Located on the hilly tip of a northern California peninsula, a Golden Gate Bridge ride from Marin and a Bay Bridge jaunt from Oakland, "Frisco" is a cluster of steep streets, cable cars, Victorian houses, downtown high rises and 800,000 citizens slammed into 46 square miles. The diversity of San Francisco is very apparent and represented in such communities as the Hispanic Mission District, the bohemian "hippie" Haight, the swank Pacific Heights, gay Castro and Chinatown. This city has come along way since being a "Gold Rush" boom town in the late 1840s.

Chinatown: Gift shops, restaurants, markets amongst traditional Asian architecture. Especially eventful is the Grand Dragon Parade every January/February to celebrate the Chinese New Year.

Fisherman's Wharf: Located on the northern waterfront, this is the spot for clam chowder, fish n' chips and oysters. Don't forget your appetite and windbreaker.

Alcatraz Island: A 15 minute boat ride from Fisherman's Wharf, "The Rock" is an infamous, ex-prison with fascinating stories of escape attempts and notorious inmates.

Golden Gate Bridge: Connects San Francisco to Marin County (to the north). This mammoth, two-mile long, cable suspension bridge was completed in 1937, took four years to complete and 14 workers perished during the construction of this dangerous project.

Haight-Ashbury Intersection: The symbolic center of 1960s hippie, sociopolitical, counterculture movement, and former stomping grounds for the likes of Allen Ginsburg, Jerry Garcia, Janis Joplin and Timothy Leary.

Cliff House: Located on the western shoreline, this historic resort for the elite was originally built in 1863, burned to the ground in 1894, was rebuilt in 1896 and burned down again in 1907. The third building is open and fully operational and lets hope that it has sprinklers installed.

San Francisco has mild weather year round so traveling there is always seasonally pleasing. It never gets below 40 degrees or snows, however it sometimes gets as low as the 60's in the summer, so remember a coat in all seasons! From October through May, travel to San Francisco is a lot cheaper and better deals are to be had. Also, hotel rooms, flights and car rentals during the weekdays are drastically cheaper than on weekends. Good luck on your search to find cheap flights to San Francisco and its surrounding areas (Oakland, Berkley, San Jose, Santa Cruz, Monterey, Carmel and Marin County), including cheap vacation packages, hotels and car rentals. San Francisco gives you multiple choices of airports to fly into including, San Francisco Intl' Airport (SFO) and Oakland International (OAK), which is just across the bay and usually a lot cheaper.