Excellent museum - in new building by Herzog & de Meuron - brings together arts of the americas through the ages - tremendous art and the building is fabulous inside and outside. Afterwards you can stroll through Golden Gate Park, go to the Japanese Graden or walk all the way through to Sunset and the Pacific. The Beach Chalet at the end - a depression project with some excellent murals - is now a microbrewery. A short walk south takes you to Judah and you can ride the N-tram back to Market Street.

50 Hagiwara Tea Garden Drive, Golden Gate Park; tel: (415) 863 3330; www.thinker.org/deyoung/index.asp

The Beach Chalet: 1000 Great Highway at Ocean Road; tel: (415) 386 8439; www.beachchalet.com

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This is a small and perfectly formed pirate supplies shop down in the Mission District. More installation than retail, though you can buy glass eyes, wooden legs, doubloons, flags, eye patches, loaded dice and, er, lard. Treasure troves hide under the floorboards, there's an aquarium theatre and funny writings on the walls. You can barter drawings and poems for treasure, and buy the books of bartered drawings. It's actually the front for a literacy project and is the dreamchild of writer Dave Eggers. It's SO cool I could hardly breathe...

826 Valencia St (between 19th and 20th Sts) in the Mission District;
tel: (415) 642-5905;
www.826valencia.org

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Cafe located in the SF Art Insitute...but open to the public. Fresh-made decent food, relaxed environment, self-serve...but it is the view that is the thing. College is on the same hill as the Crooked Street (Lombard) and has a fantastic view of Fisherman's Wharf, the Bay, North Beach. There's also a wonderful Diego Rivera mural, usually a student art show going on...street parking only..sort of an Old California (before the gringos came) feel to the original building..patio, fountain...

800 Chestnut Street between Jones & Leavenworth
www.sfai.edu--look under Facilities for hours.
Closest bus line is #15 which goes near the Wharf.

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San Francisco's modern art museum has a respectable and worthwhile collection. All the big names are there, it's close to Union Square, and the building is remarkable.

It also has a very good cafe, specialising in Italian-inspired California cuisine. It's not a bad way to spend a few hours if you're tired of the hustle and bustle outside.

Alternatively, if you've just had enough of the art, it's a short walk to the Metreon, where you can blast your senses with IMAX movies to neutralize those Clyfford Stills.

151 Third Street (between Mission and Howard Streets), San Francisco, CA 94103; tel: (415) 357-4000, or www.sfmoma.org

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Yank Sing is one of San Francisco's best Chinese dim sum restaurants. Makes the annual San Francisco Chronicle's Top 100 Bay Area Restaurants list.

Its Rincon Center atmosphere is more upmarket than Chinatown restaurants, since it appeals to nearby Financial District workers.
Before or after you eat, look at the murals of California history by Anton Refregier in the old Rincon Post Office Annex. A few of them don't whitewash the Golden State's turbulent labour and ethnic past.

Rincon Center, 101 Spear St. (at Mission St), Embarcadero/South of Market;
tel: (415) 957-9300; open: only for dim sum/lunch;
www.yanksing.com;
www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/listings/restaurants/venuetop2006?vid=182224

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