Golden Gate Park was originally conceived to help urbanites escape the chaos of the city. And boy, does it ever. You would not realise that you're in the middle of a city at times! We took a leisurely stroll around it, prior to going to Alcatraz Island, although we barely touched the tip of the iceberg!

If you wanted to see everything the park offered, I would recommend spending the full day there, as it is massive—it took us 15 minutes to drive from one end to the other!

The Japanese Tea Garden was very cool, even if you don't normally like gardens. The fee is $3, and well worth it. The park is awesome for rollerblading.

We met up with some friends to explore this large, lovely park. It's a great place to walk, picnic, and relax. The Japanese Tea Garden was a highlight and worth the modest admission fee (less than $4 when we visited). According to the San Francisco Parks Trust, it's "the oldest public Japanese garden in the United States."

This wonderful park has something for everyone. Lakes that have boat rentals, bison roaming a large field, running/biking trails, a windmill, gardens, a botanical center, tea gardens, museums, and children’s playgrounds. We spent a good part of the day here and could have stayed even longer if we had more time on our trip.

Website: Golden Gate Park

Of course, no visit to ‘Cisco would be complete without stepping into this famous park. (map) Golden Gate Park, once covered with sand dunes, is SF’s largest park, and is bigger than Central Park. The park was designed in 1870 by William Hammond Hall, and Hall selected John McLaren in 1887 to be his successor as park commissioner. McLaren dedicated the next 50 years of his life to Golden Gate Park, and one of his first declarations on taking the job was that there were to be no "keep off the grass" signs. Such a public sentiment still rings true today — it is speculated that 75,000 people troll through the vast regions of the park on an average weekend.

I went on a cloudy day, but the overcast weather didn’t detract from the beauty. I made my way to what my friend’s called "Hippy Hill" first, as that’s where a lot of young people have congregated since the '60s. As to be expected, there were plenty of drum circles and hacky sackin' to participate in. And I must have heard this 20 times in ten minutes: "Hey man. Lookin’ for some weed?," "Buds, buds, buds," and "What do ya need, man?"

The park is huge, and contains four specialized gardens and two museums, so go on a day when you have a considerable amount of time to spend. The Japanese Tea Garden is a city-wide favorite, and it’s open daily 8:30am to 5:30pm. There’s an admission of $3.50, but if you go during the last hour it’s opened, it’s free. It is said that this is where the original fortune cookie was invented. There’s also the Garden of Shakespeare’s Flowers, where literary lovers can peruse over 150 flowers that made appearances in Shakespeare’s poems and plays.

However, if you only have an hour or two to spend, simply walking through and admiring the wide selection of flora is an hour well spent.