San Francisco: The Rough Guide (Rough Guide Travel Guides) - Softcover

Bosley, Deborah; Jensen, Jamie

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1858280826 ISBN 13: 9781858280820

Publisher: Rough Guides, 1994

Synopsis

This guide to San Francisco offers a practical guide to California's dream city, providing all the information necessary for a great-value trip. Features include the lowdown on San Francisco's great sights, including detailed explorations along the switchback streets of the city's colourful neighbourhoods. Thorough coverage of the Bay Area, including the student haunts of Berkeley and the vineyards of the Napa Valley. Enthralling accounts of the city's flamboyant past, from Gold Rush beginnings through the Beatniks and the Summer of Love.

About this title

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

CLIMATE AND WHEN TO GO The city of San Francisco emphatically does not belong to the California of monotonous blue skies and slothful warmth. Flanked on three sides by water, it is regularly invigorated by the fresh winds that sweep across the peninsula. The climate is among the most stable in the world, with a daytime temperature that rarely ventures more than 5ºF either side of a median 60ºF but can drop much lower at night. Summer does offer some sunny days, of course, but it also sees heavy fog roll in through the Golden Gate to smother the city in gloom. This thick mist does much to add romance to the city, but it can also dash hopes of tanning at the beach or having a timely departure from one of the local airports. The western half of the city sees the worst of the fog on summer mornings; later in the year, cooler inland temperatures prevent the fog from taking root. Winters bring most of the city’s rainfall, sometimes in quite torrential storms. Almost everywhere else in the Bay Area is warm! er than San Francisco, especially in the summer when the East Bay basks in sunshine, and the Wine Country and other inland valleys are baking hot. As for when to go, if you want to avoid the crowds, it makes sense not to come in the summer, although even then most of the tourist congestion is confined to a few of the most popular parts of the city, and is rarely too off-putting. The nicest times to visit are late May and June, when the hills are greenest and covered with wildflowers, or in October and November, when you can be fairly sure of good weather and reduced crowds at tourist attractions.

Edition details

• Publisher: Rough Guides
• Publication date: 1994
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1858280826
• ISBN 13: 9781858280820
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 2
• Number of pages: 320