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Hyde Street Pier Review

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Hyde Street Pier

Address: Hyde and Jefferson Sts., Fisherman's Wharf, San Francisco, CA | Map It
Phone: 415/561-7100
www.nps.gov/safr

Category: Marinas/Piers
Location: Fisherman's Wharf

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Fodor's Review:

Cotton candy and souvenirs are all well and good, but if you want to get to the heart of the wharf—boats—there's no better place to do it than this pier, by far one of the wharf area's best bargains. Depending on the time of day, you might see boat builders at work or children pretending to man an early 1900s ship.

Don't pass up the centerpiece collection of historic vessels, part of the San Francisco Maritime National Historic 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. The C. A. Thayer, a three-masted schooner, is undergoing a painstaking restoration; it's on display, but cannot be boarded. Across the street from the pier and almost a museum in itself is the San Francisco Maritime National Historic Park's Visitor Center (499 Jefferson St., at Hyde St. 415/447-5000), happily free of mind-numbing, text-heavy displays. Instead, fun, large-scale exhibits, such as a huge First Order Fresnel lighthouse lens and a shipwrecked boat, make this an engaging and relatively quick stop.