When the Civic Center BART station was under construction in 1970, workers discovered the thigh bone of a young woman, dating to about 3000 BC. This bone is the earliest evidence of human life to be uncovered in San Francisco, although the shell mounds left behind by people who subsisted on mussels and other seafood indicate the area was populated long before that. By 1000 BC the last native group to reside here, the Ohlone people, had constructed temporary villages in the marshlands near the bay shore and along inland creeks. They maintained this way of life until California fell under Spanish rule. Remarkably, the first European visitors to the San Francisco Bay Area missed the massive inlet altogether. In 1579, Sir Francis Drake landed at Point Reyes, about 60km (35mi) north of San Francisco, claiming it for Queen Elizabeth and then sailing south straight past the Golden Gate. Not long after, Spanish explorers renamed the Point Reyes bay (now known as Drakes Bay) La Bahia de San Francisco, but then proceeded to wreck their ship on Point Reyes and had to crawl south to the safety of Acapulco in a vessel lashed together from the wreckage. They too failed to notice the San Francisco Bay. Its European discovery had to wait nearly another 200 years. In 1775, Juan Manuel de Ayala became the first European to enter the Golden Gate. He was followed in 1776 by Captain Juan Bautista de Anza, who built a presidio (fort) above the Golden Gate and the Mission Dolores in the heart of today's Mission district. A tiny village known as Yerba Buena sprang up between the two and became the birthplace of modern San Francisco. Yerba Buena was renamed San Francisco in 1847, just before a momentous discovery was made in the Sierra Nevada mountains to the east: there was gold in them thar hills. The news was soon out, and prospectors began to flood in; over 100,000 hardy '49ers (named after the year they made their voyage) endured the long overland trek or the dangerous sea voyage to San Francisco, and the city's population exploded from 500 to 25,000 within a year. In 1850, California became the 31st state in the union and by 1854 the booming Gold Rush town already had more than 500 saloons and 20 theatres to entertain the hard-spending miners. From the days of the Gold Rush, San Francisco was always a freewheeling, hell-raising city - so much so that during the latter half of the 1800s, it became known as the Barbary Coast for its debauched resemblance to the pirate-plagued coast of North Africa. The initial Gold Rush fever had subsided by 1859, when a second rush took place, this time for the even richer wealth of the silver Comstock Lode near Reno, Nevada. The late 1870s saw the boom years of the gold and silver rushes dry up; nevertheless, the city grew steadily, and at the turn of the century the population was approaching 350,000. The Spanish-American War in 1898 and the Klondike Gold Rush in Canada's Yukon in 1896 underlined the city's importance as a port, while the opening of numerous banks established its continuing importance as a financial centre.

There had been major earthquakes in San Francisco in 1812 and 1865, but the Big One of 18 April 1906 is estimated to have come in at around 8.3 on the Richter Scale (which had not, at that time, been invented), a magnitude still unmatched in California history. It was not the quake itself that was to devastate San Francisco. The real damage came from the fires - lit by toppling chimneys and fed by fractured gas mains - that swept across the city. By the time the conflagration had burned itself out, half the city was in ruins. A decade of frantic rebuilding followed the quake, and the 1915 Panama-Pacific International Exposition saw the city bigger and brighter than ever. San Francisco suffered through the Great Depression, despite enormous public works projects. Two of the most prominent, the Bay Bridge of 1936 and the Golden Gate Bridge of 1937, are still magnificent symbols of the area. During WWII, the Bay Area became a major launching pad for military operations in the Pacific, with gigantic shipyards springing up around the bay. It was in the mid-1950s that national attention was first focused on the city as the birthplace of a scene of its own. When Jack Kerouac and Allen Ginsberg, upstart students at Columbia University, and Gregory Corso, 17 years old and fresh out of jail, fled the indifference of New York City and joined forces with a San Francisco poets' movement begun by poet and literary critic Kenneth Rexroth, the Beat Generation was given a voice. Kerouac became their premier author, Ginsberg their poet, and cool jazz the sound of North Beach, hub of the new Bohemia. Hippies followed in the 1960s, and the Haight-Ashbury bloomed as the new hotspot. Local bands like the Grateful Dead and Jefferson Airplane set the tune for the movement, and when 20,000 people congregated in Golden Gate Park for a free concert in 1967, the 'Summer of Love' was born. While hippies in the Haight dropped acid and wore flowers in their hair, Berkeley revolutionaries were leading worldwide student upheavals, slugging it out with the cops and the university administration over civil rights. Neighbouring Oakland was the scene for yet more revolution, as Eldridge Cleaver, Huey Newton and Bobby Seale headed the Black Panthers, the most militant group of the black power movement. A homosexual revolution followed in the 1970s, as San Francisco's gays stepped decisively out of the closet and slammed the door shut behind them. The 1977 election of gay activist Harvey Milk to the San Francisco Board of Supervisors brought recognition of the gay rights movement to a new peak, but the euphoria was to be short lived. The following year, Milk and Mayor George Moscone were assassinated by Dan White, an avowedly anti-gay former police officer and supervisor. Their deaths and the emergence of the first cases of AIDS - at the time thought of as a 'gay cancer' - marked the beginning of the end of the heyday. The rainbow banners and lavender triangles are as common today as they were 20 years ago, but the extravagance of the 1970s now resurfaces mainly at the Castro and Folsom St Fairs and the annual Gay & Lesbian Freedom Day parade. San Francisco's second 'Big One', the Loma Prieta earthquake, came in 1989, and measured 7.1 on the Richter scale. Sixty-seven people died in all, but the damage would have been far worse were it not for a baseball game. That year, baseball's World Series was a local affair between the San Francisco Giants and the Oakland A's. When the quake struck, the game was about to begin at San Francisco's Candlestick Park and a large chunk of the Bay Area population was at home watching it on TV, not out on the freeways stuck in rush-hour traffic.

