Union Square is the shopping center of San Francisco, and the most common place for tourists to stay while in the city. While the square itself has a rather sterile atmosphere, the surrounding area swarms with both sightseeing tourists and shopping locals.

Get in

The Union Square district of shops and restaurants is served by the Powell Street stop for both BART and SF MUNI transportation lines, as well as the 38-Geary and numerous other bus routes. A cable car line runs from Powell and Market past Chinatown to Fisherman's Wharf.

On-street parking is all but non-existent. Parking garages, while plentiful, can be expensive.

Get around

The Powell St BART and Muni station provides convenient access to the west and south of the city. The 30 Stockton bus provides the most convenient (if somewhat crowded) method to reach Chinatown and North Beach.

See

Union Square is the bustling name-brand shopping area for the city, where high-end chains put their West Coast flagship stores, or at least a major retail outlet. The neighborhood's visual extravaganzas tend to be stores, including the beautifully restored glass dome and rotunda salvaged from the former City of Paris department store (at the Neiman Marcus store that replaced it 1981, at Geary and Stockton), the interior lavishness of the flagship Williams Sonoma, and Niketown on Post. This area of downtown is also a hotbed of Art Deco and Beaux Arts architecture.

The most important site is the square itself, which was rehabbed in 2002 to provide more space for outdoor events and less space for napping homeless people. (An earlier version of the place appeared in the film The Conversation. The square now includes a theater ticket outlet, gift shop, and Emporio Rulli cafe, [1] along with an underground parking garage. For blogging people-watchers, there is free WiFi provided by the city. Look under the leaves of the greenery in the planters, and you'll find a few power outlets for your laptop.

A quick overview of San Francisco geography is provided by the San Francisco Fountain at the Grand Hyatt (Post and Stockton). This massive wall of sculpture was created by Ruth Asawa, using schoolchildren's bread dough models as a basis for the casting. Another famous water feature is Lotta's Fountain, at the intersection of Geary, Kearney, and Market. [2] Donated by singer Lotta Crabtree in 1875, it is the city's oldest piece of public art.

Do

Tour map from Geogad Mobile Tour of Union Square

Union Square has more to do than just shopping. Take a Geogad Mobile Tour of Union Square to explore its history at your own pace. This free MP3 walking tour can be downloaded directly from the Geogad website. Uploaded the tour to any MP3 device, but you will get the most from the tour if your MP3 player can display the included photos and maps. This tour is a great intro to San Francisco as it tells you the history of the cable car, the California Gold Rush, the Great Earthquake and Fire of 1906, and Chinatown.

Buy

The purpose of Union Square is shopping. Most upscale national chains can be found in the neighborhood, including Macy's western flagship store on the south side of the square, Neiman Marcus on the southeast corner, Saks on the north side, and Nordstrom two blocks south, on Market opposite the cable car turnaround. Other chains include Victoria's Secret, Borders, Harry & David, Sur La Table, a four-level Ross, a four-level Loehmann's, one of the rare H&M stores in the U.S., Forever 21 in a restored bank, Armani, Crate and Barrel, and numerous upscale stores at San Francisco Shopping Centre.

More interesting are the stores that can't be found in every suburban mall. There are numerous art galleries and a fascinating selection of local or unusual businesses. Some highlights include:

• Gump's, 135 Post, [3] is San Francisco's source of luxury housewares, from couches to crystal. Though famous names like Waterford appear on the shelves, the selection emphasizes home furnishings as art, often with an elegant Asian feel. The dominant style is not quite modernist but hardly middle-American traditional. It's difficult to do justice to a native's feelings toward Gump's without sounding like a bad marketing piece. This is the "look" that says one's parents and grandparents went to the right private schools. If your home looks like Gump's, you've not only "arrived" -- you've been here longer than just about anyone else. As well as housewares, Gump's sells jewelry, holiday decor, and the odd bit of upscale soap.

• Britex, 146 Geary, [4] is arguably the largest fabric store on the left coast, filling four floors of a narrow building. Don't look for calicos for your quilting project: this is the land of luxury fabrics for faking couture at home. If you've ever wanted to make a cheap sweater look expensive by adding deluxe buttons, head straight for the third floor, where 30,000 styles await your approval. (Don't even think of touching a button. The clerks do that.) Britex is also notable for selling remnants that are big enough for a real project.

• Williams Sonoma, 340 Post, is technically a national chain, but the Union Square store is the flagship store, and it's a cathedral to the gracious kitchen. Acres of housewares gleam beneath twin spiral stairs that lead to the land of crystal and tablecloths. This isn't your mother's mall-store Williams Sonoma. There are usually pretty good free samples being passed out, too.

• Thomas Pink, 255 Post, [5] might seem obsessed with its eponymous color, if you judge by the store displays, but the upscale clothier also knows about white, beige, blue, and yellow.

• Wilkes Bashford, 375 Sutter, [6] is just the place to pop in for a $1,000 jacket, a $500 cashmere sweater, or those delicious Jimmy Choo shoes. Every now and again, there is a major sale on the top floor. You don't need to watch for the sales banners -- just notice when the crowds mobbing into the store look suspiciously like the same people who bussed your table the night before.

Eat

Though Union Square appears to be awash in cafes, it's one of the more difficult neighborhoods for good eating. Dining selections are crowded and geared toward the tourist market, though there are a few iconic restaurants that have must-see status just from their fame and age. It's also a center of high-end hotel dining. However, a short side trip west on O'Farrell or Geary to the Tenderloin for bargain Indian or Vietnamese food, a quick walk up Grant to Chinatown or (further) to North Beach may be worthwhile alternatives to fast food, long waits, or $200 a plate meals.

Drink

Sleep

Union Square is the hotel district, with a broad range of choices, from chain to boutique.

• St. Francis Hotel (west side of Union Square). [7] Now a member of the Westin chain, this is the iconic San Francisco hotel. The lavish lobby and cafe area are used as a meeting place by quite a lot of people who aren't guests there, despite the pricey lattes and ritzy atmosphere. In a peculiar bit of design, the lobby has a side entrance to the Harry & David store, should you need to pop over for a few chocolate-covered cranberries. Although the St. Francis has a reputation for priciness, it runs off-season specials.

• Fitzgerald Hotel Union Square, 620 Post St, +1 800 334-6835, [8]. Located in Union Square close to Russian Hill, Nob Hill and the Financial District. Established in 1910 and completely restored, it has hosted many colorful and famous visitors including musicians, actors and writers.

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