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San Francisco Highlights
The forty-nine square miles of San Francisco are a colorful tapestry of steep hills, picturesque houses, clanging cable cars, fishing boats, summer fog, Chinese pagodas, international cafes, and breathtaking views: five continents and two centuries blend together on forty-three hills, waiting to be discovered. Today you'll see some of the legendary landmarks of "Everybody's Favorite City."
Chinatown Walking
Discover exotic Chinatown on foot! San Francisco's Chinese population is one of the largest outside of Asia. You will pass the historic Lion Gates and be transported into the "city-within-the-city." You'll walk down Grant Avenue, the bustling, exotic main street of Chinatown, whose many shops specialize in everything from rare jade, ivory and silk, to back scratchers and wind-up Godzilla toys. There may be a visit to an authentic fortune cookie factory. You may also visit a Chinese temple where clouds of incense waft from upper windows carrying prayers heavenward.
Marin Experience
Today you'll cross the Golden Gate Bridge into magnificent Marin County with its astonishingly varied land and seascapes. Stopping at Muir Woods National Monument with its towering redwood forest, you will have time to stroll among these ancient giant sequoias whose biological ancestry dates back well over a million years. You will also visit Sausalito, a sparkling Riviera-like bayside village with winding, wooded streets, houseboat havens and unique boutiques and galleries. There will be time to explore the shops and galleries, or just walk about the waterfront and view the San Francisco skyline and Bay.
Alcatraz: "The Rock"
Today you will be sentenced to a short term on the notorious Alcatraz Island federal penitentiary. From the San Francisco waterfront, you will take a short ferry ride, across the chill waters of the Bay, to "the Rock." Here, you will visit the cells once occupied by some of the country's most infamous criminals. On this austere wind and fog-ridden island, it is easy to see why few attempts were made to escape into the treacherous bay with its undertows and turbulent waters. An expertly created audio tour contains interviews with former prisoners and guards from "the Rock," providing you with a fascinating insight into life here in the middle of the San Francisco Bay.
Golden Gate Park at Your Feet
Once a barren landscape of sand dunes and scrub oak, Golden Gate Park is now a source of great pride to San Francisco. Spanning over 1,000 acres, and filled with meadows, playing fields, gardens, lakes and waterfalls, the park is also home to many of San Francisco's famous landmarks. This morning you will drive through the Park, and visit some of its treasures, including the De Young Museum, our fine arts museum; the Asian Art Museum, the most extensive collection of Asian art in the west; the Japanese Tea Garden created for the 1894 Midwinter Exposition; and the California Academy of Sciences, the west coast's oldest scientific institute.
Splendid Survivors
San Francisco is a living museum of Victorian architecture, with hundreds of picturesque houses built in the 1870's - 1890's, when The City was known as the "Paris of the West." These ornate redwood houses, embellished with turrets, bay windows and elaborate trimmings, have survived earthquakes, and fires, as well as changes in personal tastes. Recently, many of these beautiful houses have been restored to their original decorated glory, and painted in bright rainbows of colors, recapturing the splendor of old San Francisco. Today you will visit two of these lovely "Painted Ladies," each carefully and lovingly restored to their original glory by their owners.
The Filoli Estate and Gardens
Today you will visit one of California's last great estates, the grand gardens and stately house of Filoli.
Made famous by its starring role in the television series, "Dynasty," the Filoli Mansion fulfills the anyone's expectations for a grand estate, and spectacular mansion. Renowned San Francisco architect Willis Polk designed and built the mansion in the early 1900's for multi-millionaire William Bourn. Named after Bourne's motto "to fight, to love, to live," the estate is said to resemble the area of the Lakes of Killarney, in Ireland. Surrounded by 16 acres of carefully tailored gardens, this estate is a treat for all the senses.
Bay Area Biking
The Bay Area offers several exciting places that your guests can cycle, ranging from a leisurely and civilized ride, along paved roads, through the California Wine Country, where you will stop for a tour and tasting at local wineries, to a rugged off-road ride, through mountainous and beautiful wild terrain.
