Secret San Francisco: The Unique Guidebook to San Francisco's Hidden Sites, Sounds, and Tastes

By David G. Armstrong

San Francisco is two cities: The pretty tourist mecca of glossy travel brochures, and the layered, flawed, intoxicating city that San Franciscans actually live in. Secret(TM) San Francisco is for those travelers who want to go beyond the postcard photo-ops and tried and untrue tourist destinations to explore the vibrant neighbourhoods, intimate hideaways, and out-there adventures that make San Francisco so much more than pretty. Secret(TM) San Francisco was written to help you lose yourself in the city and come to know it the way locals do. So you'll fall in love with San Francisco, but your love won't be blind.

With Secret(TM) San Francisco, take a walk on the city's extreme-and-proud-of-it wild side: 'Secret Cop Bars, ' 'Secret Vibrators 'n Stuff, ' 'Secret Taiwanese Pearl Drinks, ' 'Secret Not of This Earth, ' 'Secret Swank, ' 'Secret Revolution, ' 'Secret Sam Spade & Dashiell Hammett.' Only in San Fran

Tourist traps? San Francisco has plenty. Armstrong levels with you about them, and tells you where to find the secret treasures buried in the tackiest of traps. Got laundry to do? Chill out with California craft beers while your clothes chill in another kind of suds.

Need a makeover? Buy clothing by the pound and get your hair and nails done while sipping cocktails. Afterwards, go dancing at the all-night danceterias.

Feeling peckish? Secret(TM) San Francisco dishes out huge portions of food and drink in the American city with the most restaurants per capita. Smack your lips over San Francisco's most elegant expense-account Valhallas, no-frills, ultra-cheap joints, and muticultural delights. Lick your way through saffron-rose and cardammon flavours at an ice-cream parlour and swim without shame in the glorious grease and pillowing starch of white-trash food at a unique bistro. It figures that a book about this great food town begins with 'Secret All You Can Eat' and ends with 'Secret Wine.' One more thing: We also show you where to find the rarest commodity of all in a compact city clogged with SUVs and pickup trucks on steroids: a parking space.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1550224387
• ISBN13: 9781550224382
• Release Date: April 2001
• Publisher: ECW Press
• Length: 276 Pages
• Weight: 0.75 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 5.0" x 7.0"

Customer Reviews

simply great

A great chair-side guide. Knew where we wanted to do and where we didn't. A must for anyone who wants to enjoy what the city offers other than the tourist traps.

Interesting Book

Lots of cool tips and suggestions that one wouldn't normally know about. Unfortunately, its a bit dated it spots. For example a gallery I wanted to visit was closed now. The BART station at San Francisco Airport is now completed. Overall a great book and a fun read too. I would recommend this if you dont want to just see all the tourist attractions.

Unique is the word all right.

Awesome! The secrets are totally what makes the book so delightful to read and also we plan on using it when we get to San Francisco. Unique and quite helpful sums it up totally. Thanks to the author's research in so many things. It is high on my all-time favorite travel books.

Lover's Walk

Romance yourself in San Francisco by taking a walk in a tale of two cities Bay Area style.

excellent book

This book surpassed my expectations. I love San Francisco, and one of my favorite things to do there is to walk around the city and enjoy all its quirky wonders. This book is a delightful guide to such places. It covers many old favorites, but it really does have a lot of secrets, too--places I had never heard of and am eager to check out. And not only does it contain great information, it's also very nicely written. The author clearly loves the City, and his voice throughout the book is authentic and enthusiastic, just as if a treasured friend were guiding one through this magical town. Lovely book.