Robert Stock's Free San Francisco
Purse-Sized Book Lists Budget Bay Area Attractions and Events
Free San Francisco, The Ultimate Free Fun Guide (TM) to the Bay Area
This slim travel guidebook lists over 400 free or nearly free attractions and things to do in San Francisco and the surrounding area.
Overall, this is a useful travel guidebook. It is very clear about the locations, costs, and features of the attractions covered. If a place is kid-friendly, wheelchair accessible, or historic, the text says so. As the authors say, no confusing icons to decode. At a cover price of $15.95, and in an easy-to-carry format, the book is easier to tote around than a pile of tourist brochures or a larger guidebook.
Free SF does not include a map. Instead, map references are given for locations in another book called the Thomas Guide. The book's index is comprehensive but many popular sites are mentioned on several pages and it is not possible to identify the primary entry for a site from the index. This is a little awkward but not overly serious - a quick flip through the book shows how it is organized. After that, most things are easy to find from the chapter headings at the beginning rather than via the index.
Transit Tips for Cable Cars, BART and Other Public Transit
Where an attraction is served by public transit, Free San Francisco includes the stop name and line information. Two pages at the front of the book give a brief overview of how the SF transit system works.
San Francisco's Famous Places are All in This Guidebook
The classic tourist sites - Pier 39, the Golden Gate Bridge, Fisherman's Wharf, City Lights Bookstore, Chinatown, Alcatraz - and more - are all here. Each gets a short, informative description of what's there, why to visit, how to get there, and what the cost is to do more than the free stuff. For example, Alcatraz Island is not free to visit, so there is an explanation of where to go to view it from the mainland and of how to get to Alcatraz for a tour.
Art Spaces, Museums, and Gardens
San Francisco is also known for its public spaces and its healthy artistic life. Free San Francisco includes lots of tips on art walks, galleries, museums and performances that are free or almost free. The public gardens cover over 10 pages, giving the visitor lots of horticultural choices.
Events Calendar
The events calendar is a month-by-month listing of the annual festivals and events held in the Bay area, including unexpected celebrations of Jack London's birthday (January 12) and the Hardly Strictly Bluegrass Festival in early October, alongside the more familiar July 4th parties and a variety of parades.
This is the sort of solid little local guidebook that can put some imagination into a trip. Because of the emphasis on free things to do in San Francisco, it lists a few off the beaten track places the average tourist wouldn't normally know about. For people who live in SF, this would be a good thing to have on hand for when visitors come, and for spending the occasional Saturday exploring.
Free San Francisco, Free SF, The Ultimate Free Fun Guide to the Bay Area, by Robert Stock. Editor Troy Corley. Published by CorleyGuide (TM), Ojai, California, 2007. ISBN-10: 0-9706242-4-7, ISBN-13: 978-0-9706242-4-6. Cover price $15.95 (US).
Free San Francisco Book Cover
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