English Courses in San Francisco

Golden Gate Bridge
The Golden Gate Bridge is a California icon gracing San Francisco Bay, and connects the city to Marin County and other districts further north. In 1937, when it was completed, it was the longest suspension bridge in the world, measuring approximately two miles in length. Visitors can enjoy walking on the sidewalk or biking across the bridge to the nearby town of Sausalito.

Golden Gate Park
In the heart of San Francisco, it is home to gardens, museums, walking trails and cycling paths. It has more than 5,000 different kinds of plants and trees, several lakes, bridle paths, and a buffalo paddock. Its main attractions include the de Young Fine Arts Museum, with exhibits from around the world, the California Academy of Sciences Museum which includes a planetarium, a rainforest and the Steinhart Aquarium, the Japanese Tea Garden, and the San Francisco Botanical Garden.

Golden Gate National Recreation Area
This is a huge natural area located across the Golden Gate Bridge, and home to the historic Fort Baker, a former US Army post from the early 20th Century and many other attractions. Inside the park, visitors can relax, enjoy walking trails, campgrounds, picnic areas, and beautiful beach areas with their fabulous views of the bridge.

Alcatraz Island
Once one of America’s most infamous prisons, the historic Alcatraz is located on Alcatraz Island in San Francisco Bay. It operated for almost 30 years, closing in 1963 and re-opening as a tourist attraction in 1973. Visitors can take a ferry over to the island and tour the site while listening to an audio recording, narrated by former inmates and guards, that offers a glimpse of life in the prison.

Fisherman’s Wharf
Once considered the Little Italy of San Francisco, it is an area known for its shops, restaurants, and beautiful setting along the waterfront. From here, visitors can take sightseeing cruises for spectacular views of the city, or organize a fishing charter. The area includes the Madame Tussauds Wax Museum, Ghirardelli Square, and restored 19th- and 20th-century ships at the Hyde Street Pier, which is now the San Francisco Maritime National Historic Park. Nearby Pier 39 has restaurants and shops and offers great views of the city.

Ghirardelli Square
Ghirardelli Square is located in a restored factory area with renovated industrial buildings. Inside the square, the Ghirardelli’s old red-brick chocolate factory is now a center filled with shops, galleries and restaurants. It features a belfry modeled on that of the Château of Blois in France, rose gardens, fountains and terraces with fine views.

Union Square
Near Market Street and the city’s Financial District, Union Square sits at the heart of the action in downtown San Francisco. It features restaurants, shops, the Dewey monument, the Hearts of San Francisco sculpture, and other works of art dotted across the square.

Ferry Building Marketplace
This is a public food market featuring a variety of food stalls selling staples, seafood, hamburgers, Mexican food, coffee, Japanese food, empanadas, nuts, and cheeses. It also has a dairy bar. From the dock next to the market, the Golden Gate Bridge is visible.

Haight-Ashbury
The corner of these two streets was the birthplace of America’s counter-culture in the summer of 1967. It is now home to high-end boutiques, chic restaurants and hip cafés. A favorite spot in the Haight is Amoeba Music, situated in a former bowling alley, with one of the biggest collections of CDs in the world.

Lombard Street
Often called the “crookedest” street in the world, it is scenic road on Russian Hill features tight turns, fragrant gardens and beautiful views of the bay, Alcatraz, and Coit Tower.

The Presidio
A former military post, the Presidio is now a national park site and recreational paradise featuring spectacular vistas, trails, historic and architectural treasures, and the Walt Disney Family Museum.

Alamo Square
This neighborhood and park is home to the famous “Painted Ladies” row of Victorian houses along Steiner Street. From the park, visitors can the Transamerica Pyramid building and the tops of the Golden Gate Bridge and Bay.

Cable Cars
San Francisco’s cable cars offer tourists a great way to explore the city in historic fashion, particularly on the Powell-Mason and Powell-Hyde routes.

Chinatown
Built entirely in Chinese style, San Francisco’s Chinatown is the largest one outside of Asia and the oldest of its kind in North America. It is home to temples, theaters, workshops, small businesses, antique and souvenir stores, teahouses, traditional pharmacies, and more Chinese restaurants than a visitor will see in a lifetime.

California Palace of the Legion of Honor
The California Palace is San Francisco’s most exquisite museum, an impressive Neoclassical Beaux-Arts building designed as a replica of the Palais de la Légion d’Honneur in Paris. It contains a collection of European decorative arts, sculpture, paintings, and antiquities from the Mediterranean and Near East.

Twin Peaks
Two unique and uninhabited hills, more than 900 feet high, have one of the finest views out over the city and bay. They are the only hills in San Francisco that remain in their original, undeveloped state.

Palace of Fine Arts
Situated on a lagoon, it is the last remaining structure from the 1915 Panama Pacific Exposition in San Francisco. The Palace and grounds, which have been restored, host art exhibitions and performances.

Exploratorium
The Exploratorium is a popular science museum, for both children and adults, with many exhibits designed to educate and entertain.

AT&T Park
AT&T Park is the home of the San Francisco Giants, the city’s baseball team. In addition to attending a game, visitors can tour the stadium while learning about the historic moments that have taken place there.

Asian Art Museum
Based on the private collection of Avery Brundage, it contains sculptures, paintings, bronzes, ceramics, jade carvings, and architectural fragments from Japan, Korea, China, India, Iran, and other Asian cultures.

Museum of Modern Art
The Museum of Modern Art features 20th-century international exhibitions of modern and contemporary art, and over 33,000 works of painting, sculpture, photography, architecture, design, and media arts, covering 10 floors.

Napa Valley
The Napa and Sonoma Valleys are the largest grape-growing areas in California, and offer their visitors incredible scenery and the opportunity to sample local wines.

Angel Island State Park
Angel Island State Park is the largest natural island in the San Francisco Bay, reachable by ferry from Pier 41 in San Francisco. It offers astounding views of the surrounding bay and the opportunity to hike or bike to the island’s summit, Mount Caroline Livermore. There are also picnic areas, campsites, a cafè, a casual restaurant with live music performances, and sandy beaches.