The Barbary Coast Trail^® is a project of the San Francisco Museum and Historical Society. The Society preserves, interprets and presents the historical heritage of San Francisco from its variegated natural history to its lively human history.

From the days of the Gold Rush and the Barbary Coast, to the 1906 earthquake and the Beat renaissance, San Francisco’s history is rich with dynamic events and storied characters. The Barbary Coast Trail^® is a San Francisco walking tour that connects the City’s most important historic sites, drawing you into a world of gold seekers and railroad barons, writers and visionaries, shanghiers and silver kings.

A series of bronze medallions and arrows embedded in the sidewalk connect the Barbary Coast Trail’s historic sites. Along a 3.8-mile path (mostly flat or gently sloping), the trail weaves its way through Downtown, Union Square, Chinatown, Portsmouth Square, Jackson Square Historic District, Old Barbary Coast, Beat San Francisco, North Beach, Telegraph Hill, Coit Tower, Fishermans Wharf, San Francisco Martime Historical National Park, Ghirardelli Square and Nob Hill.

Our Barbary Coast Trail^® walking tours of San Francisco feature the historic sites that made the city famous. You’ll see the plaza where Sam Brannan kicked off the Gold Rush in 1848, a graveyard of Gold Rush ships buried beneath the streets, a saloon where sailors were once shanghaied, a national landmark building that barely survived the 1906 earthquake and fire, the first Asian temple in North America, the barstool where Jack Keroauc once sat and spun his traveler’s tales, the finest Italianate Victorian buildings in San Francisco, the largest collection of historic ships in the United States, beautiful views of San Francisco Bay, and more.

Also along the Barbary Coast Trail^® walking tour, you’ll find great restaurants offering a wide array of distinctive dishes, from dim sum to garlicky pasta to fresh crab to all American hamburgers.

	1. Audio Tours — Download our digital audio tour onto your MP3 player or iPod and you’ll hear the rumbling of the 1906 earthquake, the hoofbeats of the Pony Express, and the unfurling of clipper ship sails.
	2. Printed Guides — Two printed guides are available at San Francisco bookstores or by mail order.
	3. Guided Tours — Trail creator Daniel Bacon is your personal guide. Guided tours are available by appointment only.