San FranciscoThe City by the Bay — the Golden Gate Bridge and Alcatraz, Fisherman's Wharf and the Ferry Building, Golden Gate Park's de Young and Japanese Tea Garden, the cable cars, and the Mission's murals and burritos

San Francisco is the cultural heart of Northern California — a dense, hilly city on the peninsula tip between the Pacific and the bay. The Golden Gate Bridge arcs to Marin in International Orange, ferries cross to Alcatraz, and the northern waterfront runs Fisherman's Wharf, Pier 39's sea lions, and the Ferry Building marketplace along the Embarcadero. Golden Gate Park — bigger than Central Park — gathers the de Young Museum, the California Academy of Sciences, and the Japanese Tea Garden, and runs to Ocean Beach; the Powell cable cars climb Nob Hill, the Painted Ladies line Alamo Square, and the Mission's murals and taquerias anchor the city's sunniest quarter.

Our San Francisco rentals put you in three very different corners of the city. The Lower Nob Hill loft — a renovated 1914 brick building once home to a noted interior designer — is the walk-everywhere downtown base: the cable car, Union Square, Chinatown, and Fisherman's Wharf are all on foot, with a private garage rare for the neighborhood. The Inner Sunset home sits steps from Golden Gate Park, the de Young, and Stow Lake, a mile from Ocean Beach and the 9th & Irving cafes — the quieter, neighborhood-living side of the city. And Ocean Whispers in Moss Beach, half an hour down the San Mateo coast, trades the city for tide pools, bluff trails, and Pacific fog when you want the coast.