A historic hotel that made a cameo in Hitchcock's classic film has no intention of letting guests forget its fame.

A nondescript building that's been functioning as a speakeasy for nearly a century and a half.

Longtime headquarters of controversial boys' club for the world's wealthiest and most powerful.

Only hotel where you can legally launder money.

San Francisco's oldest surviving monument and meeting place for 1906 survivors.

A collection of 20th-century automata, penny arcade games, and musical contraptions.

Noble beasts perhaps, but not the Emperor's dogs.

Staircase winds down the side of Telegraph Hill through gardens, wild parrots flying overhead.

Prone to disastrous fires, the city of San Francisco has the Guardian, a fireboat gifted by residents, to watch over them from the bay.

A man-made island in scenic San Francisco Bay.

Antiques by the Bay.

Handmade treasures from around the world.

This Oakland fairytale kingdom, fiercely devoted to childlike whimsy, was an early inspiration for Disneyland.

Oakland's beautiful monumental cemetery.

Julia Morgan's Moorish-Gothic labyrinth of fountains, trees, natural light and Oakland's notable dead.