7 Best Sights in San Francisco, California

"Museum" might be a stretch for this tiny storefront that's half bookstore, half memorabilia collection. You can see the 1949 Hudson from the movie version of On the Road and the shirt Neal Cassady wore while driving Ken Kesey's Merry Prankster bus, "Further." There are also manuscripts, letters, and early editions by Jack Kerouac, Allen Ginsberg, and Lawrence Ferlinghetti. But the true treasure here is the passionate and well-informed staff, which often includes the museum's founder, Jerry Cimino: your short visit may turn into an hours-long trip through the Beat era. Excellent walking tours go beyond the museum to take in favorite Beat watering holes and hangouts in North Beach.

The small, two-gallery Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, and Transgender (GLBT) Historical Society Museum, the first of its kind in the United States, presents multimedia exhibits from its vast holdings covering San Francisco's queer history. In the main gallery, you might hear the audiotape Harvey Milk made for the community in the event of his assassination; explore artifacts from "Gayborhoods," lost landmarks of the city's gay past; or flip through a memory book with pictures and thoughts on some of the more than 20,000 San Franciscans lost to AIDS. Though perhaps not for everyone (those offended by sex toys and photos of lustily frolicking naked people may, well, be offended), the museum offers an inside look at these communities so integral to the fabric of San Francisco life.

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.

An excellent place to begin a historical tour of the Presidio, the Officers' Club offers a walk through time from the Presidio's earliest days as the first nonnative outpost in present-day San Francisco to more than a century as a U.S. Army post. Start with the excellent short film about life here from the time of the Ohlone people to the present, then peruse the displays of artifacts, including uniforms and weaponry. In the Mesa Room, you can literally see layers of history: parts of the original adobe wall from the 1790s, the brick fireplace in the 1880s commander's office, and the Mission revival–style fireplace in the 1930s billiard room. Note that the Officers' Club is only open on Saturdays.

Excavation of the Presidio continues: outside, a canopy covers the Presidio Archaeology Field Station, where you can sometimes see archaeologists at work. There is a docent on hand each Friday and Saturday from 11 am to 2 pm to answer questions about the dig.

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.

This beautifully refurbished brick barracks is a tribute to the man behind Mickey Mouse, Disney Studios, and Disneyland. The smartly organized displays include hundreds of family photos, and well-chosen videos play throughout. Disney's legendary attention to detail is evident in the cels and footage of Fantasia, Sleeping Beauty, and other animation classics. Galleries tell the story of Disney's life from his youth in the Midwest to lesser-known bits of his professional history, like the films Walt Disney made for the U.S. military during World War II. The liveliest exhibit, and the largest gallery, documents the creation of Disneyland with a fun, detailed model of what Disney imagined the park would be. Teacups spin, the Matterhorn looms, and that world-famous castle leads the way to Fantasyland. You won't be the first to leave humming "It's a Small World." In the final gallery, a series of cartoons and quotes chronicle the world's reaction to Disney's sudden death. Worth checking for are periodic special exhibitions that take a deep dive into film themes or historical periods surrounding Disney's life.

At this fun two-story museum, you can get a taste of the early years of the gold rush when San Francisco had no formal banks and miners often entrusted their gold dust to saloon keepers. In 1852, Wells Fargo opened its first bank in the city on this block, and the company soon established banking offices in mother-lode camps throughout California. One popular exhibit is a simulated ride in a replica of an early stagecoach. The museum also displays samples of nuggets and gold dust from mines, an old telegraph machine on which you can practice sending codes, and tools the '49ers used to coax gold from the ground.