Streetwise San Francisco Map - Laminated City Center Street Map of San Francisco, California [Map]

I have about 5 of these, so no matter where I am, I can find one or have one to loan out. They are simply great maps of San Francisco. There are certainly maps with more detail, but Streetwise has engineered to put more information in a small space than you can imagine.

And the more you look, the more you realize is there. I wanted parking in downtown, and lo and behold on the downtown inset, parking garages are shown. If you know anything about San Francisco, the icons on the map give you references and make it very easy to better see context. The text is easy to read. We abuse these to death and none of them have complained or gotten rough around the edge yet. My only complaint is I wish it covered a larger area, but it does exactly what it's supposed to - it covers the 49 square mile area called San Francisco.

All of the tourist attractions are on the map. All of the main landmarks are on the map. All of the streets and street directions and MUNI and Cable Cars are on the map. You can hold it in the car and actually read it, which you can't do with any paper map on the planet. It shows so much more context than Maps on my iPhone because you can see the whole city at a glance. Well, half at a time. It's split between the north and south half of the city on the two sides of trifold plastic sheets.

If you're looking for a map of SF that you can carry with you always, this is the one. You will want other resources, possibly guidebooks if you are a tourist, the Not For Tourist Guide if you live in the City as I do, and possibly better paper maps when you really want to see detail around the kitchen table, and Google Earth and it's street level views which allow you to walk around if you are sitting in front of a computer. But this map is the one I use 95% of the time, and I has never let me down.

i came to san fran armed with 5 differenet maps AND a GPS. by the end of my 14 day stay, the ONLY item my family and i used to navigate was this map. it is ESSENTIAL. it was the only one with details about the BART (Bay Area Public Transist), which we discovered was the best way to get around the city and bay area in general, and Cable Cars. none of the other maps even compared and the GPS is useless, it has NO info about the Bart, only 'pedestrian' routes that would make even a cross-country runner cringe. this map was cheap, but worth every penny. i would never travel without it now.

don't even think of going to san fran without it. even the friends we were visiting (who have lived in the city 5 years!!!) all kept streetwise maps of the city in their cars and purses. the other maps we had left us totally screwed-this one has 10x the details.

The scale on this map is tiny. You will need very good eyes to read it while walking. Do not try to read it while driving.