The Marina District
Created on landfill for the Pan Pacific Exposition of 1915, the Marina District boasts some of the best views of the Golden Gate, as well as plenty of grassy fields alongside San Francisco Bay. Elegant Mediterranean-style homes and apartments, inhabited by the city’s well-to-do singles and wealthy families, line the streets. Here, too, are the Palace of Fine Arts, the Exploratorium, and Fort Mason Center. The main street is Chestnut, between Franklin and Lyon, which abounds with shops, cafes, and boutiques. Because of its landfill foundation, the Marina was one of the hardest-hit districts in the 1989 quake.

The Marina is also the best access to the largest urban park in the world, Golden Gate National Recreation Area makes New York’s Central Park look like a putting green, covering three counties along 28 miles of stunning, condo-free shoreline. Run by the National Park Service, the Recreation Area wraps around the northern and western edges of the city, and just about all of it is open to the public with no access fees.

Pacific Heights
The ultra-elite, such as the Gettys and Danielle Steel -- and those lucky enough to buy before the real-estate boom -- reside in the mansions and homes in this neighborhood. When the rich meander out of their fortresses, they wander down to Union Street and join the pretty people who frequent the street’s long stretch of chic boutiques and lively neighborhood restaurants, cafes, and bars.

Cow Hollow
Located west of Van Ness Avenue, between Russian Hill and the Presidio, this flat, grazeable area supported 30 dairy farms in 1861. Today Cow Hollow is largely residential and yuppie. Its two primary commercial thoroughfares are Lombard Street, known for its many relatively inexpensive motels, and Union Street, a flourishing shopping sector filled with restaurants, pubs, cafes, and shops.