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Stairway Walks in San Francisco | 
 enlarge | Authors: Adah Bakalinsky, Marian Gregoire
Publisher: Wilderness Press
Category: Book
List Price: $16.95
Buy Used: $5.83
You Save: $11.12 (66%)
New (26) Used (15) from $5.83
Rating:  26 reviews
Sales Rank: 42972
Media: Paperback
Edition: 6
Pages: 251
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.8
Dimensions (in): 8.4 x 5.3 x 2.8
ISBN: 0899974295
Dewey Decimal Number: 917
EAN: 9780899974293
ASIN: 0899974295
Publication Date: November 30, 2006
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Product Description
Fully updated and expanded edition of the best-selling Wilderness Press classic. Now with additional walks and 16 pages of full-color photographs, Stairway Walks in San Francisco contains step-by-step route descriptions that include notes on historical background, architecture, and other points of interest. Accompanying each of the 27 walks is an easy-to-follow map with corresponding numbered walk directions and public transportation information. Locals and tourists alike have used the book for over 20 years to explore San Francisco's beautiful neighborhoods. Includes four new neighborhood walks along even more of the city's stairways--Edgehill, St. Francis Wood, Four Hills, and a cross-city walk and sixteen pages of full-color photographs bring the descriptions and stairways to life. This book is Wilderness Press's best-selling San Francisco title. ". . . A fascinating trek through the sidewalk staircases hidden around the city."
--The New York Times "Bakalinsky . . . Is the Ferdinand Magellan, the Sir Francis Drake, the Vasco da Gama of San Francisco stairways."
--Paul McHugh, San Francisco Chronicle
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| Customer Reviews: Read 21 more reviews...
 fun, interesting, often breathtaking December 14, 2008
Prejzki (San Francisco, CA)
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
My husband and I have made this a Sunday tradition for the past 3 weeks and have enjoyed each walk immensely. We are disappointed that it is cold and rainy and we will not get our "fix" today. I agree with all the wonderful things said in other reviews, with a few caveats. Before venturing out for your walk, read through and make sure you understand where the starting point is. We've had the experience of following the instructions to start at the intersection of X & Y. The next instruction is to "walk toward Z", and we had no idea where that was relative to where we were! I admit that my husband and I both have a rather poor sense of direction, so this may affect us more than others. Also, each walk has a condensed, bulleted list of point-to-point directions, and a separate section of descriptive paragraphs about the walk. Neither is adequate alone, and neither references the other. So I prepare ahead of each walk, by going through the fully texted paragraphs and jotting in the number of the instruction from the bulleted list next to the corresponding text. That makes it easy to flip back and forth between the brief list and the wordier descriptions. There is no indication of the distance between each item in the directions. For example, in Walk #8, "Left on Bay to Broderick" is one block, and "Right on Broderick to Vallejo" is 8 blocks! There is a map that is mercifully numbered corresponding to the bulleted instructions, unlike the textual descriptions. So you can flip between descriptive text, bulleted directions, and a map, while you are trying to walk, enjoy the view, and perhaps even chat with your companion. It can be overwhelming. Advance preparation, getting familiar with the map, and making sure the instructions make sense to you, can help things go more smoothly on execution. Additionally, each walk is not described in length or anticipated completion time. At some point, the book says each walk is about 2 1/2 hours, with time to view the architecture, parks, views, etc. that are described along the way. However, walk #16, Forest Knolls took us less than an hour last week, and we were definitely not rushing. It would be nice to be able to choose a longer walk when you have more time, and a shorter walk when you don't. I am taking notes in my book indicating the date we take each walk and how long it takes. I plan to start wearing my running Garmin during the walks and making notes on distances as well. In spite of the minor shortcomings of this book, I am taking the time to make these notes because I plan to use it frequently for a long time to come, and to recommend it to friends as well. There is nothing else like it, and I have seen beautiful, charming, breathtaking, quirky, and enchanted sights in San Francisco that I never would have seen without the help of this inspired book.
San Fran - the city - as you have not seen or known it July 31, 2008
Gabriel E. Borlean (San Jose - Capital of Silicon Valley, California USA)
1 out of 2 found this review helpful
I found this book (rather thick - 251 pages) on the shelves of my local Santa Cruz library shelves. At first I thought it was rather boring - the cover is dizzying to look at. Then as I opened and perused thru more pages, I realized that this was a work of love - Adah Bakalinsky's love (a San Francisco local, and an emigrant to the US).
Adah Bakalinsky has expended previous editions and the January 2007 is the 6th edition.
What I liked about this book:
* informs the reader on some cool areas to walk in San Francisco, with cool architecture, and routes that will have your blood pumping.
* the 27 walks are all detailed with a map layout, interesting points of interest, photographs, and many factoids.
* Appendix 1 contains "An Informal Bibliography" (one pager with more info on the San Francisco)
* Appendix 2 lists all the staircases (across 36 pages) for each neighborhood in San Francisco and rates each one according to a 1 to 5 scale of combined: steepness, length, location, elevation, and beauty.
* and ... it was FREE.
Whether you are from out of town visiting San Francisco, a local denizen, or a Bay Area suburbian, you are sure to enjoy this book, even if not completing a walk from start to finish. The details are worth reading before each walk, as one is sure to add more mental details and moments of enjoyment as one walks across the beautiful city of San Francisco.
best S.f. guidebook July 17, 2008
kur-v (california)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
I love this book!! We live an hour north of S.F. and when ever we go to the city we start with one of these great walks. We have gone and explored neighborhoods we never would have without this book. San Francisco is such a beautiful city and getting to the top of some obscure staircase always gives you a unique and beautiful view. It is a must for anyone who lives in or near S.F.
A Great Way to Fall in Love With San Francisco March 20, 2008
Robert L. (San Francisco, CA)
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
Adah's book is a great collection of walks all over the city. As the name implies, all the walks focus on the stairways for which San Francisco is so well known. This has two implications: one is that these walks will wear you out; the second is that, on sunny days, you get incredible views from the tops of all the stairways Adah has you climb.
For locals, the 27 walks cover the entire town from Glen Canyon to Lands End to Potrero Hill. No matter how long you've lived in San Francisco, I guarantee you'll see great spots you've never been to before.
Most of the walks are well off the beaten path for visitors, but a couple cover the classic tourist areas of North Beach, China Town, and Telegraph Hill. The Russian Hill North walk, done on a sunny day, will have anyone believing San Francisco is the most beautiful city on earth.
Adah provides maps, directions, and a great deal of color commentary for each walk. She tends to focus on eccentric details of the local architecture and flora for each walk, lending a whimsical quality to the whole experience.
Two last things to keep in mind. First, because the views are such a big part of these walks, Adah's trips are much better in good weather than in bad. Second, Adah is sometimes a little loose with her directions; I recommend cross checking the directions and the map often.
It's a 'must' for any San Francisco travel collection going beyond the general-interest city guide. February 7, 2008
Midwest Book Review (Oregon, WI USA)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
San Francisco has over 50 hills with scenic vistas and small neighborhoods - so these nearly 30 urban walks are top picks for any who want to walk the city's byways. The revised expanded edition has been updated with new maps and color photos and adds three new walks, while an appendix lists the City's 600-plus public stairways. It's a 'must' for any San Francisco travel collection going beyond the general-interest city guide.
Diane C. Donovan
California Bookwatch
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