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San Francisco’s Top Free Attractions

November 10, 2010 11:06 AM

TripAdvisor, one of the world’s largest online travel communities with more than 35 million monthly visitors, recently announced its list of top 5 free tourist attractions in San Francisco.

Their list was based on the reviews and experiences of travelers posted to TripAdvisor San Francisco and shared with CBS 5 by TripAdvisor.

Two men sit on a rock at Baker Beach near the Golden Gate Bridge. (Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)

1. Golden Gate Bridge

Golden Gate Bridge

The Golden Gate Bridge is acclaimed as one of the world’s most beautiful bridges and with its tremendous towers, sweeping main cables and great span, it is a sensory beauty featuring color, sound, and light. It is estimated that about nine million people from around the world visit the Bridge each year.

Workers cycle past the San Francisco Ferry Building (Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)

2. Ferry Building Marketplace

Ferry Building Marketplace

The Ferry Building Marketplace is located along the Embarcadero at the foot of Market Street. It is the center of a transit hub that connects all of San Francisco’s neighborhoods and the surrounding bay communities.

Justin Sullivan (Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)

3. Lombard Street

Lombard Street

Lombard Street in San Francisco is known as the crookedest street in the world. A steep crooked drive, Lombard Street is an attraction and challenge for tourists who visit San Francisco and Fishermans Wharf.

The Japanese Tea Garden in Golden Gate Park (BART.gov)

4. Golden Gate Park

Golden Gate Park

San Francisco’s largest park, Golden Gate Park covers over 1,013 acres and is 3 miles long by 1/2-mile wide, larger than New York City’s Central Park. The park is home to two of the city’s premiere museums, the De Young art museum and the California Academy of Sciences.

A historic photo of the Presidio Main Post (Presidio.gov)

5. Presidio Army Museum

Presidio Army Museum

Situated on Lincoln Boulevard (near the Main Post) is the Presidio Army Museum, housed in an old military hospital dating from 1857. There are exhibitions of relics and documents which illustrate the part played by the military in the development of San Francisco.