San Francisco · USA

Overview

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Snuggled on a 46½-square-mi tip of land between San Francisco Bay and the Pacific Ocean, San Francisco is a relatively small city of about 750,000 residents. San Franciscans cherish the city, partly for the same reasons so many visitors do: the proximity of the bay and its pleasures, rows of Victorian homes clinging precariously to the hillsides, the sun setting behind the Golden Gate Bridge. Longtime locals know the city's attraction goes much deeper, from the diversity of its neighborhoods and residents (trannies in the seedy Tenderloin, yuppie MBAs in the Marina, elderly Russians in the Richmond, working-class Latino families in the Mission) to the city's progressive free spirit (we voted to ban handguns, we embrace a photographer's project that involves naked people frolicking in trees on public land, our thirtysomething mayor poses for GQ and is seen out on the town with his soon-to-be-ex-wife, a former model). Take all these things together and you'll begin to understand why, despite the dizzying cost of living here, many San Franciscans can't imagine calling anyplace else home.

San Francisco's charms are great and small. You wouldn't want to miss Golden Gate Park, the Palace of Fine Arts, the Golden Gate Bridge, or a cable-car ride over Nob Hill. But a walk down the Filbert Steps or through Macondray Lane or an hour gazing at murals in the Mission or the thundering Pacific from the cliffs of Lincoln Park can be equally inspiring.