I’m a third generation San Franciscan. I’ve lived in the Bay Area for 95% of my life. I thought I knew the City and everything about it. But I was wrong.
Today, my friend Bart, his wife and three girls joined my wife, daughter and me for a real treat. We were chauffeured up, down, over and through the streets of San Francisco for five hours by our buddy Daniel Oppenheim. He’s the CEO (Chief Expedition Officer) of The Urban Safari, a personalized tour company that showers you with attention, asks you SF trivia questions, passes out boxes of Animal Crackers, takes you to four places of interest off the beaten path that I’d never even heard of, and gives you the kind of service most often reserved for four-star hotel guests.
In his “zebra-ized” 10-passenger Land Rover, Bwana Daniel drove us to the top of Twin Peaks and the best view in the city (see photo), where you can look straight down Market Street to the Ferry Building, see both the Bay and Golden Gate Bridges, look across the bay to Alcatraz, the Berkeley Hills and Marin headlands. Next, we stopped at the 16th Avenue Tiled Steps, perhaps the world’s longest mosaic staircase. We saw the largest mural in SF, at the base of the new U.S. Mint at Duboce and Market Streets.
Then, the CEO hosted us at La Taqueria at 25th & Mission, one of the city’s best local Mexican restaurants, known for its killer burritos. We followed that with a trip down Balmy Street to view gorgeous Central American murals. The tour culminated with a visit to Chocolate Covered, a sweets and gifts store on 24th Street near Noe featuring chocolate treats from around the world.
If you have a friend visiting the Bay Area or live here and have family coming to town, I highly recommend The Urban Safari. He says it’s “not just another city tour” and that’s a bit of an understatement. It’s fun. It’s different. It’s unique. And it’s one heck of a fun time for adults and/or children.
W: The Urban Safari.
T: 415.282.5555 or 1-866-MY-SAFARI (697-2327).