[.ca] Eyewitness Travel Guides San Francisco And Northern ... (ISBN 0789494205)

Great tote-around book for exploring San Francisco:
I've used this guide for several trips to San Francisco and found it highly useful. I've carried this book all over the city. The detailed street maps in the back are excellent and you can easily use them without saying to everyone, "Hey, look at me holding this gigantic map. I must be a stupid tourist. Come mug me." The color thumbnail images are perfect if you're a photographer and want a glimpse of what each location looks like before visiting. There's also enough text to keep you entertained on your plane ride without boring you. This is a great guide to thumb through and pick out which places you want to visit. Each location is listed with its street address, map number and location, and admission times when applicable. The trolley lines are also covered, but you'll probably want to pick up an up-to-date bus map when you arrive.

Disagree with negative reviews: well worth the money!:
I have the previous edition of this book, and it was the only reference (beside some tips from friends on things to do) that we used to find our way around and find cool things to check out while in San Francisco last December. The photos (yes, there's a lot of them) were actually pretty useful, I thought, since they served as a very good guide for what to look for when we hit a particular neighborhood, in terms of landmarks. We found the guide also to be right on in terms of restaurant references and pricing information, and if you want to stretch your trip to San Fran a bit, it also provides useful info for excursions into Napa Valley and the like. All in all, a nice little guide I totally recommend: not your street-by-street atlas, that's granted, but very useful nevertheless.

least favorite:
Too many pretty pictures and not enough information to really understand the essence of San Francisco. I didn't think this book was worth the money.