Budget · 3-hour walk · San Francisco
The Mission and Dolores Park in three hours
The mural alleys, the oldest building in the city and the park everyone spends Saturday in.
The six-hour route runs along the waterfront and up the hills. The Mission is flat, sunny when the rest of the city is not, and the most concentrated street art in the United States — two alleys of it, painted continuously since 1971. It also holds the oldest intact building in San Francisco, a 1776 adobe chapel that has survived every earthquake since.
The route, stop by stop
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Balmy Alley
Murals since 1971, originally about US policy in Central America and repainted by agreement ever since. One block, and the densest of the two alleys.
25 min here Walk here → -
Clarion Alley
The younger alley, more political and repainted more often. Between Mission and Valencia.
20 min here Walk here → -
Mission Dolores
Founded 1776 and the oldest surviving structure in the city — adobe walls four feet thick that took the 1906 quake without damage. The basilica next door is Victorian and did not.
35 min here Walk here → -
Valencia Street
The bookshops, the taquerías and the pirate supply store that fronts a children's writing charity. Lunch here.
25 min here Walk here → -
Mission Dolores Park
Sixteen acres on a slope facing the downtown skyline. On a sunny Saturday most of the city is on it.
30 min here Walk here →
More in San Francisco
Every walking route in San Francisco, or the full San Francisco guide for where to stay and what a day costs.