A series of wooden stairs (just under 200) that take visitors up and down the famed hill, connecting Filbert Street from Coit Tower to where it dead-ends and into a steep slope at Kearny, across the Montgomery median, and down to Sansome. The highlight of these steps is Napier Lane, a wooden plank sidewalk lined with pre-1900, cottage-like homes, as well as a public garden dubbed Grace Marchant Garden. (Note the homes along Napier that have neither garages nor parking spots. Glorious.)

The steps also offer unobstructed views of the Bay Bridge and Treasure Island, as well as the local feral parrots who visit regularly.

Although retails stores at the Embarcadero Shopping Center are diminish, the beauty of the its staircases and tile work only gets better as the years go by. Most notable are the oft-photographed spiral staircases with mosaic tiling that look like a Brutalist structure on one too many hits of acid. Ideal for Instagram—and totally far out.

Located between the Presidio and Pacific Heights, this chic set of stairs offers two choice settings: lush forest to the west and tony mansions to the east. In addition to being a favorite of fitness buffs, who love to hoof up and down its 332 steps, it’s practically unknown to tourists.

You can avoid the hordes of trainers by going midday, but to avoid the runners, walk along the center-rail so fitness fanatics can pass on the right. Also, don’t miss the San Francisco Heart found at the bottom of the steps.

While these steps date to the early 1900s, the mid-aughts renovation brought this staircase back to life, care of Irish ceramist Aileen Barr. Bright green, yellow, and orange hues make for a set of stunning steps situated off California Street where it dead ends into the Lincoln Park Golf Course. Fireclay Tiles and Heath Ceramics donated pieces for the dramatic new staircase.

This gateway to Forest Knolls was named after Philo Farnsworth, inventor of the television, who had these steps dedicated in his honor. They’re located near the house he lived in while he developed the first television system in the late 1920s.

First laid out in 1925, these hidden steps in Corona Heights hold the distinction of being featured in Andrew Sean Greer’s Pulitzer Prize-winning Less (the aforementioned Saturn Street also gets a tip of hat), where the book’s titular character, Arthur Less, once lived. To wit: “The Vulcan Steps, they’re called, curving from Levant Street at the top, down between Monterey pines, ferns, ivy, and bottlebrush trees, to a brick landing with a view of east downtown.”

The lesser-known set of stairs compared to its big sibling, the 16th Avenue Tiled Steps, these mosaic beauties feature such trippy shapes as snails, flora, and mushrooms.

Completed in 2013, the garden-themed steps honor of the city’s firefighters. According to the official Hidden Garden Steps site: “The tiles in the Indian Paintbrush element were crowdfunded by 47 people as a tribute to firefighters. Directly down the steps, on 16th Avenue two blocks away at Irving Street, sits Station 22 of the San Francisco Fire Department. Virtually every time they get a call, one of the fire department vehicles pulls out of the station, facing the Steps. Now the crew can look uphill and see the mosaic in the distance, and know that people cared enough to put a permanent thank-you to them for their service.”

San Francisco’s most famous stairway is the 16th Avenue Tiled Staircase. Completed in 2005, the stairs feature 163 unique steps made up of mosaics that create a seascape-themed piece connecting Golden Gate Heights to the Inner Sunset. Aileen Barr and mosaic artist Colette Crutcher collaborated in the creation of the steps.

According to My Modern Met, “The names of over 220 sponsors were actually woven into the sweeping sea-to-sky design and, amazingly, over 2,000 handmade tiles and 75,000 fragments of tile, mirror and stained glass went into the finished piece. There were a total of 163 separate mosaic panels created, one for each step riser.”

Gardens adorn each side of the steps, including a butterfly habitat and a series of succulents.

Pedestrians at the intersection of Athens Street and Avalon Avenue in the Excelsior can now find these new rainbow-hued mosaic steps leading up to where Athens Street turns into Valmar Terrace. The area had long been a place where people threw their garbage, old furniture, junk, and bottles. But in 2009, neighbors banded together to transform the area. After nine years, the stairs were—at last—opened to the public in 2017.