Dogs give us everything. Don’t you want to give them something in return? Give your pooch the ultimate wanna-go-for-a-walk treat by taking the for a hike along the Fort Funston Trail at the westernmost end of San Francisco. This stunning 1.9-mile loop trail features wild flowers and oceanic views. Best of all, scores of locals take their dogs to this special spot, making it the Dolores Park for our canine community.

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.

Next to Stern Grove, home to the oldest free summer performing arts festival in the country, sits Pine Lake Park, an area ideal for you and your pooch. It features a hiking trail, lake, and as evidenced on Instagram, loads of canine bliss.

Get your flower power on in Golden Gate Park inside the San Francisco Botanical Garden. A choice place to see and buy plants particular to the area. Best of all, you can take a free docent-led tour to learn more about all the flora blooming around you. The park is open until 6 p.m.

Starting off as a place for military families to bury their pets, this cemetery is official full and no longer accepting—ahem—lodgers. But you should check it out as it’s a lovely, moving tribute to our best friends, While the majority of animals buried at the pet cemetery are dogs and cats, there are also parakeets, canaries, pigeons, macaws, rabbits, hamsters, rats, lizards, goldfish, and mice.

Originating in Japan (where it is called shinrin-yoku), the practice of forest bathing is reported to have health benefits (physical and mental) to help lower heart rate, blood pressure, reduce stress hormone production, and more. And for hiking aficionados, there’s nothing better than a hike in a woodsy area smack dab in the city. Be sure to reach the top to see the massive cross.

In lieu of getting grubby via a trek through the dirt, head up to Diamond Heights to see the many Eichler specimens. In the 1950s, architect Vernon DeMars drafted the plan for a middle-class community combining high-rises and lower-slung townhouses and homes, which the Redevelopment Agency christened Diamond Heights after Diamond Street. The onetime affordable homes meant for the masses now fetch millions of dollars.

And if you’re not afraid of getting a little mud on your shoes, be sure to hit the neighborhood’s Glen Park Canyon trail; the view of the midcentury-moderns from behind is a sight to behold.

An artifact of the Exploratorium (and as such just around the corner from the Palace of Fine Arts), the Wave Organ not only makes beautiful (if deeply weird) music out of the motion of the ocean, but the oddball artificial peninsula near the Yacht Club provides one of the most intriguing panorama views of the city.

Like the smell of books? Like the read books? Head over to the Castro and check out the second location of Dog Eared Books, one of San Francisco’s few remaining independent bookstores. While you’re there getting your papyrus aroma fix, be sure to look over releases from local authors. (Psst: Local scribe Andrew Sear Greer won the 2018 Pulitzer Prize for fiction.)

A longtime San Francisco tradition, this house in Dolores Heights is hard to miss with its giant illuminated Christmas tree, oversized toys decorating the exterior, and the owners’ huge stockings hung over the garage with care.

This eight-sided house was built in 1861 as the home of the McElroy family. Today, it is owned by National Society of Colonial Dames of America in California (the group who saved it from destruction) and it is a decorative arts museum.

To step inside the Haas-Lilienthal house is to get a glimpse of upper-middle-class life in 1886 San Francisco. The Haas family lived here with a small army of servants, and they meticulously maintained the home, its fixtures, and furniture through the generations. In 1972, the family donated it to the Foundation for San Francisco’s Architectural Heritage. Today, it’s a time capsule you can see.

Life comes at your fast. To ease the crushing blows of anxiety and information overload, head up to Grace Cathedral at the top of Nob Hill, sit in a pew and meditate into serenity. Your arduous trek up the hill will be rewarded with mosaics by Jan Henryk De Rosen, large stained glass windows, a Keith Haring altarpiece that acts as an AIDS memorial, and a pair of large labyrinths. Also of note, this church features copies of the Baptistery doors from the Baptistery of San Giovanni in Florence.

We also strongly recommend the pews for meditating. Heavenly.

Formerly a trash-covered hillside, residents worked for three years to get the area surrounding the staircase in tip-top shape. Highlights include new greenery and a painted staircase. The San Francisco Chronicle calls the garden “cheerful splash of public art that will probably become a photo hot spot.”

Hotel lobbies are an underused space. They’re usually inviting, warm, and chock full of people happy to be in the city. And the swankiest of them all is the epic lobby at the Fairmont Hotel atop Nob Hill.

Also of note, the Venetian Room at the Fairmont Hotel was where Tony Bennett first sang “I Left My Heart in San Francisco” in 1961. A statue of the crooner, erected for his 90th birthday, can be found outside the hotel.

Numerous businesses call this Timothy Pflueger-designed high-rise home. But the real star is the lobby, one of the finest interiors in the Bay Area. Pflueger used influences from Asia, such as the lobby adapted from a Chinese brocade, and from the Sierra Mountains. From ornate ventilation grates to dark marble walls, it would be a shame for passersby not to sneak a peek. The perfect selfie awaits.

The 5.4-acre park atop the Transbay Transit Center reopened in July, welcoming people to frolic and picnic on the grass, watch the chasing water fountain, or pore over the gorgeous flora. Other highlights will include yoga, live music, food trucks, and more.

Bring the outdoors inside at this San Francisco institution. Flora Grubb opened a 28,000-square-foot solar-powered nursery in the Bayview in 2007. An ideal spot to grab some of the finest succulents the city has to offer.

A stroll along the Embarcadero during a glacial day is the ideal way to see the Bay Bridge. The bay is gorgeous. The restaurants inviting. And don't forget to take a pic of Cupid's Span for your Instagram.