Attorney in San Fran

Stairway Walks in San Francisco

Description

Fully updated and expanded edition of the best-selling Wilderness Press classic. Now with additional walks and 16 pages of full-color photographs, Stairway Walks in San Francisco contains step-by-step route descriptions that include notes on historical background, architecture, and other points of interest. Accompanying each of the 27 walks is an easy-to-follow map with corresponding numbered walk directions and public transportation information. Locals and tourists alike have used the book for over 20 years to explore San Francisco's beautiful neighborhoods. Includes four new neighborhood walks along even more of the city's stairways--Edgehill, St. Francis Wood, Four Hills, and a cross-city walk and sixteen pages of full-color photographs bring the descriptions and stairways to life. This book is Wilderness Press's best-selling San Francisco title.

". . . A fascinating trek through the sidewalk staircases hidden around the city."
--The New York Times

"Bakalinsky . . . Is the Ferdinand Magellan, the Sir Francis Drake, the Vasco da Gama of San Francisco stairways."
--Paul McHugh, San Francisco Chronicle

Reviews

Rating: 5 / 5
Date: 2010-07-21
Summary: "the best tour guide of San Francisco"

San Francisco is a small and very scenic city with great weather year-round. The best way to tour the city is by walking. This is the best book of guided walking tours of San Francisco. All the other tour guides for San Francisco focus on the touristy northern edge of the city. This book shows you both the touristy areas as well as lesser known scenic and historic neighborhoods throughout the city.

My main complaint about this book is that the walks have different lengths and the book does not tell you how long each walk is. The maps do not have distance scales. Some walks are very short. Some are somewhat adjacent to each other, so you can combine them to create a longer route. However, without knowing how long each walk is, it is hard to plan a route of the appropriate route in advance.

Another complaint is that the book recommends that people use public transit to reach the starting point of each route, but then the routes are all loops that start at end at the same point. Why not take more advantage of public transit by creating routes that are not loops? In many cases, the loops just take you through the same area twice while a one-way route could show you twice as many things in the same amount of time. Of course, you don't have to follow the routes exactly. From the descriptions, you can often figure out which parts of the loop are redundant.

Despite these 2 complaints, this is still the best walking guide to San Francisco, especially if you are not afraid of walking uphill. All the others are pretty lame in comparison.

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Rating: 4 / 5
Date: 2010-02-07
Summary: "Fabulous walks!"

I absolutely love this book! I've done three of the walks so far and I can't wait to do more. I struggled about whether to give 5 stars or 4. My only issue is that I have so far gotten confused by the directions on each walk and wandered away from the intended path. However, getting a little lost is a great way to see the city!

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Rating: 5 / 5
Date: 2009-04-27
Summary: "Queen of SF Stairway Walks - Adah Bakalinski"

I just met the author and videotaped her on Saturday. She shares her love of San Francisco neighborhoods and the 600+ stairways in our fair city. I've been going on walks from Adah's book for 10 years and they're all fun, good exercise, and a new way to see San Francisco. I highly recommend this book, if you want to see the real San Francisco.[...]

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Rating: 4 / 5
Date: 2009-04-11
Summary: "aching legs"

I have used earlier editions of this book. The walks are great and good exercise and I like the fact that it is easy to combine walks. The addition of photographs is really good.

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Rating: 4 / 5
Date: 2009-03-07
Summary: "Good for tourists and natives alike"

Stairway Walks in San Francisco I have lived in San Francisco all my life and this book has introduced me to all kinds of nooks and crannies that I've never seen before. Instructions are generally good and maps are excellent. There are a few typos, so you have to keep your wits about you.