San Francisco is one of the most recognized cities in America, and holiday accommodation here is always at a premium. Holiday villas have recently started to become a favorite for tourists, but hotels also remain the number one choice. I personally prefer renting out a holiday villa in the suburbs, when I vacation there.
San Fran is surrounded on three sides by water, and no visitor to the City will ever forget there first view of the magnificent Golden Gate Bridge. Many tourists like to take a ride on the cable car up to the top of the steep Russian Hill and those athletic enough, walk back down on foot to Lombard Street.
The Coastal Range mountains stretch from Santa Barbara County to Oregon. They run through San Francisco and the Bay Area and the city now spreads across these hills and valleys.
It is here that the famous steep streets of the city run up the hills and are always a favourite place for tourists to visit. The Sierra Nevada range lies to the east and helps prevent the cold continental air masses from reaching the coast. As a result the ocean breezes help moderate temperature extremes.
Locals say that in San Francisco you can experience all four seasons in a single day. This is possible because of its unusual geographical position. The city occupies a seven mile long peninsula and to its west lies the Pacific Ocean, to the east is the world famous harbour more commonly known as San Francisco Bay.
Linking the two together is the 1.2 mile wide Golden Gate passage.
San Francisco has the lowest average summer temperature of any American city outside of Alaska, yet due to its geographical make up, the city has seen no large snowfalls in over one hundred years. The summers are usually dry and cool and the winters mild and wet.
The city has frequent earthquakes, as it sits on top of where the Pacific and North American plates meet, in other words on the plate boundary. As these plates slide together deep underground at the earth's crust in a series of tectonic faults, they lead to earth quakes.
It is comprised of over eight hundred thousand people and they are made up of many ethnic backgrounds. One third of them are foreign born and half of the rest are non native Californians. As a result the city reflects this multi cultural society and is more the richer place for it.
The city is the main Pacific port in America and many immigrants have made their home in the city helping it to create a flamboyant and eccentric flavour. It has experienced many major earth quakes over the years, but each time the locals have rallied round and helped build it back up into a stronger and more united city.
It is also famous for its Victorian architecture. Many are crowded together on narrow hillside lots and have been made famous by the numerous films that have been made in the area. Some say that it is an act of God that has prevented these magnificent buildings being destroyed by the earthquakes over the previous years.
Some of these beautiful houses are now rented out as holiday homes and tourists truly get a great feel of the local culture and cuisine when they stay in these holiday homes. They act as great bases for the tourists to fully explore this wonderful city and many tourists now come back year after year to experience this unique cultural experience.
San Francisco has so much to offer any family, and they can sample it best often staying in a holiday villa near the city. Holiday accommodation is never hard to find, and is nearly always of a very high standard. But just make sure you pick the right time of year to visit.
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