10 Best Sights in Fisherman's Wharf, San Francisco

This urban beach, surrounded by Fort Mason, Ghirardelli Square, and Fisherman's Wharf, is a quarter-mile-long strip of sand. The gentle waters near shore are shallow, safe for kids to swim or wade, and fairly clean. Locals come out for quick dips in the frigid water. Members of the Dolphin Club and the South End Rowing Club come every morning for a swim, and a large and raucous crowd braves the cold on New Year's Day. Amenities: food and drink; showers; toilets. Best for: sunset; walking.

Snoopy, Wonder Woman, Batman, and other colorful cartoon icons greet you at the Cartoon Art Museum, established with an endowment from the late cartoonist-icon Charles M. Schulz. The museum's strength is its changing exhibits, which have highlighted subjects such as emerging artists, the evolution of animation, and artwork that highlights the landmarks of San Francisco. Serious fans of cartoons—especially those on the quirky underground side—will likely enjoy the exhibits; those with a casual interest may be bored. The store here carries cool titles to add to your collection.

Most of the redbrick buildings in this complex were once part of the Ghirardelli factory, which the prominent chocolate company purchased in 1893. Tourists visit to pick up the famous chocolate and indulge in ice cream sundaes at this dessert paradise, though you can purchase the chocolates all over town and save yourself a trip to what is essentially a glamorized mall food court (Ghirardelli's factory is now in the East Bay). But it's still a must-visit destination for chocolate lovers. Placards throughout the square describe the factory's history, and the giant Ghirardelli sign above the square, erected in 1923, remains one of the city's visual icons.

Once you're tired of chocolate, there are a few notable restaurants within the square. Palette Tea House serves some of the city's most artistic dim sum, Square Pie Guys has the Bay Area's gold standard for Detroit-style square pizza, Barrio offers enjoyable tacos and margaritas, and there's a great beer garden setting at the San Francisco Brewing Co.

If you want to get to the heart of the Wharf, there's no better place to do it than at this pier. Don't pass up the centerpiece collection of historic vessels, part of the San Francisco Maritime National Historical Park, almost all of which can be boarded. The Balclutha, an 1886 full-rigged three-masted sailing vessel that's more than 250 feet long, sailed around Cape Horn 17 times. Kids especially love the Eureka, a side-wheel passenger and car ferry, for her onboard collection of vintage cars. The Hercules is a steam-powered tugboat, and the C. A. Thayer is a beautifully restored three-masted schooner.

Across the street from the pier and a museum in itself is the maritime park's Visitor Center ( 499 Jefferson St.  415/447–5000), whose fun, large-scale exhibits make it an engaging stop. See a huge First Order Fresnel lighthouse lens from the Farallon Islands and a shipwrecked boat. Then stroll through time in the exhibit "The Waterfront," where you can touch the timber from a gold rush–era ship recovered from below the Financial District, peek into 19th-century storefronts, and see the sails of an Italian fishing vessel.

Once a staple at Playland at the Beach, San Francisco's early-20th-century amusement park, the antique mechanical contrivances at this time-warp arcade—including peep shows and nickelodeons—make it one of the most worthwhile attractions at the Wharf. Some favorites are the giant and rather creepy "Laffing Sal"; an arm-wrestling machine; the world's only steam-powered motorcycle; and mechanical fortune-telling figures that speak from their curtained boxes. Note the depictions of race that betray the prejudices of the time: stoned Chinese figures in the "Opium-Den" and clown-faced African Americans eating watermelon in the "Mechanical Farm."  Admission is free, but you'll need quarters to bring the machines to life.

The city's most popular waterfront attraction draws millions of visitors each year, who come to browse through its shops and concessions hawking every conceivable form of souvenir. The pier can be quite crowded, and the numerous street performers may leave you feeling more harassed than entertained. Arriving early in the morning ensures you a front-row view of the sea lions that bask here, but be aware that most stores don't open until 9:30 or 10 (later in winter).

Follow the sound of barking to the northwest side of the pier to view the sea lions flopping about the floating docks. During the summer, orange-clad naturalists offer fascinating facts about the playful pinnipeds—for example, that most of the animals here are males.

At the Aquarium of the Bay ( aquariumofthebay.org), moving walkways transport you through a space surrounded on three sides by water filled with indigenous San Francisco Bay marine life, from the orange Garibaldi (the state marine fish) to sharks.

Among the two floors of exhibits at this mind-bending museum is a tribute to San Francisco—an 8-foot-long scale model of a cable car made entirely of matchsticks and a replica of the Golden Gate Bridge made of 30,000 toothpicks.

You'll feel as if you're out to sea when you step inside this sturdy, ship-shape (literally), Streamline-Moderne structure, dubbed the Bathhouse Building and built in 1939 as part of the New Deal's Works Progress Administration. The first floor of the museum, part of the San Francisco Maritime National Historical Park, has stunningly restored undersea dreamscape murals and some of the museum's intricate ship models. The first-floor balcony overlooks the beach and has lovely WPA-era tile designs. If you've got young kids in tow, the museum makes a great quick, free stop. Then pick up ice cream at Ghirardelli Square across the street and enjoy it on the beach or next door in Victorian Park, where you can watch the cable cars turn around.

A participant in the D-Day landing in Normandy during World War II, this Liberty Ship freighter is one of two such vessels still in working order. On board you can peek at the crew's living quarters and the officers' mess hall. The large display of the Normandy invasion, one of many exhibits on board, was a gift from France. To keep the 1943 ship in sailing shape, the steam engine—which appears in the film Titanic—is operated dockside a few times a year on special "steaming weekends." Most recently, the ship escaped damage from a major 2020 fire at its home dock, Pier 45. Visitors can explore the ship at the dock or enjoy one of the bay cruises that happen on select days throughout the year.

Get an intriguing, if mildly claustrophobic, glimpse into life on a submarine during World War II on this small, 80-person sub, which sank six Japanese warships and damaged four others. There's not much in the way of interpretive signs, so use the free audio tour to learn about what you're seeing.