View of Golden Gate Bridge at sunrise, San Francisco, California, USA (Photodisc Green/Peter Ginter/Getty Images)

As Torontonians contemplate how to build a new waterfront, they should look no further than San Francisco. Visitors to San Fran can spend days entertaining themselves on Fisherman's Wharf, the point at which the heart of this colourful city kisses the Pacific Ocean.

On a recent five-day trip to this city of 750,000 people, my 15-year-old son Greg and I spent two full days on the waterfront and could have spent much more if there weren't so many other things to do in San Francisco.

Once used by the fishing industry, these docks along an approximate 2-km-stretch of oceanfront are now the centre of the city's tourism industry. Instead of fishing boats, nets and fishermen, there are now shops, tourist attractions, restaurants and throngs of visitors enjoying both the activities and the seaside scenery.

The most famous dock is Pier 39, where one can get some of the best seafood around, explore an aquarium or just observe the colony of sea lions that have taken up residence below the pier.

Be prepared for cool weather, surprisingly more so in the summer than in the spring or fall. It may be California but through a strange twist in the weather patterns, the San Francisco Bay area can be quite nippy. Go a few miles inland, however, and the temperature shoots up dramatically.

Among the many activities that emanate from the waterfront are boat tours. We took a boat tour of San Francisco Bay and another boat to Alcatraz, the island which housed the notorious federal prison for high profile and high risk convicts. The Bay tour gives the visitor a real sense of the city, running from the majestic Golden Gate Bridge to the imposing Alcatraz Island.

But the tour of the former federal prison on the island was the highlight of the trip for my teenager. Now run as a park by the National Park Service, visitors can tour the prison guided by a wireless headphone audio system that provides both facts and theatre. Included are audio clips from former guards and inmates.

In addition, multi-media displays explain the island's history, starting as the first U.S. fort on the Pacific Coast and very quickly thereafter as a military prison in 1859.

Of course the island is best known for the period in which it was a federal penitentiary from 1934-1963. Movies, such as the Birdman Of Alcatraz -- the story of prisoner Robert Stroud -- have made this chunk of rock into a landscape legend.

Another attraction off the waterfront -- of particular interest to children -- is the Exploratorium. Housed within the Palace of Fine Arts, the Exploratorium includes 400 interactive exhibits in the areas of science, art and human perception. It struck me as an older, poorer, version of the Ontario Science Centre but I had a hard time getting my son Greg to leave.

On day three, we took a cycling trip over the Golden Gate Bridge into Marin County and the town of Sausalito. There are several bike rental shops on, or just off, the waterfront, offering a variety of potential tours of varying lengths and difficulty.

We took pretty much a full day for this event but it could take less time if, once you reach Sausalito, you take a ferry ride back to San Francisco.

Soon after departing the bike rental shop, the cyclist must meet the challenge of the Golden Gate Bridge.

Opened in 1937 after four years of construction, its 1,280-metre-long span was a world record for 27 years. Today, almost 70 years later, it remains a monument to elegance, accented by the way it reflects the sun's rays against a backdrop of blue ocean.

For the cyclist, it means a fairly lengthy climb while being buffeted by strong, chilly winds. But it's a beautiful view and a wonderful way to explore both the bridge and the countryside that awaits on the other side.

A few kilometres away is Sausalito, a quaint, picturesque town of only 7,500 people with lots of shops and restaurants and a fantastic view of the ocean. You could easily spend a day just roaming around town, a California version of Niagara-on-the-Lake.

We spent much of our fourth day visiting Haight-Ashbury, Ground Zero for the Hippie movement of the 1960s and '70s. I expected a nostalgic trip back to that time, highlighting the music, politics and culture of a fascinating period when the youth of the world found both their voices and their vices. But there isn't much to see there, an opportunity lost for San Francisco.

Getting there, however, and to other places in the city, was very convenient using the municipal bus system. And we were very impressed with the BART (Bay Area Rapid Transit) service from the airport to the downtown.

But we were disappointed with San Francisco's famous cable cars. We waited in long line-ups to ride the cable cars from the waterfront on a couple of occasions, eventually giving up. We finally got a ride, which was interesting but not worth the wait.

On our fifth day we got out of the city for a wine country tour.

The day-long Super Sightseeing Tours exploration of both Sonoma and Napa Valley -- perhaps the best wine making region in North America just 50 km north of San Francisco -- was another highlight of the trip for me. Costing about $80, the tour included a variety of wineries -- from a small organic producer to a mass production outlet. In addition to the free samples and beautiful scenery, there was an educational component to each stop, including a seminar on proper wine tasting technique.

Super Sightseeing Tours also offered a trip to Yosemite National Park, which we would have taken if we had more time but this would have involved several more hours of sitting in a bus, which isn't for everyone. Some fellow hotel guests said they were disappointed when, after a very long ride, they arrived at the park in the rain and couldn't get out to explore.

We stayed at two hotels off Union Square, the major shopping and cultural district in San Francisco, anchored by an actual park of the same name.

For our first two days we stayed at Hotel Union Square on Powell St, just a short distance from the subway system, which links directly with the airport. Billing itself as San Francisco's original boutique hotel, it features a newly redesigned 1930s Art Deco lobby, complimentary wireless internet and an antiquated feel highlighted by high ceilings and large-paned glass windows.

In our case, the room overlooked Powell St. and the cable car line, which was interesting for people watching but was the source of moderate noise into the early morning.

We moved up on the square for our final three days to the more luxurious Kensington Park Hotel Union Square on Post St. It features large modern rooms and is just a short distance from shopping attractions such as Macy's and Saks and the financial, theatre and Chinatown districts.

Of course, there's often a downside to being in the central area for tourists and sightseeing in any city -- panhandling -- and San Francisco has more than its share of street people. Expect to get tapped for change several times whenever you leave your hotel room.

But, I loved San Francisco, from its waterfront, to its music, culture, architecture and its liberal politics of tolerance. It's the kind of place where any Torontonian would feel at home.

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BOTTOM LINE

MORE INFORMATION

For travel information on San Francisco, visit the San Francisco Visitor and Convention Bureau website -- onlyinsanfrancisco.com.