Bay Area Golfing
The San Francisco Bay Area is home to several renowned golf courses. After an exhausting day of meetings and seminars, what could be more relaxing than a sporting round of golf. Our deluxe transportation will pick your guests up at the hotel and transport them to one of the many challenging and beautiful golf courses that are located just a short distance from San Francisco. Here your guests will enjoy an exhilarating game of golf, and perhaps a delicious luncheon and refreshing beverages. After the game, their awaiting transportation will return your guests to their hotel.
Golden Gate Bridge Experience
San Francisco is a walkers' city. Although the City offers many grand vistas and impressive scenes, many of the best visual treasures are glimpsed down a side street, or gazed upon from a strategically placed bench, or neighborhood park. This morning you will experience one of the true wonders of the world: an early morning walk across the Golden Gate Bridge. Completed in 1937, the Bridge is truly one of the most famous structures in the world.
Sailing on the San Francisco Bay
Sailing on San Francisco Bay is an experience no one should miss. Veteran sailors say that if you can sail on The Bay, you can sail anywhere. Working together with your co-workers you'll discover for yourself why this is true. Aboard beautiful sailing boats, you'll compete in a Team Challenge Regatta, a unique group program that vividly demonstrates the value of team work with an exhilarating sailing race on The Bay.
San Francisco Safari
A scavenger hunt! A treasure hunt! A photo hunt!
A challenge!
San Francisco is "Everybody's Favorite City", and today, you will understand why this is so, as you head off to explore a few of The City's most colorful neighborhoods! You will begin your adventure by forming teams of 10 members. Armed only with your intellect, your sense of fun, and our specially created "Explorers' Bag," you will set off on the hunt! Your Explorer Bag contains just about everything you will need for your San Francisco scavenger hunt: maps, money to purchase specific items, and local neighborhood guides, paper & crayons for rubbings, a challenging list of "scavenger items" and Poloroid cameras with which to capture some of these items. The team obtaining the most items on the list will be the winner! What better way to become acquainted with this fabulous city, create team camaraderie and offer your guests a unique and exciting new concept?
"Inside Art"
An Insider's Tour to San Francisco Art Galleries
San Francisco, like New York, Paris, London and Los Angeles, is an international center for the arts. Home to a world renowned symphony, opera and ballet, the Bay Area also boasts quite a few artists of impeccable repute, including painters, sculptors and ceramicists. Unfortunately, very often the visitor to our City sees only those galleries offering mass production pieces - canvas after canvas of sentimental renderings of seascapes, or large-eyed children; or brass animals and cute children fashioned into toilet paper holders, or paper weights.
Morning with History
Breakfast at San Francisco's Historic
Gumps Department Store
This morning, your guests will have the opportunity to visit one of San Francisco's most renowned landmarks - Gumps Department Store. Gumps is much more than merely a department store. Open since 1861, the store has a venerable tradition of buying only the finest artifacts, jewelry and furniture from around the world.
The Best of the Wine Country
Today you will explore the finest wine producing region in the country -- California's Napa and Sonoma Valleys. The premium wines produced here were once described as "bottled poetry" by the famous writer, Robert Louis Stevenson. And, with its look of old and settled tranquility, this beautiful wine growing region fulfills your every expectations of an ideal wine country, not unlike the Loire Valley in France. Today you will visit two of the Wine Country's renowned wineries where you will enjoy a tour of their wine-making facilities, followed by a sensory evaluation of their premium varietal wines. There will be time for lunch on your own.
Monterey, Carmel & The 17-Mile Drive
Today, you'll drive down the San Francisco Peninsula and cross the Santa Cruz Mountains to the historic seaport of Monterey, once the capital of California in Mexican Colonial days, and now the center of one of the most beautiful coastlines in the world. You'll drive through Old Monterey, seeing adobe houses that date back to the early days of California, and pass along Cannery Row, immortalized in the writings of John Steinbeck. You'll drive along the Seventeen-Mile Drive, viewing the rocky coves, windblown cypresses and multi-million dollar seafront homes along this rugged, spectacular coastline. You will also visit the village of Carmel-By-The-Sea, a picturesque artist's colony with a dramatic white-sand beach, quiet streets, cottages, and unusual shops. You'll have ample time to explore for lunch before your motorcoach takes you back to San Francisco.
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