Golden Gate Park

Much like the Met in New York or LACMA in Los Angeles, the de Young Museum is San Francisco's encyclopedic public cultural offering—with a significant collection of Asian Art and celebrated holdings in sculpture, painting, and works on paper. After suffering significant damage during the Loma Prieta earthquake, the museum closed for five years starting in 2000 for a complete rebuild. The new Herzog & de Meuron-designed building and corresponding landscaping have made it into one of the most significant architectural destinations in the country. Even if you don't have time to stroll through the exhibitions, it's worth a trip to walk through their gorgeous grounds in Golden Gate Park.

When you visit the De Young Museum in Golden Gate Park, it's also worth a stop at San Francisco's Botanical Gardens. They have a beautiful area featuring native California plants, but you can also find a significant Magnolia collection, an Andean cloud forest, and (to satisfy your inner landscape designer) a crazy-good succulent garden.

The Koret's Children Quarter is one of the city's oldest (it was established at the end of the 19th-century, though refurbished many times in the intervening years), and it's also one of the most compelling, thanks to a hand-carved carousel, proximity to the California Academy of Sciences, rope-climbing walls, a huge concrete slide, and all kinds of play structures.

This is an incredibly rich and well-staffed resource for everything science-related, from informative exhibits on the future of our planet, to an incredible planetarium, to a scaled-down rainforest complete with all sorts of live critters. On Thursday nights, they do a really fun adults-only party with numerous bars and amazing guest DJs.

This is an incredibly rich and well-staffed resource for everything science-related, from informative exhibits on the future of our planet, to an incredible planetarium, to a scaled-down rainforest complete with all sorts of live critters. On Thursday nights, they do a really fun adults-only party with numerous bars and amazing guest DJs.