In the 1990s the Bay Area experienced another period of urban renewal with a building boom that spruced up neighbourhoods and historic buildings across the region, making it an increasingly expensive place to live. The New Media boom - launched in Silicon Valley but at its artistic cutting edge in San Francisco - lured technologically savvy entrepreneurs to the 'Citee by the Bay'. But the dot-com boom was destined to go bust, and shortly after the turn of the millennium the industry indeed took an awkward swan dive - although not before billions of dollars had changed hands. San Francisco's history has always been one of vital cultural waves and cold-hearted economic surges, booms and recessions, and the first decade of the new century is no different - the waves of change just keep on rolling in. In 2004, Mayor Gavin Newsome defied state law by issuing licenses for same-sex marriages - a decision that was officially terminated a few months later by Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger.

Like most big US cities, San Francisco has itsshare of crime, but prudent travelers are notat any undue risk. Certain neighbourhoods areseedier than others and considered relativelyunsafe, especially at night and for those walkingalone; these include the Tenderloin, partsof the Mission, the Western Addition and 6thand 7th Sts south of Market. However, theseareas are not always sharply defined, andtravelers should be aware of their surroundingswhenever they walk in the city. Afterdark, some of the city's parks, particularlyDolores Park and Buena Vista Park, becomehavens for drug dealing and unsavoury behaviour. The Bayview-Hunters Point neighbourhood northof 3-Com (Candlestick) Park, where the 49ersplay, is plagued by a high crime rate and frequent violence and is not particularly suitable for wandering tourists.

San Franciscans are an energetic lot, and there are plenty of opportunities to burn calories even within the city limits. A glance over the sail-dotted bay would suggest this is prime sailing and windsurfing country, but it's not the easiest stretch of water to navigate, icy winds don't help either.

Alcatraz: For almost 150 years, the name has given the innocent chills and the guilty cold sweats. Over the years it's been the nation's first military prison, then a forbidding maximum-security penitentiary, then disputed territory between Native American activists and the FBI. No wonder that first step you take off the ferry and onto 'The Rock' seems to cue ominous music: dunh-dunh-dunnnnh!

Alcatraz Island

depart pier 41, Fisherman's Wharf

The Bay

telephone or fax: 

Web: http://www.nps.gov/alcatraz

With its vantage point on the cutting edge of the Pacific Rim, local technology savvy and its prodigious photography collection, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA) was destined from the start in 1935 to be an eclectic, unconventional museum. But when h moved into architect Mario Botta's light-filled brick box in 1995, suddenly it became clear just how far this museum was prepared to push the art world.

151 3rd St

SoMa

telephone or fax: 

Web: http://www.sfmoma.org

Watch sharks circle overhead, manta rays skate shyly by and seaweed sway all around, as conveyer belts guide you through glass tubes right into the Bay. Not for the claustrophobic, perhaps, but a thrilling fish-eye view of San Francisco that leaves kids and parents wide-eyed and humming Little Mermaid tunes.

