Palace of Fine Arts, San Francisco Layover
Part of the full San Francisco Layover: Cable Cars, SFO
The Palace of Fine Arts is the one building left standing where San Francisco’s 1915 world’s fair put it, free to walk around at any hour, and the Presidio’s fifteen hundred acres of former garrison start a few minutes west of its lagoon.
The last building standing from the 1915 world’s fair
Bernard Maybeck built the Palace of Fine Arts for the Panama-Pacific International Exposition, and he built it, like the rest of the fair, out of wood framing covered in staff: plaster mixed with burlap fibre, meant to last a season. The fair came down. This did not, because San Franciscans refused to let it, and it stood decaying for half a century until the whole thing was rebuilt in poured concrete and steel between 1964 and 1974.
What is there is a rotunda 162 feet high, a curved colonnade with weeping figures on the entablature, and a lagoon with swans on it. There is no gate, no ticket and no closing time; the hall behind the colonnade is an events venue and not open to walk into, but nothing worth seeing here is inside it.
The Walt Disney Family Museum sits in a barracks on the parade ground
The Presidio’s Main Post is a rectangle of lawn surrounded by red-brick army buildings, and one of the barracks along its west side has held the Walt Disney Family Museum since 2009.
Ten galleries over 40,000 square feet trace one man’s life rather than the studio’s back catalogue, narrated in large part by Disney’s own recorded voice, with the family’s material and a good deal of early animation equipment. It is a two-hour building at minimum, so it either anchors the afternoon or it does not fit at all, and tickets can be held in advance rather than queued for. The Presidio around it has been a garrison since 1776, held in turn by Spain, Mexico and the United States, and the army only handed it over in 1994.
Almost none of this ground is paved. The parade ground is lawn edged with gravel, the paths across the bluffs are compacted grit, and the trails through the forest are dirt: fine on foot, hard work on small wheels.
Presidio Tunnel Tops was laid across the roof of a motorway in 2022
Where the Presidio Parkway disappears into tunnels on its way to the Golden Gate Bridge, fourteen acres of parkland now sit on top of them. It opened in July 2022 after two decades of planning, designed by the practice behind New York’s High Line, and it is free.
The planting runs to 180 species native to this stretch of coast, there is a two-acre play area built out of fallen trunks and boulders, and the overlooks line up on the bridge one way and Alcatraz the other. It joins the Main Post to Crissy Field on foot for the first time since the road was built.
A free shuttle runs between the Presidio and the financial district
The Presidio GO downtown shuttle costs nothing and takes about 25 minutes, picking up near the Salesforce Transit Center, Embarcadero station and Van Ness at Union. It runs 6am to 7pm on weekdays and 9am to 6pm at weekends, and visitors ride free outside the commute peaks, 7.30am to 9am and alternating evening trips, when seats are held for residents and employees unless you carry a Muni Visitor Passport.
That drops you at Embarcadero station, one stop from Powell Street, and San Francisco International Airport (SFO) is 31 minutes from the Powell platforms for $11.80 on a Clipper card. The Yellow and Red lines both run to the airport during the day; after 9pm the Yellow line goes alone, every 20 minutes, with the last one leaving Powell at 12:43am. Allow an hour and a half from the Palace of Fine Arts to the terminal door, and note that the shuttle stops running well before the last train does.
If the shuttle’s hours do not fit your flight, or you would rather not depend on one bus, the San Francisco layover guide works from Union Square, where every stop is walkable and the airport platforms are underneath the starting point.
Frequently asked questions
Can you go inside the Palace of Fine Arts rotunda?
You can walk right under it. The rotunda is open on all sides, and the colonnade and the lagoon around it are public ground with no gate, no ticket and no closing time. What you cannot walk into is the long hall curving behind the colonnade: that is a private events venue booked for trade shows and weddings, so there is no general admission to it. Nothing anyone comes here to look at is inside that building anyway, and the site is emptiest first thing, before the wedding photographers arrive.
How do you get to the Presidio from downtown San Francisco?
There is a free shuttle. The Presidio GO downtown route picks up near the Salesforce Transit Center, Embarcadero station and Van Ness at Union, and reaches the Presidio in about 25 minutes, running 6am to 7pm on weekdays and 9am to 6pm at weekends. Visitors ride free except during the weekday commute peaks, from 7.30am to 9am and on alternating evening trips, when it is reserved for residents and employees unless you hold a Muni Visitor Passport. City buses also run out along Lombard Street to the Marina.
Is the Walt Disney Family Museum worth a stop before a flight?
If you have three hours or more in this part of the city, yes. It occupies a converted red-brick barracks on the Presidio's parade ground and runs to 40,000 square feet across ten galleries, built around Walt Disney's own life rather than the films alone, with narration taken from his recordings. Two hours is a realistic minimum inside. Admission is sold in advance, which is worth doing at weekends.
What is the ground like for walking in the Presidio?
Mixed, and less paved than a city park. The Tunnel Tops paths are compacted gravel, the Main Post is bordered by lawn, and the trails through the forest and down to the bluffs are dirt and sand. The Palace of Fine Arts and the Marina promenade are the properly paved parts. It is all walkable, and none of it is steep by San Francisco standards, but it is not surface for small wheels.