🤓 Nerd out

Seven floors of modern and contemporary art behind that rippling white facade. Do the living wall and the rooftop sculpture terrace even if you only have an hour.

Copper-clad museum in the middle of the park. The art is the draw, but ride up to the observation tower for a free 360 of the city, it's one of SF's best-kept views.

A neoclassical museum on the cliffs with a Rodin Thinker out front and the Pacific behind it. Worth the trek for the building alone.

One of the largest collections of Asian art in the West, in a grand old Beaux-Arts library off Civic Center. Quiet, vast, underrated.

A cluttered, beloved dive on a tiny alley, walls covered in maritime junk and decades of stories. Cash, characters, no pretense.

Rainforest dome, planetarium, aquarium, and a living roof under one Renzo Piano roof. Thursday NightLife turns it into a 21+ party.

Hands-on science as play, sprawling along the waterfront. Come on an adults-only After Dark night and rediscover being a curious kid.

Far more moving than it sounds: the life of Walt himself, told beautifully in a Presidio barracks. The hand-drawn early animation will get you.

One of the world's largest collections of working coin-operated antique arcade machines, still playable.

The first stand-alone museum of queer history in the U.S., with Harvey Milk's personal artifacts.

One of the few US museums devoted entirely to the preservation and exhibition of cartoon art.

A shrine to the Beat Generation with Kerouac's manuscripts, Ginsberg relics, and the car from the film of On the Road.

A former Christian Science church now housing the Wayback Machine and a hall of eerie staff statues.

Neighborhood board-game cafe with a sprawling library and a stay-and-play vibe.