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Photo: Grombo, CC BY-SA 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons
The oldest public Japanese garden in the country, with beautiful plants, ponds, bridges, and Japanese-style structures including a tea house. Tours are available every Wednesday and Sunday at 1PM starting at the main gate.
The Japanese Tea Garden in San Francisco, California, is a popular feature of Golden Gate Park, originally built as part of a sprawling World's Fair, the California Midwinter International Exposition of 1894. Though many of its attractions are still a part of the garden today, there have been changes throughout the history of the garden that have shaped it into what it is today.
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A modern and ethnic art focused museum, with three levels of exhibits with contemporary and historical pieces from America as well as art of Africa, Oceania, and the Americas in a uniquely-designed building with courtyards and sculpture gardens that includes Three Gems piece by Turrell. One corner of the building houses the free Hamon Observation Tower which offers a lovely 360-degree view of the park and surroundings.
A wide variety of roses on display.
formerly the Strybing Arboretum
One of the largest botanical gardens on the west coast, the Botanical Gardens cover 55 acres with thousands of varieties of plants from around the world and multiple specialized gardens and miles of trails (seriously, the place is huge). One of the most unique attractions is the Redwood Trail, which runs through a naturalistic redwood forest reminiscent of the ones north of San Francisco along the Californian coast. There is also a bookstore and library on the premises, near the main entrance. Free guided tours of the gardens depart from the bookstore daily at 1:30PM with an extra tour on the weekends at 10:30AM. On Wednesdays, Fridays and Sundays another free tour departs from the Friend Gate at 2PM.
With roses and other flowers mentioned in his plays. A bust of Shakespeare sits at the opposite end from the entrance.
An absolutely stunning museum and an excellent place to take the children. Among the many highlights of this museum is the building itself; ride the elevator to the top to see the Living Roof, a literal green roof and marvel of architecture with soft hills covered in grass and flowers. On the ground floor are numerous interactive science exhibits, outdoor gardens, an aviary, and towering over the massive exhibit halls is the sphere-like Planetarium on one side of the building, while the other side is overshadowed by the domed Rainforests of the World exhibit, a massive transparent dome which contains a winding pathway that takes you to the top, past towering trees and animal displays. As if all that wasn't enough, the building also contains a fantastic aquarium on the bottom floor, which showcases the more unusual sea life such as octopus, jellyfish, sea dragons, and sea stars among its displays of coral reefs, kelp forests, and tidepools. It's a big museum; be sure to give yourself at least a few hours to see it all.
Previously known as Stow Lake, it was renamed in 2024, though many locals still use the old name. This pleasant lake surrounding Strawberry Hill, a scenic island with excellent views and great picnic spots, is an excellent place to relax. Boating (several types for rent) is available from a boathouse, which is open daily from 11AM-5PM. The ruins of the Sweeny Observatory are on the top of the hill, which was destroyed in the 1906 Earthquake. A Chinese pagoda sits on the edge of the island, which was donated by Taiwan in 1973, nearby the artificial waterfall.