best things to do in SF in November? This is…
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