Best seaside experience: Just across the Golden Gate Bridge, Marin County features towering redwoods, crashing surf, and an artists' colony in a former military base. The Tennessee Valley Trail (415-561-4700, www.nps.gov/goga)—named after the S.S. Tennessee, which collided in 1853 with the shore where the trail now begins—winds across rolling hills toward a secluded beach awash with green and black basalt pebbles.

Best outdoor art gallery: In the 1930s, the Works Project Administration arts program and visiting Mexican painters Diego Rivera and Frida Kahlo inspired San Francisco artists to put blank wall space to better use—a tradition that's continued to this day. Precita Eyes (415-285-2287, www.precitaeyes.org) offers terrific walking and biking tours of alfresco art in the Mission District led by local muralists. On one of the guided walks, you might pass as many as 70 murals in six blocks.

Best breath of fresh air: Golden Gate Park (415-831-2700, parks.sfgov.org) is carpeted with exotic flowers 365 days a year, but at 3,000 acres, it's easy to lose your bearings. Start at the M.H. de Young Museum (415-863-3330, www.deyoungmuseum.org), a copper-clad building gradually oxidizing to match the park's green color scheme. The museum features arts and crafts from Africa to contemporary California. Visit on Sundays, when the park is closed to traffic and you can easily stroll past jazz trios, waterfalls, and grazing bison (the first domesticated herd in America).

WHERE TO STAY

Best B&B: The stately Inn 1890 (from $89; 415-386-0486, www.inn1890.com) is a well-priced Victorian guesthouse in the heart of the historic Haight district (better known as the home of the 1967 Summer of Love). The Victorian floral decor will inspire you to visit the Conservatory of Flowers (415-666-7001, www.conservatoryofflowers.org), the splendid turn-of-the-century hothouse around the corner in Golden Gate Park.

Best hotel for royal treatment: The Palace Hotel (from $529; 415-512-1111, www.sfpalace.com) has been a high-end haven since Queen Victoria's day, with polished period details and Maxfield Parrish murals to prove its pedigree.

Best room with a view: At the glass-walled Hotel Vitale (from $279; 415-278-3700, www.hotelvitale.com), you'll wake to waterfront vistas and Ferry Building gourmet treats across the street. Schedule time in the hotel's spa for a uniquely urban experience; terrace hot tubs are surrounded by skyscrapers yet cleverly tucked away with plantings of bamboo for privacy.