Fisherman's Wharf

Pier 39

telephone or fax: 

Web: http://www.aquariumofthebay.com

When San Franciscans refer to 'the park,' there's only one that gets the definite article: Golden Gate Park. Everything that San Franciscans hold dear is here: free spirits, free music, redwoods, Frisbee, protests, fine art, bonsai and buffalo.

bounded by Stanyan St, Fulton St, Lincoln Way & the Great Highway

western side of the city from Haight-Ashbury to the beach

Hayes Valley

telephone or fax: 

Web: http://www.sf.ca.us/recpark

This is an extraordinary nonprofit celebrating art without limits, where 100 developmentally disabled artists create alongside other professional artists. Recent themed group shows have covered art inspired by jazz, superheroes and super-villains, and mail art. Don't miss the art openings, which are joyous events.

3245 16th St

The Mission

telephone or fax: 

Web: http://creativityexplored.org

Just like it's sister restaurant Park Chow, this place offers affordable arugula and goat cheese pizzas, pastas, and grilled and roasted meats. There might be a wait for a table that's not by the bathroom or right in front of the door, but the prices are right and the friendly staff make it a pleasant place to dish the dirt with friends.

215 Church St

The Castro

telephone or fax: 

Only locals lunch here, in an industrial shipyard on the eastern waterfront. Sit on the docks at umbrella tables and purge your hangover with Bloodies. The food's OK, mostly sandwiches and salads, but the crowd is a cool cross section, and the not-yet gentrified area shows a side of SF few visitors see. Musicians play weekends and the place become a bar.

855 China Basin St

China Basin

head to the foot of Mariposa St, off 3rd St

telephone or fax: 

Gimmickry is for amateurs - Zuni has been turning basic menu items into gourmet staples since 1979. Reservations and fat wallets are necessary, but the see-and-be-seen seating is a kick and the food is beyond reproach: organic beef burgers on focaccia with matchstick fries, Caesar salad with house-cured anchovies, crispy roasted free-range chicken with horseradish mashed potatoes, and impeccable chocolate pudding.

1658 Market St

Civic Center

telephone or fax: 

Web: http://www.zunicafe.com

Unquestionably the best jazz club in the Bay Area if not the West Coast, Yoshi's has talent from around the world passing through on a near-nightly basis. Often, touring artists will stop in for a stand of two or three nights. Having the best bar food (sushi, grilled Japanese snacks) around only sweetens the deal.

510 Embarcadero West

Oakland

at Jack London Square

telephone or fax: 

Web: http://www.yoshis.com

The Mississippi Delta it ain't, but this is a definite bet for good live blues. With a steady lineup of blues and jazz talent, Biscuits & Blues has actually earned a reputation as one of the best blues clubs in the USA. And the name isn't just a gimmick - the joint serves up hot biscuits, catfish and chicken to get you fully experiencing the Southern love.

401 Mason St

Theater District

telephone or fax: 

Web: http://www.biscuitsandblues.com

Botox, schmotox: cap off a visit to neighborhood day spas with Harry's raspberry-mango mojitos and frown lines are history. Opera season ticket-holders troll the mahogany bar, flogging their tickets to young men planning benefit soirees while wolfing down burgers and fries.

2020 Fillmore St

Japantown & Pacific Heights

telephone or fax: 

San Francisco was home to Norton I, Emperor of the United States. Born Joshua Abraham Norton in 1819, he went broke, declared himself emperor and for the next 20 years walked the streets, wearing military uniform with sword.

Within the compact city centre, walking is a pleasurable way to get around, but there's a solid transport network backing you up when perambulation seems too pedestrian. San Francisco's principal public transport system is Muni (San Francisco Municipal Railway), which operates nearly 100 bus lines (many of them electric trolley buses), streetcars and the famous cable cars. The Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) system is a convenient, economical subway system linking San Francisco with the East Bay. Ferries are a scenic way to get around.A car is more of a liability than an asset in downtown San Francisco: hills are steep and parking spots few. If you're considering a taxi, the best way is to phone.For most visitors, the thought of hopping a bicycle in the city is gruesome - there's too much traffic and the hills are fearsome - but the Bay Area is a great place for recreational biking.

The Bay Area has three major airports: San Francisco International Airport (SFO), Oakland International Airport (OAK) and San Jose International Airport (SJC). You can get to your hotel via shuttles, the BART system or taxi. There are different options at each airport.By no means the only bus company in the area, Greyhound is the only one to operate a regular long-distance service in the region. Amtrak also ably services the Bay Area.