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Pretend you are a guest and not just a visitor, and have a look around the lobbies of some swanky San Francisco hotels. The Fairmont and Mark Hopkins have impressive lobbies that will leave you counting your pennies to see if you can afford a room. See below under the Sleep section for further info.
Here you can see the mechanisms that drive San Francisco's famed cable cars, as well as plenty of cable car memorabilia and information on the history of the cable cars.
Do see the "crookedest street in the world", a one-block portion of Lombard Street that contains eight hairpin turns, created to reduce the hill's natural steep slope. The best time to see and photograph the winding street from the bottom (from Leavenworth St) is in the morning because Lombard Street runs east-west and slopes eastward. The best time to see and photograph the view from the top (from Hyde St) is in the afternoon. At night there are great views of Telegraph Hill and Coit Tower. The wild parrots of Telegraph Hill frequently fly over head in the morning.
At a 31.5% grade, this is one of the very steepest streets in the entire Western Hemisphere. Like many of the steeper streets in the city, it has steps along the sidewalk and its own special set of parking rules, so that people and cars don't all come tumbling down!
This block contains twelve spectacular mansions in a variety of styles. It is very close to the crooked section of Lombard Street and is worth the minor detour on the way.
The main Episcopalian church of the city, based on the Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris. They request a donation and the tour is an hour long. You learn a lot but at times it is way too detailed.
A thoroughly charming pedestrian way tucked onto the southeast side of Russian Hill, paved with brick and cobblestone and lined with gardens and Victorian houses that have been home to many writers—indeed, Macondray was recast as Barbary Lane in Armistead Maupin's Tales of the City.