San Diego, San Francisco

San Francisco


San Francisco is one of the most interesting cities in the United States and a major tourist centre. It was founded in 1776, when Spanish mission was established there. The city of San Francisco was almost completely damaged by earthquake and fire in 1906 but it was quickly rebuilt. Now it is the second largest city of California and an important financial, commercial and industrial centre on the Pacific ocean. It is surrounded on three sides by the sea. San Francisco has a population of around 730 000 people. With surrounding suburbs it creates San Francisco Bay area. It lies on 46 square miles surrounded on three sides by Pacific Ocean and the San Francisco Bay. People who live here love sunny weather. Every year come here many visitors to have a nice holiday and see some monuments of the town.

Golden Gate Bridge is one of the symbols of the city, which was built in 1937. It is 1280 meters long. It links San Francisco with Marin County on the other side of the bay. It is seven-mile long bridge with its unique blend of orange and black and two towers as high as 48-storey building. Although it is coloured red, sometimes, especially at the time of sunset, it seems golden. Many times people of San Francisco wanted to paint it gold, but because it would take too long (approximately four years), it has never happened.

Alcatraz is probably the most famous prison in the world. It is an island in the San Francisco Bay, where a lot of sharks live. Thanks to this fact, no one has escaped from this prison. In 1969 it was closed, because it was very expensive to operate. Until 1963 it served as a super security prison for famous criminals like Al Capone, Mickey Cohen or Robert Stroud. Since 1973 it has been opened to public. Today you can take a ferry ride to visit the prison.

Lombard Street- Because the city lies on very hilly area, San Franciscans have to find various ways to overcome this and by doing so, they have created some interesting and unique features. One of them is Lombard Street, which is called the crookedest street in the world.

The city has an interesting street railway system, which is the combination of street cars, trolley coaches, buses and cable cars. Cable car is a very beautiful vehicle used for public transport. It is a sort of tram, but unlike trams these cars are able to go both up and down the hill.

Every visitor should try the exciting ride on Cable car.


San Diego

San Diego is America’s sixth largest city. It is noted for its natural wonders and boasts one of the best year-round climates in the United States. The local climate, a coastal desert, approaches perfection year-round, never too hot too cold, rarely rainy.
Juan Rodriquez Cabillo founded San Diego in 1542. It is also a place of one oldest Catholic Missions founded by Franciscan Fathers. The city around is San Diego Bay. The bay
is considered to be one the finest natural harbors on the Pacific coast. It is a bustling commercial port for shipping and fishing, home to the U.S.Naval first Fleet and protected home of thousands of luxurious private sailboats and yachts.

The Old Town Historic Park, where San Diego began, is also worth seeing. It recreates the setting of California life of the Spanish and early American periods. Its historic buildings, shops and restaurants illustrate the vast changes that have taken place in this city since it was first settled in 1769.

Scenic Balboa Park is America’s largest municipal park housing museum from the 1915 Panama-Pacific International Exhibition and the 1935 California Pacific International Exhibition. It is the second largest collection of museums outside of Washington, D.C. You may find there a replica of the Shakespearean Old Globe Theatre from London. San Diego is famous for its renowned scientific institutions. Al la Jolla there is the fabulous campus of the university of California at San Diego with Salk Institute and the Scripps Institute of Oceanography.
When you are planning your stay at San Diego, you can count on three very important things: plenty of sunshine, plenty of pleasure and plenty of things to do.