Travelling San Fransisco
Before You Travel
San Francisco is on the coast of California about 400 miles north of Los Angeles. It is situated along the shore of a large bay sheltered behind the California Coastal Mountains. The city is renowned for its steep streets with panoramic views of beautiful San Francisco Bay and the surrounding mountains. It has a very moderate climate with warm summers and chilly winters but without extremes. Constant breezes off of the Pacific Ocean keep the summers from becoming too hot and also prevent freezing winter weather. Take a sweater, as the evening breezes can be quite brisk all year round!
San Francisco was built by "forty niners" with gold fever
Oakland and Berkeley, California lie just across the bay from San Francisco and are easily accessible via the Bay Bridge. The more famous Golden Gate Bridge spans the narrow inlet that extends from the Pacific Ocean into the bay. The Golden Gate Bridge connects San Francisco with a mountainous peninsula called the Marin headlands that is primarily known for beautiful scenery and expensive homes with spectacular views. Sausalito, a small village on the bay shore of the Marin headlands is famous as a local artist's community. San Francisco Shuttle Tours, a premium tour operator, can take you to both locations on their 10-stop guided tour with Ferry Cruise. Alcatraz Island with its abandoned prison is situated in the middle of San Francisco Bay. The city of San Jose lies about 30 miles south of San Francisco at the southern tip of this extensive bay. The area near San Jose and Santa Clara is known as "Silicon Valley", home of the largest concentration of electronics and computer firms in the USA.
San Francisco was founded in 1776 when father Junipero Serra constructed the mission San Dolores to Christianize the local native Indian population. At the same time, Spanish troops constructed a Presidio, or fort, to protect this colony for the Queen of Spain. By the middle of the nineteenth century, the village of Yerba Buena, consisting of whalers, traders, adventurers and pirates, occupied the present site of San Francisco. In 1848, gold was discovered in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada Mountains about 100 miles to the east. By 1849, San Francisco was inundated with "forty-niners" as the gold seekers were commonly called, and the population of the city exploded. Ever since, it has remained the center of commerce, entertainment, culture and tourism for Northern California.
Cable cars on steep streets overlook a turquoise San Francisco Bay
San Francisco is one of the most popular vacation destinations in the USA. Steep streets lined with Victorian era houses, a great turquoise bay surrounded by low mountains, and antique cable cars that still shuttle passengers up and down the city slopes all make San Francisco one of the most picturesque cities in the US.
The city has developed a unique character from its mixture of diverse cultures including Native American Indians, Spanish colonials, gold seeking adventurers and numerous European, African and Asian immigrants. This is reflected in the great San Francisco cuisine found in the many fabulous restaurants of the city.
Among the many attractions of San Francisco are the ethnic neighborhoods like Chinatown and Japantown with their traditional shops and restaurants. Each of these communities houses a large population of Asian immigrants and has a unique oriental character. North Beach is renown as an Italian neighborhood, the Mission District as a Hispanic community and Castro Street for its gay and lesbian population.
San Franscisco Attractions
- Death Valley National Park
Death Valley National Park is located about 200 miles (330 km) northeast of Los Angeles, California along the eastern border of California and Nevada. It is less than 50 miles east of the Sierra Nevada Mountains and lies wholly within its rain-shadow desert. Moisture coming off of the Pacific Ocean surrenders its precipitation to the upper elevations of the Sierra Nevada peaks, so very little moisture reaches Death Valley.
Death Valley is nearly 100 miles (165 km) long and varies in width from 6 miles (10 km) to over 15 miles (25 km). It is sheltered on both the East and the West by 5,000 (1500 m) to 10,000 foot (3000 m) high mountains. The floor of the valley receives less than two inches (5 cm) of rain per year. Clear blue skies without a cloud are normal in all seasons of the year.
Death Valley received its name in 1849, when a wagon train of overland immigrants headed for California became lost in the valley for several weeks. They had to burn their wagons and cook their oxen to survive. At least one of them perished in the valley. When they finally hiked their way out, one of the women reputedly said, “Goodbye Death Valley”, and the name stuck.
Alcatraz History was designed to help introduce you to the rich history of Alcatraz during the penitentiary years and many of the inmates who called "the Rock" home. From the mid 1930's until the mid 1960's, Alcatraz was America 's premier maximum-security prison, the final stop for the nation's most incorrigible inmates. Today, Alcatraz is a place of contradictions, with a grim past and an enduring future as one of San Francisco 's most prominent landmarks and tourist attractions.
San Fransisco Tours
