San Francisco's Most Beloved Attraction Is A Free-To-Enter Scenic Park Full Of Wildlife, Museums, And Gardens

From Alcatraz to the Golden Gate Bridge to Chinatown, San Francisco has no shortage of incredible sights. One can't miss spot is Golden Gate Park; visited by around 24 million people every year, it has an incredible combination of museums, gardens, and even its own bison herd. You could easily spend an entire day or more exploring all there is to offer, and if you time it right, you can get in on some of the famous festivals that are held in the area.

This 1,017-acre park is on the western edge of San Francisco, about a 10-minute drive from the Golden Gate Bridge, another popular California coastal attraction. It first opened in the late 1800s, and its location on what was once unpopulated dunes outside of the city is thanks in part to designer William Hammond Hall. In building here, he and others ignored the advice of Frederick Law Olmsted, designer of New York City's Central Park, who didn't think a park would be able to succeed in that location. Clearly, Olmsted couldn't see the future; this place is one of the top urban parks in the country.

It was built in an area that was called the Outside Lands at the time, and there is now a legendary three-day festival of the same name that's held in the park every August. There are other fun annual events in the park, many of which are free. In September, the San Francisco Opera puts on a free concert, and there's also the popular Comedy Day, which first started in 1981; both are held in Robin Williams Meadow. In October, there's the free Hardly Strictly Bluegrass Festival, and in December, you can meet Santa, play games, and watch the tree lighting.

Golden Gate Park has some sensational museums. The California Academy of Sciences is a natural history museum with an incredible green roof that includes a four-story rainforest exhibit with birds and butterflies flying around. There's also a massive aquarium with penguins, an alligator with albinism, and sting rays (separate enclosures, of course). And in the planetarium, you'll feel transported to another world by a massive domed screen that shows nature documentaries and stories about space, all highlighted by stunning visuals.

For art and architecture lovers, the de Young Museum is a must-visit. The original art museum was opened in 1895 and then hit hard by the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake. The museum is now housed in a beautiful copper-clad building, and it features the nine-story-tall Hamon Observation Tower. You can get incredible views of the city from here, and best of all, it's free. There is a charge for the museum galleries inside, which feature art from around the world and across the millennia, but there's good news there, too — the museum is free for everyone to enter on the first Tuesday of the month, and it's also free every Saturday for Bay Area residents. (In both cases, you should still book online to reserve your spot.) Your ticket to the de Young also gets you into the Legion of Honor, which is in Lincoln Park, about a 10-minute drive away.

If you do choose to take advantage of the free Tuesday admission at the de Young Museum, swing by the Conservatory of Flowers, too — it's also free on Tuesday. The stunning garden first opened in 1879, meaning there's no older public wood and glass conservatory in North America, according to the Gardens of Golden Gate Park website. It's filled with a wide assortment of plants, and one of its philodendrons (aptly named Phil) is estimated to be over 100 years old.

For more beautiful gardens and flowers in Golden Gate Park, stop by the San Francisco Botanical Garden. It has over 8,000 plants from around the world. There's also the Japanese Tea Garden, a tranquil escape next to the de Young Museum. It has a pagoda from 1915, a zen garden, and beautiful Japanese maple and cherry trees. Free gardens include the Shakespeare Garden featuring flowers mentioned in Shakespeare's work, and the Queen Wilhelmina Garden, a Dutch-inspired getaway complete with a windmill that's particularly beautiful in March as the tulips bloom.

Bison have been a feature of Golden Gate Park since 1892; this was also when the once ubiquitous bison was facing extinction in the U.S. For a time, there was a breeding program with the Golden Gate Park herd, but now all 10 of the bison are females. They live in an 11-acre paddock, and they're cared for by the San Francisco Zoo.

When you're ready for lunch or an early dinner, check out Strawberry Hill, a popular picnic spot. It's an island surrounded on nearly all sides by Blue Heron Lake, and it's the highest point in the park. Afterward, for a little fun, a favorite family-friendly spot in the park is the Koret Children's Quarter and Carousel. The carousel dates back to 1914, and the playground site here is one of the oldest in the country. And don't worry, the play structures have obviously been updated since it first opened!