Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Bogdanovich allowed a car stunt to take a chunk out of an antique stone staircase
and then left the disastrous moment in
What's Up Doc?;
ever since then, the city
has been draconian about issuing permits. References run the gamut, from a 1922
Buster Keaton cable-car chase scene in North Beach,
Dirty Harry
and
American
Graffiti
to
Vertigo, The Princess Diaries,
and half the movies in Robin Williams's
cornball canon. Because we all go to the movies, the experience isn't dry. But it's
not just about movies; you'll be shown other cultural highlights, too, such as the
house where Alice Walker wrote
The Color Purple.
Tours on weekdays go into City
Hall, while ones on the weekend trade that for the soaring bridge views at Fort
Point, which is otherwise hard to reach without a car. Another benefit of a week-
end tour is a pass by the exterior of Industrial Light & Magic's Letterman com-
plex, where movie special effects are programmed; out front, there's a fountain of
The Empire Strikes Back
's Yoda that tour guides jokingly call
The Incontinence of
Yoda.
The tour picks up and drops off around Fisherman's Wharf.
The
Blue & Gold Fleet
55
(Pier 39, Embarcadero at Beach;
%
415/705
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8200; www.blueandgoldfleet.com)
is perhaps the best-known and most regular of
the tourist ferry companies. Its most popular ride is the Bay Cruise Adventure
($21 adults, $13 kids) that goes around Alcatraz (but doesn't stop) and dips
briefly into the roiling waters on the other side of the Golden Gate Bridge. Hold
on tight and don't set your hot coffee down on the table in front of you, because
the conflicting currents play havoc with the craft. The narration is prerecorded,
and you won't hear what it's saying unless you're inside and not on the more pleas-
ant outdoor decks. This cruise leaves pretty much hourly and is offered for free as
part of CityPass (p. 98), but there are a few other options on the boards, includ-
ing $18 adults/$10 kids for a round-trip journey from Fisherman's Wharf to the
pretty town of Sausalito, across the water in Marin County. The company also
provides transportation to Angel Island ($15 adults and $8.50 kids), behind
Alcatraz from the city, for hiking and kayaking. The one thing it won't do is take
you to the prison on Alcatraz Island; that service is provided by a company called
Alcatraz Cruises (p. 93).
In 1989, one of the world's foremost experts on local gay and lesbian history,
Trevor Hailey, began a walking tour of the primary gay district, the Castro, that
she called
Cruisin' the Castro Tour
5
(
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415/255
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1821; www.cruisinthecastro.
com; $35 ages 13 and over, $25 kids 3-12; Sat 10am-noon; reservations
required).
Hailey passed away in 2007, but her popular tour was assumed 2 years
earlier by her protégé, Kathy Amendola, who sticks more or less to the same sights
around eight of the neighborhood's 44 unofficial blocks, including Harvey Milk's
camera shop, the Castro Theatre, and other spots connected with gay cultural and
political history, including America's only park dedicated to the Nazis' countless
gay victims. The winter schedule is sparse, and that time of year, Amendola might
only conduct a tour if there's a group booked. The tour meets right outside a con-
venient Muni tram station.
Created with the cooperation of city authorities, the
Barbary Coast Trail
(
%
415/454
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2355; www.barbarycoasttrail.org)
is a gold-rush-and-quake-themed
tour that threads from Market Street all the way to Fisherman's Wharf, through
what was once the rough-and-tumble area of the old city but is now home to cor-
porate buccaneers. Although the trail is well marked by a multitude of brass mark-
ers and arrows embedded in the sidewalk, there are few informational signs along
