Pacific Heights: the mansions and the Lyon Street Steps
The grandest houses in the city, the garden steps down to the bay, then Fillmore Street. This is a Claude-drafted route awaiting the editor's walk.

1. Haas-Lilienthal House, 2007 Franklin
Start at the one grand Victorian you can actually go inside — a turreted 1886 Queen Anne, the only intact one in the city open as a museum. Worth the tour for the sense of how the rest were lived in. Then walk west into the streets you can only admire from the pavement.

2. Broadway's mansion row
Walk west on Broadway between Webster and Lyon — the deepest concentration of old money in the city, walled gardens and consulates and the odd film-famous facade. Quiet, hushed, and the views west start opening between the houses.

3. Lyon Street Steps, top
The reason for the walk. The grand stone staircase drops from Broadway toward the Marina, banked with clipped hedges and flower beds the neighbours tend. Stand at the top first — the bay, the Palace of Fine Arts dome, and Marin fill the gap ahead.

4. Lyon Street Steps, the descent
Take the steps down, both flights — terraced gardens on either side, joggers treating it as a stairmaster, the view unfurling as you drop. Pause on the landing halfway. This is the best free thing in the neighbourhood.

5. Alta Plaza Park
Climb back south to this terraced hilltop park, laid out like a small green ziggurat with steps on every side. The south terrace gives you the city; the north, the bay. Fewer people than the Lyon steps and a place to sit.

6. Fillmore Street
Drop down to Fillmore, the neighbourhood's shopping spine — boutiques, cafés, and a jazz heritage marked along the lower blocks. Walk south for a coffee and a window or two. The 22-Fillmore runs the whole length to take you on.

Pacific Heights: the mansions and the Lyon Street Steps