Stairway Walks in San Francisco

by Adah Bakalinsky, Marian Gregoire

Amazon Price: $11.53 (as of 07/25/2008)

Adah's book is a great collection of walks all over the city. As the name implies, all the walks focus on the stairways for which San Francisco is so well known. This has two implications: one is that these walks will wear you out; the second is that, on sunny days, you get incredible views from the tops of all the stairways Adah has you climb.

For locals, the 27 walks cover the entire town from Glen Canyon to Lands End to Potrero Hill. No matter how long you've lived in San Francisco, I guarantee you'll see great spots you've never been to before.

Most of the walks are well off the beaten path for visitors, but a couple cover the classic tourist areas of North Beach, China Town, and Telegraph Hill. The Russian Hill North walk, done on a sunny day, will have anyone believing San Francisco is the most beautiful city on earth.

Adah provides maps, directions, and a great deal of color commentary for each walk. She tends to focus on eccentric details of the local architecture and flora for each walk, lending a whimsical quality to the whole experience.

Two last things to keep in mind. First, because the views are such a big part of these walks, Adah's trips are much better in good weather than in bad. Second, Adah is sometimes a little loose with her directions; I recommend cross checking the directions and the map often.

Historic Walks in San Francisco: 18 Trails Through the City's Past

by Rand Richards

Amazon Price: $12.89 (as of 07/25/2008)

If Adah's Stairway Walks book is like touring the city with your eccentric, but lovable aunt, Rand's book is like a walk with her history professor husband.

Rand's book is very well organized and presented. He provides maps and directions, like Adah, but adds in trip length and degree of difficulty, which are welcome information omitted from Stairway Walks.

There is little of Adah's whimsy here: it is replaced with exhaustive research on the area for each walk and its architecture. This results in a very different walking experience.

The first major difference is that many of these Historic Walks are on flatter ground, meaning they both cover different ground from Stairway Walks and are more accessible to people who have trouble with all of the climbing inherent in Adah's routes.

The second major difference is that, given his focus on history and architecture, not sweeping views, Rand's walks are not as diminished by bad weather as Adah's are.

The last difference is the sheer amount of history. The walks in this book always take me much longer than I think they will because I spend so much time standing around reading. Sometimes this is good, e.g. the Castro walk's extensive information about how Harvey Milk helped shape the area, but sometimes, like when there is an extensive discussion of old maps and how hard it is to trace exactly when a particular nondescript house was converted from a nondescript barn, you just want him to get on with it.

I like this book as a contrast and follow on to Adah's Stairway Walks book but, unless you are an architectural history buff, I'd do Adah's first.

City Walks: San Francisco: 50 Adventures on Foot (City Walks)

by Christina Henry de Tessan

Amazon Price: $14.95 (as of 07/25/2008)

If Adah is your eccentric walking Aunt and Rand is her history professor, walking husband, this deck of 'walk cards' is their slacker nephew.

These cards are the slacker nephew saying "Dude, you should just go to the Ferry Building and then walk up the Embarcadero. They've got cool stuff at the Ferry Building." without the extensive directions and commentary you'd get from either of the other books.

Of course I exaggerate, but here each 'walk' is printed on a card about four inches by 5 inches. One side is a map with your route; the other is brief highlights of history, places to stop, and so on.

Each walk is explained in much less detail, but that's actually the strength here. The walks are shorter and quicker and the walk cards are easy to carry in a pocket or purse. This is probably a better resource for someone new to San Francisco or a tourist than a long time resident. Anyone who's been in San Francisco for awhile should already know this stuff and shame on you if you don't.

With this deck it is easy to look for quick walks near your new home, new office, or hotel or tourist spot you are going to anyway. It should also appeal to people who find the structure and information in other two books to be overkill.